HBS Trains Asian Leaders

More than 70 educators from 20 Chinese and Taiwanese universities participated in a Harvard Business School (HBS) program designed to teach management education this summer.

The world’s most populous country is currently suffering from a severe shortage in skilled labor—specifically experienced managers—to head its ever-increasing number of firms. This deficiency could quickly become an impediment to China’s predicted economic explosion.

According to research from the McKinsey Global Institute, over the next 10 to 15 years Chinese companies will require 75,000 people to lead effectively in a global environment. Currently, the nation only has 3,000 to 5,000 such leaders.

The HBS campus was the site of the first Program on Case Method and Participant-Centered Learning (PCMPCL). PCMPCL is a 10-day program that HBS hopes will help China and other Asian countries meet their demand for effective business managers and leaders.

The intensive program focused on the participant-centered learning model and the case study method of instruction, which differ greatly from the usual lecture-based format of most Asian MBA courses, according to Baker Foundation Professor F. Warren McFarlan, who was one of 10 HBS professors who taught the program.

Participants in the program attended at least six classes and seminars a day, in addition to the out-of-class preparation and exercises they were required to complete, according to a press release.

Participants were also taught important instructional skills like how to lead discussions modeled on “real-life business situations” and how to design a business course, according to the press release.

Baker Foundation Professors Thomas R. Piper and Steven C. Wheelwright co-chaired the program.

The new program fits with HBS’s commitment to developing the international business community. In addition to PCMPCL, HBS provides similar programs designed for the “teaching [of] teachers,” according its website. More than 30 percent of MBA candidates at HBS are international students, and HBS researchers work in over 40 countries.