Stefan Broda - Class of 2005

Stefan Broda
Stefan is one of our first BBA expatriates, after travelling the world, he has settled in
Shanghai, where he has proven to be not only successful in his professional career, but also
excellent at bargaining in Chinese in the markets!
How did you end up studying in the BBA program at HFU?
I grew up in Freiburg, and attended a humanistic Gymnasium, learning Latin for 7 years.
Funny – back then, I didn’t really like languages and my marks in Latin, English and French
were not really good. It was only later that when I went to the States for a summer that I
learned to fully appreciate foreign languages. Since I was a bit of a computer junky as a
teenager and also very interested in business, I already got into webpage programming,
digital design and database programming and, at the age of 17, I founded my own company
with a classmate, designing HTML, Flash pages and programmed PHP-MySQL web
application.
During my civil service, I worked at the Freiburg University Hospital’s IT centre, where I had
the exciting opportunity to be part of a network administrator team that took care of a
computer network for thousands of computers, servers and medical equipment.
Thus, having done a lot of IT during my school time and civil service year, I decided to now
focus on business, preferably international business. That’s how I came to the HFU’s BBA
program.
To what degree do you use your Chinese that you learned at HFU?
Every day! Somehow, the Chinese should understand me, right? It wasn’t really enough to
get around on the street but I could have some basic small talk when I got here the first time
J Li Fang Heck is a great teacher!
How did you find your job?
My first job in Shanghai was with Fiducia Management Consultants which I found on the
web; I sent my CV and cover letter to them and let me join the applicants’ pool. Then, I had a
phone interview with my boss and he made me answer 3 questions in written form:
1. How many litres of red grape wine are consumed on a regular Friday in Shanghai?
2. Your friend would like to start an enterprise of selling wine in China. How would you
recommend him to prepare yourself? Is the market of wine in China any different
than in Western countries?

3. Could you think of any other tips you could give your friend on starting a business in
China?
Wow… that was not an easy task. I spent lots of time and effort on the essay and sent it to
them. It seemed that the manager at Fiducia liked it because I got the job. J
Please tell us about your current job.
Now, I work in SAP SRM Support. SRM stands for Supplier Relationship Management and is
software by SAP that basically runs a huge interactive websites that connects electronic
market places (where suppliers and their products are listed) with the companies ERP
system (thus the system, which manages the corporation’s finances, purchases, sales, etc).
Thus, doing shopping for the company is as easy as buying a book at Amazon.
But this software must be supported because at larger companies, millions of dollars are
spent through SRM every day. That is what my project is doing at IBM. We support the SRM
system of one of the world’s largest financial and logistic firms. It’s really exciting for me
because I can learn SAP on the one hand and use my training from FHF to improve processes
and quality standards in the team.
What do you love about China?
No closing-time laws, friendliness of people, great food, low price level. People love
technology.
Can you give an example (real story) about the cultural differences?
I would recommend you to read my thesis about that: http://www.TheNewEconomy.de
There are lots of cultural examples that influence knowledge management.