Varna University of Management MBA students had an amazing study trip to Shanghai and Hong Kong this year. During the visit the students met with expats as guest-lecturers, including Beverly Xu, who has a very successful start-up in Shanghai, and with prof. Michael Harris Bond, Jessica and Robert Lindeman in Hong Kong. The students had the chance to meet also three Bulgarian business people – Milena Paleva, Veronika Kuznetzova and Rumen Yordanov.

Here is what the Chinese partners wrote of the meeting:

“Tuesday (6 June 2017), the founder of dabble, Beverly Xu was the guest speaker at a formal dinner hosted by a group of 23 MBA students from Varna University of Management in Bulgaria. Drawing from personal experiences, she gave the group “the other” business/economic/marketing model which emphasize on how culture differences between the east and west can play an important role and influence international business.

The discussion opened with the general question of what current impression the students have of China. Many thought of China as a fast-past and fast-growing economy. Later, Beverly gave examples of several different ways culture can influence consumer behavior, buying power, technology advancement and drive competitiveness for global companies with branches Shanghai. She also mentioned the diversity within China and how the root of these differences can be explained by history and past living conditions. The Q&A session lasted for more than 30 minutes.

Beverly Xu is an entrepreneur running a local startup — dabble, which aims to use English as a medium to bridge culture gaps, and introduce the world using offline classrooms and online platforms to young Chinese kids between the ages of 5 and 14. Varna University of Management educates qualified specialists in management, marketing, economics, hospitality and other related fields. The group is led by Dr. Vesselin Blagoev, MBA Programme Director and the Shanghai stop is a part of their Asia tour.”