The last two years have been ones of intense disruption. The coronavirus has interrupted all aspects of life, from regular social gatherings to supply chain logistics. It is no exaggeration to say the pandemic has changed the world. But while limits on the number of customers dining together at a restaurant table ease, other changes are likely to be more permanent. Education is one sector unlikely to go back to the old ways. Distance learning already existed pre-pandemic but it has greatly expanded in the last two years and the introduction of new technologies has accelerated during the same period. The workplace, too, looks to have irrevocably changed, with online meetings now a part of the new normal and work from home an accepted part of many company cultures. With the impact of Covid-19 rippling through industries, this makes the right choice of course more important than ever for future MBA graduates. The stubborn refusal of the virus to fade from view and the consequent ongoing economic uncertainty make this an opportune moment for professionals to pause their employment and reskill for potentially difficult periods ahead. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has remodelled its MBA programme in just such a fashion. In the 2021/22 academic year the Faculty of Business launched a full-time MBA course to allow students to complete the programme in one rather than two years. To keep pace with the latest developments in the business environment, the curriculum has been enriched with new technological elements such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing and data science. “We benchmark our MBA’s structure, content and teaching approaches against the best programmes in the world,” says Professor Hung Yick-hin, programme director of PolyU’s MBA, commenting on these additions. Perhaps the biggest revamp of PolyU’s MBA course is the creation of three new optional specialisms: aviation, fashion, and innovation and design. These are natural fits as the university has pedigrees in all three fields. Since 2013 PolyU has been working with Boeing on its Aviation Services Research Centre (ASRC), which aims to develop new or improved aviation service technologies. The university’s history in fashion and design goes back even further, all the way to 1957 and the establishment of the Institute of Textiles and Clothing. This department is now PolyU’s second largest and counts world famous designer Vivienne Tam among its alumni. “PolyU has long played an instrumental role in nurturing talents in the fields of aviation, fashion, and design with its strong industry networks,” explains Hung. “Building on the strengths of PolyU and drawing on the expertise of different units of the university, we have introduced these new specialisms into the MBA curriculum starting from the 2021/22 intake cohort. Each one includes a choice of speciality electives taught by academics and/or industry practitioners from the renowned Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies, Institute of Textiles and Clothing, and the School of Design of PolyU, allowing students to develop professionalism in a specific industry.” Students who pursue a specialism will receive the award of Master of Business Administration (Aviation/ Fashion/ Innovation and Design) after successful completion of the required speciality electives. Students who opt not to pursue a particular specialism can still take electives from any of the specialisms as well as the general list, which includes e-commerce, entrepreneurship, and global sourcing and supply. Although PolyU has established roots in Hong Kong and local industries, its MBA is anything but inward looking. All its subjects are designed with a global outlook spiced with “a dash of Asian perspectives” says Hung, who highlights the programme’s field study trips as an example of this. These overseas trips are arranged as part of the elective subject Field Study for Business Management. They allow students to visit companies in other countries to try and understand how they capture new opportunities in different sectors and different business contexts. Without a good understanding of interactions among different economies, social contexts, cultures, among others, it can be difficult to read a situation accurately Professor Hung Yick-hin, Polytechnic University of Hong Kong “For instance, students went on a study trip to Emilia-Romagna in January 2020 to observe business concepts and practices in a context vastly different from what they were used to,” relates Hung. “Among the businesses they visited were Ferrari, Pagani, Max Mara, Ferrarini, Acetaia Picci and the Fondazione Fashion Research Italy. They also attended a lecture at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. By observing businesses and interacting with executives in context, students get to understand the applications of business concepts in a more holistic manner and in more depth.” Other subjects reinforce this international perspective, including global sourcing and supply, global leadership in the Asian context, global economic environment for management, and globalisation and design. Covid-19 has forced managers to acquire a more empathetic mindset if they did not possess one already. Understanding the needs of workers having to operate from home, perhaps alongside their children, or from the confines of quarantine, has required new styles of management. It is this sort of thinking from another’s perspective that is one of the key lessons of PolyU’s MBA. “In an interdependent world, it is no longer enough to be technically sound if one intends to be a successful executive and leader,” explains Hung. “Without a good understanding of interactions among different economies, social contexts and cultures, it can be difficult to read a situation accurately and to respond with foresight and sensitivity. “The global/international aspects of our programme provide students with the tools and frameworks that they can use to be a success; they also provide the platform through which we encourage students to step out of their comfort zones and to explore diversity with an open mind, open heart and open will. We believe that the combination of knowledge, attitude and practice is the key to the development of true global leaders.” International and real world experience is also at the heart of Hong Kong University (HKU)’s MBA course. The city’s oldest university prides itself on its record of shaping current and future business leaders, and aims to equip its students with a first-class education, practical lessons and a thorough understanding of both regional and global business and culture. “With Hong Kong at the heart of the Greater Bay Area (GBA), our programme is aligned with the development of the GBA, and bridges global and regional businesses with Hong Kong’s world-class talent, while providing our students maximum flexibility of work-study balance,” explains Sachin Tipnis, senior executive director (taught postgraduate) at the University of Hong Kong Business School. The MBA at HKU aims to inculcate three key skills in students: critical thinking, problem solving and decision making. The programme is designed to inspire future business leaders to comprehend, manage and capitalise on East Asia’s dynamic and rapidly evolving business environment, while also providing them with maximum flexibility to balance their ongoing jobs and studies. Tipnis says this is achieved through a case-based, experiential learning approach “infusing all-rounded knowledge”. This method is one of the stand-out aspects of HKU’s course. Written by eminent professors from the HKU Business School faculty and prominent industry leaders, the business case studies