Welcome to HOSEI Global MBA Program
Educational Goal
Admission Goal
Diploma Policy
Dear Prospective Students:
With so much pandemic uncertainty, making career decisions is difficult. Of course, in our complex world full of ambiguous information, decision-making is never easy. This is why MBA programs prepare students for unpredictability, by instilling skillsets that enable students to thrive in a volatile world.
The pandemic is also accelerating changes in how we work. We no longer rely on employers to provide the training our jobs demand and a career path forward. We now must navigate our own paths through the opportunities and pitfalls of the global job market. In this new reality, an MBA provides better job security, higher pay, and improved career development potential.
In the fourth industrial revolution, digitization and cross-fertilization of advanced industries place a high demand on the tools of innovation. At the same time, global-scale challenges require contributions to society via sustainability, ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) investing, and social innovation. MBA study champions such societal impacts as part of one’s career development.
The Global MBA at HOSEI University’s Business School of Innovation Management is a fitting place to pursue these skillsets. HOSEI is one of Japan’s major universities. It was born 140 years ago as a legal institute (hence its name meaning Law and Politics) rooted in French legal ideals of freedom of thought, democratic access to learning, and practical knowledge as a key to individual growth. The Business School’s mission is To foster innovation practitioners in companies, organizations, and society at large, grounded in management theory & practice, critical thinking, and effective communication. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology recognized the HOSEI GMBA as a Top Global University program.
The one-and-a-half-year English-language GMBA Program operates alongside the one-year and two-year Japanese MBA programs. GMBA students study in English, but also interact with Japanese MBA students and may take Japanese MBA classes. Since its founding, the GMBA Program has accepted over 80 students from China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Mongolia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, USA, Brazil, Colombia, Ireland, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Ghana, Pakistan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Japan, with near equal gender balance. In 2022 the world’s largest business education alliance, AACSB, honored HOSEI Business School of Innovation Management among 24 business schools worldwide with its Innovations That Inspire award, citing it as “a champion of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) in business education.”
GMBA students gain experience first as interns with regional government organizations and next at business enterprises. This active learning both supports and is supported by classroom learning. The GMBA curriculum and course schedule are designed to fit the lives of students, allowing them to work part-time or full-time while pursuing their MBAs.
As you consider your career path and your future contribution to society, we invite you to consider the Global MBA program at HOSEI University, here in the heart of Tokyo.
Sincerely,
Kenneth Pechter, PhD
Director of the HOSEI University GMBA Program
Professor, HOSEI University Business School of Innovation Management
Key Characteristics of the GMBA Candidate
Our MBA, the Global MBA (GMBA), aims to foster the following types of people who can serve as leaders in today’s increasingly global society:
- Leaders who possess deep and thorough knowledge of Japan and Japanese business, and are able to make decisions based on this knowledge
- Leaders who are capable of strategic decision-making, taking into consideration a global perspective
- Leaders who are capable of cultivating connections throughout the world, and are masters in the communication of the vast amounts of information required of today’s global businesses
The HOSEI GMBA is ideally suited for:
- Entrepreneurial spirits who strive to start their own businesses
- Business successors who will take responsibility for family companies
- Employees of Japanese companies who will take leadership roles in other parts of Asia
- Social innovators who endeavor to work in the space between industry and government sectors
- Other business people who strive to become innovation practitioners
Educational Goal
In any economy, individuals with the skills to disrupt and innovate are in great demand. To answer this call, HOSEI University established the Business School of Innovation Management in 2004. The School awards the master’s degree, Master of Business Administration (MBA, professional degree). In addition, students who opt to also join the Small & Medium Enterprise (SME) Consultant Training Program obtain the qualification of SME Consultant Qualification along with their master’s degrees.
The innovation management thread woven through both the MBA degree and the SME Consultant qualification is creative disruption: the ability to break free of the past business mindset to create new ideas and new businesses. We call a person with such skills an “innovation practitioner,” and aim to nurture such talent.
Innovation practitioners include entrepreneurs who start new businesses of course, but also those who are able to drive the transformation of existing businesses towards new opportunities and business models, and towards new markets. From this perspective, the Business School of Innovation Management aims to nurture business people with the following three competencies:
- Practical Management Competency
- Critical Analysis Competency
- Communication Competency
Our curriculum is formulated on the fact that theoretical “book-learning” alone cannot sufficiently develop innovation practitioner talent, and thus requires this learning to be supported with practical experience. For this reason, we utilize the “project method” in which students undertake their own business project assignments, and internships as well.
Starting a new business requires an understanding of past business cases and industry trends, as well how this is all playing out currently, and to incorporate all this business knowledge into the decision making process. Our curriculum is designed to help students acquire such knowledge from past business examples through the “Project-based Learning” method. Our curriculum also includes “IT literacy” which emphasizes evidence-based decision-making that integrates data management, data analytics and Information Technology.
Admission Goal
Intensifying globalization and rapidly evolving information and communications technologies are causing what many call the fourth industrial revolution. In such an environment, demands are high for individuals able to navigate this new frontier using not only the knowledge of management and IT, but who are also comfortable in the new industries that emerge as the fusion of hitherto separate industrial sectors. What is needed is the type of person we call an innovation practitioner.
Innovation practitioners are not limited to the types of people with the ability to start new businesses, but also those with the competency to pursue innovation in existing businesses, be that through reorganization of existing business models, restructuring of existing business organizations, diversification to new markets, or even societal innovations via social entrepreneurship.
Our goal is to develop talent with the above skill sets. Accordingly, our admission policy is to admit individuals with practical business experience who are interested in and passionate about the opportunity to contribute to business innovation (as well providing the required transcripts, letters of recommendation, essays etc.)
Diploma Policy
The Business School of Innovation Management aims to nurture human resources capable of pursuing innovation in society or within an organization, and has developed its curriculum with this purpose in mind. Students enhance their understanding of and facility with innovation management through the acquisition of designated credits in fundamental, specialized and applied courses.
Through this approach, students earn the Master of Business Administration degree (MBA, professional degree) as a result of gaining knowledge of innovation theory and its practical applications. This includes developing an ability to perform critical analysis in real-world environments, attaining proficiency in the conception of innovation strategies based on analytical assessments, achieving facility in the execution of strategies and tactics based in knowledge of innovation theory and practice, and acquiring skill in the communication of business ideas to various stakeholders.