Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/62913
I BY G. "ANAND" ANANDALINGAM n 2003, the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business went to China to offer executive MBA programs to managers in Beijing and Shang- hai. At the time, not many Western business schools had entered the emerging market, and we had high hopes for the impact we could have in an economy that was growing and changing so rapidly. But after five years, we had failed. Perhaps we were a bit naïve. After forging a partnership with a prominent uni- versity in Beijing, we entered the market without setting clear expectations on both sides. On our end of the partnership, we entrusted our critical startup in the Middle Kingdom to an inexperienced team hired in China that wasn't quite sure how to attract the right students and ensure their attendance at every class. We underestimated the difficulties that come with working in an emerging market: language barriers, cultural differences, misaligned expectations, and complicated banking arrangements (which often involved all-cash transactions). We also underestimated the complexity of the logistics required to operate a program from the other side of the world. Fortunately, failure can breed success. Our namesake, real estate developer and philanthropist Robert H. Smith, said it best in his commencement speech here in 2008: "Failure gives you the opportunity to make a leap of learning. When you have come to a place where you have exhausted every other option, that is when you say, 'There must be a better way to do this.'" Those early mistakes taught us important lessons about how to be successful in China. So in spring 2012 we are relaunching our EMBA program with the Uni- versity of International Business & Economics (UIBE) in Beijing. But this time, we have a better understanding of China's corporate culture, which is helping us set clear expectations for the participants in our executive education programs. We'll also take a different approach in several areas: BizEd May/June 2012 23 ANDREA PISTOLESI/GETTY IMAGES, AMANA IMAGES/GLOW IMAGES