Understanding the way business is done in different cultures and countries is the key to success
Professor Glenn Hubbard, dean of Columbia Business School, was in Hong Kong recently meeting with alumni, academic partners and business leaders. The prestigious, New York-based business school has a partnership with Hong Kong University and a large alumni body in Hong Kong, which will be hosting an event in October this year, with 500 participants expected to attend.
As the Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics and a former chairman of the US Council of Economic Advisers, Professor Hubbard's views on economic issues are highly sought after and on this trip he was frequently asked to comment on the current volatile economic situation. According to him: 'We live in a global world - so when the world's largest economy has a significant change in outlook, that will affect this region just as a major shock here would affect us in the US.'
He predicted: 'GDP growth will be very slow in the US whether or not there is technically a recession.'
Professor Hubbard said the impact on Asia would depend on each particular country. 'China will still probably grow at around 8 per cent but there will be some significant effects on the Japanese, Korean and Hong Kong economies.'
As regards the relevance of executive education to business leaders at such a time, he said: 'Understanding the differences in business practices is very important for globalisation. The interesting secret about globalisation is that it's a series of local customs, local interests, and local business ways that have to be understood. At Columbia, we try to ensure that we offer this global perspective and global network. Close to half our faculty is non-American (including many from Asia). Additionally we have management faculty whose research is focused on cross-cultural differences and we also bring in outside resource experts. Participants from the Asia-Pacific region tend to be attuned to trying to understand globalisation because the leading economies in this part of the world have always been very open.'