China Expert Discusses World’s Fastest-Growing Economy

This villa on the campus of Peking University was once the residence of a son of the Qianlong Emperor, who reigned from 1735 to 1796. It is now home to BiMBA’s offices, classrooms, conference hall, computer lab and library.

James McGregor, former chief executive of Dow Jones’ China business operations and founding partner of BlackInc China, described business management as China’s Achilles’ heel, and praised Fordham’s Beijing International MBA program (BiMBA) as a unique solution to that country’s problem.

“In trying to mix the ways of business in the West and the ways of business in China, and then finding a mix in developing management systems that are uniquely Chinese, [Fordham] is way ahead of the game,” said McGregor during an Oct. 27 lecture in the McNally Amphitheatre on the Lincoln Center campus.

Fordham’s BiMBA program was created in 1998 by Peking University and a consortium of 26 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States. BiMBA was the first foreign MBA degree program in Beijing ever to be approved by the Chinese government, and was ranked China’s number one foreign MBA program in the Chinese edition of Fortune magazine in April 2005.

McGregor, who has lived in China for more than 15 years, said the problem with most new businesses there is that the leaders do not take time to manage them. The average lifespan of a Chinese company is five years, he said, because once entrepreneurs find success in a business, they move on to the next opportunity. This tendency to constantly move forward and strive for more, however, is a trademark of the Chinese culture, and a staple of their economic success, according to McGregor.

“The Chinese people are very hardworking, very talented and very coded by their own society and history to work hard and get things done,” said McGregor, author of One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China (Free Press/A Wall Street Journal Book, 2005). “They are very focused on getting ahead. Economic development is a sense of national purpose.”

McGregor encouraged the business students in the audience interested in working internationally to move to China because of its recent economic boom and the potential the country offers for future business opportunities.

“It is the country of my lifetime, and I’m old,” said McGregor. “It’s going to be the country of your lifetime even more so.”

McGregor’s presentation was part of the Hazen Polsky Foundation Business Lecture Series. The biannual event brings prominent figures in business and economics to Fordham every year to address students, faculty and alumni. In February 2005, The New York Times OpEd columnist and award-winning economist Paul Krugman discussed President Bush’s private-account social security proposal.