How Chinese business is brought into the MBA classroom and what students gain from it

One of the key challenges top professionals face every day is deciding how to act when a situation is uncertain.

When it's hard to predict how a decision will play out, two crucial factors can help: your theoretical knowledge can help you make sense of the problem, while your business judgement can help you determine how to respond.

At business schools such as Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, the MBA experience is designed to prepare MBA students to develop both these vital skills.

Alongside learning the fundamentals of business in class, students are encouraged to apply their knowledge to real company challenges through case studies at the school’s Case Center.

To find out how working through Chinese business cases can uniquely prepare students to approach complex business problems, we spoke with two current international students on the Tsinghua MBA.

How Chinese business cases can shape MBA learning

As one of the world’s top 10 innovation leaders, China has become one of the most important centers of business and technological innovation. For MBA students looking to accelerate their professional development, studying in the country provides them with close exposure to companies setting the pace across a range of industries.

Philicia Trisno, an MBA student from Indonesia with a background in robotics and automation, says this dynamic landscape was one of the main reasons she chose to study in China.

"In almost all instances of market research, China has been the biggest market for a product, and also the biggest seller of it. You can imagine how amazing that is. So, I just wanted to be here – where the action is,” says Philicia.

“That's why I think understanding Chinese customs and culture is very important in today's business context.”

She says the Tsinghua MBA is helping her explore several possible post-graduation paths, including careers in consulting and marketing, or returning to Indonesia to contribute to her family’s industrial equipment business.

As part of her MBA, Philicia has worked through case studies covering a range of issues, from ethical dilemmas to questions of marketing positioning and growth. In many cases, students review the problem first and discuss possible approaches before learning what the company ultimately decided.

“During class, we would debate the pros and cons of each course of action and its consequences. Then, our professor would reveal what actually happened. It’s interesting to see how things played out.”

Students are also exposed to a mix of Chinese and international cases, allowing them to compare how companies in different markets approach strategy.

“Some of the cases we cover come from the Tsinghua Case Center, and some are from MIT or Harvard, so we get to see both the Chinese and the Western perspectives on how business is done,” she explains.

“It’s so interesting to learn, because we get to explore so many ideas, and then it's up to us how we want to implement them in the future.”

Tsinghua’s case-based approach to learning is helping Philicia build a structured mindset that could be applicable as a consultant, business professional, or entrepreneur.

“It really helps that the school provides all these courses to drill down on the fundamentals and build our business acumen,” she says.

According to the Case Center, combining established management theory with contemporary business challenges allows students to examine how familiar concepts can be applied to fast-changing industries.

“The new business era featuring frontier technologies and innovative business scenarios does not necessarily render classic management concepts outdated,” explains the Case Center’s administrative director.

The value of case learning for your career

For Zac Boon Zhie Tee (pictured right), an MBA student from Malaysia with a background in civil engineering, examining Chinese business cases has helped him broaden his perspective beyond a highly technical way of thinking about problems.

“In Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia, there's a lot of Chinese enterprises entering the local market,” he says. “If I decide I want to establish a firm back in Malaysia, I need to understand the Chinese culture and business strategy so that I have more options for my career.”

Through the Case Center, Zac learned about some of the key dilemmas that companies often encounter. For example, one particularly memorable ethics case explored the balance between short-term performance and long-term growth, highlighting a distributor that could generate immediate profit by selling repackaged goods, but risked damaging customer trust over time.

“After the ethics class, I realized that’s not sustainable for your business. Business is a long-term game,” he says.

Working on cases has also challenged how he approaches decision-making. Before starting his MBA at Tsinghua, Zac says his engineering background often focused on cost reduction as the primary way to improve business outcomes. Studying the fundamentals of business has helped him consider how different approaches can solve problems.

"Now I understand why people in business have different perspectives, because they understand marketing, strategy, operations, so they can brainstorm from different angles. That’s been a big growth for me, because I’m able to think more broadly about business problems.”

This change in perspective has directly influenced the types of roles Zac is now considering after graduation. Rather than focusing purely on technical work, he hopes to move into a position where he can contribute to broader business decisions and observe the impact of those decisions over time.

“I want to be involved in solving real-life issues, not just stopping at the consulting projecting, but getting really involved in what happens after.”

Applying classroom learning to real company challenges

Beyond having discussions in the classroom, MBA students also work on case competitions and consulting-style projects which focus on real company questions. This gives them a chance to apply their newly-learned business frameworks in a practical setting.

Zac and Philicia both took part in an MBA case competition held by the MBA Center, working in separate groups to analyze a newly developed case and present their recommendations.

While Philicia worked on a case focused on the future direction of a Chinese fashion brand, Zac’s team examined how a menswear company could preserve traditional craftsmanship while developing a commercially sustainable business model.

Philicia explains that the process resembled a consulting project, requiring students to evaluate different strategic approaches to the problem, and justify their reasoning.

“Just based on one problem, there are many different ways to approach it,” she says.

For Zac, participating in the competition provided insights into how highly effective problem-solving works.

“I had never worked in the consulting industry before, but through the case competition, I got a taste of how you actually approach consulting projects,” he says.

For MBA students such as Philicia and Zac, working through real company cases provides the opportunity to hone their business judgement, test how different business frameworks play out in real-world contexts, and increase their ability to make impactful decisions.