NUS MBA Blog

Intensity 10

2012-01-18T21:00:00.000+08:00

It was the day after new year
When the school came alive
(Although some of us were groggy
From flights that just arrived).
We were to complete 2 courses
In a period of 6 days
We didn’t feel, though, that these
Were all done in haste.

The first class was on leadership
Where we did some role-play,
Which taught us how to act as leaders -
What to do and what to say.
Then we were treated to coffee
During the discussion on Schultz,
And were entertained by a panel
When we talked about Burtz.
We also learned of Indian leaders
Like Dr. V., Ambani and Tata,
And we also touched on the leadership
Of Ghosn and Mandela.

The second class was on management
Where we had a lot of fun,
We learned of new ways
On how things are done.
We had several short games
Which served as warm-ups;
We built short and long bridges
Made of paper, tape and cups;
We learned a new culture
During the bafa bafa game;
We played to regain power
While building a lego plane;
We scored high with our card deck
When we avoided the joker;
We got beaten by kindergarteners
In our attempt to build a tower.

Intensive week was indeed
An intensity ten,
But if I had the choice
I would do it again.

Charisse Rossielin Cruz (Filipino)
Full-Time MBA student, Class of 2013

Change: Closing a Chapter and Going back to Student Life

2012-01-15T19:00:00.000+08:00

Background: On my flight back to New Delhi from Singapore, I begin reflecting on my just completed first semester at NUS.

Not very long back I had been part of the arduous process of preparing for exams, short-listing b-schools, filling applications and writing those ‘why MBA?’ essays. Though I was through with most of the MBA admission interviews, and had even been accepted in some of the schools that I had applied to, I particularly remember the uncharacteristically laidback afternoon in early April in office. This was the day I got an email with the subject — “Congratulations! You have been given an admission offer for NUS MBA (August 2011 intake)”. Unable to react, I glanced nervously around my workstation and then stared hard at the computer screen—a bit overwhelmed and too confused to open the mail. Asian b-schools were the focus area of my first year of application, and NUS was the top school (in terms of strategic fit) to which I had applied.

Well, I did finally open the mail, and it slowly sank in that I had made it to the prestigious NUS MBA program! Along with the happiness of getting admitted to NUS and the excitement of living in the vibrant Singapore, a sense of loss and nostalgia also crept in. The familiar office where I was sitting, the colleagues who were congratulating me on my admission and the cheerful cook at home would slowly drift away into a fondly remembered part of my past. Many of the contacts on my cell phone would become alpha-numeric links to fading faces. This awkward mix of feelings brought with it an element of anxiety.

I had spent a little over 8 years in New Delhi prior to joining the NUS B-school. Starting afresh in a foreign land meant packing the essentials of my current life in a few suitcases and heading towards another life. My experience of working with (and leading) a diversity of global teams notwithstanding, I knew quite well that this move was an important 'change'. It was certainly exciting to hop on to the global bandwagon of expatriates, but it required a well-thought out plan. I needed to embrace the move as a new and exciting opportunity. Only a positive attitude towards change would enable me to make my stay in a new country a comfortable and fruitful experience. I was once again going back to school and leading a ‘student life’: this was the most important change I had to adjust to.

The friendly and helpful staff at the MBA office and the Office of Student Affairs (OSA), and the wonderful people whom I met at the U-Town residential campus ensured that the first few days went well. The hectic MBA schedule and wonderful friends I made took care of the next four and a half months of the first semester.

My transition from manager to ‘student’ came with interesting sets of similarities or continuities: my professors replaced my bosses at office; project submissions and group reports replaced client deliverables; quizzes and exams replaced handling difficult client calls and ‘project-related fires’; and exam results replaced client feedback and appraisal results. But this transition also meant forgoing and forgetting a few things: the famous food-joints of Delhi, my friends from work, and the carefree—almost careless—lifestyle. I now had to learn to control expenses as a student (which becomes a bit difficult after one gets used to earning and spending somewhat unwisely). Surprisingly, of all things, I even missed the notoriously unpredictable Delhi weather!

During one of our mid-class breaks, I remember Professor Ravi Jain telling Gaurav and me, “Enjoy your days of student life, for most of you this is going to be the last academic endeavour and then begins a long period of corporate life.” As I look back at the various lectures, career talks, and networking sessions of last semester, the long nights I spent writing up reports and preparing presentations, the seemingly long walks to Archies, and the frequently frivolous yet extremely interesting discussions with friends in U-Town, I can say one thing: the first semester at NUS was anything but boring!

Devmanyu Singh (Indian)

Full-Time MBA student, Class of 2013

For the Love of Language

2012-01-11T21:00:00.000+08:00

The NUS MBA has rightly been described as a melting pot of cultures. In my first semester, I had the chance to meet and work on assignments with students from South Korea, Japan, Pakistan, Taiwan, Malaysia, China, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, among others. Attending such an engaging program amidst such a plethora of cultural diversity gives one an opportunity to realise and appreciate the nuances and beauty of different cultures.

To further leverage this cultural diversity, an MBA student initiated an extremely fascinating program, named, “The Mandarin Initiative”. Ma Dongye, a full time MBA student from China had previously worked in an NGO that focused on inter-cultural communication between China and the rest of the world and had arranged Mandarin teaching trainings for Chinese teachers. After joining the NUS MBA, Dongye realised that there was a lot of interest in Mandarin among the non-Chinese students. Many students also felt that learning Mandarin would help them in securing better jobs and would open up more lucrative opportunities for them.

The growing interest and fascination for Mandarin, coupled with his pre-MBA experience in the cultural NGO, led Dongye to form the Mandarin Initiative. This initiative gave a unique opportunity to non-Chinese students to learn Mandarin from their Chinese counterparts. The key focus of this program is not merely to learn the language, but also to understand and appreciate the richness of the Chinese culture.

Needless to say, this opportunity was widely embraced by the cohort. Currently there are 20 students from 12 countries who are taught by 6 Teachers and 7 Teaching Assistants. These students managed to make time for the Mandarin Initiative in spite of a very demanding first semester and attended two sessions a week, each of a one hour duration. “It is so amazing to hear students speak in Mandarin on varied topics in an international accent and a proud mood!” says Dongye.

The Mandarin Initiative is, in fact, a part of the newly constituted Language and Culture Club under the aegis of the NUS MBA Students’ Council. Future plans of this club include widening of the ambit to teach Japanese, providing more language training within the community and organising workshops on culture and management to complement the academic courses. As Dongye says, “Our aim is for students to learn beyond the language-language is in fact a tool and mastery of the cultures and values is essential”.

Shaili Pandia (Indian)

Full Time MBA student, Class of 2013

My winter vacation - Trip to Surabaya

2012-01-07T09:00:00.000+08:00

December is the winter vacations for NUS MBA students. Most of them go back to their home countries while some students stay in Singapore for their internship. For me, I traveled around three Southeast Asia countries - Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta and Surabaya) and Philippines (Manila).

I really enjoyed every one of my trips. However, of all the trips, Surabaya (Indonesia's second-largest city) was the most memorable one. Melinda, my classmate from the same intake, comes from Surabaya. She kindly showed me around her hometown during my stay.

I took a lot of pictures there and will show you some of them.

Meeting me at the airport

Hotel Majapahit Surabaya

Dinner at an Indonesian restaurant

Dessert Stall

Chinatown and Jembatan Merah

House of Smpoerna

Lunch at an Indonesian restaurant

Shopping

High Tea

Sending me off at the airport

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Melinda. I really appreciate everything she did for me during my stay at Surabaya. Although my MBA life at NUS has just passed one semester, I definitely believe that this trip will become one of the most unforgettable events even after I graduate from NUS. Thanks to her :)

Fumiyuki Kosugi (Japanese)
Full-Time MBA Student, Class of 2013

開拓您的國際視野

2012-01-05T16:00:00.000+08:00

要成為首屈一指的國際人才、擁有開闊的國際視野是個重要的條件。NUS MBA擁有多元的學生背景、跨國的師資組成與豐富的文化資產，因此能提供專業人士走上全球舞台所需的一流教育環境。

目前NUS MBA每年招收約100名學生，他們分別來自全球將近30個國家、超過20種不同產業。在課堂討論或是課外活動中，很容易出現一個團隊由完全不同背景的成員組成。

舉例而言，在第一學期的「作業管理」課程中，我的組員分別是德國籍的藥廠經理、中國籍的律師以及越南藉的金融分析師。成員間彼此的價值觀、行事風格和習慣的溝通方式有著極大差異。但透過日常互動，不同背景的人們會逐漸找到讓彼此發揮最大長處的相處模式，這對畢業後必須激發各類型員工工作效率的MBA學生而言，絕對是必要且重要的訓練。

位於東亞與歐美航線樞紐、東南亞自古以來就是多元文化的匯集之地。就產業組成而言，區內各國分別在金融、航運、製造、物流、原物料與高科技產業佔有一席之地，新加坡政府對新創事業的扶持也不遺餘力。因此對未來想前往不同產業發展的學生而言，NUS MBA也是轉換舞台的絕佳管道。

學期結束以後，不妨好好利用新加坡優良的地理位置，體驗東南亞多元的文化特色。很多同學在假期組成探險隊，有人到吉隆坡對當地的繁華嘖嘖稱奇、有人則前往印尼並且對廣闊的熱帶雨林心生敬畏。當然最重要的是和不同國家的朋友互相扶持、一起學習成長，這對學生未來在國際舞台上的職涯發展都會有非常正面的幫助。

Evan Lin (Taiwanese)

Full Time MBA student, Class of 2013

Winter Break Escapades

2012-01-03T16:00:00.000+08:00

When I first learned about the specifics of the MBA program’s schedule, I was surprised (more pleasantly than anything else) to find a “winter break” between the first and second semesters of the first year. I mean, who doesn’t love holidays, right? And so, December 2011 came, that time when the seniors “graduated” and the first-years were fresh off a rollercoaster-of-a-first-semester experience. We found ourselves enjoying this assignment-free period (well almost, 100%-free..) Anyway, so what were we up to during this time? Where, how did we spend these precious days? Let us count the ways.

Winter internships – while majority of students opt to pursue their internships over the summer, for the very career-focused, winter break was also an opportune time to go after short working stints. You learn, you earn, and well, you learn. Some students were able to secure short-term stints as analyst, consultancy interns in companies based in Singapore.

Travel-spree – after slugging it out with reports, projects and exams for the whole of 4 months, what’s a better way to relax than travelling and seeing new places? A lot of students took advantage of this time to go overseas to countries like Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Sabah), Indonesia (Jakarta, Surabaya, Bali), Thailand (Bangkok, Phuket), the Philippines (Manila, Boracay, Cebu), Australia (Perth, Melbourne, Sydney), China (Shanghai, Beijing), India (too many good places to mention!), among others. It’s one enjoyable way to bond with friends outside of academic-related work, and with the student cohort consisting of different nationalities, you’ll most likely have at least one classmate welcoming you to their home countries during your visit. You can just see how much we enjoyed this—Facebook pages abound with photos of these memorable trips!

Ultimate relaxation - Students made use of the break to travel and catch up with family & friends

NUS Connect – as students flew back to their home countries over the break, one interesting activity that some participated in would be the NUS Connect spearheaded by the MBA Admissions team. Alumni and current students met up with prospective students to share information and the experience they’ve had as part of the NUS MBA family. As of this writing, NUS Connect sessions have been organized by our batchmates in Tokyo, Osaka, Manila, Delhi, Bangalore, to name a few.

