This piece was written by Lincent Hu, a recent recruit in Hengdian Group's Center for Global Development who participated in this year's "simulation exercise" training.

Fresh faces at Hengdian Group took part in the company’s annual “simulation exercise,” a longstanding tradition used to train and induct new employees into their new teams.

The assessment took place in December at Hengdian Center, where new hires engaged in mock business meetings that tested their abilities to think on their feet and respond to real-world scenarios.

Hengdian Group’s “simulation exercise” has welcomed new employees for nearly 20 years, forming the backbone of staff’s first introductions to professional life and corporate vision at the company.

I am among the newest cohort of Hengdian Group’s Center for Global Development, and was pleased to have taken part in this year’s “simulation exercise” assessment, which selects exemplars from various departments to present to senior management.

I partnered with my colleague, Ava Bao, to portray a mock scenario involving Hengdian’s expansion into Southeast Asia, exploring potential conversation topics with a representative from Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB).

The preparation process at first seemed tedious and unnecessary. I believed that conducting and observing actual business meetings would be significantly more valuable to my learning than simulations.

But as our script was rejected and rewritten multiple times by colleagues and team leaders over the course of the next several weeks, I started to better appreciate the purpose of the exercise: to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and real-world business settings.

Throughout the exercise, Ava and I were faced with multiple possible challenges we could face in a meeting with the EDB, including conducting complicated political discussions or navigating misaligned interests with our counterpart.

In addition, the simulation exercise highlighted our individual skill gaps, in communication, public speaking or even language. By encouraging healthy competition among new employees, we each felt motivated to constantly strive for improvement.

Key skills we were tested on included concise communication and instant reactions, which honed our abilities to speak succinctly and tactfully handle sensitive questions or gain valuable information.

The experience of the simulation training was overwhelmingly beneficial, yet I believe some challenges to ensuring smoother and more efficient operation still remain, particularly during early introduction stages of the exercise.

In the future, I believe more comprehensive written instructions could help new employees to better understand the purpose of the exercise and guide them to produce better independent work before seeking feedback.

In addition, more standardized review sessions could prevent conflicting feedback, streamline revisions and facilitate better alignment among mentors.

Overall, the simulation exercise was an indisputably useful step on the path of new employees’ professional development. It offers not only skills training, but also fosters collaboration, helping the transformation from fresh graduate to early-career professional.

By the end of the exercise, I realized not only that I had gained new skills but also grown closer with my colleagues. I now feel immense gratitude for the opportunity that the simulation exercise has afforded me in my new journey at Hengdian Group.

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