Background: 15 years has passed since the foundation of BiMBA of National School of Development at Peking University. In Forbes’ Best Business Schools of China in 2014 released on March 28, 2014, BiMBA of National School of Development at Peking University was ranked first, standing out from all the prestigious business schools in China. NetEase Education thus invited Professor Li Zhang, Dean of BiMBA, to the Business School Saloon to share with us the history of BiMBA.
NetEase Education: We know that BiMBA has always been a leading player among business schools in China. In particular, BiMBA was ranked first in Forbes’ Best Business Schools of China in 2014, which was released on March 28. In your opinion, what is the strength of BiMBA that allows it to score the first place?
Li Zhang: To understand the strength of BiMBA, it is important to first understand education in business and management. MBA is an education in business and administration. Its primary goal is to impart knowledge and educate people. Therefore, although students of MBA are entrepreneurs and senior management, the most important criterion in the evaluation of a MBA program remains whether our students understand the material and will be able to utilize it. This is the evaluation criterion not only for a MBA program but also for any educational program. Now, the fact that we are able to receive this honor represents an acknowledgement and encouragement to our BiMBA graduates from the society and experts in different fields.
NetEase Education: As we all know, this year is the 15th anniversary of BiMBA. What do you think is the biggest change that BiMBA has undergone so far and what has remained the same during the last 15 years?
Li Zhang: In fact, any educational institution, be it MBA or other program, is always changing. This constant change is resulted from students’ changing demand, which has always been the focus of education. Besides, our optimal distribution of resources has also been changing. As a result, the material of our lectures and format of our education are changing as the social environment changes continuously.
For example, if we look at business schools two decades ago, we can see a pattern in all the Chinese business schools, including us. At that time, business schools were first started in China, and education in business administration and MBA sounded exotic. The material we used was also exotic – we adopted many foreign textbooks, cases from overseas, foreign educational approaches, and courses from other countries. We did not have the material that we could summarize and study because China was just starting to transform from planned economy to market economy. At that time, we were still living in a controlled economy that is becoming more and more open. As the transformation of market took place, I gradually noticed that the transformation of education in business administration was not detached from the market, but was following the path of market development.
The first point that I want to address is that China is receiving more and more attention from the world. For example, we used to use other countries’ textbooks, teaching material, cases, and professors. However, we came to realization that despite of their merit, many cases and materials were not suitable for the market environment in China because of the dramatic changes that were taking place in China. Under this circumstance, professors who were familiar with the situations in both China and other countries were favored by the students.
Secondly, we used to be late-comers in education. However, we are probably transforming into a major player now. This transformation is not simply the result of growth in our business school, but also the result of a more and more important role that Chinese market plays in the world. Therefore, development of Chinese education in business administration is highly depended on development of the country, the market, the society, and other aspects. If we look at Chinese education in business administration, it is clear that a lot of changes are taking place.
we have also strived to bring innovation to our courses. For example, we have started many courses that are unique to our school. At first, we tried to draw wisdom from some military examples like the Red Army’s Four Crossing of Chishui River and Menglianggu Campaign. These attempts received positive feedback perhaps because financial market is comparable to a battlefield. Military battles represent the most relentless struggle among human beings. Any decision on battlefield can cost lives; decisions are made under rapidly developing circumstances that suffer from information asymmetry; orders are quickly and accurately carried out. All of these aspects of military experience are valuable lessons for our entrepreneurs who can employ the knowledge in their own settings. As a result of our innovation in the lessons of military history, students made significant progress during their education.
In addition, we offer a lot of opportunities for students to study abroad, which is another innovation that is gradually becoming a part of our educational system. Other business schools will also have study abroad programs. However, our program will always be different, for it is developed around a purpose. For example, several days ago, a professor came and led a study abroad group. They will look at corporate administrative culture in Asia, in Europe, and in the U.S. Corporate administrative culture in Germany can be different from corporate administrative culture in the U.S. because they emphasize on different things. Now, we even look at corporate administrative culture in Israel, Taiwan, and South Africa. As a matter of fact, we are setting up a program in Africa as we speak. These programs are not sightseeing tours but closely focused on the study of corporate administrative culture. We also have other innovations, and I will not spend the time to enumerate every one of them.
NetEase Education: These innovations that you just mentioned represent changes in the business school. What do you think has remained the same for the whole time?
