“Many people believe they know all about China, which is not exactly true. Most of their knowledge is based on certain prejudice,” CKGSB Founding Dean Xiang Bing told a journalist from prestigious Korean media outlet Chosun Biz during a recent interview at CKGSB’s Beijing campus. Read on to hear some more of Dean’s Xiang’s insightful perspectives on next-generation business education from China and his vision for the school.
Xiang Bing, Founding Dean of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, delivered insightful perspectives on next-generation business education from China and CKGSB’s vision during an interview conducted on CKGSB’s Beijing campus with Chosun Biz, one of the most influential online business media in Korea. “Many people believe they know all about China, which is not exactly true. Most of their knowledge is based on certain prejudice,” said Dean Xiang.
Q: What is the prejudice on China that you mentioned?
A: Some people think of China as a “closed” country under the regime of the Chinese Communist Party. However, in a way, China has a more open economy compared to that of the U.S. or Korea in that Uber has already been successfully launched in China while it was banned in Korea. Cisco takes 70% of market share in the Chinese infrastructure market, but it is still hard for Huawei to make a dollar in the U.S. In this light, other countries may have a thing or two to learn from the openness of China’s economy.
Q: CKGSB has campuses and offices in various cities like Beijing, Shanghai, New York and London. Is this part of CKGSB’s mission to offer the ‘Chinese Perspective’ globally?
A: “That is two-way traffic of knowledge. As a global economic power, it is time for China to set its own standards and perspectives. We aim to provide way for knowledge generated in China to be delivered to America and Europe. There are already many people who are interested in China business. It is our aim to teach them with our deep knowledge generated on the ground in China. We, of course, exchange our insights with Western perspectives coming from prestigious business schools such as INSEAD, John F. Kennedy School of Government and London Business School. We plan to establish more campuses worldwide for introducing perspectives and ideas about the world from China.
Q. Recently, EMBA programs seem to have undergone a difficult time due to Xi Jingping’s anticorruption policy. Has this affected CKGSB?
A: Network or ‘Guanxi’ is not the only key to success, although it is still important. Now we need to have our own competence to survive in the fierce Chinese market. It is true that the government is not that fond of EMBA programs, and the effect reaches CKGSB too since 30% of our students work for the government or SOEs. However, the situation is not as bad in CKGSB, as we have become the best private educational institution in China and we focus on private enterprises. While we have strong platforms for networking, our true strength lies in our in-depth insights about China.
Q: What is the vision of CKGSB?
A: Our goal is to be the world’s top business school in 10 years. Of course, to get to that position, we must first be a leader in Asia. We want to help Asian countries to play greater roles in the global economy, which is already happening. If China maintains its growth rate of 7%, it will be the world’s biggest economy in a few years.
Read http://biz.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2015/07/15/2015071501360.html
