With the world attention focused on the success of Asian economies it is but natural that MBA courses also turn their attention to this strategic area.

The Faculty of Business and Economics (FBE), University of Hong Kong (HKU) is cashing in on this opportunity with a full-time MBA that has a strong regional focus.

FBE stands apart from other B-Schools because its MBA curriculum focuses on how companies work in Asia. For instance, students get to learn how Walt Disney's Disneyland works in a place like Hong Kong and how global players like Coca Cola are going all out to ensure they fit in locally in a place very different from home.

Atika Jain talks to Sachin Tipnis , marketing manager, FBE, University of Hong Kong. Excerpts:

Ques.1. What aspects of the FBE MBA make it stand apart from the other B-School programmes?

Ans.1. The Faculty of Business and Economics stands apart from other B-Schools in several ways. The HKU MBA has a strong Asian focus along with being very practical and relevant.

Core courses (like economics, accounting and finance, marketing and strategy) are taught using business scenarios and cases based on experiences at well-known Asian companies.

Additionally we have a partnership with London Business School (LBS) and Columbia Business School (CBS). Students also spend around two months in Shanghai on a field project.

Thus, the course gives its students opportunities for a holistic development. Apart from a regional focus the MBA course also has a global outlook.

Ques.2. How do the students gain from the partnership with London Business School and Columbia Business School?

Ans.2. All HKU full-time MBA students will study in London Business School for 3 months with full student status in all aspects of learning and campus life. Students will be issued a London Business School certificate and be awarded life-long alumni status as a member of the around-the-globe London Business School alumni network.

In our partnership with Columbia, upon completion of their core courses at the University of Hong Kong, the students will be eligible to spend the semester taking four elective courses side-by-side with Columbia MBA students, with access to Columbia Business School's distinguished student, alumni and corporate networks as they participate in Columbia events, hear from illustrious business leaders as part of the School's famed speaker series, and visit with leading firms located in New York City.

Columbia Business School will issue a certificate to the participating students upon successful completion of the courses. The program will begin with the 2007-2008 academic year when up to 20 students would go to study at Columbia.

Ques.3. The FBE website states that the objective of the FBE MBA is to help Western students learn the Chinese way of functioning and vice versa. Infact, your tagline is: Global Business, Regional Perspective . How does this happen? And doesn't this narrow down the focus of the course?

Ans.3. Obviously regional focus is there since Hong Kong is the place to be right now. China and the Far East are booming right now and we offer the students the advantage of being located in and studying here.

Yet the stints at London Business School and Columbia Business School help them get a global perspective.

The students spend three months in LBS/ CBS and around 2 months in Shanghai. Both the stints are compulsory for all the students.

The course curriculum thus apart from concentrating on traditional study matter also focuses on more relevant studies. So you have students being taught traditional cases from Harvard along with relevant case studies like Disneyland in Hong Kong. Some are written by our own professors and are published by our prolific Asia Case Research Centre ( http://www.acrc.org.hk)

To understand how global players function here, it is important to first understand how they function globally.

Some of our popular cases are:

Citibank's e-Business Strategy for Global Corporate Banking.
PricewaterhouseCoopers: Building a Global Network
L'Oreal: Expansion in China
Japanese Banking: Crisis and Reform
Motorola in China: Failure of Success?
Cathay Pacific Airways: Service Straight from the Heart
The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong- Past, Present and Future
The Global Software Industry in 2006

These are just a very very small example of what we offer but you can see the diversity of cases.

Ques.4. What is the profile of the current batch?

Ans.4. Diversity in class is very important. Both in terms of regional as well as professional representation.

Thus, we have people from the merchant navy, patent lawyers, doctors, IT, CA's etc all in one class. These are people who have worked and either want to change or further their career. They know exactly what they want and thus, come here accordingly.

Diversity in terms of regional representation is also very important. Out of 50 students, the current batch has approximately:

8-9 Indians
12 from Mainland China
5-6 from Hong Kong
10 from USA
7-8 Europeans
1 from anywhere in the Far East (Philippines, Japan etc)

The number of Indian applicants is increasing every year. From a single Indian student initially, we now have around 9 in one single class.

Ques.5. Several Indian students with non-US and non-Europe international MBAs find it very difficult to land a job. What has been FBE's placement track record?

Ans.5. All of our students have a minimum three years of work experience and thus are extremely focused on what they want to do.

Hong Kong is changing very fast and all that happens in China is routed through here and Shanghai. Even Indian companies like WIPRO, Infosys, HCL, Mahindra and Mahindra are setting up offices in Hong Kong. Thus, there are immense opportunities in terms of placements. Our students choose our course because they want to work here.

Sectors like banking, finance, consultancy, tourism and airlines recruit from campus.

We have had our students going to companies like Standard Chartered, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Philips, L'Oreal, HP, IBM etc. Infact, our current batch has already got calls from places like Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan and Adidas.

The salary depends on the student and his work experience. Normally, for someone with four to five years work experience an average salary would be between 20,000 to 30,000 Honk Kong dollars.

However, before comparing this to Western B-Schools placements, its important to understand that living costs are cheaper in this area.

Ques.6. How does being part of a university set-up affect FBE?

Ans.6. An interesting feature of the FBE MBA is that it is not a stand alone B- School but a part of the Hong Kong University. Thus, it enjoys the infrastructure of the entire university. Students attend talks organized by other disciplines like the Faculty of Science and even the Social Science Faculty. This contributes to a multi disciplined learning and growth.