To focus on business intelligence and lead the trend of thought in scientific innovation, emlyon business school staged its Global Business Intelligence Summit and Business Intelligence Center Inauguration Ceremony in Shenzhen, the Silicon Valley of China on 16 November, 2019. The event gathered the “super brains” from academic and industrial communities to discuss hot topics like digital supply chain, intelligent finance and industrial upgrading etc. in order to trigger thinking and create value together.

▲ emlyon business school Global Business Intelligence Summit and Business Intelligence Center Inauguration Ceremony

The Business Intelligence Center (hereinafter referred to as "BIC") of emlyon business school came into being in response to the trend of scientific innovation at a place with abundant resources that has pooled top business talents. At the inauguration ceremony of BIC, emlyon business school, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, National Business Daily and National Social Science Foundation Major Project Team jointly launched the "Top 100 Smart Manufacturers in China", turning a new chapter of global intelligence. The White Paper is supported by the National Social Science Fund of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Erasmus+ funding programme of European Commission.

▲ Professor Tugrul Atamer, Vice Dean of emlyon business school, is delivering a speech

Pursuant to the “spirit of makers”, emlyon business school is reforming profoundly its education and business models to foster global citizens with high employability and sense of responsibility. Vice Dean of emlyon business school Tugrul Atamer reaffirmed the strategic significance of the establishment of “BIC”, expecting to cultivate talents surfing on the tide of digital transformation for Asia and China in particular, and to create business values.

▲ Professor William Hua Wang, Associate Dean of emlyon business school and Dean of emlyon business school Asia, is delivering a speech

William Hua Wang, Associate Dean of emlyon business school and Dean of emlyon business school Asia, highly condensed the relationship between artificial intelligence and business intelligence, the major two topics of the day, into an equation, i.e., BI (business intelligence) = AI (artificial intelligence) +EI (emotional intelligence) + CI(Collective Intelligence), and BI needs CSR (Corporation Social Responsibility) to be realised.

Embrace New Opportunities of Intelligence and Look Forward to Bright Future of Business

The era of business intelligence and big data presents infinite opportunities and possibilities for ever changing business community. Professor Gong Yeming, Director of Business Intelligence Center, emlyon business school, Independent Principal Investigator together with Professor Zhao Xiande, Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management, Director of CEIBS-GLP Centre of Innovations in Supply Chains and Services, and Huang Yuxiang, Executive Vice President, CTO, COO of One Connect presented a grand sharing of insights, diagnosis and solutions.

▲ Professor Gong Yeming, Director of Business Intelligence Center, emlyon business school, Independent Principal Investigator, is delivering a speech.

Professor Gong Yeming of emlyon business school reviewed recent breakthroughs in core technologies such as deep learning and quantum computing, and expounded the brief history of artificial intelligence in the future. Prof. Gong further explicated the ten major trends as well as the latest theories, methods and practices in the development of business intelligence. He finally described the status quo and a future blueprint of Chinese manufacturing sector by comparing the national situations of China with the Icarus Paradox and the myth of Unicorn, pointing out that the state-owned manufacturing enterprises shall try to avoid the rigidness in their development on the one part and establish an organization structure and mechanism that can adapt to and deal with a raft of changes. In the face of globalization, unicorns shall have the courage to challenge the lions and grown into the leading players of intelligent manufacturing.

▲ Professor Zhao Xiande, Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management, Director of CEIBS-GLP Centre of Innovations in Supply Chains and Services, is delivering a speech

In his speech titled “Innovation in Digitalised Supply Chains and Business Models”, Professor Zhao Xiande, Professor of CEIBS presented an analysis on the influence of digitalization on corporate competitiveness, the application of supply chains and digitalised technologies, and the role of digitalised technologies in the innovation in supply chains and business models. According to Prof. Zhao, true value can only be created by taking full advantage of the digitalised technologies and integrating resources to achieve intelligent decision-making while at the same time providing service and convenience to clients.

▲ Huang Yuxiang, Executive Vice President, CTO, COO of One Connect, is delivering a speech

In his keynote speech “Science & Technology Help the Digital Transformation of Finance”, Huang Yuxiang, Deputy General Manager, CTO and COO of ONE CONNECT, gave a holistic presentation of the status quo and trends of the digital transformation of financial sector, and shared how ONE CONNECT helped financial institutions through fintech. Traditional financial institutions find it difficult to develop technologies independently and to advance the digital transformation due to the high expenses of research as well as the lack of specialised talents, application scenarios and data. Therefore, as Huang Yuxiang suggested, financial institutions can achieve their digital transformation by outsourcing from external technology providers.

