Hello,

Please find my profile below:

Indian, 37 Years old.

Bachelors in Business with finance specialism (Top Indian Univ.), Masters in Computer Applications (Top 10 Indian Univ.), Masters in Management (from an Australian Univ.)

13+ years of post Masters work experience. Worked in 5+ Asian countries (in Asia), including a high profile 2 year assignment with the Prime Minister's office of a developing country as an independent international consultant. Single-handedly developed the software running the entire country's planning & budgeting process. Used by every Ministry, province & Govt. owned/backed organisation in the country.

Own two succesful seminar production companies in Thailand & India (running for almost 10+ years with customers from 20+ countries). Own a large restaurant in China.

Fluent in English (IELTS academic 8.0) & Hindi. Intermediate Level Thai., Basic German & Mandarin.

Currently, based in Chengdu, China (as my wife is Chinese & we have a young child). I am not looking for a job as the income from my businesses & investments is enough to support us. The businesses are running more or less on their own (as they are already quite mature). This leaves me with a lot of free time. I am thinking if this time can be better utilized to acquire some new skills/experiences/degree.

I am looking for the following -

1. Course has an offline (on campus) & online component (enables me to spend time at home).

2. Enables me to travel outside Asia. I have lived all my life in Asia & I have been to almost every country on the continent & pretty tired of it now.

3. Helps me to expand my network.

4. Enables me further expand my current businesses or helps in launching new ventures. I am interested in both for profit & also social enterprises.

5. Enables me to get short term consulting (free lance) assignments.

6. Enables me to obtain short term/visiting faculty positions.

Not really into No. 5 & 6. for the money. Just want something interesting to add some spice to my life.

7. Adds a high profile/recognizable qualification/degree to my resume.

I know that it may not be possible to get all of the above. However, I will take whatever I can get.

In the past, I have looked at EMBA, EMPA & DBA programs. I am not sure if these make sense or there is something else which is more worth while.

My budget for the above is around 50,000 USD. Can increase the budget if there is something really worth while.

Best Regards,

The Manchester Global MBA seems closest to your needs: http://china.portals.mbs.ac.uk/Programmes/ParttimeGlobalMBA.aspx That would allow you to take electives in a few different cities.

I am not at all an expert, but you certainly seem like you would be a solid candidate for most of the top EMBA programs in the world. I don't know if the once a month travel would be too taxing, but the Cambridge EMBA seems potentially like a good fit, although the price is a bit above your range (I think it is ~$75,000 USD at current exchange rates). The Cambridge EMBA is a little more tech focused than some of the other global EMBAs I looked at, and in addition to the in class time in England, there is also a trip to Silicon Valley.

Another option that might be easier for you would be to do an EMBA that is done in partnership with a U.S. or European school. There are a number of these that are highly ranked by FT. I'm joining the OneMBA program this fall, which is a partnership between 5 schools, including Xiamen University in China, but there are probably even better options for someone with your profile.

@Duncan. Thanks. Will have a look.

@mcgr. Thanks. Cambridge sounds good. 75 K is not too bad. However, traveling every month to the UK from here won't be very easy. Moreover, I think the application deadline for this year must have already passed. I am really hoping to start something soon. Although, I am trying to create a small start up at the local software park here (to stop myself from being bored to death), I really feel the need to get out there, be with peers, embark on something really exciting.

The One MBA sounds great. Xiamen is a very nice place & Xiamen university campus is renowned in China for being one of the most beautiful in the country. I lived & worked in Xiamen for 1 year in 2007. My only regret about my time in Xiamen, I didn't buy any property there back then. Prices have gone up 10 fold since then.

Any idea about programs for which I can still make it for this year?

Are there any particular joint USA/Europe-China programs in China which you like. EMBAs in China seem like huge cash cows for Global schools and tend to be on the expensive side. As this is more of personal project, I am wondering where/how can I get the max bang for my buck.

