Pacific Perspective
Pacific Perspective
Nov. 15 marked the graduation of yet another crop of MBAs from the UH College of Business Administration's Japan-focused and China-focused program. A season of
unreason in AsiaThe 12th JEMBA class and 5th CHEMBA class received their diplomas at the Tokyo headquarters of Fujitsu Ltd., which provides $500,000 annually in scholarships for the two programs.
Fujitsu also is a strong supporter of the Hawaii Kai-based Japan America Institute of Management Science, CBA's collaborator in the delivery of the programs, which feature intensive language training in Japanese and Mandarin, as well as three-month internships in Tokyo and Shanghai.
Our graduates emerge into an economic and political reality in Asia noteworthy for its risks, contrasts and fluidity.
Despite growing at a 3 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, Japan's economy -- burdened as it is by massive non-performing bank loans -- is forecast to stagnate in the months ahead, expanding by less than 1 percent in 2003.
China, with a per capita income level less than 1/20 that of Japan, is projected to grow by 8 percent next year. The World Bank forecasts that the economies of all of East Asia will expand by more than 5 percent in 2003.
Asia's political landscape is distinguished by several transfers of power under way and to come.
Hu Jintao recently succeeded Jiang Zemin as the leader of the Communist Party in China. South Korea will hold elections next month in the context of recent admissions by North Korea that it has violated a 1994 agreement to abandon the development of nuclear weapons. Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir has indicated that he will retire next year from political life after a generation in power. And all Asia's governments are on tenterhooks as the global war on terrorism continues.
For managers, the dominant theme in the region is the shift of comparative advantage to China, now of course a member of the World Trade Organization.
Outside of China, companies are focusing on strategies -- often involving production focus and product quality -- to offset China's remarkable labor cost advantages and its impressive base of graduates with strong backgrounds in science and engineering.
Within China, managerial focus is on the basics of accounting, financial management, supply chain management, marketing and human resources management.
What counsel did I give our graduates facing this turbulent reality?
Echoing the words of George Bernard Shaw, I reminded them of his observation that, since "reasonable" men do conventional things, and progress often requires the insight to violate conventions and challenge existing paradigms, "all progress is made by 'unreasonable' men."
In today's fluid Asian business environment, success awaits those who can marry a healthy appreciation for Asian traditions with an active sense of "unreason."
Our JEMBA and CHEMBA graduates have my nomination as one group possessing this essential combination.
David McClain is dean and First Hawaiian Bank Distinguished
Professor of Leadership and Management at the University
of Hawaii College of Business Administration. He can be
reached at mcclain@cba.hawaii.edu