Marcel Creemers

In June 2013, the Nyenrode Modular Executive MBA progam in Business&IT wanted to visit China (Shanghai and Chengdu). The purpose of this trip was partly to answer research questions posed by the Dutch and European CIO community and IT sector, and partly to engage in a “cultural shock”.

In preparing this trip, we called for experts who could give us a head start. I am very happy to say that Lilian Kranenburg, as an outstanding expert, and whom we have engaged on previous occasions at Nyenrode, has given us a clear insight into Chinese culture, habits and language. This helped us to get much more information back to the Netherlands than we had expected. The members of our group – middle aged and experienced IT managers  – were astonished to see how they could communicate easily with chief officers of enterprises, government and universities, who sometimes were not able to speak English very well.

After our return to the Netherlands, Lilian was willing to share our experiences and discuss our conclusions about the opportunities to do profitable business in China. Without Lilian’s support, our China visit would not have had so much value. Thank you.

Groet,
Marcel Creemers

Professor Information Systems Management at VU Amsterdam and Modular MBA Programme Director at Nyenrode Business University