Getting married – yup you read that right! Some of our classmates tied the knot this month with gorgeous wedding ceremonies in China and India. Congratulations and best wishes to the newly-weds!

Holidays back home – of course many students went back to their hometowns to spend time with family and catch up with friends, check out the elaborate holiday season scene and sales(!) in the city, prepare gifts for godchildren, savour all the local food we’ve missed (as I did), and generally, just take a breather and be merry!

And so before we embark again on to the next semester, we wish everyone Happy Holidays and Cheers to a Great 2012 ahead of us! We're gonna make it another year to remember!

Carissa Caparas (Filipino)
Full Time MBA Student, Class of 2013

Where do the MBA students disappear after class?

2011-12-09T10:31:00.000+08:00

This is a question that has recently been perplexing the crowd around the Mochtar Riady building that sees most MBA students purposefully walking out of the b-school after class. It is definitely not the well-stocked library or the recently constructed U-Town (the University’s new residential complex where most MBA students stay) that these students go to. With dog-like determination in their stride and ninja-like focus in their eyes, these MBA students must surely be up to something really important.

Some investigation into the matter unearthed a few surprising facts. These students rush to a room called RIGOUROUS inside the MBA Student Lounge (a lounge with meeting rooms, study desks, and other modern amenities for the exclusive use of MBA students). But what happens inside RIGOUROUS? To find out more, I stepped into the MBA Student Lounge one day.

Locating RIGOUROUS inside the lounge was not difficult—there was an excited noise, dampened by the closed door that led me straight to it. On entering the room, I saw a large group of students huddled around. Jostling my way through the crowd, I found myself at the edge of something unexpected. A foosball table!! A game was on: it was Vincent and Jitendh versus Neha and Hoang. Despite the well-functioning Air Conditioner, I could see the sweat on their brow and could smell the adrenaline in the air! The battered look of the table and the war marks on the foosball players (or maybe American football players now, being all taped up) bore testimony that I wasn’t witnessing the first battle to be fought on this battlefield. After Neha and Hoang, with their powerful and strategic play (respectively), made an otherwise long game, short, I decided to catch up with the foosball crowd.

According to Vincent, who Ashok calls a foosball fanatic, “Foosball is a way of life. You win some and you lose some but in the end what matters is the spirit with which you play. For me, the moment I hear the word ‘foosball’, I subconsciously start rotating my wrists.” Akhil, another avid foosball player, says, “Apart from all the usual group studies, meetings, and networking dinners, a good place to build friendships and develop camaraderie is sports—in this case foosball.” I agree with him. It has long been proven that team games, among other things, help develop long-term bonds. Along with being a good stress buster, after a long day of lectures and assignments, foosball helps students from different batches and nationalities team up and play on each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Realising this fact, Mohit, our Sports Club President, has been actively involved in the process of arranging various sports events with other business schools and corporate teams.

It is interesting to observe how certain unobvious and ‘seemingly inconsequential’ things like foosball can go a long way in fostering friendships and enhancing the MBA experience. While Jose, the President of our Student Council, a foosball enthusiast himself, is repeatedly being urged by his classmates to request the MBA Office to sanction a new foosball table, it is only time that will show when his efforts bear fruit. Till then these foosball junkies will continue to slog it out on the existing one. See you at RIGOUROUS!

Devmanyu Singh (Indian)

Full Time MBA student, Class of 2013

What do Jobs, Departures and the NUS MBA program have in common?

2011-12-06T16:00:00.000+08:00

I am obviously still hung over from reading Freakonomics, especially after following it up with Superfreakonomics, where seemingly unrelated things are unified by something; ergo, my question.

Here goes my attempt at answering it:

In medias res

I encountered the phrase in Steve Jobs’ sister’s eulogy, where she said “we all die in medias res - in the middle of a story, of many stories”.

I am not a big Apple fan, which is probably an understatement since the only Apple product I own is an iPod classic, which I bought several years back. In fact, I am a technology-challenged individual, who has been a frequent customer of the IT help desk in my previous companies. But, surprisingly, I got hooked on learning about the life of Steve Jobs and how he sadly died in the middle of his story.

I just finished reading his biography (the Kindle edition - I’m not that out-dated), sacrificing a lot of readings at school in the process. After shedding a few tears (okay, not just a few), I contemplated on the thing that struck me the most - what drove him to do the things that he did. He had this belief that you have to contribute something to the world, like the people before you, and since he wasn’t a mathematician, nor an athlete, nor a singer, he believed his contribution was inventing these great things – the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad – and he did it with such passion and care and intensity.

This got me into thinking about what I have contributed to the world. I’m also not a mathematician (I do like math though), nor an athlete (I don’t think I have to reiterate the number of sports I have attempted, and failed, to learn), nor a singer (if I can only convince everybody else to change their taste to listening to my kind of singing). Worse, I am under constant pressure by the fact that I have two doctors as my siblings (while one is searching for a cure for cancer in the U.S., the other is saving the lives of numerous children in my home country).

Is what I’m already doing meaningful enough to count? (Let me qualify – I’m actually not doing anything right now except go to school, but I meant the question figuratively, rather than literally.)

This brings me to the next item on the list…

Okuribito
My professor in my Asia Business Environment class, following his belief that not everything you learn are found in textbooks (I second the motion), scheduled a series of Saturday sessions for the class to watch a movie produced in the Asian countries we were studying.

I was able to watch the Japanese movie, “Okuribito”, which means “Departures”. The film won an Oscar award in 2008 for Best Film in a Foreign Language.

In as much as I liked watching movies, and reading books, I somehow find the combination (i.e., watching a foreign movie while reading subtitles) unappealing. After watching the movie, however, I suddenly want to watch more foreign movies, despite the subtitles.

“Departures” is about Daigo, a young cello player who lost his job when the orchestra he was playing for got dissolved. While searching for a new job, he came across an ad for “assisting the departures”, which requires no previous experience and offers a high salary. It turned out that the job description in the ad was a typo error – it should have read, “assisting the departed”. Daigo thus became an encofinner, who cleans and prepares the body before being cremated. In the process, he realizes the meaning of what he does, and he does his job with great care. Towards the end of the movie, his wife asks him to quit his job for others view it as dishonourable, but he chooses to keep it. The last few scenes show his wife finally accepting what he does, and him being given a chance to be reunited with his estranged father as he prepares his father’s body for cremation.

I was trying so hard to quickly wipe away my tears for I was watching it with the rest of the class. But I later saw my tear-stained cheeks in the bathroom mirror.

Personally, I don’t think it’ll help me to be an encofinner for I’m afraid of dead bodies, I never watch horror movies and I almost failed high school biology. This time off from work though does give me the chance to watch movies such as this, reflect and think about what I have done and what I have to do and what I want to do.

Which brings me to the last item on the list…

My pause button

After so many years in the workforce, I felt the need to hit the pause button, take a step back and just breathe.

I did.

So here I am, taking a step back. And breathing. And reading several textbooks and cases. And writing several project reports. And studying for several exams. And yes, still breathing.

(Maybe I should have written this blog much, much later.)

Seriously, nearly one semester into this program, my views about the world and my perspectives have changed, not radically, but enough to get me out of the myopic way I used to think. I’m not expecting a light bulb to suddenly go off in my head and illuminate my way into a meaningful life, because I would like to believe I am already there - living a meaningful life. I would also like to believe that these three seemingly unrelated things – Jobs, Departures and the NUS MBA program – will inspire me to live a more meaningful one.

Charisse Rossielin Cruz (Filipino)
Full Time MBA student, Class of 2013

NUS MBA 職涯中心 - TalenEDGE

2011-11-25T16:00:00.000+08:00

TalentEDGE（簡稱TE）是NUS專為商學院學生設計的求職網站。

除了用來區別商學院學生和其他畢業生，TE也邀請對商學院學生特別有興趣的公司前來徵才，並且針對學生提供特製化的諮詢服務，例如職涯輔導、模擬筆試、面試等等，藉此凸顯商學院學生的競爭優勢。

TE網的設立讓學校能從「對新大畢業生有興趣」的徵才公司中，篩選出「對商學院畢業生有興趣」的公司，這點對公司和畢業生都很重要。公司可以減少篩選成本、畢業生可以採取更針對性的求職策略、更清楚的和其他學院學生區隔。

商學院的獨家服務

最讓人擔心的莫過於好公司只願意到新大求職網徵才、不願意花多餘心力到TE來，這點學校有很成功的對策。許多徵才活動會同時出現在新大求職網和TE上，同時TE卻多出一些只想招商學院畢業生的活動，等於讓商學院學生有更多機會。

舉例來說，10月20日TE就邀請了LVMH集團舉辦徵才說明會，現場人數限制僅33人，這遠低於新大求職網所舉辦說明會、現場動輒數百人的「盛況」。

這也代表學校已經先幫你營造出更好的求職環境了，33名學生 v.s. 好幾名公司代表，顯然學生有很高的機會直接和公司代表互動，而給公司代表好印象對求職有極大的加分效果，重要性有時比完成冗長的線上申請還高呢！

Fortune 500公司大集結

LVMH當然只是其中一個例子而已，過去美國的嬌生集團、新加坡的華僑銀行都在TE舉辦的徵才活動中、展現出大型說明會更積極的獵才意願。

沒有來學校辦活動但直接在TE上求才的公司更多了，Apple、Google、微軟、惠普、高盛、摩根大通、BP、殼牌....令人眼花撩亂的許多Fortune 500大公司，都在TE上註明「我要找新大MBA畢業生」。和一般求職網相比，透過TE申請這些工作就像在履歷上蓋個認證，顯然享有比一般求職者更好的求職條件。

師父帶進門 修行在個人

TE平台的建立讓新大MBA畢業生可以更輕鬆的和企業對接，同時有更多時間和資源能集中火力、爭取理想公司的工作機會。然而這一切必須根基於學校的嚴格教育，以及對自己當前擁有的技能和經驗的融會貫通。畢竟公司需要的是能真正貢獻產出的人才，這可不是TE圖章能背書的地方。

就像蘇富比拍賣會，TE提供MBA畢業生更寬廣的舞台，但畢業生自己也必須是越磨越亮的鑽石、才能吸引識貨買家的目光哦！

Evan Lin (Taiwanese)

Full Time MBA student, Class of 2013

忙碌的11月

2011-11-22T16:00:00.000+08:00

很難想像來新加坡已經超過3個月，每天都過著異常充實的生活，時間也過得特別快。

8月剛入學的時候，最先接觸的就是豐富的社團活動。學生會、金融社、行銷社、知識管理社、以及其他各類型社團，每個社團都展現了各自的優點和豐富的資源。例如知識管理社每個禮拜都提供針對性的商業個案分析，就非常適合想往顧問業發展的學生參與。

緊接著是紮實的教育訓練，第一學期總計20學分的必修課陸續都在9~10月舉行期中考。高強度的教學內容以及龐大的課前閱讀資料，很容易讓時間有限的學生感到手足無措。

然而，高壓的環境可以鍛鍊出更高效的時間管理技巧，大量的課前準備也可以提升課堂討論品質。隨著經驗累積，學生們都能在短時間內針對複雜商業個案提出豐富而具體的想法、進而在課堂上簡報、侃侃而談具備前瞻性的管理策略。

一旦靜下心來回想，也不禁訝異自己能在一天之內針對哈佛商業個案提出建議，這些都必須歸功於學校堅持的高張力課程。

進入11月，距離放假的12月也只剩3個禮拜了，壓力卻是有增無減。各科陸續舉行期末考、考試範圍和難度都比期中考高出不少，更令人緊張的莫過於各家公司隔年的實習機會申請也將陸續於11-12月間停止收件。

瑞士信貸、摩根大通的實習申請將率先於11月中截止，其他多家企業的實習申請也將一路持續到12月，可以想見11月期末考結束後，12月的假期也將不得閒，大家都要繼續為來年的實習申請努力。

無論如何，第一學期的MBA生活轉眼間就要結束了，未來還有什麼精彩或充滿挑戰的事情在等著我們呢？令人期待！

Evan Lin (Taiwanese)

Full Time MBA student, Class of 2013

Guest Blog featuring Prof Quek Ser Aik

2011-11-16T15:00:00.000+08:00

Professor Quek Ser Aik
PhD, University of California, Berkeley

Some say the military academies and armed forces colleges offer the best leadership training. But surely MBA programs rank highly in that respect too.

