More multinational companies doing business in China are offering their own Business 101 classes at corporate campuses for local employees.

Novartis International AG established Novartis China Corporate University this summer to provide professional and management training to the pharmaceutical company's 4,000 employees in China.

Frank Waltmann, head of the Swiss company's corporate learning division, said 20 percent of his educational budget now is earmarked for China.

Waltmann said his division wants to offer employees continuing training opportunities focused on doing business in China and also on doing business in the global marketplace.

Novartis China Corporate University is the second one opened by the company's Development Center for Leadership Capacity. The first opened in Russia.

"Our investment in the university in China nearly doubles that of Russia," Waltmann said, declining to disclose the amounts invested in each campus.

The company's corporate learning program includes open-enrollment basic learning courses, e-learning programs and an MBA learning program in cooperation with Peking University.

The MBA program is tailored to employees of Novartis in China with its focus on local business case studies.

Training sessions are available to all levels of employees, from production line operators to senior executives.

Novartis has invited instructors from Harvard Business School, IMD Business School, Tsinghua University, Peking University and China Europe International Business School to design programs and deliver lectures.

Waltmann said corporate training is important, especially for Novartis recruits who ultimately reach management ranks at its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, and in other locations around the world.

"More Chinese faces are at our Basel headquarters. I hope we will one day have a global CEO from China," Waltmann said.

Novartis China generated 3.3 billion yuan in revenues last year, a 29 percent increase from 2007. The company expects to achieve 30 percent year-on-year growth this year.

About 90 percent of senior executives at Novartis China are Chinese, and most of them were promoted locally, according to the company.

James Deng, president and CEO of Beijing Novartis Pharmaceutical Ltd, began his career with the company as a salesman and worked his way up the corporate ladder to his current position by 2004.

Waltmann said the next step is to increase international business training opportunities for Chinese managers such as Deng.

Providing a corporate university allows employees to earn promotions locally and also internationally, he said.

A recent survey by the international recruiting firm Hudson found that employee motivation, career development and enhancing leadership skills were listed as the top three issues to address in the coming year.

Hudson polled senior executives at nearly 600 large Chinese companies for the survey.

Other multinational companies with operations in China are offering training opportunities, too.

Procter & Gamble Co has offered management training to local senior executives during its 20 years of operations in China.

Other Fortune 500 companies that have established training centers or corporate universities in China include Intel, General Electric, IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

(China Daily 08/03/2009 page3)