▲ Professor Wenxuan Ding, Moderator of Roundtable Discussion, is having a dialogue with guests including Associate Professor Lan Sai, Dr. Zhang Zhenkun, Wang Jing and Dai Zhixiang

Roundtable Discussion, under the auspices of Professor Wenxuan Ding, Deputy Director of BIC, emlyon business school, focuses on "What Kind of AI is Needed for Enterprise Upgrading and Digital Transformation." Associate Professor Lan Sai, Associate Operation Director of Business Intelligence Center (BIC), emlyon business school, Dr. Zhang Zhenkun, Chairman of Guangdong Xinwei Group, Wang Jing, Chairman of Macrolink Industrial Investment Co., Ltd. and Dai Zhixiang, Chief Operating Officer of COOKOO Technology, conducted a thorough discussion, pushing the summit to a new high climax. Participants, based on their rich business experience, expressed the views on the essence of "AI decision-making," and the approaches to "digital transformation" and "AI empowerment" and provided new paths to business transformation.

emlyon Business Intelligence Center Made Its Debut to Build an Intelligent Business Ecosphere

Nowadays, with business intelligence sweeping around the world, emlyon business school has officially established the BIC in China, which focuses on its new strategy of common intelligence, highlighting its management power formed by the synergy between artificial intelligence and human intelligence. The BIC will further build an integrated ecosystem of industry, academy and research, ending up into a world’s leading business intelligence research institution and an industrial application platform.

At the inauguration ceremony of BIC, Professor William Hua Wang, Associate Dean of emlyon business school and Dean of emlyon business school Asia, and Professor Gong Yeming, Director of Business Intelligence Center, emlyon business school, issued letters of appointments to members of the Advisory Committee and members of the Academic Committee respectively.

During the inauguration ceremony of BIC, Professor Gong Yeming grandly introduced the "Top 100 Smart Manufacturers in China" which was jointly released by emlyon business school, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, National Economic Daily and the National Social Science Fund of China Major Project Team. The White Paper will bring great social and economic benefits to the market. Yang Ji, Deputy General Manager of National Business Daily and General Manager of South China Region, witnessed the event.

In addition, the First Writing Ceremony for AI and Business, a new English book to be written by Professor Gong Yeming of emlyon business school, was held on the site. It also witnessed the signing ceremony for Open Source Ecosphere Strategy, a new Chinese book to be written by associate professor Lan Sai, with Lin Junxiu, Assistant Editor in Chief Peking University Press.

The New Layout of Global Digital, Lifelong Learning Programme Benefits Alumni

The founding of the Business Intelligence Centre will lay a solid foundation for the strategic layout of emlyon business school in the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. In line with the spirit of "early makers", the BIC will adhere to the strategy of "globalization, digitalization and innovation" of emlyon business school to link up the whole life-cycle service platforms for alumni.

The establishment of the “BIC” will empower senior executive programme of emlyon business school such as DBA, EMBA and EDP, and radiate its influence to the EMBA class for financial and technological innovation leader (FTEMBA) in the Greater Bay area, the EDP program for global innovation leaders, the advanced workshop for CEOs of global industrial Internet. It will also serve the life-long learning programme of emlyon business school Asia and pool intelligent industry resources worldwide, providing constant source of inspiration for emlyon alumni who are striving for reform and innovation.

About the Centre

The Business Intelligence Center (BIC) is a leading multidisciplinary institution in the field of human and machine intelligence for business, and is engaged in the delivery of cutting-edge research, impact and education.  In the era of the digital economy, we explore how to integrate exponential techniques such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, edge computing, quantum computing, and the Internet of things (IoT) with management study to create new business and social values. Furthermore, we consider “converging paradigms for intelligence in brains, minds, and machines” and collaborative intelligence with humans and AI as joining forces to support “joint intelligence” in “The early makers 2023 strategic framework” for emlyon.

Based in Shanghai, the centre operates across emlyon business school’s campuses in Paris, Lyon, Saint Etienne, Bhubaneswar, and Casablanca. We have a particular expertise in Intelligence for Management, with capabilities to improve joint intelligence, digitalisation, performance, and globalisation.