In the NUS MBA, for instance, you join with the understanding that leadership is about reading people (so as to better inspire them), allocating money (to invest in strategic areas), and streamlining processes (so that they integrate, rather than optimize in silos). Thus, leaders at all levels inspire, invest and integrate.

But, as they say, “it’s lonely at the top”; so isolation, or perhaps the want of introspection, sometimes tends to boost the ego inordinately.

Lucy Kellaway, the Management “columnist” on BBC radio and the Financial Times, has repeatedly warned executives to guard against having a big ego: “Business leaders are worse than they think”. She thinks that’s especially the problem with almost all CEOs.

Recently, Paul Gilfeather, a correspondent with Singapore’s TODAY newspaper, wrote in an article about his personal knowledge of Liam Fox, the just-resigned British Defence Secretary: “Dr Fox is just the latest in a longline of political suicides born out of terrible judgment, ill-advised friendships and that old chestnut … ego.” It’s so easy to think that we are better than everyone around. Paul titled his article “Liam Fox and the politician’s curse of ego”.

When you emerge from the MBA program, a lot more people will look up to you as a leader. You are going to have an expansive perspective, much expertise, and will take on enhanced leadership responsibility. Let’s begin our leadership journeys in the MBA program by often reminding ourselves of what Abraham Lincoln said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

In the NUS MBA, we stress communal integration, hence provide many opportunities for students to watch out for each other. You will grow to be a collaborative leader and a team player, safe from an inflated sense of self. You will help build a lifelong community of talent to participate in leading the global economy.

The Universe of U-Town

2011-11-15T16:00:00.000+08:00

“There is a fire and this is an emergency-please evacuate immediately”-I had just turned off my lap top and was about to turn in for the day when these words started reverberating around my apartment. My drowsiness disappeared instantly as a wave of shock engulfed me. I ran down the stairs along with scores of others. On reaching the huge lawn that overlooks the Graduate Residence Towers, I saw crowds of students looking around anxiously. I even saw one resident tugging along a suitcase with him!

Within a few moments though, our anxiety disappeared, as we were told it was a fire drill. Although a major anti-climax, the entire affair became an impromptu socialising session. Students from all nationalities, varied educational streams and backgrounds were mingling, joking, laughing and having a good time. The MBAs distinguished themselves by finding a golden opportunity to pounce on unsuspecting students with their semester end statistics and marketing surveys! All in all, the entire scene encapsulated the essence of what U Town has come to mean for me-zest, youth, fun, camaraderie and togetherness.

Since its opening in August 2011, University Town (or U Town, as it is popularly known) has become the cynosure of all eyes both within and outside NUS. With three residential buildings (two being the Residential Colleges for the undergraduate students and the third for the Graduate students), the largest Starbucks in Singapore and the state of the art Education Resource Centre, U Town is truly the place to be in. Very aesthetically and imaginatively constructed, U Town is home to NUS students from all educational and national profiles, thus facilitating rich intellectual and cultural exchange.

There have been several events and activities for the U Town residents-The Supernova Rock Concert, Kite flying festival, Sports Meet, Seminars and Career events. Always buzzing with activity, the vibe of youthfulness can be felt every moment. It has become routine to pass by the lawn and watch a group of students leisurely playing a game of Frisbee, run in to classmates at Cheers and Koufu (the food court), giggle at frantic girls in their 4 inch stilettos and chic chignons run towards the bus stop to make it to the waiting shuttles, or work with group members in the spacious and comfortable rooms of the ERC in to the early hours of the morning.

U Town has not just changed the skyline of the Kent Ridge Campus- it is a socially and culturally vibrant habitat, with 2,400 undergraduate students, 1,700 graduate students and 1,000 researchers working, living, and learning in close proximity. Having resided here for 3 months now, I can honestly say that I have “lived, learnt and discovered” at the universe of U Town.

Shailia Pandia (Indian)

Full Time MBA Student, Class of 2013

NUSキャンパスツアー

2011-11-04T16:00:00.000+08:00

先日、シンガポール在住の日本人の友人にNUSのキャンパスをご案内しました。この友人は将来的にNUS MBAを考えていることもあり、1. Mochtar Riady Building及び周辺施設、2. NUS COOP、及び3. UTown、の3カ所をご案内しました。

1. Mochtar Riady Building及び周辺施設

まず最初は、ビジネススクールの入っているMochtar Riady Buildingをご案内しました。

建物外観1

建物外観2

建物内部1

建物内部2

建物内部3

建物内部4

教室1

教室2

教室3

Reedz Cafe

また、Mochtar Riady Buildingとして、ライブラリーやMBAラウンジなどもお見せしました。

ライブラリー (Hon Sui Sen Memorial Library)

MBAラウンジ

途中、ネコもいたりします

2. NUS COOP
次に、NUSグッズも入手可能ということもあり、Central Libraryに併設するNUS COOPへと向かいました。ちなみに、NUSのキャンパスは広大なので、移動は無料のシャトル・バスを利用します。

シャトルバス

Central Libraryの建物

NUS COOP入り口

NUSグッズ1

NUSグッズ2

3. University Town (U-Town)

最後に、今年夏に新しくオープンしたNUSの複合施設University Town (UTown) をご案内しました。UTownには、レジデンスのほか、フードコートを含む食事する場所や自習室などがあります。

横断幕

コンビニエンスストア

ファーストフード店

フードコート（ここで食事）

韓国料理（筆者が注文）

ヌードル（友人が注文）

風景

レジデンス1

レジデンス2

レジデンス3

Education Resource Center

ミニチュア模型

PCルーム

自習室

最後は、スターバックスに寄ってツアー終了

NUS MBAへの出願を検討している方に、少しでもNUSのキャンパスのイメージが沸いたら幸いです。

Fumiyuki Kosugi (Japanese)
Full Time MBA Student, Class of 2013

Study Trip to South Korea

2011-11-01T19:00:00.006+08:00

I had the opportunity to visit Korea last month (17-24 September) for the NUS MBA Study Trip. Before the trip, I was aware of Korea’s strong position in the market today, particularly in electronics, telecommunications, automobile production, chemicals and shipbuilding. In my current job, I had the opportunities to meet international companies and promote local technologies to industry. By taking part in this NUS MBA study trip, I was expecting to gain a better understanding of the business culture of Asian countries. The list of companies we visited span across a few industry which includes finance, metal, e-commerce, electronics, entertainment, healthcare and oil & petroleum.

The study trip to Korea has been a fruitful and enriching trip for me. It has broadened my horizon into other fields which I am not so familiar with, such as financial services, entertainment, and e-commerce. On the first day, we visited Mirae Asset and KDB Bank. The two companies have unanimously shared that they are seeking global expansion into emerging markets. KDB Bank, a state-owned turn private bank, has shared their business strategies in order to meet the operating profit requirements. The strategies include identifying new growth areas like JV and M&A, emerging markets, wholesale and deposit based funding.

On the second day, we took a short flight to Gwangyang where POSCO’s second mill is located. We had the great privilege to enter the majestic production plant where they have the largest production facilities. The production capacity is average about 18 million tons per year, supporting infrastructure industry such as bridges and car manufacturing. My jaw dropped and eyes opened widely in amazement when I stepped into the mill. After the plant, we had a quick tour around the “POSCO town”. Just like Google town in California, POSCO town is self-sufficient with its own park, culture and art center, soccer stadium, community center, power plant, market and housing for its staff. Working for a company that cares about them, it explains why the workers have high satisfaction level and POSCO being selected as the most admired steel company by Fortune magazine in 2011.

POSCO Town

The afternoon visit to LS Nikko Copper was equally interesting. LS Nikko Copper is a copper smelter and refiner. It is part of the LS Group, a Korean Jaebeol (conglomerate). It is shifting from its traditional business to higher value-add business and positioning as a high end solutions provider. LS Nikko Copper is also looking into global green initiative.

On the third day, we visited Ebay Korea, which has acquired Gmarket. There was a good discussion about Singapore's e-commerce market and about Gmarket. Ebay previously failed in China and Japan market. It managed to succeed in Korea. I believe the reason was because there is no influence from ebay's management in Ebay Korea. Different countries have different cultures and social behaviors. I believe for international companies to survive in other countries, they have to adapt to the local environment and not the other way around.

A visit to EBAY Korea

In the afternoon, we visited J&J Korea. What’s motivating is that the managing director is a lady. Questions were raised to her on how she managed to climb up the corporate ladder in a male-dominated society. She shared about how J&J provided equal opportunities for all staff to perform. One advice she gave to women who are career minded or entrepreneur wannabes is “Don’t be afraid to move around geographically”. Not only the international exposure broaden your perspective and equip you with the experience and skills set that matches the global ambitions of companies, it will sharpen your soft management skills and make you all around interpersonal savvy.

On the fourth day, we visited Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) in the morning. KNOC currently support two major Korea policies which include overseas resource development plan and petroleum reserve plan. However, faced with huge competition from China, KNOC highlighted that they require greater government support. After the visit, we had lunch with the HR team from KNOC. I felt that they are really nice people and heartwarming. We had a chance to try a few glasses of traditional milky, sweet alcoholic beverage made from rice called Makgeolli (막걸리) during lunch.

After lunch, we had an hour of break before we head to CJ Entertainment. Some of us went to walk along the Han River which is within 5 minutes from our hotel. I believe that is where many Korean Dramas were filmed. The scenery was amazing. The visit to CJ Entertainment was entertaining. We had the chance to watch a live recording of Korean pop singers. It was fun hearing the fans scream when their pretty and handsome idols went up the stage.

Walking along Han River. Amazing scenery.

The last company visit was to Samsung Electronics. I was assigned the task to research on this company prior the visit. It's a huge company to understand it fully. We all know about Galaxy S and Tabs, and washing machines and Everland... but it's more than that. It has more than 70 affiliates. With Apple and Samsung are suing each other down now due to iPad and Galaxy Tab war, the representative from Samsung claimed that it will not affect its businesses much. I beg to differ; especially since Apple is the major customer with 5.8% sales to Apple.

At Samsung Electronics.

