A Boot Camp Pitch For Getting An MBA in China

The campus, built in 1999, was designed in the manner of a traditional Chinese garden by the famed Chinese architect who designed the glass pyramid at the Louvre, I. M. Pei. It sits on 20 acres just outside central Shanghai, and features more than an acre of reflecting pools and its own glass pyramid. The new portion of the school was completed last year. About 80% of first-year MBA students, including internationals, live in on-campus dorms.

Shanghai, population 24 million-plus, boasts more than 120 skyscrapers 500 feet or higher, the offices and regional headquarters for dozens of major global and Chinese firms. The country’s financial hub, it has the highest per-capital disposable income in China. “Shanghai will eventually become a Hong Kong or Singapore,” Assistant Director of Marketing Roy Chason tells boot camp participants.

TWO MBA PROGRAMS: 18 MONTHS AND 12 MONTHS

The CEIBS MBA typically takes 18 months, but the school added this year an accelerated 12-month MBA that front-loads electives but leaves less time for career development and extracurriculars. “If you need to find a job you need to be in this 18-month program,” MBA director Simin Chen tells boot campers on the first day. “If you’re company sponsored, or in a family business, or if you don’t want to work, 12 months will do.”

“The most important factor of change in the 21st Century is what I call the Chinese Renaissance,” professor Gosset tells participants. “China is already a global power. Everything China does has a global impact. China is regaining a position of centrality. China is reshaping the world in which we live.”

Gosset cites an estimate from former Rand Corporation analyst and U.S. presidential adviser Michael Pillsbury, who predicts China’s economy will double the size of America’s by 2049. China’s evolution will include a focus on effective governance, but “don’t expect liberal democracy,” Gosset advises. “The most important organization in China is, of course, the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese Communist Party is here to stay, to lead the change, for the foreseeable future. What we have in Europe and the U.S. is not a model for them.”

‘THINGS ARE CHANGING EXTREMELY RAPIDLY’

The Chinese economy makes up more than 10% of the world economy; the country is the major trading partner of Russia, India, Brazil, and Africa as a whole, Gosset says, noting that the West is not an intermediary in that commerce. “We now live in a world where the South/South relations are as important as the North/South relations.”

CEIBS MBAs can find career opportunities within China, or in companies trading with China, Chason tells participants. “Things are changing extremely rapidly,” Chason says. “You have to ask yourself, ‘Regionally where do I put my eggs?’ You have to look away from the short term and immediate trends and see in the long term where things are going, because it’s going to affect your career. China will affect your career, significantly, and probably your life.”

Of course, in nearly every major city and a multitude of hinterlands around the world, China has a presence. It projects itself through a collection of vectors: goods, technology, people, finance, culture, its military, and diplomacy, he adds. “China is already a network of networks whose reach is already global,” Gosset says.

To succeed in many areas of international business, therefore, knowledge and experience of China is necessary, MBA Director Chen tells participants. “With this, you have very much an advantage,” he says.

CASE METHOD TEACHING WITH A FOCUS ON CHINA

The CEIBS international MBA uses the case method, and is built around a core curriculum very similar to top those in top U.S. MBA programs. “We blend this international knowledge with China practice in a way that nobody can match us,” Chen says. “Many of our faculty members come with a U.S. background. Our curriculum was originally modeled after Wharton’s.”

As in elite U.S. programs, CEIBS students undertake in their second year an experiential learning course, working in groups to solve strategic issues for companies that in the past have included Dow, Bayer, BP, Siemens, MasterCard, Nike, and Coca-Cola.

Also in the second year, and also similar to MBA programs in top U.S. schools, CEIBS offers for the fall term an international exchange program with about 30 partner schools, including Wharton, the U.C. Berkeley Haas School, UCLA’s Anderson School, Duke’s Fuqua, Michigan’s Ross, the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler, Indiana’s Kelley, and Dartmouth’s Tuck, along with European institutions such as London Business School, Spain’s ESADE and IESE, France’s HEC and INSEAD, plus other schools including the Indian School of Business, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Canada’s Queen’s, Rotman, Sauder, and Schulich schools.

Job Outcomes for CEIBS MBAs, Class of 2014

Job offers 3 months after graduation	Job offers 3 months after graduation, U.S. graduates	Median salary: foreign MBAs in China	Median salary: Mainland China MBAs in China	Median salary: foreign MBAs outside China	Median salary: Mainland China MBAs outside China
92%	100%	$61,600	$57,600	$86,500	$100,000

Source: CEIBS