News & Events

CKGSB Partners with ASEAN Counterparts to Cultivate Executive Leadership Throughout Southeast Asia

CKGSB Assistant Dean Zhou Li (left); HRDF CEO, Amirnuddin Mazlan (center); and SRW&Co. Chairman, Daniel Wong (right) celebrate the Launch of the ASEAN Global Leadership Program—China in Beijing

Beijing, November 28, 2011 – CKGSB announced a new partnership today in which the school will assist Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) businesses in taking their operations global. For the newly-formed "ASEAN Global Leadership Program – China," CKGSB has partnered with Malaysia's, Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) and SRW&Co., a Southeast Asian management consultancy firm. Under the program, CKGSB will develop customized business courses to be delivered in China to high-level executives from Malaysia and across the ASEAN bloc.

Lectures from CKGSB professors, visits to prominent companies in China and interaction with CKGSB's extensive alumni network will help the ASEAN business leaders become savvy about the growing influence and importance of Chinese businesses in the world economy. The ASEAN leaders will thus be better prepared to globalize their own firms alongside those of their Chinese counterparts. All three groups present at today's signing and launch ceremony at CKGSB's Beijing campus believe that strong interregional ties between China and ASEAN members of the can help companies from across the region compete effectively on the global stage.

In order to strengthen their ties with China, executives from ASEAN firms must first understand China's dynamic economy. To this end the "ASEAN Global Leadership Program – China" will offer executives insights into China delivered by members of CKGSB's world-class faculty of business scholars. Topics are to include Chinese companies' business structures, growth and globalization—as well as a general overview of the Chinese economy. Through the program, ASEAN executives will also interact with business leaders from CKGSB's alumni network and visit major Chinese enterprises and multinational companies operating in China to experience firsthand the transformation of the Chinese economy.

Amirnuddin Mazlan, CEO of the HRDF highlighted the importance of the strategic networking and training opportunities the program represents. "Most of our companies, we want to go global," said Mazalan. "We need to form networks; we want to create those contacts." Mazlan said that the Malaysian government partnered with CKGSB because of the school's reputation for high-quality executive education. Each class in the selective program will train between 15 to 30 CEO-level executives primarily from Malaysian, Indonesian and other ASEAN SMEs and will target the "very senior level" and be "very selective."

"This pioneer custom program is timely, reflecting the strategic importance of ASEAN as a regional block and the emergence of China as the world's second largest economic power," said Wong of SRW&Co. "There are many lessons to be learned and shared between China and ASEAN.  We are hoping to use this program to contribute to this learning and sharing process, aside from the obvious benefits of business networking for the ASEAN participants derived from tapping into the huge alumni network of CKGSB."

"There is a whole new generation of Asian enterprises that are looking to go global," remarked CKGSB Dean, Xiang Bing. "Today's groundbreaking agreement is a win-win for China, Malaysia and ASEAN nations in general, as it will deepen our mutual understanding and strengthen our bilateral economic ties – better preparing companies from both China and the ASEAN nations to innovate and compete on the world stage."