In the afternoon, we visited to Yonsei University where the MBA office gave an insightful presentation ofthe working and business culture in Korea. Ms Sun-Joo Hong highlighted that the Korea companies respected hierarchy and it is uncommon for subordinates to question their bosses or raise objections. A question was raised regarding how open is Korea companies to employ foreign staff. Realistically, there is no lack of talent in Korea. Korea has a huge population and many of them have foreign exposure. Since English is not spoken widely enough, non-Koreans speakers will face a lot of difficulties. However, Korean companies are beginning to realize that foreign talent is important for them to reach globalization. Perspective is changing gradually but it will take time.

Overall, the study trip to Korea was different from the previous two times when I was in Korea for leisure. I had the great opportunity to visit companies. I believe it will not be possible to arrange the visits on my own without NUS MBA office’s assistance and planning. In addition, I am lucky that I was given a chance to meet many fellow MBA friends and foster a deeper friendship with them in a short trip to Korea. I thank Jonghee, Jungwon, Gillian and Aaron for arranging the visits and being fantastic ambassadors of NUS MBA. They did us proud.

Kat Neo (Singaporean)
Part Time MBA Student, Class of 2015

Cerebration 2011

2011-10-28T16:00:00.001+08:00

It all happened here at NUS on a starry October night. The stars descended from business schools across the globe from London, Canada, China and India. 575 teams enrolled in the competition from business schools all over the world with only 6 teams making it to the final round. They came to share their spark (idea) - to compete in a unique business plan competition. They demonstrated exceptional team work, creativity, and presented facts and analysis based on thorough research. They went through several rounds of presentations, grilling question and answer sessions and at the end emerged winners of prizes worth SGD20,000. Not to mention the applause and respect from industry experts, judges and fellow MBA students and an experience of a lifetime.

NUS Business School - Cerebration 2011

Photo credits: Krishan Kant, Full Time MBA student

Photo credits: Wai Keat Tan, Full Time MBA student

The competition –Cerebration is a flagship event of the NUS MBA. It is entirely student run and is the largest business plan competition in the world, one where the business cases are real and relevant to the case sponsor. 8 months in the making, organizing the event is a feat in itself. It involved intense planning and coordination with the participants, case sponsors, and judges. All the lessons learned during the course of the MBA from marketing, finance, soft skills, networking, negotiation and logistics were put to great use. The entire cohort worked together as a team to make this a great event!

A trip to Lenovo with Cerebration teams
Photo credits: Krishan Kant, Full Time MBA student

Which team is going to bring home the Tropy?
Photo credits: Wai Keat Tan, Full Time MBA student

Photo credits: Wai Keat Tan, Full Time MBA student

Panelists
Photo credits: Wai Keat Tan, Full Time MBA Student

Photo credits: Wai Keat Tan, Full Time MBA Student

Overall Winner - HarryHans from London Business School
Photo credits: Wai Keat Tan, Full Time MBA Student

Want to know who won? Check out more about Cerebration at http://bschool.nus.edu/Cerebration/2011/index.htm

Sindhura Sunkara (Indian)
Part Time MBA student, Class of 2015

Part-TimeのDiversity

2011-10-27T16:00:00.000+08:00

クラスのほとんどがSingaporean。入学前の私のPart-Timeプログラムの印象はこうでした。しかし、思ったよりもDiversityに富んでいるというのが、実際、授業を受けて感じました。

現在、コア科目を２つ履修していますが、ざっと見たところ、Singaporeanは受講者の約半数ほどのように思います。私のグループワークのメンバーも、シンガポール出身以外に、ウクライナ、インド、スペイン、ドイツ、韓国出身など、とても国際色豊かです。クラスメイトの出身地の話は様々な文化を知ることができ、とても興味深いです。

またクラスメイトの仕事も多岐に渡っており、授業中または授業外で彼らのリアルな話を聞くことができるのはPart-Timeならではだと感じています。授業で知識を得るだけでなく、シンガポールのビジネス状況、世界の様々な分野の動向などを知ることができる、とても充実した環境で日々学んでいます。

Motoka Mori (Japanese)
Part-Time MBA Student, Class of 2015

No Ordinary Night

2011-10-25T16:00:00.000+08:00

October 3, 2011 started out just like any normal day. The freshies came to attend their Marketing and Finance core courses, the seniors on to their electives. Groups went on to discuss reports and projects. But around 7 in the evening when the NUS MBA community converged to Kent Ridge Guild House, that's when all the action happened. The MBAs let go of their laptops and readings and traded their casuals and formals for something more colorful. Folks, welcome to International Day 2011 (or shall we say, International Night 2011?!)

After a sumptuous dinner and light-hearted conversation (no talk of exams and upcoming projects), the program hosts Abhiroop and Evelyn got the ball rolling with some introductory remarks from the Student Development Club, the organizers of the big event with the theme, "One MBA.One Family". Then on with the highlight of the night—the cultural presentations!

Team Korea shared interesting information about their country, including a music video featuring popular Korean pop artists. Jin Kwang’s son wowed the audience with his taekwondo skills and father and son even had a match, with the young boy in full combat mode! Do Hyun and DK then gamely proceeded with a demonstration of the “ssireum”, which is Korean folk wrestling. Friends from China gave a song presentation with Dongye revealing his talent in singing. Evelyn gets the most active award with her modern dance number and a recitation of a Chinese poem.

The duo of Evan and Andy from Taiwan likewise gamely presented on stage. The audience were also treated to some informational and music videos about Singapore and Mongolia.

Team Japan got a lot of cheers with their sumo wrestling presentation courtesy of Atsushi and Kenji. They also taught the audience the Japanese Bon dance to the rhythm of the popular folk song Tanko Bushi . And in their colorful yukatas, it was a fun sight. (Hiroshi and Haruko won the best dressed male and female awards!)

Classmates from Malaysia and Indonesia also shared about their countries, and Corina gave out an Indonesian mask to a member of the audience. Not to be left out are the energetic performances by our friends from India who did a song number and the much-applauded bhangra dance. (Hats off guys and gals for that performance!)

The country presentations were then capped off by a medley of English and Filipino songs performed by Team Philippines acoustic-style led by Lee in vocals and guitar.

OneMBA.OneFamily. International Night 2011.

With the MBA family hailing from different parts of the world, the International Night is one of many activities to look forward to. It was a delight to see the community coming together to celebrate both our oneness and diversity. It was about the stories and bonds being formed just as it was about the colors, native attires, languages, songs and dances. It was about the art and craft of the performances (novices though we may be) just as it was about the happiness and appreciation the audience had shown. It was about us learning more about the lands and people beyond our own.

As the event winded down to a close and folks went back to their homes, I am sure everyone realized, it definitely was no ordinary night.

Carissa Caparas (Filipino)

Full Time MBA student, Class of 2013

Recess hues and midterm blues

2011-10-07T16:00:00.000+08:00

This September, I and my fellow full-time cohorts got to experience our first recess week and series of midterm exams (3 down, 1 to go…but who’s counting?). Recess week gave us the much needed R&R, with activities of our batch ranging from watching the Gossip Girl marathon; going back home to the Philippines, India or China; embarking on trips to other Asian countries(there’s Korea for the study trip, Vietnam, and Phuket for myself); and taking the time to catch up with friends in Singapore who are conveniently still part of the workforce.

I thought of highlighting my experiences during the past couple of weeks, in order of the level of emotion involved:

Elephant ride

Level of emotion: +1 (excitement)

I haven’t been near an elephant before (the closest pseudo encounter I’ve had was watching Dumbo, the Disney cartoon), much less ride one, so feeling very much like a little kid, I happily rode on the elephant’s back while he happily ate away everybody else’s bananas (how was I to know I was supposed to feed him?).

Fanta Sea

Level of emotion: +2 (wonder)

This is Phuket’s famous cultural show, and though I would still prefer watching musicals, I found the entire concept amazing.

Tom Yam and Thai curry

Level of emotion: +3 (satisfaction)

I loved eating Thai curry, and Tom Yam became a new favourite for me, but I learned the hard way that too much curry can result in several trips to the restroom.

Phi Phi island hopping

Level of emotion: –4 (anxiety)

There was sun and there was sand, but there was also the incessant bump of the huge waves against the boat. It was, to put it mildly and literally, one heck of a hopping boat ride.

Flight delay

Level of emotion: –5 (distress)

The flight from Phuket to Singapore takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Guess how much time I spent at the Phuket airport waiting for that short flight? I was there for almost 12 hours – because of the over-8-hour delay! Now, I don’t pride myself as being the most patient person in the world, but at that time, with several other people more impatient than I am, I was able to distract myself with listening to them alternately complain about the delay to the poor airline personnel, to their flight agent (although I don’t know how much the agent can help at that point), and to each other.

Super project

Level of emotion: –6 (panic)

We finished the case analysis the night (or rather, early morning) before the deadline.

F1 Singapore Grand Prix

Level of emotion: +7 (joy)

No, I am not so fond of cars as to pay over $300 or up to $1,000 to watch them zoom past me. I am not a fan of cars, period. In fact, I had to research what SGP stands for. F1 being a huge event in Singapore, however, made my friends fly all the way from Manila to here and it gave us the chance to meet and catch up.

Mad for Garlic

Level of emotion: +8 (delight)

I’m no food critic and I’m no cook, but I know a good pizza when I eat one (and I love eating one, i.e. one whole pizza, not just one slice)! Mad for Garlic’s garlic snowing pizza is the best pizza I’ve had in Singapore so far. It has shrimp, pineapple, and garlic (I told you I’m no food critic – just taste it to believe me!).

Finance exam

Level of emotion: +9 (relief)

Who wouldn’t rank the finance midterm as such, especially after the economics exam (or is it because it came after the economics exam that it earned its rank)? Anyway, refer to the last entry to understand what I’m talking about.

Freakonomics

Level of emotion: –10 (frustration)

I’m not referring to the book, although I am currently reading it and I am finding it very interesting. I’m referring to how freaked out I was with the economics midterm. I spent days (yes, days) studying for a 100-minute exam, but I never expected the law of diminishing returns to apply to me so quickly. Need I say more?

Charisse Rossielin Cruz (Filipino), Full-time, Class of 2013

Enjoying The NUS MBA Experience...

2011-10-04T15:00:00.000+08:00

From tomorrow, Mama will be going to school too is that what I had told my puzzled 2 year old a few months ago. I showed her my backpack; she brought out hers and we chuckled together…but in the back of my mind, I was nervous. I had not been in an academic setting in more than 8 years and the last time I had been a student things were much different, I had no filial responsibilities. This was not the first time I was getting out of my comfort zone, and decided to give the best to and get the best out of the MBA experience. While prioritizing time and activities will be vital to success; enjoying the journey will be most important.

When I reflect on my undergraduate years; I think of the friendships, on-campus jobs, mentors, student clubs, research-conferences, and internships which enriched my learning outside the classroom. I yearned for a similar student life experience through the MBA. With more than 36,000 students spanning over 100 countries, 70+ student clubs and several world class research centres, NUS offers unparalleled diversity in campus culture and opportunities.

Here is a glimpse of student life during the first two months at the NUS MBA - During the first two weeks after orientation, I teamed up with an exchange student to participate in a business plan competition, and organize a welcome party. Next were the Alumni Dinner and the NUS MBA student council face-off and elections; great networking and leadership opportunities. Some of the students formed new student clubs and new activities were being planned for the existing clubs. The cohort spent a fun evening at Singapore’s Night Safari. A few students travelled to Seoul for a study trip during the recess break and before we knew it, we were applying for the NUS MBA Mentor program and getting ready to showcase our diverse talents for International Day. Coming up in October is the NUS MBAs flagship event; it is also the largest student run business plan competition – Cerebration. Did I mention the career services events, group discussions, home works, case presentations, mid-terms and the fooz ball games which we ceremoniously (well, maybe not the fooz ball games) also engaged in during this time?

