CM108G Management: From One Person to a Company

Week 1 — Course Orientation

Date: September 7, 2026
Instructor: Hsiang-Hsun Wu
Institution: Yuan Ze University
Course code: CM108G
Status: Final cleaned transcript

Editorial note

This transcript has been edited for grammar, readability, continuity, and accurate course terminology while preserving the substance and tone of the class. Repeated fillers, false starts, obvious speech-recognition errors, and off-microphone fragments have been removed. References to material shown on screen have been rewritten as natural descriptions when the course website makes the intended reference clear.

A long segment of audio from an externally played Harry Potter video was captured during a Gemini Notebook demonstration. That external video's dialogue is not part of the lecture and has been omitted. A short note remains at the relevant point so that the classroom sequence is preserved.

All passages previously flagged for instructor review have now been resolved. The final wording below incorporates the instructor's corrections and removes material that was confirmed to be irrelevant to the cleaned course record.

Part I. Main Class

1. Welcome and Course Access

Instructor: Good afternoon. This is our first class. The course syllabus and all of the main course information are available on the course website. You can scan the QR code or enter the URL directly in your browser. You can open the site on a phone, but I strongly recommend using a laptop or tablet. There is a lot of information on the page, and a larger screen makes it much easier to navigate.

You do not need to remember everything today. The important thing is to know that this website will be our main public course page throughout the semester. From next week onward, please bring your own device. You should also prepare access to at least one generative AI tool. You may use tools such as Gemini, ChatGPT, Grok, or another comparable tool. AI is only one component of the course, but I want you to learn how to use it to support your learning rather than replace it.

This is also a very diverse class. According to the current course roster, we have 61 students, including 37 international students from 13 nationalities. That means only 24 students in the class are domestic students. This cross-cultural setting will make the class more interesting, but it also means that group communication will require deliberate effort.

Most of you are first-year students, and that creates another challenge. Management contains many abstract concepts and frameworks, and they are often easier to understand after you have accumulated some work or organizational experience. I will try to make the ideas concrete, but I also need your participation. If you eventually decide that this course is too demanding for your first year and would rather take it later, that is a legitimate choice. With more experience, some of these ideas may become much easier to apply.

2. The Course Story: Become Judy

Instructor: The course is organized around a story. This year, the central protagonist is Judy, a Korean creator who built her career and business activities in Taiwan. We will use her entrepreneurial journey to learn management and business concepts.

The point is not simply to follow a YouTuber. We will look at how a creator notices opportunities, builds different business activities, faces operational problems, works with people, and gradually encounters the kinds of issues that require management systems. Judy's story gives us a concrete setting for discussing the major topics in management. If circumstances allow, I may try to invite her to class later in the semester so that you can hear directly about some of the challenges she has faced.