Why Our MBAs are Going to the Far East (Is Asia the new promised land for B-school grads ?)

Business Week ^ | 03/15/2010 | Michelle Conlin

[SeekAndFind]

James Tsai is the sort of MBA corporate recruiters covet. He went to a good prep school, earned a degree with honors from Middlebury College, and made vice-president in Bank of America's (BAC) international wealth management group at the age of 26. Today, Tsai is about to graduate, straight A's in hand, from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, a top-rated program in America. And he's hustling to land his first post-MBA job—in China.

Executive Class strivers like Tsai used to have just one post-grad career destination, the U.S. Not anymore. "I am doing everything I think I can to get over there," he says.

Every era has its version of the MBA dream. In the 1980s, it was about conquering Wall Street and choppering off to the Hamptons. The late 1990s saw a stampede to Silicon Valley. In the mid-aughts, the gilded, clubby preserve of private equity beckoned. Now, the emerging narrative is about steroidal Asia and its promise of growth. At premiere institutions such as the University of Chicago's Booth School, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and Northwestern's Kellogg, the percentage of MBAs taking jobs in Asia—including U.S. students like Tsai as well as international students—has more than doubled in the past five years, from roughly 5% of the graduating class to more than 10%. "There is a sense that the center of gravity is shifting," says Julie Morton, Booth's associate dean for career services.

The number of students taking international jobs usually swells in a recession, says Kellogg Assistant Dean Roxanne Hori. But Hori and others believe that the refrain of "Go East, Young Man" is not a short-term response to the U.S. economic downturn but a structural shift toward an internationalized, mobile talent market.

[AdamBomb]

Surprised = Not.

Why should MBA’s stick around this country when capitalism is being destroyed before our very eyes?

I’ve been investing less and less in American companies...moving it to the far east (Matthews China Fund, Matthews India and Vanguard Emerging Markets)

[DonaldC]

Not sure I have met many I was impressed with.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Yes it is.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

If they are, they are staggering toward a mirage.

[Snickering Hound]

MBA’s are going to wreck Chinese business too?

[HiTech RedNeck]

That’s where the money and business is (for now)

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Evidently they’ve done all the damage they can do here.

[dawn53]

Why should MBA’s stick around this country when capitalism is being destroyed before our very eyes?

And capitalism is thriving in China????

[pissant]

Good. Take the lawyers with them.

[AdamBomb]

ah...yes....markets in China are becoming more free than they are here.

1) fewer regulations on environmental issues
2) no unions

It’s all about which markets are the most “free” - the US is becoming a friggin’ joke.

[G-THOMAS]

I understand what you are saying. Send those Harvard M.B.A’s over there and have them screw up the banks,manufacturing and every thing they get their hands on.

[akapossumdawg]

A number of my fellow MBA grads are now in the Far East..I am looking to go too. Cannot beat the money but for me, family keeps me here at the moment...

[James C. Bennett]

A near two-decade mirage?

[AdamBomb]

3) Oh forgot one....the press over there doesn’t try to destroy companies like they do in the US.

there are a lot of advantages to opening up shop over there. Leftists have destroyed US markets with legislation, taxes, regulation, unions, environmental laws, special interest groups, press, etc.

[RedDogzRule]

I have to agree. I was in China last year and was shocked at how capitalistic it is. The Communist Party is certainly there, but VERY hidden. I never saw a hint of it except at customs and in Tianenmen Square. In the interior of the country, it’s totally capitalistic (I’m not speaking about human right violations, though). I think the Chinese understand they have a good thing going, and aren’t going to squash their cash cow.

[Vigilanteman]

Capitalism is actually doing better in China than it is doing here. My daughter spent 8 months working there, including two months at a university there.

The way she described China is much like my experience living in Japan in the late 70's. The government may be socialist, but they understand the need of a healthy private sector to generate the tax revenue needed to keep the ruling class in power.

This is a lesson obviously lost on Zer0 and his camp followers.

[SeekAndFind]

ah...yes....markets in China are becoming more free than they are here.

1) fewer regulations on environmental issues

2) no unions

It's true that things move more quickly in China because they do not have the messy democracy that we have. FOr instance, it's been close to 10 years since the twin towers were broguht down by terrorists and we're still quarreling among ourselves as to how we are going to rebuild ( in the meantime, we still have the big hole in downtown Manhattan as a testimony to our inability to move forward ).

If it were China, they'd have rebuilt long ago. However, the myth of the all-knowing central planner in Beijing is just that --- an UNHOLY MYTH. China's brand of capitalism is nothing but good old crony-capitalism where the most influential and connected get the best deals. They are also known to cut corners to maximize profits.

Hence, you have products such as these for instance :


A TOPPLED BUILDING ( NOT CAUSED BY AN EARTHQUAKE ) WITH A WEAK FOUNDATION.


THIS IS THE COUNTRY YOU WANT TO BUY YOUR PRODUCTS FROM ? THE COUNTRY WHOSE ECONOMY YOU WANT TO EMULATE ?

There are many things wrong with America today... but please, the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side.

[SeekAndFind]

EDIT TO ADD, that topled building occured in Shangai just over a year ago.

Read the story here

The development, known as “Lotus Riverside,” has a total of 629 units, 489 of which have already been sold. Now buyers are clamoring to get their money back, and authorities are making efforts to reassure them. The assets of the project’s developer, Shanghai Meidu Property Development Co., have been frozen and the city officials said the developer’s ability to repay homebuyers was secure, according to a statement on the municipal government’s Web site.

[dawn53]

We’ve spent some time in China too ( my husband’s company had a branch there, and he traveled there often, we spent 2 months w/him in country once.)

On the surface, it looks like capitalism...but trust me, it’s not. The gov’t allows what looks like capitalism (actually individual freedom to small business people, etc.) but they will stomp it out in a nanosecond, if it gets out of hand (example...giant Google is having issues, and who’s winning...not Google, they’re contemplating leaving.)