Amidst all these activities I saw a new sense of unity and purpose evolving among the cohort. Despite the pressure to perform academically, each one of us enjoyed the pleasure of coming to school each day and going that extra mile to enrich each others’ MBA journey. I knew now that I would have a lot of fond memories from the NUS MBA. As I saw some of my apprehensions put to ease, another question lingered in my mind…I realized that most of us were returning to school after several years, in that context what drives us to overcome inhibitions to perform and excel…in other words, what characterizes an NUS MBA student?

Sindhura Sunkara (Indian), Part Time MBA Student, Class of 2015

Diversity Demystified

2011-09-27T16:00:00.000+08:00

‘Diversity is a key factor that differentiates NUS from most b-schools in Asia’ is what I had heard about the MBA program at NUS from my peers in office. This was about a year ago and I had just about started my b-school application process: focusing on Asian b-schools. Having worked with clients based across the globe, I was aware of the cultural and business practice differences that diversity brought along. However, I never quite understood or appreciated the meaning of ‘diversity’ till I entered University Town (or U-Town), the new residence block for graduate and undergraduate students at NUS. I entered the U-Town Housing Office, tired and sleep-deprived, to find myself amidst a group of Japanese with high range SLRs, a couple of Chinese all huddled up, an energetic South Korean guzzling a can of ‘Red Bull’, a South African with his copy of Lonely Planet – Singapore, and a confused Canadian suffering from jet lag. This was my first ‘real’ experience of diversity.

On the first day of orientation, we were told that in the Auditorium we were seated were people from 31 different nationalities (including people from the full time, part time, and dual degree programs)! The cohort had extensive representation from the emerging Asian economies along with a fair share of students from the developed Western nations. Everyone was excited thinking about this classic ‘east meets west’ script that would screenplay our lives for the next year and a half!

Apart from nationality, the cohort is also well represented in terms of professional and academic experience. We have a Tax Auditor with an experience of ten years at E&Y Philippines, a Commodity Trader from Nepal, an Investment Banker from the US, a Strategy Consultant from the Netherlands, the Owner of an export firm specialising in the manufacture and export of beachwear out of India, a former Director of an International NGO in Sri Lanka, a Doctor from Myanmar, a South Korean working in the energy sector in Iran for the last few years, an Architect from the UK, and a Cultural Specialist from Inner Mongolia (China), among others.

Most subjects in the first semester involve extensive group assignments and presentations. Across the five groups that I have for the various subjects, we comprise a pool of over eight nationalities and fourteen different professional backgrounds! However, remembering everyone’s name, some of them admittedly tongue twisters, was never easy for a person like me. Despite bumping into people quite frequently, I found it hard to put name to face. It was then that I learnt a good trick from Claude, my friend from South Korea, to click a picture of the person while exchanging digits.

The experience of wracking your head on a group submission or a case study with people from different parts of the world and backgrounds is surely a stimulating experience. For instance, sitting at Starbucks and working with Hoang from Vietnam on the statistics assignments is always fun because of his sheer tenacity of bringing in a completely different and admittedly unique perspective to an otherwise harmless and mundane question! Chinese are hard workers: I had always heard that and partly observed looking at teams in my previous firm’s Shanghai office. However, it was not until I sat down and slogged it out with my Chinese group members, especially Lin, in person that I realised the true meaning of this saying. I had also heard about the similarities between the ‘approach to life’ and the overall thinking process of Indians and Pakistanis. That was exemplified in reality while working with Umer and Fahd from Pakistan, who happen to be in my study groups.

It has been about a month and a half since the time I embarked on this exciting journey called the ‘NUS MBA’, and every moment has brought in some interesting learning experiences. I hope the coming months bring as many opportunities to learn and foster friendships—helping me build a truly global and long lasting guanxi!

Devmanyu Singh (Indian), Full Time MBA Student, Class of 2013

NUS MBA 職涯中心 - 專題研討 (Workshop)

2011-09-22T17:00:00.000+08:00

上一篇文章介紹了NUS MBA職涯中心（CSO）如何幫學生找到自己喜愛而適合的工作，其中包括使用研究機構Career Leader所設計的性向測驗、提供一對一諮詢、以及邀請知名市調公司主管來演講最新就業市場情況。

發現或更加確定自己的就業方向後，接下來的問題就是怎麼把自己推銷出去，這方面CSO提供了非常豐富的資源，今天就淺談其中一項「專題研討會」（workshop）。

金融業深入解析

CSO每週舉辦非常多場workshop，光上禮拜就有3堂9小時的課程。其中有教人改履歷和cover letter、有深入介紹金融業工作、以及針對顧問業徵才的模擬面試。

以第二場為例，講師Catherine Loh是位擁有20年金融業工作經驗的基金經理人。不但歷任新加坡政府投資局（GIC）、高盛集團（Goldman Sachs）與雷曼兄弟（Lehman Brothers）等公司，也曾擔任野村證券債券部門首席行政長（CAO）與新進人員徵選官。豐富的業內經驗讓參加workshop的學生能藉此快速掌握金融業有關知識，並且得到許多更深入問題的解答。

舉例而言，演講中Loh不但列出金融業前台（front office）、中台（middle office）與後台（back office）共計21個不同功能的部門，同時還列出各部門的最新徵才動態、條件與工作內容。透過這樣系統化的介紹與解說，學生都能更有效率的定位自己想爭取的職缺、進而採取針對性的求職策略。

顧問業實戰訓練

另外一場針對顧問業徵才的模擬面試則讓人有醍醐灌頂的滋味。講師David Ohrvall是暢銷書「Crack the Case」的作者、擁有包括知名顧問公司Bain & Company在內的9年顧問業工作經驗，但最讓人印象深刻的無非是他幽默又充滿張力的演講內容。

在3小時的訓練中Ohrvall不斷對學生丟出疑問、並用風趣的口吻讓參加者持續腦力激盪。不止告訴學生在顧問業面試中可能會遇到的問題、Ohrvall也教學生高效的解決問題方法，如果顧問業總給人一種蒙上神秘面紗的氣氛、那Ohrvall無疑就是揭開面紗的人。

以「美國一年賣多少本書」這道經典問題為例，Ohrvall教學生聽到問題以後：怎麼確認問題、問細節、系統的從數據中提取資訊、快速運算、列出可行策略、最後在下結論與保持彈性同時、又要給面試官好印象。

一般人很難在短短的10分鐘之內做出那麼多高效的策略判斷，但顧問業需要的就是這種人才，而Ohrvall則是熟悉此道的行家。也因為CSO的穿針引線、學生才可以透過這場workshop、在爭取顧問業工作中贏在起跑點。

密集的workshop穿插在學業與社團活動之間、對MBA學生而言是時間管理的一大挑戰，但同時也是在培養學生高效解決問題的技巧。這時候就想到孟子的名言:「天將降大任於斯人、必先增益其所不能」，但是對忙碌而具備堅韌意志的MBA學生而言，沒有什麼是不可能的（笑）。

Evan Lin 林彦宏 (Taiwanese), Full Time MBA Student, Class of 2013

Transiting into the life of a Part-time student

2011-09-18T00:10:00.002+08:00

This year’s part time NUS MBA programme recorded one of the largest number of student intake, both in student population and proportion in relation with full time intake, and I am proud be part of this history making cohort. With the economy making incremental recovery since the last recession in 2008, it is no surprise that many people – like myself, have decided to hold onto our jobs while pursuing our MBA dream. Infact I am glad that at NUS MBA programme, we have the liberty to choose between doing a Part time and a Full time programme. It offers potential candidates the opportunity to tailor make the programme to the amount of time they can commitment.

However, the decision between a Part-time and a Full-time programme is not one without careful considerations. After all, most of us would probably be only doing our MBA once in our lifetime, thus want to maximise our investment. Prior to my decision to take up the Part-time MBA offer at NUS, I have thought of several implications on doing the MBA as a Part-time student. I would often question myself on things I would miss out on if I were to pursue the Part-time track. Am I able to juggle my work commitment, social life and student life all at the same time? Would I lose out on the chance to network with other students? Apparently, these issues can be solved if priorities are set right and the help of the art of good time management.

From my personal experience as a Part-time student, I think that it is especially important to communicate with your supervising managers about your plan on pursuing a MBA programme early. This is especially important as you might not want to fall into the situation where the lack of communication would result in the misinterpretation on your commitment to your company. Furthermore, by communicating early, it also allow yourself to have sufficient time to negotiate your work arrangements – should you need to leave work early to attend class or if you have to travel often for work.

Besides work, juggling your social life well is equally vital. After all, it is already challenging enough to achieve a work-life balance in a competitive country like Singapore, and now to add school into the equation would simply complicate matters. Surely, to say juggling so many items on your plate is not tough would be a lie, especially for young people at a dating lifestage. To sacrifice time in the evenings or weekends that were previously reserved for dates would be a big change for yourself and your partner. While I believe that good communication would hold a vital role in a strong relationship, good time management and setting priorities can also help ease any unnecessary stress. Well, at least that has worked for me. I have been sitting in the MBA lounge - yes we do have a nice MBA lounge in the business school where everyone can socialise, for the entire Saturday morning completing my tutorials, group discussion and this blog, but I will still go with my date for a movie after I have blogging here.

Prior to joining the MBA programme, I would have believed I was told, Part-time students would miss out on the chance to make new network and friends. However, I would like to clarify from my personal experience that the statement holds little truth. By being a part time student, that does not handicap one’s chance to network and socialise with fellow MBA students, be it Part time or Full time students. In my short duration in the NUS MBA, one thing I am sure is that NUS MBA office has certainly organised several events and activities that provides the opportunities for students, and even Alumni to come together to network and socialise. On top of that, students ourselves do hold informal sporting activities, events and parties that provide good chance to make new friends, and connecting with old ones. As I write, I have just came across a wall post on Facebook for the recruitment of football enthusiast to join an informal NUS MBA football team, and an email sent by the MBA office for an invite to an Oktoberfest event, the possibility for Part time students to network is simply endless. The MBA programme is not only about hitting the books, so leave your books behind and just join in the fun. I certainly have done so, and have made many friends from both the Part-time and Full-time programme.

Being a Part-time MBA student can be tough, but I am constantly reminding myself to enjoy every moment while doing the MBA programme. That is because success will only be sweet if there is something worth looking back at end the end of the journey.

Luke Goh (Singaporean), Part Time MBA Student, Class of 2015

Say a word… Flexibility it is..!!

2011-09-16T21:00:00.001+08:00

“What is the first word that comes to your mind if I say waves?” asked my friend, breaking the silence, sitting next to me on the East Coast Beach in Singapore. We had been cycling on the beautiful 10 km long path along the coast for 2 hours. Physically exhausted and mentally rejuvenated, we sat on the sand for some time and enjoyed the cool dusk breeze. It has been a month since I started my part-time MBA in NUS and since we both had a chance to spend time ("Quality time" as she puts it) together. “Energy” I replied to her question. “what if I say sea?” she continued. “Hmm… Adventure” I replied. Well, it went on for 6-7 questions till she asked “how about your NUS part-time MBA?” “Flexibility” I replied – almost effortlessly and unknowingly. She was curious to know why I said so for NUS MBA, which made me think and appreciate the flexibility the part-time MBA program at NUS offers.

