We are always on a lookout for students with strong entrepreneurial mindset, says CKGSB Professor Dr Li

In continuation of an interview with Dr. Li Yang of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) on why Indians should pick China to pursue an MBA, Shiksha.com further understood who will be the best-suited candidate for studying MBA at their B-School.

Read the interview, here

Here’s the edited excerpt of the article:

Q: What type of person is the ideal applicant for the CKGSB Global MBA programme?

A: It has always been the school for entrepreneurs. That’s what we are famous for. We have helped a lot of people who want to be entrepreneurs, and who really have the drive to be successful in the future. We used to have some students when they came in they were managers or executives, but afterward, many of them would decide to become entrepreneurs. That’s the culture, the difference we offer. We hope to get students that have a strong entrepreneurial mindset, even if they decide to continue to be a manager, as long as they want to create something for themselves. What is an entrepreneurial mindset? It’s really about if you want to solve the problem by yourself. Nowadays, both in China and also in the West, people are always complaining about others. All their problems are other people’s fault. But as an entrepreneur you complain only to yourself, so you find a solution by yourself. That’s the type of spirit we appreciate.

Q: What career-related competitive advantages do CKGSB MBA graduates gain?

A: First, the education they will receive, and second, the spirit and culture are the key advantages students at our school can gain. We are entrepreneurship-oriented and they will be influenced by that.

This is followed by resources that will be available to them. At CKGSB, with students and a huge alumni network both inside and outside China, graduates have a lot of resources from the funding and from the information perspective. If you have a group project, it’s easy to get funding within the alumni network, they actually want to invest in group projects. Several unicorn companies were funded within CKGSB. In every province in China, we have an alumni association, and also in Canada, the US, Australia, and New Zealand, and Singapore, they have regular gatherings.

Like other business schools, we have a career management centre and consulting service for students.

In addition, we have something which is special and unique. For the different programs, many students are already leading business people in the sector. We mix them together. Regularly, we invite people from the EMBA, DBA, and CEO programmes to be mentors for the MBA students, so they can have direct, face-to-face interaction with the leading entrepreneurs in the sector. Why is it that these busy entrepreneurs want to spend time mentoring MBA students? It’s because they are also looking for future entrepreneurs. Maybe they are looking for the next manager they want to hire, or they are looking for the next startup they want to invest. So both sides benefit, immediately and in the longer term.

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Q: Rapid growth in high-tech industries, such as artificial intelligence and big data, is creating many exciting employment opportunities. How can MBA education help people work in these sectors?

A: The CKGSB MBA education can help students to see the future trends and changes, so they can better plan ahead for their career path. In the MBA education at CKGSB, we also have detailed technology-related classes, including digital marketing classes, programming classes, and how to analyze and leverage big data to better understand customers. The third thing, nowadays we know that technology has two sides. We know that it can advance human society. But we also know it can have many negative side effects. With technology advancing very fast, people tend to ignore the social and environmental implications. How to balance this technology and this social responsibility is something that CKGSB has paid a lot of attention to.

Q: Why did you choose to teach at CKGSB?

A: I’ve been asked that question many times and my answer is always very simple: it’s the only business school in China and probably in the entire world that is so close to the market and the industry. The majority of the students already have a lot of business experience. To be honest, they have a lot more business experience than me. I teach there because it’s a great learning opportunity for me too. I’ve done a lot of research, and I’ve written a lot of papers, but something I hadn’t learned before is real entrepreneurship, the spirit, and the strategies. And that’s why I wanted to come to CKGSB.

I teach there and they, the students, teach me. It’s a mutual learning process. I’ve heard from the students they feel they benefit tremendously at CKGSB, not just learning from the professors, but learning from their classmates, from people with very different backgrounds, and from very different industries. Everyone at CKGSB has their own story, how they started, how they made money for the first time, how they lost their fortune and how they started again. Everyone there can probably write a book about it. It’s a tremendously enlightening learning opportunity. The school has a very creative style. It follows a lot of the Western style and has a lot of international components in school, but it has also maintained the Chinese uniqueness.

Q: Why does CKGSB choose not to participate in the rankings?

A: From the very beginning we haven’t wanted to be limited by the rankings, because once you join them, you need to work on all those fixed criteria. CKGSB is very different and it’s one of a kind. If they’re looking for something non-traditional, more creative, more practical, and more entrepreneurial, they should consider CKGSB seriously.

Q: Why else should a student consider CKGSB?

A: When they come to study here, the education they are going to get is very practical, very down to earth, and business-relevant education. That’s the uniqueness of CKGSB. At American schools, the students rarely have had any business experience, so whatever the professors are teaching the class, they will learn. Whereas at CKGSB, this is always a challenge. For me when I teach marketing, students may jump in. They say, “Actually professor I dealt with that company and with that case. It’s not like that and what you said, factually it’s wrong, logically it’s wrong, operationally it’s wrong.” That’s another unique aspect of CKGSB, the students are very practical. You can’t fool them with whatever Harvard case.