Li Zhang: We must see through the appearance to perceive the essence. Some of the essential factors remain constant throughout the passage of time. For example, we have two opinions on education. The first is that education must lead the need of students. The so-called masters are people who decide on the material that should be taught to the students. This is a very valuable part of education. As China grows, business administration becomes a very empirical subject. As a result, our other opinion on business administrative education is that we need to consistently look into the need of students, companies, industries, and the entire market. Based on our observation, we may need to innovate and adjust our educational resources and selection of courses. These principles are consistent throughout our development.
Secondly, we have always been operating on a fundamental principle of BiMBA and National School of Development at Peking University. This principle is that education needs to be based on communication between students and professors on equal and open grounds. This principle is very important because education is not merely an export of knowledge but a discussion and mutual development. Professor Justin Yifu Lin and other professors ensured that this institution would thrive with this principle since the establishment of CCER. I have also repeatedly stressed the importance of this principle with my colleagues because without independent thinking, there is no education. This principle has remained the same for the entire time.
Thirdly, we have been working to provide better material in our education and more valuable services for our students. The service that I am talking about is beyond the sense of serving them with tea and drinks. We focus on the reason that prompted them to come here and study – to increase the value of themselves, the value of their companies, and the value of their human resources. The goal of our service is to ensure that value-creation is not only achieved during their study, but also after they graduate. We provide service for our alumni to form strong connection between them and the school. We make them to feel proud of the school. Most importantly, for the next five years, ten years, or even longer period of time, we will be proud of our alumni. This kind of value-creating service is the service that is important to this institution.
All of these seem to have changed little throughout the years.
NetEase Education: When it comes to running a school, I know an important feature of BiMBA is your joint effort with professors of different fields and from other countries. BiMBA is run by both economists and management scientists; it is also run by well-known professors from China, Europe, and the U.S. What are advantages of this joint effort of BiMBA?
Li Zhang: It’s a very good questions. Joint adventure is a cooperation or integration of two groups. Like you said, economists and management scientists are working together at BiMBA. This is not unprecedented in the Western countries. However, in our school, they work more closely. The reason is that China is a country transforming from planned economy to market economy, which results in a socialist market economy. The characteristics of socialist market economy include rapid economic transition and unprecedented challenges. The size of this massive and heavily populated country further complicates situations in its market, society, and other aspects of the country. We used to advance steadily from the behind; now we are marching from the highest level. In either case, our environment changes rapidly, and there are lots of things that remained relatively unclear.
Advancing in environment like this is like steering a ship. You can’t only look at the ship itself but also have to see your way ahead. When you can see far enough while other can’t, your chance of success increases while your level of risk drops. China is greatly different from the developed economies and markets in Western countries – Western markets are predictable and follow certain patterns. Management in Western companies tends to mind their own business, while Chinese companies have to grasp the larger picture, which is critical to their survivals.
The change in policy, population, environment, and societies can cause serious consequences in companies. Understanding the bigger picture can greatly benefit the micromanagement in enterprises. This is the reason that we must integrate macroeconomics with microeconomics.
One of our founders, Professor Justin Yifu Lin, said that in China, we need to look at corporate management with understanding of patterns of economic development and changes in business environment. This is highly important, and it will bring advantage to our MBA, EMBA, and business school since they are built upon the National School of Development.
Luckily, we did achieve this advantage because Economics has always been an important part of this institution. In 2008, Professor Justin Yifu Lin, Professor Qiren Zhou, and others changed China Center for Economic Research to National School of Development. There is an important meaning to this change of name. The new title indicates that we will change from an institution that only looks at problems in China from microeconomic or macroeconomic perspectives to an institution that will employ all the different means and perspectives to study challenges in China. For example, we are studying issues in China from population, environment, legislation, and other aspects. It is one of our specialties to study issues in developing countries like China from all perspectives and combine our study with business administration.
The second aspect of our joint effort is our alliance with over twenty business schools from Beijing, the U.S., and other countries. Many business schools are working on this type of joint effort. However, we are among the first ones who realized the benefit. When we first founded BiMBA, we aimed to bring sophisticated management experience and its summary from other countries into China. This idea came naturally to us. Gradually, we begin to form our own voice, market research, and understanding of management. These developments of our own have become more and more important and accepted by the global society, and they formed a special academic culture in the school. Despite of our own development, it is still important for us to maintain internationalized. I will explain on the reason in several aspects.
Economy and market will become globalized in the future. Therefore, it is necessary to understand situations in other countries. A superficial understanding of the surface issues will not be sufficient. Instead, we need to develop systematic understanding of the problems. For example, the understanding that you develop about foreign market by actually living in the country for decades can be completely different from merely reading about it on paper. Therefore, it is really important to invite professors from other countries to make systematic illustrations of their own opinions.
