"Fueled by an appetite for growth, corporations in China, India and other markets in Asia are sending an army of managers and executives to Western business schools to groom future leaders.

U.S. and European business schools, meanwhile, are cashing in on the growing roster of clients from cash-rich companies and strengthening ties with the markets and people driving the world economy.

“To sustain the high rate of growth in the emerging markets, there is a sense they need to develop world-class capabilities,” said Harbir Singh, professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. “That is really the core reason that people are upgrading their skills and making sure they are globally competitive.”

For Bin Yu, chief financial officer of Tudou, a leading online video distributor in China, the move to get more master’s degrees in business, and executive MBA’s for those already in the field, is obvious.

“You have seen the trend of going for MBA and EMBA starting to pick up in the past 10 years, especially in the past five years, along with the evolution of Chinese economic system as it gets exposed to the outside world,” she said.  Yu signed up for the executive MBA program at Insead, based in France, last spring. The one-week-per-month class modules took her to the school’s campuses in Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Fontainebleau in France as well as to Tsinghua University in Beijing, with which Insead has a relationship.

“The classmates share all their real-life experiences and management problems or issues with the class,” she said. “It is real time and real life examples we can learn from each other.”

Business schools are not always forthcoming with precise enrollment data, but a number of schools acknowledge that they have seen substantial growth in recent years. Martin Hackett, managing director of open enrollment programs at Wharton, said that the trend was clear and that the school’s open enrollment program this year attracted 50 per cent more participants from India than last year. “We are seeing more interest from companies in China and have plans to offer some open enrollment programs in China in 2011,” he said."

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