"Here is why I think so:

From NUS’s prospective, there is no difference in the part-time and the full-time MBA program.
In either case, the course is rigorous – you have to meet the same academic criteria and same course work requirements to get the degree.
As a part-time student, similar to a full-time student,

you can bid for any class (even during the day time – if your work schedule permits you to do so),
you can tailor made your MBA - choose your courses in any order and number of courses you want to do in a particular semester to suit your interests, job work load and/ or other commitments,
you have the same access to all the NUS facilities – be it library, sports, or even the career services – internships or full-time jobs,
you can stand for any leadership position such as student council president, vice presidents and various clubs presidents. Would you believe me if I tell you that this year the student leader who has been elected as a Career Services Director is a part-time student?,
you can apply for exchange programs offered in collaborations with the partner universities across the globe – NYU Stern, Duke, HEC-Paris to name a few.
In addition to all that I just mentioned, you can, if you wish, convert your part-time MBA to a full-time MBA anytime after your first semester.

Hence the flexibility..!!” with a smile on my face and contentment within me that I have made a right choice, I finally finished talking.

“Isn’t it the same with part-time courses offered by other universities?” she asked. “Maybe, I am not sure”, I replied, “But, that is not the point. The point is that I chose NUS and NUS chose me, and it does provide all these opportunities. It would not be fair to take for granted the flexibility the part-time MBA program at NUS offers. The NUS MBA management has done a great job in putting part-time program at par with the full-time one. With the flexibility and the Asian prospective that this course offers and myriad of experiences and opportunities that Asia offers, NUS is the place to be. I am glad that I made this choice.”

“You have age at your side. You are just 26 and you are single so you don’t have any family responsibilities; why din't you opt for the full time course instead? Isn’t the part-time too hectic to manage along with your very demanding job? I mean, is it worth the effort? Will it pay off?” she inquired.

-to be continued… keep visiting the NUS MBA Blog… I will answer this question and others she asked in my next blog entry. I hope, through this blog, to offer an insight into the NUS MBA Program.

I now have to get back to my assignments and prepare for my marketing quiz due in one day. In the mean while, please feel free to write a comment or if you are too shy to do so, email me your comments, suggestions, or questions about the program. I will try to reply to you within 48 hours. Cheers..!!

Nipun Deora (Indian), Part Time MBA Student, Class of 2015

Of High Walls and Handy Life Jackets

2011-09-14T16:29:00.000+08:00

It’s almost two months now from when we officially started our NUS MBA journey. Looking back at the numerous events during orientation week, I think fondly of the 2 days spent in Outward Bound Singapore.

Early morning of August 1 found two buses-full of NUS MBAs en route to Pulau Ubin, an island off the northeastern part of Singapore. It felt like going to summer camp. (In the end, all that was missing was a bonfire! :P ) You can feel the excitement (interspersed with a dose of concern maybe, with some—including me—wondering how physically intensive the activities would be!)

Sunny orange undoubtedly reigned.

Resounding laughter was the order of the day.

With nearly 200 students in this year’s intake we’d want to get to know, OBS provided a great means to kick-start connections and form bonds. It’s no easy thing building rapport with new colleagues. You can’t just put groups together and expect them to feel comfortable and work seamlessly at the onset. (Ok, ok, there are exceptions. Some people do meet and click, just like that. *fingers snap*) The teambuilding session allowed us to be creative and resourceful together in a fun and informal setting.

From the line-up of activities, two left the greatest impressions on me. One had to do with water. The other had to do with heights. Nevermind that I don’t know how to swim, or that this wall-climbing would be a first. It was great to go out there, face the ‘challenge’ and put trust on yourself and your teammates. As we worked beyond our limitations and leveraged each other’s strengths, we marveled at how much we can do and how far we can go.

Barrels? Check. Rods? Check. Ropes? Check. Time to build a raft and sail!

All aboard!

Are we on billet?

Great partnership in action. Thumbs up for a successful climb!

As we navigate through the next 15 months of business school life and then what’s beyond, sure there’d be high walls, tough times. Definitely. But as we grow and get better from the experience, remember, we also have our MBA family life jackets on. We say, bring on the fun and the challenge!

The NUS MBA 2011 intake at the Outward Bound Singapore (Aug 1-2, 2011)

Carissa Caparas (Filipino), Full Time Student, Class of 2013

Days of my NUS MBA life

2011-09-12T15:00:00.000+08:00

This is what my class schedule looks like:

Monday

09:00-12:00 Marketing Management

13:00-16:00 Financial Management

18:00-21:00 Asia Pacific Business

Thursday
09:00-12:00 Statistics

Friday
09:00-12:00 Managerial Economics

When I first saw my schedule, I immediately thought – what activities could I do to fill up all this free time? I was thinking of attending Pilates and Yoga classes again; or perhaps resume tennis lessons (maybe the instructor won’t give up on me this time around); or perhaps even do wall-climbing (after OBS, I was feeling quite courageous).

This is what actually happened three weeks into the program...

Monday

06:30 Alarm goes off. I struggle to wake up but I fail miserably.

06:40 Alarm goes off again. I struggle to wake up again but I fail miserably again.

06:50 Alarm goes off a third time. I finally remember why I set the alarm to 06:30 in the first place – I have a meeting with my marketing group at 08:00!

08:10 I meet with my marketing group.

09:00 Marketing Management class starts.

12:15 Marketing Management class ends.

13:00 Financial Management class starts.

14:30 A person comes into the room to take pictures of Professor Ravi and the class.

15:00 The person is still taking pictures, mostly of Professor Ravi.

15:10 He finally gets some great shots of Professor Ravi and leaves the room.

16:00 Financial Management class ends.

16:10 I catch up with my finance group.

18:10 Asia Pacific Business class starts

21:05 Asia Pacific Business class ends.

21:10 I catch up with my APB group.

Tuesday

07:00 Alarm goes off. I struggle to wake up but I fail miserably.

07:10 Alarm goes off again. I remember I don’t have any class today and my statistics group meeting isn’t until 12:00! Why did I set the alarm so early?

12:00 I meet with my statistics group at one of the discussion rooms in the library.

13:20 We get evicted out of the discussion room since we didn’t book it and somebody else did.

13:30 We look for another room but we fail to find one.

13:40 We continue our discussion at the Reeds Café, despite the noise (we really didn’t have a choice).

15:00 Career Management Module on Personal Branding starts.

18:00 Career Management Module on Personal Branding ends.

Wednesday

09:00 The Finance Industry seminar starts.

12:00 The Finance Industry seminar ends.

13:00 I meet with my economics group.

14:30 I try to catch up on my readings.

15:00 I keep getting distracted by the emails and posts coming into my email and Facebook accounts.

16:00 The Management Consulting Industry seminar starts.

18:00 The Management Consulting Industry seminar ends.

Thursday

09:00 Statistics class starts.

12:00 Statistics class ends.

14:00 I start to catch up on my readings but somehow, I fall asleep.

15:00 I’m still asleep.

16:00 Yup, I’m still asleep.

17:00 Guess what? I’m still asleep.

17:30 I finally wake up.

19:00 I start to catch up on my readings again, seriously this time.

21:00 I go for a quick run.

22:00 I finish my run, take a shower and continue with the readings. [I told you I was serious.]

00:00 I fall asleep. [You’d think the afternoon nap would give me insomnia tonight. I thought so too, but that didn’t happen.]

Friday

06:50 I wake up even before my alarm goes off. I am awakened by the strong winds and heavy rains, and I immediately think, are classes suspended in this weather? I remember this is graduate school, not grade school.

08:40 I arrive at school in one piece, notwithstanding the aforementioned strong winds and heavy rains.

09:00 Management economics class starts.

12:00 Management economics class ends.

12:10 I meet with my statistics group briefly.

13:00 Resume writing seminar starts.

14:00 I come to the realization that my resume is not as good as I initially thought it was.

14:40 Resume writing seminar ends.

15:00 I meet with my marketing group.

16:00 Company recruitment talk starts.

18:00 Company recruitment talk ends.

Alas, the only thought I had left with me at the end of the week was where did all that free time go?!

Charisse Rossielin Cruz (Filipino), Full Time Student, Class of 2013

私がNUSを選んだ理由

2011-09-09T15:00:00.001+08:00

はじめまして。2011年度Part Timeで入学した毛利初夏と申します。小杉さんと共に日本語でもシンガポールでの生活や学校の様子など発信させていただきます。

さて、今回は「私がNUSを選んだ理由」についてお話したいと思います。

MBAを取得したい！と決めたら、次は「どこで学ぶか」ですよね。皆さん、ランキング、就職率や就職先、学生のDiversityなど様々な角度から検討されていると思います。私はシンガポールでのMBA取得を考えていたので選択肢は限られていましたが、どこも魅力的な学校で、正直悩みました。最終的にNUSに決めた理由は、学校を訪問し、ここで学びたい！と思ったからです。もちろん、ランキングや就職先、アジアに特化した授業があることなど魅力的な点はたくさんありました。しかし、決断の際、私の背中を押したのは、学校を訪問した時のスタッフの方、在校生の方、そして学校そのものの雰囲気でした。

海外の学校を訪問することは、時間的にも金銭的にも難しい面があると思います。もちろん説明会や卒業生の方とお話することでも学校の雰囲気を感じられます。しかし、実際、学校に足を運んでいただき、学生やスタッフの方と話されたり、授業を見学されたりして学校の雰囲気を感じることは、より自分に合った学校を選ぶ決め手になるのではないかと思います。

皆さんの参考になればと、Full Timeの日本人同期にも理由を聞いてみました。シンガポールの学校を選んだ理由としては、小杉さんが書かれていたように、アジア経済のハブ、Diversityがある、が多く、中には、アジアのMBAを取得することで他の日本人学生との差別化が図れるという点も挙がりました。その中でNUSを選んだ理由としては、知名度、アジアビジネスについての授業がある、見学した授業が魅力的だった、設備が整っていることなどが挙がりました。

最後に。この学校と決めてはいたものの、いざ決断の時となると悩んでしまうこともあると思います。しかし、十分悩んだ末に決断した学校では、必ず、納得のいく、充実した学生生活が待っています。

この時期には少し早い内容かもしれませんが、私の体験をお話しすることで少しでも皆さんのお役に立てればと思います。

Motoka Mori (Japanese), Part-Time MBA Student, Class of 2015

The buzz word "Networking"

2011-09-07T11:21:00.000+08:00

In the MBA school, the buzz word is “networking”. Everyone knows that networking is important and hopes to have heaps of opportunities to network. There are various avenues for networking. Social networking is what we are mostly familiar with, through platforms such as Facebook and Google+. LinkedIn is another social network platform but is more catered for business and professional networking. And obviously, most of the NUS MBA students are now connected through a common Facebook Group - NUS MBA Intake 2011 (closed group).

