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Business school shines light on the Asian way

John Cremer

Every MBA programme must reflect evolving views and changing practices affecting the global business environment. In doing that, business schools have plenty of scope to develop niches and play to their particular strengths.

Within core courses and extending beyond - in electives, exchanges, seminars and supervised research - they can show students that success in business does not depend on just adopting a United States-manufactured or European Union-approved template.

'We need to teach people to function in the Asian business environment,' says Professor Wong Tak-jun, dean of the faculty of business administration at Chinese University (CUHK). 'That means talking about alternative governance and ownership structures and understanding the ways of family-run and state-controlled businesses in this part of the world.'

Even with globalisation and the push for international standards, Wong says much business in Asia operates on different principles. This is not a matter of legalities and regulations, but more one of mindsets and approaches. Academic research supports that premise.

In essence, it confirms that 'Western' companies, wherever their actual domicile, are conditioned to conduct transactions at arm's length and rely on contracts enforceable by law. The fundamental Asian approach is still to depend much more on personal relationships and networks for deal-making, rather than on formal, written contracts.

That has implications for the way companies are organised, held and managed. MBA students, many of whom now aspire to positions with the increasingly powerful China or Asia-based enterprises, need to know why different systems are favoured and what makes them tick.

'In the West, companies have diffuse shareholders, professional managers and, maybe, shorter-term outlooks,' Wong says. 'Our MBA, though, has two courses specifically on family businesses, one focusing on management and succession issues, the other on their finances.'

To put this in the context of the global economy's shift from West to East, professors are updating other modules to include more case studies drawing out Chinese and Asian themes. 'Obviously, we still teach 'IBM' cases and discuss the big global companies,' Wong says. 'But, as a part of our mission to develop business leaders for the Asian century, we bring in more local examples and point out where there are differences and why.'

He notes that students are receptive to this approach. Their general view is that the more relevant a programme is to the region, the better. Whether they work for a multinational, small and medium enterprise, bank or law firm, they see the need to know how things work - in practice - and to be looking forward, not back.

CUHK is developing other courses to keep its executive programmes sharp and relevant. One is on entrepreneurship and technology management, examining the innovation seen in Chinese companies, which tends to go unrecognised. The intention is to invite industry experts, venture capitalists and private equity professionals to contribute to writing up case studies. Another course taking shape will deal with supply chain management and sustainable production, particularly in the Pearl River Delta.

'Supply chain is very important for the region, so we are working with factories and the Li & Fung centre [Li & Fung Institute of Supply Chain Management & Logistics] to develop course material,' Wong says.

Research may lead to modules on global finance issues as they apply to emerging markets, and Asian models of governance and corporate social responsibility. A practical challenge is that professors are still evaluated by what they publish in international academic journals, that are often more interested in US-themed studies. 'So far, there is no unique management theory for emerging markets in Asia,' Wong says. 'All our research is more descriptive, but we want to understand what makes companies succeed and come up with a [prescriptive] model.'

Regarding the trend towards alliances between business schools in different parts of the world, Wong sees the value of international co-operation. He believes in the principle of equal partnership and has no wish to see CUHK act simply as a conduit for students keen to supplement their MBA with short courses overseas. 'We want to set up a 'lab', so global partners can send students to work with us on projects in China and take Asia-based courses,' Wong says. 'It is important to contribute our expertise as well, not just pay partners for their teaching and their name.'

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