• First Asian Management Conclave (AMC 2015) was held in Singapore at SMU on 12 and 13 March 2015
• Key business schools and corporate thought leaders deliberated on the future of Asian business schools
• Strategies to help Asian management education to excel further and compete globally

In order to leverage the significant opportunities in the ‘Asian century’, business schools in Asia should create more original content on business management and practices in their country and region, rather than merely adapt and teach Western curriculum. This was the message from leading Asian management thinkers and Deans at the inaugural Asian Management Conclave (AMC 2015) held in Singapore on 12 and 13 March 2015 at the Singapore Management University (SMU).

Themed “Management Education in Asia: Strategies to Leapfrog”, AMC 2015 was jointly organised by management education think-tank MBAUniverse.com and SMU. It 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 corporate executives based in Asia.

Addressing the conclave, Dr Jitendra Singh, Dean, School of Business and Management, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, while delving into the evolution of management education in the last century, stressed the importance of developing more top class ‘research focused’ business 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 business schools must take responsibility for creating new knowledge – for use in our region and export to the world.”

Dr Dipak C Jain, former Dean of Kellogg and INSEAD, and Director of Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, said that schools in Asia were not spending time on 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 monetisation” was here and that management institutes could monetise their cases and research for raising resources.

Leading management thinkers such as Dr Steven J DeKrey, President, Asian Institute of Management, Philippines; Dr Gerard George, Dean and Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Lee Kong Chian School of Business, SMU; and Dr Pankaj Ghemawat, Professor, Global Management and Director, Center for Globalization of Education & Management, Stern School of Business, New York University and Anselmo Rubiralta Professor Global Strategy, IESE Business School, also called for more Asian context specific curriculum development and research. “Asian business 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 business schools like ours realise 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 centres of research on Asian business practices.”

Taking the discussion further, Dr Philip Charles Zerrillo, Dean, Postgraduate Professional Programmes, SMU, felt that there was a dire need to translate research from Asia into practice. He shared that, for this purpose, SMU has started the Centre for Management Practice and launched the Asian Management Insights journal to document case studies for local relevance.

[Photo: Plenary discussion on “Internationalising Asian MBA – International Accreditation and Ranking in Asian Context”, chaired by Dr Phillip Zerrillo, Dean of SMU Postgraduate Professional Programmes (third from left), with panellists such as Dr Eileen Peacock, Chief Executive Asia of AACSB International (standing).]

Context matters

Addressing the conclave, celebrated management thinker and Professor of Harvard Business School, Dr Tarun Khanna, said that, “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 is 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.”

Emphasising the importance of understanding the Asian context while offering MBA education in Asia, Dr Arfah Salleh, President and Chief Executive Officer of Putra Business School, Malaysia stated, “Asia has been a thought leader when it comes to understanding human values and purpose. If Asian business schools do not rise to the occasion, we will be doing injustice to the potentials of Asian wisdom tradition.”

Call for innovation to leapfrog

While the call for original Asian content dominated the sessions during the event, experts also urged Asian management schools to innovate to help them leapfrog. Experts stressed on leveraging technology and developing programmes to meet local needs.

Dr Lin Zhou, Dean, Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, highlighted that the China MBA education model is different from the American model. Dr Zhou shared that while business schools in China offered conventional MBA programmes, they raise revenue to conduct research by offering various types of Executive MBA (eMBA) programmes for senior businessmen. The curriculum offered at these eMBA programmes is very different from conventional US MBA programmes.

Experts also stressed on the need to leverage education technology and mobile platforms in which Asian businesses and society are pioneers.

ASEAN integration a win-win for all

Dr DeKrey also stressed on the impact of ASEAN integration on management education. Collectively, ASEAN has a population of 621 million. In terms of economic growth rate, ASEAN was expected to have a growth rate of 5.67 per cent, as compared to a growth rate 2.4 per cent of the US. “ASEAN integration is a major economic development. What is important for business schools and businesses is the 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 kick start, but eventually, we should create our own content,” he added.

[Photo: A special address by Dr Steven J DeKrey, President of Asian Institute of Management, Philippines, on “The Upcoming ASEAN Integration and Management Education”.]

Asian business schools to form consortium

Another highlight of AMC 2015 was a swift response to the call for creating more original Asian management content. Well-known business schools from China, Japan, India, Middle East, Malaysia and other regional countries have decided to come together and work towards this goal. Speaking at ‘Doing Business in Asia’ programme session, Dr Li Haitao, Associate Dean, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, China; Dr 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 an AMC 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 the Asian way of doing business.

[Photo: The “Recruiting MBAs in Asia: Understanding Corporate Expectations” plenary session, with representatives from Asian corporate companies, moderated by Mr Steve Burton, Deputy Director, SMU Office of Postgraduate Professional Programmes (first from left).]

Summarising the discussions, AMC 2015’s convener, Mr Amit Agnihotri said, “As Asia rises on the world stage, this massive shift is creating unprecedented opportunities for Asian business schools. By bringing leading Asian business schools together at AMC 2015, we have started an important movement to reshape Asian management education landscape.”

[Photo: Panellists from the final plenary session on “Doing Business in Asia”, together with key organisers’ representatives, Mr Hernaikh Singh, Associate Director, India Initiatives, SMU Office of Provost & Deputy President (back row, first from left) and Mr Amit Agnihotri, Founder of MBAUniverse.com and Convener of AMC (front row, first from right).]

[Featured Photo: Speakers and panellists from Day 1’s opening and plenary sessions of the inaugural AMC, with host and partner, Dr Gerald George, Dean and Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business (fourth from left); and co-organiser Mr Amit Agnihotri, Founder of MBAUniverse.com and Convener of AMC (centre).]