Q: Do you know something about the development of China’s MBA projects? Can you give any suggestions on the room for improvement of China’s MBA projects?

　　A: China began to participate in MBA programs since the early 1980s’ mainly through cooperation with US and European business schools. And from 1990s’, China began to establish the degree of MBA projects.

　　Suggestions for improvement:

　　 Localization of MBA projects, especially focus on the establishment of our own case bank.

　　 Market-orientation. China is in great need of executives who are technically sound in the fields of IT, finance, and accounting and who have a thorough command of management theories and good communication skills and strategic viewpoints.

　　 More attention should be drawn to the education of CTOs and CFOs besides the traditional education of CEOs.

　　 In China, apart from CTOs, we are in great need for CFOs, those who knows the operation of capital markets as well as the general management knowledge because the biggest challenges for enterprises in China are how to finance a company and how to handle the risky capital markets.

　　Q: What is CFO and the related responsibilities?

　　A:

　　 CFO is the abbreviated form of Chief Financial Officer, who is the most important and valuable position of management in modern enterprises besides CEO.

　　 Responsibilities for CFO: handle various financial relations especially relations with the investors (investment financing), with governments (taxation, and bond supervision), and strategic business planning, and human resources management.

　　A CFO will direct the department of planning, department of finance, department of operational management, department of ERP and department of H.R.

　　In other words, CFO is responsible for all the departments except departments of production and sales.

　　We should lay more emphasis on the education and training of CFO.

　　 Relationship between CEO and CFO

　　CEO is the one who make decisions on the long-term objectives or missions for a company, while CFO is the one who make those ambitions and long-term planning into concrete, operable strategies especially the financial strategies. And not only that, CFO is the person who actually assess the fulfillment of the objectives. So the harmonious cooperation between CEO and CFO in a company is critical.

　　一些背景资料：

　　Q: What is the difference between MBA program at home and abroad?

　　A: China’s MBA projects are lagging behind their counterparts at abroad in the following respects:

　　 Teachers and teaching facilities

　　At abroad: Doctoral degree is a must for teachers in universities, and for those who teach in business schools. They have to have obtained professional education in business and management, some with educational background in economics and other pertinent sciences. And most of them have direct or indirect experience of business administration and they keep a close contact with enterprises through consulting services or research projects. So they can combine those management theories with enterprise practices which is quite advantageous to the MBA education.