(From left to right) Dr Roy Sembel, Dean, IPMI International Business School, Indonesia; Prof Tomoya Nakamura, Dean, Graduate School of Management - GLOBIS University, Japan; Dr Steven J DeKrey, President, Asian Institute of Management (AIM), Manila, Philippines; Dr Gerard George, Dean and Professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Lee Kong Chian School of Business, SMU, Singapore; Mr Amit Agnihotri, Founder, MBAUniverse.com and Convener, Asian Management Conclave; Dr Jitendra V Singh, Dean, School of Business and Management, HKUST, Hong Kong, China; Dr Lin Zhou, Dean, Antai College of Economics and Management, SJTU, China; Dr Dipak C Jain, Director, Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand; Dr Yuan Lu, Dean, Business School, Shantou University, China
Leading Asian management thinkers and Deans believe that to leverage unprecedented opportunity of this 'Asian Century', Asian B-schools should create much more original content on business management and practices in their country, and region, rather than merely adapt and teach Western curriculum. This was stressed by Deans from leading B-schools in Asia at the Asian Management Conclave on March 12-13.
The inaugural Asia Management Conclave (AMC 2015), jointly organised by management education think-tank, MBAUniverse.com, and Singapore Management University (SMU), was held in Singapore on 12 to 13 March 2015. Themed “Management Education in Asia: Strategies to Leapfrog”, AMC 2015 featured presentations and discussions by Asian business schools’ Presidents and Deans from 15 Asian economies, global education thought leaders from the United States (US) and Europe, and CXOs based in Asia.
Addressing the conclave, Dr Jitendra Singh, Dean, School of Business and Management, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), while delving in history of how management education has evolved over the last century, stressed the importance of developing more top class 'research focused' B-schools in Asia. “Management educators in Asia must ask the question: Are we merely consumers of knowledge created elsewhere in the World or are we creating new knowledge by applying principles of scientific research? Asian B-schools must take responsibility for creating new knowledge -- for use in Asia and export to the world.”
Dr Dipak C Jain, former Dean of Kellogg & INSEAD and Director of Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Admisnistration, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, said that Asian schools were not spending time to Asia specific content. “Our schools should focus on conducting research in their countries, and write more cases on Asian companies and their business practices, that can be used outside Asia.” He felt that the era of “knowledge monetization” was here and that management institutes could monetize their cases and research for raising resources.
Leading management thinkers like Dr Steven J DeKrey, President, Asian Institute of Management, Manila, Dr Gerard George, Dean and Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University, Singapore and Dr Pankaj Ghemawat too called for more Asian context specific curriculum development and research. "Asian B-schools must seize the opportunity to play a leading role in this Asian Century." said Dr George.
Dr Sunil Kumar, Dean of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business said, "Global B-schools like ours realize that Asian management education need local focus and are investing heavily in physical campuses in Asia. One of the key roles for these Asian campuses is to be centers of research on Asian business practices."
Taking the discussion further, Dr Philip Charles Zerrillo, Dean, Postgraduate Professional Programmes, Singapore Management University, Singapore felt that there was a dire need for translating Asian research into practice. He shared that for this purpose, SMU has started the Centre for Management Practice and also launched the Asian Management Insights journal to document case studies for local relevance.
Context matters
Addressing this Conclave, celebrated management thinker and Professor of Harvard Business School Dr Tarun Khanna said, "Trying to apply management practices uniformly across geographies is a fool's errand. Best practices simply don't travel well across borders. That's because conditions not just of economic development but of institutional maturity, educational norms, language, and culture vary enormously from place to place. There's nothing wrong with the tools we have at our disposal, but their application requires contextual intelligence: the ability to understand the limits of our knowledge and to adapt that knowledge to a context different from the one in which it was acquired."
