Santiago Iñiguez, Dean of Instituto de Empresa, 
I am writing from Shanghai, attending the Third China-Spain Conference where I will be 
speaking on "Educational Tourism". This city is a very vivid sample of the pulse of today’s Chinese society and economy: a vibrant cosmopolitan city where growth is reflected in the number and size of skyscrapers under construction. Early today I went to the Bund, the famous boulevard on the western shore of river Huangpu, and watched through the morning mist hundreds of people practicing Tai-chi to the rhythm of the same music, indeed an impressive and somewhat magical spectacle. The contrast between old traditions and new constructions was self-eloquent.
Western schools, and particularly management training institutions, can learn a lot from Chinese educational culture. In particular, Confucius (551-479 BC) stands as an inseparable part of China’s great civilisation and one of the most influential philosophers and educators in the world’s history. Confucius teaching methodology was grounded on searching inwardly, not in setting out a system to imitate, and he encouraged his students to think, perceive and learn for themselves. Amazingly, there are many parallelisms between two of the grandest educators of all times, Confucius and Socrates: they were contemporaries (around 500 BC), they lived almost the same years -72 and 70, respectively- and they proposed similar learning methodologies, based on introspection and self-reflection. Confucius used a metaphor in order to describe those achievers of the desired inwardness: we all know how to eat and drink, but how many people can truly taste flavours? Discovering flavours, as other valuable intellectual enterprises, requires sensitivity, concentration and careful thought.
Tags(clickable): Education, MBA, Business School, Confucius, China, Shanghai
Confucius teachings are particularly applicable to managers who live hectic lives and need to stop and reflect from time to time to keep the necessary balance. MBA programmes, both full-time and executive versions, may be ideal occasions to reflect intensely about the different personal and professional whys and set up a sound life-plan for the future, amendable as circumstances change. Consequently, business educators should think if their MBA programmes are designed and managed as the best possible preparation for or renovation of life, in the philosophical sense of the word.
It is interesting to look at the curriculum of the school where Confucius used to teach, which comprised the so-called "Six Arts" - ritual, music, archery, chariot-riding, calligraphy, and computation – However, he considered morality as the most important subject. Today, our MBA students learn marketing instead of archery and finance instead of chariot riding. Should we also keep some of the other "Six Arts", such as music, as part of the best possible education of managers?
Learning and knowledge take a lifetime of effort, thought Confucius. In the meantime, though, we can improve our educational programmes by learning from his ideas and methods. Let me finish with a quote that offers a synopsis of how Confucius saw his life:
"At 15, I had set my mind on learning. At 30, I could stand on my own feet. At 40, I was determined not to be led astray by irrelevancies. At 50, I fully realized what destiny had in store for me. At 60, I could follow a truth without fuss. At 70, I could let my action follow my heart’s desire without transgressing the standards of right"(1)
(1) Quote taken from Simpkins, Alexander & Annellen: "Confucianism. A Guide to Living Virtuously"; Tuttle Publishing, 2000; p.11.
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