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BIZCHINA / Biz Life

Executive education makes mark

By Erin Zureick
Updated: 2007-07-13 08:44

Rutgers has been offering graduate business courses in China since 1994 -
the longest of any American university.

"You're seeing more and more universities get involved here," said
Sopranzetti, whose recent research interests include investment banking
and emerging financial markets in China.

As the country continues to make the transition from State-owned
enterprises to private companies, MBA programs are part of an effort to
make sure that investors and business people from across the globe are
speaking the same language.

Western universities have long offered courses in business and economics.
Harvard Business School is set to celebrate its centenary in 2008. In
comparison, the University of International Business and Economics did
not open its business school until 1982.

Sopranzetti continued to say that one of the greatest needs in China is
to teach Chinese students basic business acumen such as financial
analysis and how to think creatively.

"There really is a need for training on how to do business deals," he
said. "They need to learn from people who have done deals before."

The Rutgers executive MBA program has an average class size of fewer than
40 people. With its 14-month US$37,000 price tag, it tends to attract
people in their mid-30s who have some experience in business. Of the
students who attend the program, 70 percent have worked in multinational
corporations, and 40 percent are Chinese nationals.

Lin, who has worked at Siemens for 12 years, said she has used strategies
from the Rutgers program to more accurately price products when
negotiating.

"The idea is to make them better functioning executives," Sopranzetti
said. "They're competing on a global scale."

Lost in translation

But the Chinese aren't the only ones making business adjustments in this
equation. Foreign companies hoping to make their mark in the country's
growing consumer hotbed have run into their own share of challenges.

"There's less trust [in China]," said Mina Vayanou, vice president of
operations at Pearls Only, a company that buys pearls from China and
Japan and sells them over the Internet.

"You assume more in the West when negotiating," said Varanou, a Canadian,
who attended Wednesday's seminar. "There are unwritten rules that you go
by."

One of the most difficult concepts for foreign corporations to grasp in
China is that of guanxi, which refers to the interpersonal relationships
among companies and business people. Many Asian companies are ahead of
Western ones in China because their cultural norms are closer and their
ties run deeper. Many Western companies make deals mainly based on market
situations. Personal and business relationships are more likely to be
entwined in China.

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