On the evening of October 12, Zhejiang University held the award ceremony for its 13th “Three Educations” (Teaching, Management and Service) program. LEI Linan, Assistant Professor at the Zhejiang University International Business School (ZIBS), was named an Outstanding Educator in Teaching in the program.
Guided by a global educational vision, LEI Linan earnestly fulfills the fundamental mission of fostering virtue through education. Anchored in her educational philosophy of specialization, strong academic grounding, distinctive character, and innovative practice, she actively advances industry-education integration, guiding students to identify problems in real-world scenarios and hone skills through hands-on projects. She also builds students’ confidence by sharing stories of Chinese enterprise innovation, striving to cultivate versatile talents with both patriotism and global leadership.
ZIBS’s strengths in international education, university-enterprise cooperation networks, and interdisciplinary research platforms have provided LEI Linan with a broad stage to explore industry-education collaborative models and deepen international academic exchanges. In the school’s open and inclusive environment, she has collaborated with enterprises to develop courses and teaching case studies, forming a distinctive educational style that is student-centered, rooted in industry practice, and guided by a global outlook.
01. Focusing on Case Development, Empowering Students from “Users” to “Developers”
In her classroom, cases are not ready-made “textbooks” but “works” co-created by students and teachers. She is committed to transforming her students from case “users” into “developers”. Since 2020, she has collaborated with researchers from 21 countries of the Belt and Road Initiative to develop a series of English-language cases on hidden champions, published by Springer in Germany. Her key project, the “National Top 100 Outstanding Management Cases”, was among only 11 such projects nationwide that year. She has developed four cases in total, with a single case downloaded over 10,000 times and on display in several enterprises. Under her guidance, her students have leapfrogged from “acquiring knowledge” to “forging capabilities”.
02. Anchoring in the Classroom, Building China’s Autonomous Knowledge System in Enterprise Management
LEI Linan’s classroom is not merely a space for knowledge transmission, but a frontier for building China’s autonomous knowledge system in enterprise management. She guides her students to stay attuned to industry dynamics and participate in the full-cycle operation of the new media column “Hidden Champions: Monday 8 PM”, turning them from bystanders into firsthand participants. With 115 issues published and a cumulative readership of 3.38 million, the column allows students to progress from knowledge acquisition to capability enhancement and value formation. As she tells stories of Chinese enterprise innovation, she has gradually developed and shaped a new, reproducible, widely recognized education paradigm with Chinese characteristics.
03. Leveraging the Integration between Industry and Education, Exploring New Paths for Cultivating International Talents
She firmly believes that cultivating globally-minded talents for “little giant” firms should be rooted in real industries and connect global resources. Her course “Innovation and Digitalization of Champion Firms” was selected as a premium Zhejiang University course co-developed with enterprises. To date, it has trained 58 Chinese and international students, who now hold key management positions in leading companies including Changchuan Technology, “little giant” firms, and BWTON. Her international business talent courses have reached nearly 1,000 participants, and the training model has been recognized by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD), the world’s largest organization in management development.
These efforts have explored a distinctive model for implementing the national “Sailing Program” to cultivate talent for “little giant” firms, and pioneered new pathways for the universit’'s international talent cultivation. She has received honors including the First Prize of the Zhejiang University Teaching Achievement Award and the title of Zhejiang University Outstanding Worker. Going forward, she will continue to cultivate “specialized, sophisticated, distinctive, and innovative” talents, bridge classrooms, cases, and platforms, and foster a new generation with patriotism, global vision, international competitiveness, and a sense of responsibility toward the world. The “Three Educations” selection has been a university tradition for over two decades and a distinctive cultural brand for implementing the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education and promoting the university’s ethos. Over the years, it has drawn broad participation and attention, earning deep recognition and affection among ZJU faculty, staff, and students.
(Editor in Image and Text: LI Panyan; Editor-in-Chief: LI Yinan; Reviewer: YANG Hui; Final Reviewer: QU Haidong)