Another thing that’s worth of mentioning is the quality of cases in China. We use what we learned from management to analyze the strength of Chinese companies like Alibaba, Tencent, NetEase and others. Many of these companies have achieved great success and become well known. In order to learn their merit, we compare their strength against their weakness. We learn about the work they have done and pattern of future development. The key in studying these cases is to analyze the situation by taking every factor into consideration. These factors include globalization, cultural contrast between China and Western countries, communication, exploration, and others.
NetEase Education: As Dean of the best business school in China, what do you think is the prospect of development of Chinese business schools or BiMBA?
Li Zhang: I’m not an expert in prediction, and it’s hard to foresee the future. However, we have been focusing and doing research on the development and future of education in business and administration in China. We are also interested in the new characteristics that business schools in China are likely to develop. Going back to what I mentioned earlier, the role that Chinese education in business and administration will play on the world stage and its growth is closely related to the development of economy and market in China. This connection between development of business school and economy, management, enterprises, and market is very important. After all, most of the first class business administration education comes from developed countries; countries that are relatively behind in development seldom have schools of business and administration. This relationship is similar to the connection between product and brand.
Firstly, as the economy of China develops, the role it plays among all of the economies in the world will become more and more important, and the growths will be sustained. In other words, this country will receive more and more attention from the world. As a result, the cases that we will use, our educational approach, and problems that we look at and study will no longer be from other countries but from our own nation. This shift is followed by the shift of global attention onto China.
Secondly, there will be adjustments in the details such as the way that we design our courses. For example, despite of all the changes that have already taken place, our classes are still focused on lectures. Student discussion, case analysis, and field trip are considered as supportive activities and developed around lectures. In the future, we will reverse the focus of our classes and have students to visit each other’s company, and other successful and representative companies. After looking at cases that have close connections to our students, they will come back to classroom with questions and go into discussion. We can even invite experts from the industries to give lectures, which we actually have already started doing. So far, our classes are still focused on lectures. But they will change and become focused on discussion, debate, and solving real problems; lecture will merely provide summary of the materials.
Furthermore, students will work on real projects. For example, we often talk about crowdfunding business model. Students may start a crowdfunding business and learn from its establishment, growth, prosperity, or destruction. I think that education in the future will be more focused on practicality. Real issues will lead class discussion, and professors and exports will contribute comments and ideas into the discussions. Students will learn from each other and contribute to the discussion by voicing their own opinions.
Nowadays, many people have been discussing the question of whether education in business administration can be entirely internet-based. We have also been a part of this discussion. We realized that the education in business administration is different from the standardization of the basic education. Therefore, although we have arrived at some preliminary conclusions, whether the internet-based education will actually happen in the future is beyond today’s discussion.
Another change in our education of business administration is structure. For example, the current proportion of EMBA student in our education is larger than it is in other countries. As a result, we have less regular and young MBA students.
NetEase Education: What is the development plan for BiMBA in the future?
Li Zhang: What I have mentioned earlier are the things that we focus on, and we will turn them into reality. Earlier, I emphasized on the principle that student is the focus of our business school. When I said that, I don’t mean that professors are not important. Professors form a very critical part of our education. Those who possess great minds and expertise are indispensable for this institution. Besides, we realized that both domestic and international education in business administration has gradually formed training systems of management skill and knowledge. Our focus is to help students to solve real-life challenges. I have worked in the business administration education for over a decade, and I have came upon some questions that are worth our consideration and exploration.
For example, is theoretical study not important anymore? Many of our MBA students underestimate the importance of theoretical study. Actually, understanding of one theory can allow you to see further into the future. When I teach marketing, I have a lot of students who work for luxurious and high-end brands. Therefore, I often tell them to read Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class. I tell them that after they read the book, they will understand the origin and development of luxurious goods. Veblen is the master of Economics of his time. His theory explains the existence of luxurious brands instead of marketing skills. From his book, it is clear that theory has great contribution to practical work. Therefore, we say that the better you understand theory, the more you will be able to see in the market. Theories are the summaries of past experience, and thus it’s important for us to have our own courses of theory study in our school.
One of the most important goal for our business school is to focus on our students, try to build a stronger network among our graduates so that they can help each other, and keep good relationships between them and the school. This will actually and consistently increase the value that we provide for them.
NetEase Education: Today we are much honored to have Dean Zhang here. We truly appreciate his sharing of experience in running a business school with us. Today’s interview is now over. I wish that more outstanding entrepreneurs would graduate from BiMBA.
Li Zhang: Thank you, host. Thank you, NetEase’s netizens. Thank you all.