employed on the MBA course encourage critical thinking coupled with a forward-looking management approach designed to meet the needs of rapidly growing regional and global businesses. The university’s appeal to the Greater Bay Area should not be taken as hollow. HKU’s MBA is the only one of its kind in Hong Kong to offer three separate modes of study: weekday, weekend and a special GBA (Hong Kong-Shenzhen) mode. The latter is a bi-weekly option that fully integrates the course within the GBA and allows working professionals in the region the flexibility to travel by high-speed rail from neighbouring cities in mainland China to Shenzhen and Hong Kong while juggling work and studying. Furthermore, following on from the opening of the Business School’s Beijing Centre, a Shenzhen Centre is on its way too. “This will help in not only growing our community, but further aligns with the vision of integration with the GBA,” says Tipnis. “It will provide students in Hong Kong with increased exposure to Guangdong, in particular to industry leaders in Shenzhen and Guangzhou. On the other hand, with Hong Kong’s status as a leading international hub, it gives our students in Guangdong an opportunity to interact and learn from regional leaders based here. In essence, this enables the HKU MBA to create a corridor of continuous learning and growth.” This should be especially relevant since there have been major transformations in business models globally, with Asia-Pacific, in particular, seeing a significant emphasis on elements of Industry 4.0 built by new technologies. Preparing its students to become leaders in this new era, HKU recently redesigned its curriculum with a focus on five key theme areas: business tech and innovation, managing in China and Asia, marketing and general management, strategy, and consulting and finance. The HKU MBA programme is designed to be delivered in a practical way, with an emphasis on the all-rounded development of its students. Coursework requirements differ depending on the course and the professor, with a focus on ensuring students can grasp the relevant concepts and apply them in their professional lives and career development. The university’s strong relationship with the Cyberport Incubation Programme assists with this. The programme’s flagship elective – an entrepreneurial incubation lab – is conducted in partnership with Cyberport Academy. This course is designed to help students hone their entrepreneurial abilities and build a start-up from business concept and idea development through to incubation. The unit is spread over three main stages: incubation, business concept and angel investing. The first teaches entrepreneurs to learn the process of incubating an idea and developing it from scratch. In this stage, students learn about idea development and team formation. They get the opportunity to validate their ideas and understand the role played by incubation platforms in the tech start-up ecosystem. Hong Kong’s status as a leading international hub gives students in Guangdong an opportunity to interact and learn from regional leaders based here. This enables us to create a corridor of continuous learning and growth Sachin Tipnis, University of Hong Kong For a start-up to successfully scale up, the business concept must be well thought out and developed. In this unit, students learn about key technology trends and how they can incorporate them into their business concepts. Through interaction with mentors, they will be able to finalise their business plan and prepare their investor decks for the start-up pitch. Angel investing is a major enabler in supporting start-up founders with adequate funding to take their idea to market. In the final stage, students get to understand the key elements that angel and corporate investors look for when making investment decisions. The course ends with a start-up mixer and final pitch to real-world investors and start-up founders. Students also have the opportunity to pitch for the Cyberport Creative Micro Fund (CCMF) or Cyberport Incubation Programme (CIP). Given the continuing disruption to business caused by Covid-19, it is more important than ever that managers be up to date on the latest trends and topics. To that end, to ensure graduates are “future-ready”, business schools are putting greater emphasis on topics like data science, big data and environmentalism, and building them into core modules. At the same time, case studies are being appropriately updated to reflect the rising importance of these topics in corporate thinking alongside the rise of e-commerce, automation, the metaverse and social enterprises. “The international business landscape is changing fast, with a continuing boom expected in Asia,” says Professor Chen Tai-yuan, associate dean and director of MBA programmes at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)’s School of Business and Management. “Our job is to give students up-to-date training and sustainable leadership skills, which are relevant to the market now and in the future.” Built around its stated mission of providing global experience with a focus on Asian expertise, HKUST’s curriculum is designed with flexibility in mind. The course is divided into five different tracks: general management, marketing, finance, business technology and analytics, and consulting and strategic management. “We run action-based courses – including those on luxury strategy, social entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy – where students work with business executives to apply what they have learned in class,” Chen says. “In this way, they see up close how scenario analysis and strategy formulation facilitate the final execution stage of a project. Because the world is witnessing a speedy digital transformation, we cannot emphasise enough the importance of harnessing the power of technology for future business, and the need to integrate theory with practice.” Recent course additions have included transforming business with artificial intelligence, as well as fintech and big data financial analytics. To help provide industry expertise and first-hand knowledge, HKUST often calls in outside experts or former practitioners as guest speakers or lecturers. They share insights on the very latest market developments and, in doing so, help to bridge the gap between the classroom and the real world. This leads naturally to other types of interaction with successful entrepreneurs and industry leaders in seminars, workshops, recruitment talks and alumni events. In terms of overall organisation, formal lectures now comprise only around 30 per cent of course content, with most time given over to discussion, simulations, case studies, seminars, in-class presentations and individual or group projects. The aim of this style of teaching is to encourage active participation and the sharing of original perspectives, with the opportunity to learn from classmates, faculty members and the general environment. Besides that, training in “behavioural economics” has been introduced to prepare students for the new norms of the job market – in particular, the increasing importance of the world’s ubiquitous digital transformation. “Future business leaders need a good understanding of technology, along with local insight and global perspectives,” Chen says. “In recent years, over 90 per cent of graduates from our full-time MBA have landed jobs in Asia with many of the best-known international firms. But we notice the top five hiring industries are now technology, financial services, manufacturing, consulting and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG). And, of course, there is the growing presence of Chinese companies in global markets to think about.”