In a short span of one month into NUS MBA, we have been exposed to Networking Events such as formal events such as Industry and Recruitment Talks, and informal events such as Luncheons and Meet-the-Alumni dinner. And I had a great opportunity to meet Mr Yeo Keng Joon, who is from the first batch of NUS MBA cohort. He is also the Charirman of Bharat Luxindo, which currently supplies prawn and fish feeds to farmers in India. It was interesting listening to his story on what led him to start his own company. Personally, I enjoy talking to entrepreneurs. Talking and hanging out with these entrepreneurs just brings out this additional drive in me. From hearing their stories of their hardships and failures, to seeing how successful they are today, it is truly motivational.

A short side track: A few years ago during an industry exhibition, I observed a colleague who easily picked up a conversation well with any stranger he met in a networking session. I asked him whether he really liked to network because I found it difficult and unnatural to do so. He told me one key message, “Don’t expect anything from the other party in the first meet-up. Networking is about meeting once, twice, thrice in various occasions and building that familiarity."

It has been just one month into my NUS MBA life. As days go, I believe I will make many more great friends. I’m looking forward to the next networking event! Oktoberfest @ Paulaner Brauhaus on Oct 6. What’s the best therapy and temporal relief for students amidst the piled-up-tutorials? Nothing could beat the joy of having the companion of fellow students and new-found friends, chatting anything-under-the-sky, eating out and beer drinking. And all these for FREE. Amazing! I love NUS.

Kat Neo (Singaporean), MBA Part Time Student, Class of 2015

シンガポールでMBAを取得する魅力

2011-08-31T15:48:00.000+08:00

NUS MBA Blogをご覧の皆様、はじめまして2011年度に入学した小杉史生と申します。このNUS MBA Blogは通常は英語で書かれていますが、私ともう一人同じく今年度入学した毛利初夏さんの二人で交代で、定期的に日本語でも記事を発信することになりました。

記念すべき第1回目のテーマは、「シンガポールでMBAを取得する魅力」について書きたいと思います。

近年少しずつアジアのMBAへの関心が高まってきたとは言え、やはり日本人MBA希望者の多くは欧米、特にアメリカに目を向けているのは実情だと思います。

そうした中で欧米のMBAにはない魅力が、ここシンガポールにはあると思います。ここでは大きく以下の3つの視点から、シンガポールでMBAを取得するメリットについて触れたいと思います。

１．アジア経済のハブ

21世紀は「アジアの時代」であるということは恐らく異論のないところだと思います。恐らく日本企業も、今後は今まで以上にアジア地域への進出を加速していくものと予想されます。

NUS MBA Full Time Students, Class of 2012

このような状況下で、アジア経済のハブであるシンガポールでMBAを取得することは、MBAの知識そのもののみならず、アジア・ビジネスへの精通及び人脈拡大の観点から非常に魅力的であると感じます。

事実、クラスメートを見ても、今後経済大国になるであろう中国やインドから多く集まるほか、シンガポールという場所柄シンガポール及びその周辺地域からも多くの生徒が集まってきています。

そして皆さん本当に優秀な方が多く、卒業後はきっとアジア及び世界で活躍するであろうなということが想像に難くないところです。このような優秀なクラスメートと切磋琢磨して共に学んでいくことにより、経営学全般の知識とアジア・ビジネスの両面について同時に学んでいける環境がシンガポールにはにあると思います。

２．他民族国家での生活

MBAを含めた海外留学で得られる有形無形のメリットの一つとして、「多様な文化や価値観に触れながら、視野を広がる」ことが挙げられると思います。そうした観点で考えた場合、他民族国家であるシンガポールは、まさにうってつけの場所と言えると思います。

ご存じの方も多いと思いますが、シンガポールは大きく、中華系、マレー系、インド系の民族から成り、うまく共存しながら社会を構成しています。また、グルーバル展開する外資系企業のアジア・パシフィックの統括オフィスがシンガポールにあるケースが多く、街中には欧米人も多く溢れています。さらにシンガポール政府の政策及び好調な経済に支えられて、周辺地域からも多くの外国人がこちらで働いています。

こうした環境下では、「人と考え方が違うことは当然」という前提でお互いのコミュニケーションが図られるので、自然と多様な考え方が身につくと思われます。そして何より、一つの国で一度に複数の異なる文化に触れられるのは、シンガポールならではの特徴と思います。

３．安価で楽しめるローカルフード
最後はMBAそのものの本質から外れるかもしれませんが、海外で生活する以上現地での食生活は留学生活そのものに少なからず影響を及ぼします。そうした中、シンガポールでは安価で楽しめるローカルフードがたくさんあります。

先進国のシンガポールでは、日本同様にお洒落な高級レストランもたくさんありますが、一方でホーカーズやフード・コートで一食当たり300円前後で済ますことも可能です。しかも、これらのローカルフードは、前述の民族の多様性と相まって、中華系、マレー系、インド系などバラエティに富んだ内容となっています。

留学期間中は金銭的な余裕が必ずしもない中で、こうしたローカルフードは強い味方になってくれます。

【まとめ】という訳で、「シンガポールでMBAを取得する魅力」について、3つの視点から記事にしてみました。

なお、例年ですとNUS MBAに入学してくる日本人の数は、ここ数年は概ね1〜3人程度で推移してきたようですが、今年度はFull Timeで6名、Part Timeで1名の合計7名と、近年稀に見る日本人の人数です。恐らく日本国内でもこれまでの欧米重視の傾向から、アジアへ関心がシフトし始めた兆候と捉えています。

来年度以降も同じくかもしくはそれ以上の日本人が入学してくるよう、このブログを通じてシンガポール及びNUS MBAの魅力を発信していきたいと思いますので、今後ともよろしくお願いします。

Fumiyuki Kosugi 小杉史生 (Japanese), Full Time MBA Student, Class of 2013

NUS MBA 職涯中心 Career Service Office (CSO)

2011-08-29T09:02:00.001+08:00

知名市調機構Michael Page日前公布最新報告，由於全球經濟復甦遲緩、許多跨國企業正進行全球裁員計畫，也為就業市場蒙上陰影。

然而調查顯示，由於亞洲經濟持續成長，這些企業反而將在該區增聘員工，其中包括高盛集團 (Goldman Sachs)、HSBC 等知名金融業者，而新加坡正是這些企業擴大投資的首選之地。

以上報告我們通常會在網路或報章雜誌上看到，但NUS MBA學生卻不同。學校不但邀請到Michael Page 新加坡部門主任前來簡報，還提供一對一諮詢、深入分析各產業最新就業情況，讓學生能在求職過程中站在更有利的位置。

NUS MBA 職涯中心 Career Services Office (CSO) 正是這場簡報的幕後推手。事實上，邀請專家簡報只是CSO服務的一環，概括而言CSO共提供學生四項服務，分別是目標設定、職缺搜尋、履歷撰寫和社交活動，這一系列的服務讓學生能以最全面的方式和潛在雇主媒合、進而獲得理想工作機會。

目標設定

通常進MBA的學生都擁有數年工作經驗，並且已經在申請過程中展現對自身職涯發展的企圖心。因此無論是想在原先的產業尋求突破、或想在畢業後跳轉到其他產業，學生通常對自己的職涯目標都有較清楚的規畫。

但這不代表學生不需要目標設定的服務。事實上職涯發展是個持續調整的過程，隨著自身經驗和興趣累積，理想或適合的工作也會有程度不一的改變。

另一方面，清楚的職涯目標可以大幅提升求職效率。例如對金融工作有興趣的學生，若能明確將求職目標放在財富管理、投資銀行或研究等專門領域，將有利於學校提供更針對性的求職策略、進而獲得理想職位。

這一切都可以透過CSO的協助達成。為幫助學生更深入探索自己的專業和興趣、了解自己到底落在產業光譜的哪端，CSO購買了知名研究機構 Career Leader 的服務，透過一系列問答讓學生發掘出自己的潛能，進而用科學化的方式找到自己適合的職場定位。

西元前500年中國哲學家老子曾說：「知人者智，知己者明」，希臘帕德嫩神廟上也刻著"Know thyself"的銘言，這都告訴我們了解自己的重要。而NUS MBA職涯中心正扮演著燈塔的角色，讓學生能更深入了解自己、進而在後續的求職過程中發揮事半功倍的效果。

Evan Lin 林彦宏 (Taiwanese), Full Time MBA Student, Class of 2013

NUS MBA Brochure for 2012 Intake

2011-08-26T10:32:00.001+08:00

Our latest brochure is out! Scan the QR code below and download a copy to your smart phone.

Make the MOST out of your NUS MBA Experience!

2011-08-23T22:22:00.012+08:00

NUS MBA Orientation for 2011 Intake

It has never crossed my mind that one day, I would be standing at the podium in Hon Sui Sen Memorial Auditorium to address an incoming cohort of MBA students - as the Director of Graduate Studies, NUS Business School. Yet some 8 years ago, I was sitting in one of these lecture halls, feeling smug that I managed to get a much coveted seat in the NUS MBA. I could not wait to put on my NUS jacket & wished that my friends would catch me drinking from my NUS water flask. Afterall, this is the National University of Singapore.

Looking back, its been nothing short of a fantastic journey. From being a young, slim & carefree student - to literally, an admin heavyweight now :) I've grown & am still growing under the tutelage of wonderful mentors, friends & colleagues here in NUS Business School.

I've decided to pen a few lines in this blog to show support for the NUS MBA community & to share with all of you on what I have learnt here.

(1) Hone your Leadership skills! Serve (with love) in the Students Council, the Interest Clubs, possibly even the Graduate Students Society. It may take up some of your time & energies but investment in Character Building will go a long, long way.

(2) Expose yourself - to new experiences! Be bold & adventurous enough to take up a Double Degree program in a strange & foreign land, go on a Student Exchange to an exotic location or embark on a short Business Mission to learn about a new culture.

(3) Pay attention to your career. Start building your portfolio by taking up Internships, which is especially important for the full timers. Look for good jobs that fit & are in line with your passion, value employee loyalty by doing well & progressing in the company, build your competencies & hone your EQ, find your niche & competitive advantage. And if you are young & without family commitments, consider jumping at Global Opportunities. But remember, we all have to start from somewhere. Do not compare - for what $ others are getting, you do not know what they need to handle. Cherish the opportunities to learn & develop yourself into a strong, competent professional. Do your best & believe that you will get there in time. Why not & why shouldn't you, if you are armed with an NUS MBA & is willing to work hard?

(4) Network widely, possibly pick up a new language - and learn how to drink. Keep in touch with your friends. Other than being a source of comfort & joy, you will never know what valuable opportunities the friends you make here will present. Free lodging? Job opportunities? Or perhaps an introduction to your future spouse :-) Everyone seems to be scrambling to learn Chinese. But don't miss this wonderful opportunity to learn Hindi free of charge from your classmates. Imagine the competitive edge you'll have if you can reach out to the 1.3 billion Chinese Nationals and the 1.21 billion Indian Nationals :D And finally, use this opportunity amongst the safety of friends to test your alcoholic limits. Master the art of drinking but know your limit so that you do not overdose when you're really doing business.

Finally, ENJOY your NUS MBA Experience! Trust me on this - you may be so eager to start work that you forget that when you start, hopefully you will not stop till you reach 62? 70? 75? 85? Never? Cherish where you are at now, whatever you are doing. As you move up the ladder, work only gets tougher as you'll have more people to manage. I look back & wonder when my little break is going to come - while my team simply laughs at me for getting into more & more 'trouble' every year! Then again, I've learnt to cherish what I have now so I'm enjoying every moment. So should you!

Carpe Diem!