I do not know the deadlines for Xiamen side of things, but I was just recently accepted to the RSM cohort and told that at least for them, that their students tend to apply a bit later. So you could check in and see if you still have time for Xiamen. The other option would be to look for programs that start in January. I remember that IE's EMBA started then, and I believe other programs in Spain were also similar. I think Berkeley's EMBA also started towards the beginning of 2018, but that program was expensive and I think the format required a lot more in person time that would be difficult for someone traveling from central China.

In my search I did not look too much at the programs in China, as I am generally more interested in Latin America, and the fact that the OneMBA has a partner in both Mexico and Brazil was appealing. But outside of that I don't have any knowledge except for seeing lots of those partnerships in the top 20 in the FT rankings (which is at least partially due to the PPP conversions to salary that FT makes)

BTW, I found a good resource for researching Chinese MBA programs:

http://www.whichmba.net/business.do?actionId=BrowsePriceList&country=CHINA&programmeType=2&languageVersion=EN

[Edited by LostInTranslation on Jul 17, 2017]

Another good resource for you maybe.

https://www.ivyexec.com/best-executive-mba-rankings/joint-programs/

Hello,

Please find my profile below:

Indian, 37 Years old.

Bachelors in Business with finance specialism (Top Indian Univ.), Masters in Computer Applications (Top 10 Indian Univ.), Masters in Management (from an Australian Univ.)

13+ years of post Masters work experience. Worked in 5+ Asian countries (in Asia), including a high profile 2 year assignment with the Prime Minister's office of a developing country as an independent international consultant. Single-handedly developed the software running the entire country's planning & budgeting process. Used by every Ministry, province & Govt. owned/backed organisation in the country.

Own two succesful seminar production companies in Thailand & India (running for almost 10+ years with customers from 20+ countries). Own a large restaurant in China.

Fluent in English (IELTS academic 8.0) & Hindi. Intermediate Level Thai., Basic German & Mandarin.

Currently, based in Chengdu, China (as my wife is Chinese & we have a young child). I am not looking for a job as the income from my businesses & investments is enough to support us. The businesses are running more or less on their own (as they are already quite mature). This leaves me with a lot of free time. I am thinking if this time can be better utilized to acquire some new skills/experiences/degree.

I am looking for the following -

1. Course has an offline (on campus) & online component (enables me to spend time at home).

2. Enables me to travel outside Asia. I have lived all my life in Asia & I have been to almost every country on the continent & pretty tired of it now.

3. Helps me to expand my network.

4. Enables me further expand my current businesses or helps in launching new ventures. I am interested in both for profit & also social enterprises.

5. Enables me to get short term consulting (free lance) assignments.

6. Enables me to obtain short term/visiting faculty positions.

Not really into No. 5 & 6. for the money. Just want something interesting to add some spice to my life.

7. Adds a high profile/recognizable qualification/degree to my resume.

I know that it may not be possible to get all of the above. However, I will take whatever I can get.

In the past, I have looked at EMBA, EMPA & DBA programs. I am not sure if these make sense or there is something else which is more worth while.

My budget for the above is around 50,000 USD. Can increase the budget if there is something really worth while.

Best Regards,

An EMBA is the typical choice for somebody in your situation. It would help you develop your businesses and focus on topics you need to work on. And more importantly, a world-class EMBA program would give you networking opportunities, so you can connect with people, try to get future consulting gigs, etc.

For a ranked EMBA program, budget may be an issue. The CUHK EMBA - a great program - is 550,000 HKD.

If you're willing to travel, ESSEC / Mannheim have a ranked EMBA. It would basically take monthly trips to Europe though. It's a bit closer to your budget and quite well regarded.

Alternatively, if you want to target specific functional areas to develop, you may want to consider taking a series of executive education courses. These are less intensive than a full on EMBA - many are only a couple days long or a couple weeks long - but can be helpful to develop skills and network.

Thanks all.

I wonder what is the use of a DBA (the UK/Europe variety) program. They are not really a requirement to get into any job. They are not suitable/enough to get a real academic job.

They do not allow a holder to legally use the title of Dr. Hence, they do not offer any thing in vanity dept. too. I am not sure why people pursue them. Many of them are on the expensive side too.

You are mistaken on both points. Many academic jobs are open to DBAs. They can use the Dr title.