CKGSB fosters US-China bond

Updated: 2015-05-30 03:56

By Zheng Xin in New York(China Daily USA)

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When China first introduced an MBA program in 1991, only 90 students signed up.

After 23 years' development, there are more than 236 MBA business schools in China, with enrollment rapidly increasing.

"China's global economic influence is beyond what people expected and the Chinese companies are more globalized than ever, both of which contributed to prosperity of business schools in the country," said Xiang Bing, founding dean of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB), the Beijing-based business school that Xiang established with the support of the Li Ka Shing Foundation 12 years ago.

CKGSB, China's first privately owned business school, sees alumni including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd founder and chairman Jack Ma, Sinopec Chairman Fu Chengyu and more than 4,200 other Chinese CEOs whose companies generated massive fortunes in China and worldwide.

Symbolizing the school's aim to foster a US-China bond, CKGSB's logo includes three vertical lines and three horizontal ones, representing the integration of Eastern and Western values and knowledge, according to the school.

With campuses in Shanghai and Shenzhen, Hong Kong and London, the school opened an office in New York in August 2013, which the dean said maintains the main campus's international flavor.

"The effort is partly due to China's emergence as a major consumer of products and services - moving away from being known primarily a source of cheap manufacturing labor - broadening demand for the school's programs," he said.

"More people want to do business with China rather than in China," he said. "More Chinese companies want to figure out how they can collaborate with business executives here in the West as well."

The institution's core, according to the school, is its faculty. Most of the New York faculty of 40 full-time professors and a long-term visiting professor are of Chinese origin, and all have pursued higher education at leading Western graduate schools, from Wharton to Yale.

This make-up gives the faculty a strong understanding of Western higher-education practices, according to the company's website.

Xiang said one of the major problems for most Chinese companies is the lack of a global perspective for their evolving role in international markets.

"Many Chinese companies caught the wind of globalization decades ago and built their name and fame thanks to the worldwide information democratization and technology transparency," he said. "However, we were just really lucky then."

Xiang said Chinese companies can no longer rely on copying the success and models of Western counterparts while taking advantage of cheap labor. They should focus more on social responsibility, environmental protection and entrepreneurial morality, he said.

According to Xiang, most Chinese entrepreneurs focus only on issues within China, whereas the American businessman usually has an eye on global issues every day.

The key to Chinese companies' success in the next decade will be for them to assume more responsibilities and market share, he said.

Three generations of Chinese entrepreneurs have driven explosive growth since 1978, and now it is time, said Xiang, that Chinese businesses strengthen their managerial competency and extend their global reach.

Xiang said many Chinese firms lack global perspective and capacity to leverage resources worldwide, which has limited their role globally, despite success and influence in the domestic market.

"The philosophy of China's businesses today is similar to the self-strengthening movement back in the Qing Dynasty, the institutional reforms initiated from 1861 to 1895 by the Chinese government in an attempt to modernize China by copying the Western political and economic systems, including learning the advanced technology from the developed countries and sending young talents abroad to learn of the progressive technology," Xiang said.

History has shown that copying, plagiarizing and imitation no longer work in today's economy, he said.

"The Chinese companies, despite their past prosperity after copying and reference of Western firms; it's time they adopt a global perspective and create a new era with innovation," said Xiang.

Xiang said most of the Chinese companies in the past that had been innovative suffered devastating defeats in the marketplace, while those that copy the successful Western companies have made great profits, which has encouraged the "copying model". But he warned of an opposite result in the future.

"Copying Google, Expedia, Facebook, Twitter and Uber might succeed during a certain period of time, but it's definitely not going to in the future," he said.

Xiang said a good example of an innovative Chinese company is Huawei. Its originality has brought the company not only recognition abroad, but also sustainable long-term success, he said.

As a business with an international footprint, Huawei has been growing rapidly in both developed markets and emerging markets, with its customer-centric innovation strategy enabling it to become the third-largest applicant for patents in the world.

Xiang said it doesn't matter whether a company chooses a developed country or a developing one to expand its business abroad and crack the local-to-global code.

"What matters is that the companies adopt a global perspective and enhance the ability to leverage resources globally," he said.

zhengxin@chinadaily.com.cn

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