Emphasizing the importance of understanding the Asian context while offering MBA education in Asia, Dr Arfah Salleh, President and CEO of Putra Business School, Malaysia said, "Asia has been a thought leader when it comes to understand human values and purpose. If Asian B-schools do not rise to the occasion, we would be doing injustice to the potentials of Asian wisdom tradition."
Call for innovation to leapfrog
While call for original Asian content dominated the talks by Deans, experts also urged Asian management schools to innovate to help them leapfrog. Experts stressed on leveraging technology and developing programs for meeting local needs were stressed.
Dr Lin Zhou, Dean, Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, highlighted the China MBA education model which we different from US model. Dr Zhou shared that while B-schools in China offered conventional MBA programs, they raise revenue for conducting research etc by offering various types of eMBA programs for senior businessmen. The curriculum offered at these eMBA programs is very different from conventional US MBA program.
Experts also stressed on the need for leveraging education technology and mobile platforms, where Asian businesses and society is pioneering.
ASEAN integration a win-win for all
Dr DeKrey delved on how the upcoming ASEAN integration would impact management education. Collectively, ASEAN has a population of 621million. In terms of economic growth rate, ASEAN was expected to have a growth rate of 5.67 percent, as compared to a growth rate 2.4 percent of USA. “ASEAN integration is a major economic development. What is important for B-schools and businesses is free flow of goods and free flow of services; and thereby the ASEAN integration will give an edge to management education in the region,” he said.
“I believe that ASEAN countries need to create their own content. It is fine to get courses from outside to kickstart, but eventually, we should create our own content,” he added.
Asian B-schools to form a consortium
(From left to right-Standing) Mr Hernaikh Singh, Associate Director, India Initiatives, Singapore Management University, Singapore; Dr Yuan Lu, Dean, Business School, Shantou University, China; Dr Sofri Yahya, Dean, Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia; Dr Geoffrey G Gachino, Acting Dean, College of Business Administration, University of Dubai, Dubai, UAE; Prof Tomoya Nakamura, Dean, Graduate School of Management - GLOBIS University, Japan; Dr Atish Chattopadhyay, Department Director, SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, India; Dr Danuvasin Charoen, Acting Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, NIDA Business School, Thailand; (From left to right-sitting) Dr Roy Sembel, Dean, IPMI International Business School, Indonesia; Dr H Chaturvedi, Director, Birla Institute of Management Technology, India; Dr Mohammed Ali, Dean, School of Business Administration, American University in Dubai, UAE; Dr Kevyn Yong, Academic Dean, ESSEC Business School (Asia Pacific), Singapore; Mr Amit Agnihotri, Founder, MBAUniverse.com and Convener, Asian Management Conclave;
Another highlight of AMC 2015 was a swift response to the call for creating more original Asian management content. Well known B-schools from China, Japan, India, Middle-east, Malaysia and other countries decided to come together and work towards this goal. Speaking at ‘Doing Business in Asia’ program session, Dr Li Haitao, Associate Dean, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, China; Prof Tomoya Nakamura, Dean, GSM - GLOBIS University, Japan; Dr H Chaturvedi, Director, Birla Institute of Management Technology, India; Dr Roy Sembel, Dean, IPMI International Business School, Indonesia; Dr Mohammed Ali, Dean, School of Business Administration, American University in Dubai; Dr Danuvasin Charoen, Associate Dean, NIDA Business School, Thailand; Dr Sofri Yahya, Dean, Graduate School of Business, Universiti Sains Malaysia expressed their willingness to work together as Asian Management Conclave Consortium.
Many other Deans also expressed their interest in being part of this movement. This consortium of B-schools will work towards creating curriculum, pedagogy, research and cases on Asian way of Doing Business.
Summarizing the discussions at AMC 2015, its convener Amit Agnihotri said, "As Asia rises on the world stage, this massive shift is creating unprecedented opportunities for Asian B-schools. By bringing leading Asian B-Schools together at AMC 2015, we have started a unstoppable movement for reshaping Asian management education landscape."
Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on Asian Management Conclave 2015
