I t’s no secret: The rise of China and India is shaking up the way companies operate.
Everything from corporate boardrooms to metal shop floors is up for grabs.
China’s cheap goods have challenged or even crippled U.S. companies while India’s educated work force has taken jobs once thought untouchable. Meanwhile, the size of its market has proven to be a profitable lure for some companies here.
In response, many Southern California business schools have been reshaping their programs with a goal of helping future master’s of business administration graduates become familiar with the challenges of China, India and other international economies.
“I think this is likely going to be one of the biggest business stories of their careers,it’s that big,” said Tom Johnson, associate dean of academic programs for the College of Business and Economics at California State University, Fullerton. “The world in 30 or 40 years will be much different.”
MBA schools have introduced specific courses, completely overhauled the focus of their programs or strengthened their overseas operations.
Though approaches vary, the goal of the schools is to make students more knowledgeable about how and why they are competing in an international economy that no longer recognizes borders or defers to the U.S.
School leaders say they see the effects of the global economy in Orange County. Irvine-based Allergan Inc. is selling its Botox treatment in China while Newport Beach-based chipmaker Conexant Systems Inc. has hired hundreds of workers in India in the past year.
“The U.S. used to own innovation,” said Andrew Policano, dean at the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. “Now, you don’t know where the next competitor is coming from.”
UC Irvine
UCI’s business school has taken a new approach to teaching its MBA students under the leadership of Policano, who took over in summer 2004.
For starters, the school launched a class on doing business in China. The country’s culture and infrastructure are discussed.
“We think China is important enough to devote 10 weeks to it,” Policano said.
For the first time, all of UCI’s classes are centered on globalism and the growth challenges it creates for companies, Policano said.
Policano came up with this approach after interviewing more than 200 local officials at mainly OC-based businesses. The companies’ biggest challenge: sustaining growth amid worldwide competition.
A marketing class could look at how to target foreign tastes. Finance courses teach how a key merger or acquisition can propel growth.
“Every course is geared to how you sustain growth,” he said. “Whatever is happening in the world today, you have to understand the fundamentals and apply that to whatever is going on.”
To keep courses current, Policano takes his staff of professors on field trips to local businesses where they see the challenges of competing globally.
UCI students read about globalization before classes even started.
This past summer, the school sent all its incoming students copies of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s “The World is Flat,” a book that focuses on the rise of competing economies around the world.
Business students also intern with local businesses that compete in global markets, such as Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro Inc., an international distributor of computer and electronics gear.
Students also take two-week trips to China and other countries.
Cal State Fullerton
A course shake-up at Cal State Fullerton started a few years ago, Johnson said.
“In every one of the core courses there’s going to be an international dimension, and in all likelihood a big piece of that is going to relate to the economic rise of Asia,” he said.
Cal State Fullerton doesn’t have a class devoted specifically to China or India and students don’t typically study in Asia.
But Johnson said the school has overseas programs in Europe via a partner. He wants to add China, India or another Asian country to the list next year.
“Our whole focus in the past few years has been the importance of globalization,” Johnson said.
Chapman
Chapman University’s MBA program has focused on the rise of the global economy as it happened, said Jon Kaplan, associate dean at the business school in Orange.
“We’re not one of the bigger schools where there has to be a mandate from the administration,it just naturally happens,” Kaplan said.
But the school has focused on overseas trips. It has sent its class of executive MBAs on a two-week stint to China for nearly 10 years, he said.
Others have the option for a trip to Eastern Europe.
USC
The University of Southern California, which has a campus in Irvine, has required its executive MBA students to spend at least two weeks abroad since 1991. In 1998, USC widened the requirement to all students, including part-timers.
USC has had longtime deals with universities in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo, among others. It recently added Beijing in China to its destination list.
“There is so much demand for China that we had to add another city,” said Ravi Kumar, vice dean of graduate programs at the Marshall School of Business at USC.
The site in Beijing doubles as a branch campus of USC with about 50 students, mostly from China. USC also is considering opening another branch campus in India.
