The MBA Curriculum : China Inc.

One important aspect of deciding on a MBA in Australia was the international experience, the ability to meet and connect with students from many countries in the world. This is skewed towards Asia which is good in a way. I am from Asia (India) and the various high growth economies in Asia along with China (the leader of the pack) is the emerging geography of choice in the world.

One of the good aspects of UniSA is that they also have a Chinese MBA in Adelaide. This would mean that I can get the chance to interact with various Chinese students and understand their culture, history and make some connections to the country.

The Goldman Sachs BRIC report says that China will be the largest economy in the world by 2050 and India along with Brazil and Russia will be not far behind. Interestingly, Russia, China and India are all in the same geographical area. There are commonalities too. All of them have a large "bottom of the pyramid" market. They are in various stages of development in the industry, services, export, financial markets, the currency markets and education sector.

Since I have lived all my life in India I have a fairly decent idea of India. Other students and B-Schools are already making their presence felt in India. The challenge will be Russia and China. I would start off with China as my choice. China has shown amazing dynamism in shaping its economy and managing the transition from a largely agrarian economy to a Industrialized nation and in a few years will be challenging Indias' position in the services arena.

Like the mandatory requirement of learning Chinese culture history and the mandarin language in the Great Lakes Institute of Management in Chennai, India I have decided to equip myself with understanding China. History and Culture will be from books, interactions with Chinese students in Australia. Information on News, economics and development will be from the Internet. I am in process of selecting the news sites, the blogs to read, magazines etc to understand China(If the readers have any suggestions I would love to hear them). The third aspect is learning Mandarin.

There are three parts of this story. One, the ability to understand and work in China ; Second, the ability to understand and work with Chinese companies and individuals; Third, the ability to understand and work against or compete with Chinese companies. All of these skills are important to work in the new globalized economy. Yes, we need to add the ability to interpret the Chinese government signals and the 'fudged' statistics to understand the future direction of the country.

One thing is sure, we all need to face China and its companies in many difference aspects. The best way to prepare the future leaders of the global world is to 'understanding china" and helping them prepare to work in, work with and work against Chinese companies.