INSEAD, one of the world's leading graduate business schools, plans to establish a research center in China sometime within the next two years.

The company hopes in future to set up a program in China, teaching the next generation of company executives.

The France-based school, which educates students from over 75 countries, currently has two campuses, one in Fontainebleau, France and the other in Singapore.

It has already set up two research centers, in Israel and California, which have been designed to study each local market before the school sets up teaching programs.

"To be present in a market, we have to be local and understand what is happening there. We need to do our homework," J. Frank Brown, INSEAD's newly-appointed dean, said in an exclusive interview with China Daily yesterday. "We are a global school and looking at opportunities all around the world."

The new research centre in China will be in Beijing, the capital city, or in the commercial hub Shanghai, INSEAD sources said.

Brown, currently the global head of advisory services for PricewaterhouseCoopers, will bring to INSEAD over 26 years of experience working in international markets, building leadership programs and heading client service-oriented businesses. He will take up his new position in July.

"The Chinese market is expanding fast, with great demand for multi-cultural entrepreneurs coming from a wide range of industries, such as real estate, finance and energy," said Brown.

The new dean said the need for quality executive education comes more from local Chinese companies than from multinationals. Chinese firms want to train their staff as part of their overseas expansion plans.

Big international firms are coming to the Chinese market with an "established management," while their local Chinese counterparts will need to improve in leadership and management to become global, Brown said. "What I am looking to tap into is Chinese companies expecting to expand globally."

He Jun, a senior analyst with Beijing Anbound Consultant Ltd, said leadership and risk management are among the key challenges faced by Chinese companies aiming to obtain a footing overseas, especially by acquiring foreign assets.

China's biggest offshore oil company, China National Offshore Oil Corp, in the pursuit of increasing overseas production, lost out in a US$18.5 billion bid for US firm Unocal last summer to oil giant Chevron.

Industry analysts said the Beijing-based oil giant had "underestimated" the political risks that is was going to confront.

To tap into the local market for MBA and executive education in China, the new dean said the school was seeking a domestic partner for a joint venture.

"I will also talk with Wharton (business school), with whom we already have four to five years partnership about the possibility of working together in China," Brown said.

The new dean said he would also rely on his wide contacts with international companies to promote INSEAD across the world, especially in the United States and China.

(China Daily January 18, 2006)