Have foreign MBA, will travel in Chinese business

“Have foreign MBA, will travel in Chinese business”. This is the title of an article in today’s International Herald Tribune. But we will certainly see this job requirement more often in recruitment section of newspapers in the next decade.

“The management consulting firm McKinsey estimates that Chinese companies, given the global aspirations that many nurture, will need 75,000 leaders who can work effectively in global environments over the next 10 to 15 years, compared with the 3,000 to 5,000 that they have now.”

According the article, foreign business schools are rushing into Chinese markets in order to exploit this huge profit opportunity.

“Such programs do not come cheap, particularly in Chinese earning terms. The Global CEO course at Ceibs costs $43,500, and executive MBA programs in China average upward of $40,000, a fortune by local standards.  The Insead-Tsinghua program could top $100,000. “

Certainly students expect to earn more after obtaining such degrees, and as a matter of fact, those who already attended such programs indeed are earning double the tuition fees within three years.

They also remind CEOs of big Chinese corporations that they will regret if they don’t pay to come to one of their executive training  programs.

”For chief executives who make multimillion-dollar decisions, if learning helps them to improve the performance of their companies by a mere 0.1 percent "that will be more than enough to pay their tuition," said Rolf Cremer, the dean and vice-president of Ceibs.”

That is why most CEOs of the largest Chinese state-owned companies have attended these expensive executive programs.