Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/269179
19 BizEd March/April 2014 Asia by RicaRdo a. Lim O f the 694 business schools accredited by AACSB International, only 10 percent are located in Asia. If Asian business schools make up only 10 percent of AACSB's accredited schools, how can we presume to influence business school thinking? As dean of the Asian Institute of Management in the Philippines and the outgoing director of the Association of Asia-Pacific Business Schools, I find this question especially important. My answer is that the business of business schools in Asia is incredibly complex, but growth here is steady and opportunities abound. That is why I believe Asia will ultimately impact the way business schools think. What is 'asia'? When many people think of Asia, they often think first of what I call "typical" Asia: China and India. But there is also "first-world" Asia, which includes Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and Singapore. There is the "southern hemisphere" Asia of Australia and New Zealand, which are becoming more Asia-intertwined culturally and economically. There is "tiger" and emerging Asia, which includes the countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, also known as ASEAN (South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia, and Laos), and South Asia (such as Pakistan and Bangla- desh). Eventually, what we call Asia might extend all the way north to Kazakhstan and east to Turkey, but the line stops at Pakistan for now. Together, these countries are the production line of the world, generating one-third of global GDP, according to the ASEAN Secretariat. Companies in the West contract with companies in China, India, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia to manufacture everything from auto parts to electronics. This interdependence between East and West will only strengthen over time. Despite the fact that it produces many of the world's goods, Asia adds very little leadership value or participa- tion to the process, save for a few original manufacturers in Korea and Japan. In many cases, our native skills and innovations are underdeveloped. For example, analysts have found that, of each 16-gigabyte Apple iPhone made in Asia, US$8 of the $450 gross margin on the unit goes to assembly labor. The rest goes to support international shipping companies, marketing firms, distribution compa- nies, and, of course, Apple. As another example, the online news agency InterAksyon reports that 460,000 people from the Philippines are now at sea, accounting for a third Cli nt Du n n Photog rAPhy/g etty i MAg es; r-stu Dio/sh utte r stoCk