Nearly all Asian companies express concern that there is a shortage of capable managers. Many of these companies have embarked on the establishment of large training programmes and partnerships with business schools. Sponsoring MBA students is a substantial part of these training programmes. According to available market data, the MBA market is still immature and rapidly growing. A survey carried out by Asia Inc. indicates that 74 business schools with a MBA programme in English reported a pool of 170,000 applications.
China is a special case.
It is potentially the biggest market in the world. A Gallup survey indicates that one in ten Beijing-based companies wants MBA training for their executives.