In the first 8 months, students learn 9 basic functional management areas: Managerial Accounting and Control, Macro and Micro Economics, Marketing, Finance, Operations, Quantitative Analysis, Enterprise Development, Communications, and Strategic Management and Ethics.

Students develop skills in the classic business functions, acquire understanding of how people behave in organizations, and build communication skills. They develop critical entrepreneurial, strategic and ethical thinking. Most importantly, they get immersed in the complexities of the different Asian markets

A tradition kept alive since 1968 is the Friday night WAC: students must do an overnight, rigorous analysis of case exercise three out of every four weeks for at least five months. This is to sharpen their skills at communication and working under intense time pressure.

To hone entrepreneurial skills, students undergo continuous exercises in opportunity seeking and innovating in the core course Development of Enterprise (DE). Entrepreneurship is taught as a complement to strategy management not only to stimulate students to explore new external ventures, but also to think about entrepreneurship.

Before the MBA 16 starts, students go through a two-week pre-MBA technical training in accounting and statistics. Students with liberal arts backgrounds or who have little experience in field accounting are strongly urged to attend. As the MBA 16 progresses, alumni and senior class experts conduct evening tutorials on technical knowledge areas, though students are not required to attend these sessions. Students also go on group field projects, games and simulations.

In months 9 through 16 (see Figure 2 and Table 1), the specialization phase, MBA students must complete three major tasks: a two-month action consultancy (AC), a six-unit MRR, and electives. In the AC or internship, students do a two-month, live consultancy exercise with an Asian company. AIM helps students connect to these companies. The AC marks the start of external networking, which extends to the MRR, placement activities, and adjunct faculty electives.

The MRR, a major integrative paper requiring the student to do extensive external enviro-industry analysis, as well as an actual company strategic review, is equivalent to a thesis/dissertation of other masters programs. Like theses, students must defend their MRR in front of a faculty panel. The MRR may be a corporate strategy of an existing company or venture/feasibility study.