Great Grads, Wei Xue, MBA/21

Wei Xue obtained his MBA in 2021 from the Sprott School of Business in collaboration with the Glorious Sun School of Business and Management at Donghua University in Shanghai, China. Currently, he works as the Digital Lead of Product Supply Operations at Bayer (China) Ltd.

If you could choose one word to sum up your time at Sprott, what is it and why?

Care.

When I reflect upon my time at Sprott, I realize that I felt a lot of “care.” Our Cohort 13 is very special. We have been experiencing challenges caused by the Covid-19 pandemic throughout our program. From the program level, Sprott cares about us. It provides flexible arrangements for us by offering online courses and events. From the individual level, professors care about us. They provide interactive learning experiences for us via online communication channels and make accommodations to meet different students’ needs. In addition, our cohort is solid and united. We care about each other and support each other during this journey.

What were your goals when you started at Sprott? Did you achieve them?

I had two goals. First, I wanted to graduate on time and obtain the MBA degree. Second, and more importantly, I wanted to learn business knowledge and management skills.

Actually, when I started my MBA, I planned to change my career path, transiting from pure IT services to IT-business partnerships. Now I’m working as the Digital Lead for product supply operations. In this role, I need to integrate IT and business functions and engage with colleagues from different departments, such as the IT department and the Marketing/sales department. Hence, I need to accumulate communication skills as well as management skills. The MBA program offered me the opportunities to learn about these.

I believe I have achieved the objectives. First, I graduated this year. Not just me, all students in our cohort successfully graduated and attained the degree, even though we experienced many challenges during Covid. As for my second goal – I have become much more confident in my job role transformation. When I recall, I found myself making progress after taking each course at Sprott. For example, what I learned in the Strategy course helped me to develop the IT region roadmap at work; after taking the Accounting course, I was capable of participating in the next-year budget planning of our department; I applied what I learned in the IT course to the communications about digitalization with my colleagues and build the bridge between IT and other departments. Step by step, the MBA program enabled me to achieve my objectives.

What is your favorite Sprott memory?

I will never forget the last course, Strategic Management, the capstone MBA course, taught by Professor Ian Lee. In that course, we had a group project that asked us to deliver a comprehensive and professional business analysis report in two weeks for a listed company in China. In the beginning, we felt a lot of stress about submitting a 100-page report within two weeks. But we didn’t give up. All of our group members showed teamwork spirit and made a lot of effort and time to complete this project. We had a lot of meetings, did extensive research, and continuously communicated with Professor Lee for feedbacks and suggestions. In the end, we successfully completed the project, and our group members built lifelong friendships.

What was the most important lesson you learned during your time at Sprott MBA?

Never give up. For each course, there are always challenges and difficulties at the beginning. The course assignments and exams are not easy to complete. But, after taking so many courses, I learned that – don’t be afraid of the challenges and don’t overthink about the grades. Just focus on the process and work hard. It was proved again and again – as long as we tried hard, we could always complete the tasks well.

What will you miss the most?

I will miss this cohort. Although we have not got many chances to meet face-to-face due to COVID, our online interactions and teamwork experiences have helped us to develop a lifelong friendship with each other. I met many brilliant and kind people in this program. And I’m sure we will keep in touch in the future.

What’s next for you?

I will stay at Bayer as I like the working environment and culture at Bayer. But I will seek opportunities to transform my career path at Bayer. After obtaining the MBA degree, I’m well prepared to transit my role as an IT Security Consultant to a Digital Lead in IT-business integration. I would like to move further to the commercial side of the business, learning more about the marketing and sales of our products and applying my IT knowledge to optimize the performance of our products in the competitive marketplace.

Any advice you would give future Sprott MBA students?

Don’t just focus on the grades. Focus more on the process and quality of the assignments. Stay together with your team. And always remember to reach out to the professors. They are always there to help.

Due to COVID pandemic, the majority of courses for Cohort 13 of the MBA Shanghai Program, were completed online. Cohort 13 met more challenges, professional and personal, compared to previous cohorts. This cohort is a close-knit community and has excelled. All 28 students of Cohort 13, MBA Shanghai Program, will graduate this November.