Chinese B-Schools Lift their Game

(page 2 of 2)

"I have colleagues and friends who are finding it hard to find a job after returning from overseas," says 27-year-old Rachel Zhang, a student in the CEIBS MBA program. "I thought of going overseas to study, but I realized that in the long run I wanted to come back to China. So I asked myself: 'Why not choose a business school in China?'" Adds Rolf Cremer, CEIBS dean and vice-president: "If they go outside, they have a strong feeling they might miss the boat. There is a tremendous buzz radiating out of China."

Programs Becoming More International

That buzz is also attracting international students. About 9% of BiMBA's students come from overseas. Cheung Kong GSB, which ranked seventh in the survey, boasts international enrollment of 15%. Of 118 students admitted to Tsinghua University's SEM last year, 34 were foreign. "China attracts lots of attention from students who are looking for career opportunities or business opportunities," says Pearl Mao, the executive director of Tsinghua MBA programs.

CEIBS is also wooing international students. About 30% of this year's class of 191 comes from 25 different countries, including Italy, Russia, Malaysia, India, and the U.S. That's up from 10% five years ago. For Isard Serra Balague, a 27-year-old Barcelona native, studying in China was an easy choice. He applied to CEIBS after working as a telecom engineer in Spain, where many of his clients wanted to set up business in China. "For me it was clear. I wanted to come to China," he says. "A lot of people are now doing MBAs in Spain. So we have to find the added value for our degree."

As China's student body has become more international, so have the programs. About 60% of CEIBS' full-time faculty of 50 professors is foreign, from 19 different countries, while BiMBA's professors are drawn from such top universities as Columbia, Stanford, and the University of California at Berkeley. Tsinghua's program now has an international advisory board that includes such business luminaries as Wal-Mart's (WMT) Lee Scott, former AIG (AIG) chief Maurice Greenberg, and former Goldman Sachs (GS) president and co-chief operating officer John Thornton.

Mixing Confucius With Western Management

What's just as important as international connections is the fact that schools are now tailoring their programs to better serve the needs of managers in China. In late October CEIBS, along with Shanghai Lujiazui Development, opened a new research center that will provide consulting and educational programs for Chinese financial bodies and government agencies. CEIBS also recently set up a Research Center for International Entrepreneurship with Zhejiang University School of Management.

In the meantime the use of Chinese case studies is on the rise. At the top MBA programs students are analyzing the operations of Lenovo, Haier, China Mengniu Dairy, and other mainland enterprises. In a course on competition strategy at BiMBA, readings include Sun Tsu's The Art of War and cases on military battles drawn from ancient and modern Chinese history. "We are integrating Chinese philosophy and realities with Western management theories," says BiMBA's U.S. dean John Yang.

Perhaps no school has gone as far as Cheung Kong GSB, which runs its MBA program from a 70-year-old villa in Shanghai. Courses range from the globalization of Chinese companies to Confucian humanism. While its faculty is drawn from top universities worldwide, the majority of professors are of Chinese origin.

Focus on Manufacturing in China

One of them is Zheng Yusheng, associate dean and a professor of operations management. After spending 20 years in the U.S. and becoming the first tenured Chinese professor at University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, he returned to the mainland in 2002 to help set up the school.

His understanding of both Western and Chinese business cultures has made a mark on the MBA program. "In the U.S. there is almost no manufacturing, so what we teach there is how to manage retailers," he notes. "China is a center of manufacturing, so we focus on manufacturing here. I say: You need to produce the right product, at the right time, for the right customers. That's exactly what we have been doing."

Roberts is BusinessWeek's Asia News Editor and China bureau chief.