A central philosophy

A joint program administered by the Kellogg School of Management and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) Business School, the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA is ranked #1 in the world in the Financial Times Global EMBA Ranking

The program is defined by one central mission: producing high-impact, low-ego leaders. But what does this mean in practice? According to the program’s Academic Director, Dr. Kai-Lung Hui, it is firstly about fostering an open, collaborative environment. Education is not a competition.

“We are here to learn, to work with each other, to collaborate, and at the end of the day, we share our impact without really attributing too much of it to our own personal character. So that’s something that we emphasize a lot,” he tells MBAGRADSCHOOLS. (10:38)

By focusing on the collective rather than the individual, the program is aiming to produce a certain type of leader. One who comes to learn and will go on to “create an impact on other people without a strong ego.”“We want our students to be humble,” Dr. Hui states. (09:41)

An ability to adapt

The Kellogg-HKUST EMBA may be defined by a central, unchanging philosophy, but its success has also been down to an ability to adapt. It’s something that proved crucial during COVID-19.

“For this EMBA program, we also pioneered a practice where we actually created some mobile offline classrooms. This is for those students who couldn’t really fly into Hong Kong to attend our classes,” Dr. Hui explains. (04:01)

These offline classrooms tended to take place in a location close to Hong Kong — Singapore and Thailand. The overseas students would gather there and join the EMBA classes remotely Zoom. Perhaps it couldn’t quite match a classroom experience (what could?) but in Dr. Hui’s words, students still got a “highly interactive experience.” (05:12)

COVID-19 forced the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA to become a more flexible program. The two schools took the pandemic as an opportunity to improve their offering and deliver an even better experience to its students.

Delivering international exposure

According to the Financial Times EMBA Ranking, Kellogg-HKUST EMBA graduates command higher average salaries than any other program in the world. But although the ranking may measure the success of a program through concrete figures such as this, Dr. Hui says there are many more factors at play.

“I would say the success of the program to a large part is dependent on the student progression after they enroll in our program,” he explains. “This is typically just summarily measured by what the media typically cite as the salary, and also there are work experience and career progress. But I think in order to achieve these increments, these other factors that I mentioned earlier – international exposure, international board, faculty support in terms of knowledge and research – I think all of these factors need to be highlighted as well.” (02:33)

Although the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA leads the way in average graduate salaries, Dr. Hui is just as proud of the program’s international exposure. The faculty, students, and board members have diverse nationalities. Among the students, more than half live and work outside Hong Kong, as far away as Boston and Stockholm.

Students can also opt to take electives at 11 global partner institutions. According to Dr. Hui, this shows that the program provides a “truly international experience to the students.” (01:22)

“Metrics like these are very helpful to us in broadening the exposure of the students, and I’m very happy that the HKUST program actually does very well in this international dimension,” he adds. (01:51)

Blending Eastern and Western business culture

Most of the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA takes place at the HKUST campus in Hong Kong. And in many ways, Hong Kong is the perfect place to gain a greater understanding of both Eastern and Western business cultures. While a part of China, it has historical ties with the United Kingdom, while the program’s international faculty provide students with perspectives from both sides of the business world.

“We have certainly professors and students who are extremely familiar with the American, or Western style, European style of management, leadership, and culture,” explains Dr. Hui. “Whereas because of our location and our conventional strong ties to China and greater China we certainly also have a lot of Asian culture and knowledge that are endowed in our school.” (14:06)

Dr. Hui believes this desire to understand both cultures is a key selling point for the program. “People sign up for our program exactly because they want to know these different cultures, and the leadership style and differences across different regions and we can provide for both through this program.” (13:54)

What does the future hold for the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA?

The program may be ranked number one in the world, but that doesn’t mean Dr. Hui and his team are stopping there. They want to keep improving, and the way they will do that is by doubling down on their underlying philosophy: High-impact, low-ego.

“Even though we are ranked number one right now, our students can always make more impact and more positive impact – even when we are number one,” he says. (12:38)

“For us, the most important thing is we really hope that our students, after joining our program, can become better and more important impactful leaders in the community. Be it a company, be it an NGO, be it a social leader. I would say that’s the ultimate goal rather than the ranking.” (12:15)

Maybe it is this commitment to its core philosophy that has allowed Kellogg-HKUST to stay number one for so long. They use the rankings as a motivator, and as an occasional morale boost, but it does not detract from their overall mission of producing high-impact, low-ego leaders.

If the program continues to produce these types of graduates, you can expect it to stay at the top for many years to come.

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