Chua Nan Sze, Marie-Antonie

The NUS MBA Double Degree with Peking University, Class of 2005

Director, Graduate Studies

NUS Business School

[NUS KM Club] Your Fabulous Voice

2011-03-25T00:50:00.007+08:00

We kicked off our activities for this semester with a session on public speaking conducted by Rebecca Low. Rebecca is a 25-year veteran of the broadcasting industry, and is the founder of Vocal Charisma (www.vocalcharisma.com), conducting workshops on Voice and Business Presentations. Not only did Rebecca graciously agree to conduct the session, but she also brought along a suitcase full of chips and fruits (Taiwanese oranges no less!). Her expectation of the session was for it to be an informal, participative event - and that's exactly what we got, with just under 20 participants huddled up as Rebecca took us through her repertoire of exercises to make all of us sound better.

'Crispy Consonants'

The session started with the participants introducing themselves and their voices (!!), by sharing what each of us like and dislike about our own voice. She then took us through the different types of vocal issues, and then laid the groundwork in terms of the building blocks of effective vocal presentation (fyi: breathing from the diaphragm, finding your middle pitch, pronounciation & articulation, pace & phrase, projection & presence, power & influence, posture & poise). After having explained the basics, we got down to the more fun (and slightly gross) part of the workshop: the exercises - of which the pictures say a thousand words! We started off by chewing and talking, thus loosening our jaws, not to mention looking half-human, half-cow in the process. Then things got more interesting, when sheets of paper towels were handed out. One was aimed at 'fronting' our voice - starting with putting two fingers under the tongue and speaking slowly. The result was a much more clear and enunciated speech. For the next one, we had to speak while holding our tongues. Ignoring the few minutes of incoherent babble that came out, at the end of it our consonants were actually sounding crisp. There were a few more exercises that Rebecca demonstrated, such as, talking while keeping your index finger between your teeth and making fire engine noises keeping your mouth open (good for when you have to present but have a blocked nose).

Voice, Body and Mind

From the voice we moved on to the body (yes, sounding good requires an all-round focus). After a few rounds of letting ourselves loose, literally, as well as playing king-kong and massaging our neighbours (or punching - depends on how good the experience was), we moved things to a more spiritual plane with some yoga exercises. The guys got on the floor for these ones, along with Rebecca, as she demonstrated 'kapalabhati' (breathing exercises) from the lighter to the more vigorous versions. The focus was on calming the mind, and feeling the breath flow through. The shift in the mood of the participants was almost palpable, as everyone closed their eyes and enjoyed the peace. The mood shifted once again when Rebecca remarked to us Indians in the group how strange it was that a Singaporean was teaching us about Yoga. The interest of the female participants went up two-fold (if not more), when Rebecca informed them of the anti-ageing effects of these yogic exercises. Rebecca also explained the elements of being a proficient communicator (and not just speaker) to us - the ABC's, i.e. Attitude, Body Language and Congruence. Finally, the most important aspect of all: integrity, to be able to connect with people to allow them to reciprocatively communicate with you.

Having sat through the session and the multitude of things that were covered in that short time, I'm sure I have missed out on mentioning many things. Rebecca kept us entertained and engrossed througout with her vocal imitations of different accents and mannerisms. During one point, while showing us how to give more impact to certain words while presenting, she took on her news broadcaster avatar. It was as if you were watching a live news broadcast - she was THAT good!

The session ended on a serene note with Rebecca displaying a greeting by Mahatma Gandhi in her last slide - a perfect send-off to the participants.

On behalf of the KM Club, I would like to thank all participants for taking time out to attend and making this event a success. Hopefully we get to interact and learn from Rebecca again in the near future. In the mean time, remember to keep it 'crisp'!!

[NUS MBA] John Molson Business Case Competiton

2011-03-24T23:52:00.006+08:00

January 2011, NUS MAB students Suwandy Lee, Diana Chang, Susan Tong, and Brian Atlee participated in the Business Case Competition held by John Molson School of Busines, Concordia University. This competition is open to business schools worldwide and is held in Montreal, Canada from 3 – 8 January 2011 during the winter season. This year, a total of 36 schools participated with 14 from Canada, 8 from US and the remaining 14 from different parts of Europe, Singapore, Israel and Pakistan.

Below is the experience sharing from each team member:

[Suwandy says]

"The preparation of the team starts in late November until early January, before each team member leaves for December holiday. The team has practiced at least 8 cases with various topics, i.e. marketing, finance, strategy, integration and human resources related issues. The preparation of the cases are very essential for team members to understand one another’s working style, which ultimately the team is able to compliment on each strengths in solving the case. We have one member who always pays close attention to numbers, one member who leads the discussion forward with focus on strategic frameworks, one member who makes sure all aspects have been covered with focus on the implementation, and the other member who contributes to key analysis discussion and being in charge of the slides preparation. The task distribution is one critical factor to ensure efficiency usage of preparation time. One drawback from the training is that most of the trainings are conducted by three members only. As such, the actual competition will require slight adjustment during the team preparation.

Based on my observation, there are three key elements required to gain scores from the adjudicators: brief and broad content (strategic analysis, framework, implementation, financial & risk analysis), impactful delivery (slides outline and presentation style), and outstanding Q&A (anticipation of issues not covered in slides). The 3-hour time is very critical in delivering high quality of three key elements above. One shortcoming of the team is the insufficient time to conduct practice to ensure smoothness of presentation and anticipation of Q&A. The team basically has strong content and broad analysis on the case, however, lack of impactful delivery in certain rounds. In addition, during each rounds of the competition, it is observed that the decision of the “key” adjudicator is very critical in finalizing the scores of both competing teams. Also there is general perception that some of the decisions made by the adjudicators tend to be a bit subjective. Hence, ability to convince the adjudicators on the team’s analysis is crucial."

[Key Learning Points and Tips from Diana]

1) Layout the various strategic options clearly and give strong reasons for recommended course of action. Be clear on the selection criterias’ used and why alternatives were not considered. Judges will try to sway your position by posing very challenging questions on your recommendation, it is important to stand firm and be consistent.

2) Give relevant real world examples. Judges love examples from the real world and the implementation experiences gained. It is powerful to use those to support your implementation plan and recommendations

3) Structure and coverage – The judges are holding very structured evaluation forms and they are grading the performance of the team according to each header (e.g options considered, implementation plan, teamwork). Therefore, it is useful for the team to follow the same structure in their presentation.

4) Financials are important – In every case possible, illustrate and consider the financial impact of your recommendations. Some of the projections may be arbitrary, in such instances make sure the assumptions used can be defended and reasonable. The team did well on this.

5) Q&A – Handle this part with confidence. Our team was pretty hesitant for this segment for the first 2-3 cases. We observed that competing teams were very smooth on this although some of their answers were complete ‘bullshit. The common theme is that whatever the reply was, it must support and substantiate the recommended course of actions. We did well on this for subsequent cases.

6) Judges dependent – The judges are primarily from Canada but can come from different industries holding relatively senior positions in business practise. The perspectives can be extremely varied. In some instances, the judges may already have a pre-established mindset on what is the ‘right’ option to choose moving forward. The way out is to make very substantiated/ justifiable rationale to your decision which may minimise the extent of ‘lost’.

7) Professional vs Casual – The team has been very professional and cordial in our presentation but we observed that some winning competing schools were more casual in their approach and behaviour. Apparently, this seems to work for some judges who probably felt more at ease with them.

8) Preparation Time – Do allocate time for practising and slides editing. This is one of the most critical steps to ensure that there is flow in the presentation. Although the team dedicated time for this segment, we skipped this part when time is running out. As a result, there were apparent disjoints for some parts of our presentation.

[Susan explains the competition format]

The format was as follows: each team is placed in a division and competes in a round robin with other teams in that division. Eight teams advance to the semifinals (the winner of each division plus the three top scoring teams outside of the divisional winners). Cases are judged by a panel of >=3 judges from the Montreal business community (sometimes high profile representatives from the sponsoring companies). Scores are given based on criteria including: identification of the key issues, presentation flow, quality of recommendations and how the team handled Q&A. After the results are revealed each night, the feedback forms are available for the teams to review. The comments/score can be highly subjective. We looked at the judge’s feedback form each night and evaluated if/how we could improve our strategies/execution for the next case.

Twelve points are split between the two teams facing each other. An outright win (>1 point win) will add 30 points to the total while a marginal win (6 vs. 5) adds fewer points and the losing team also gets extra points. Objective: Win big or lose small. Teams have a chance to sit in on the presentations of other teams. Our coach used that opportunity to do reconnaissance on what other teams did well and how we could incorporate that into our game plan.

The cases we analyzed were in the areas of: Honda extending its joint-venture with its Indian partner, growth strategy for a French light bulb company, a short case on how a mining company can navigate expansion in unfamiliar/ad hoc regulatory emerging markets, a live case given by the Canadian Trade commission on how to entice foreign companies to Canada as well as how to help Canadian businesses abroad especially China/India, and final case on how the Tate Museum should handle the bad press it got from being endorsed by BP post Gulf disaster.

Aside from the actual competition, there are several activities the hosts put on in order to foster networking amongst the teams. From wine/cheese tastings to dance instruction to a ‘Black and White Ball’, these events gave us a chance to meet other participants, share our MBA experiences and create ties that may prove beneficial in our careers. For instance, we got to know the NTU team pretty well and though we were representing a small country like Singapore, this competition has been one of few opportunities for the two schools to interact.

[Brian feels]

It is obviously an honor for a student to be able to represent their school in such a high-profile, international event. Working with a team of students from a wide array of backgrounds and nationalities adds to the learning experience in ways that simple classroom experiences are not able to accomplish. The selection process used for determining the member components of the team was thorough and I believe led to the selection of students who were compatible and relatively efficient in working together. This is a key factor to success as a team that cannot work professionally and effectively together is doomed before ever starting.

Our efforts to practice case presentations prior to the December break were a necessary step in the preparation process. Teams that expect to win or place high in the final rankings must practice in advance and must practice under strict time and process criteria. We did this with general effectiveness but perhaps without the duration necessary.

The experience in Canada is one that no one in the group will ever forget. The tension surrounding late nights, early mornings, and long days certainly adds an element of stress to the case study process that is not present in the classroom. Interaction with teams from around the world is very beneficial for the participants as ideas and knowledge are shared. The long-term benefits of the competition will be felt throughout our careers as there are many skills we learned during the event that have yet to be fully realized.

The competition provides a terrific venue of learning and growth for the participants. Ensuring that teams invest the requisite time and effort to prepare ahead of time is essential for success. Modifying the travel schedules to better accommodate multi-time zone travel would significantly improve energy levels and cognitive abilities among the participants along with reduce the risk for illness during the event. The gap that separated our team from the winning teams seemed to be coaching from the outset of preparation and having a very specific pre-set strategy. NUS has the ability to be a significant competitor in this competition if the time is invested, beginning in early November, to prepare teams for the competition.

KM club presents BCCT

2010-10-15T00:15:00.000+08:00

The NUS Knowledge Management Club kicked off the second season of BCCT workshop series with a session on presentation skills by Ms. Justine Joss of Jay Jay Communications. This series is divided into six sessions each concentrating on a different dimension of grooming the participants to handle case competitions. Participation is the essence of these sessions; these aren’t those boring sessions that you go to and come out just listening to the speaker. Ms. Justine gave tips on voice modulation, breathing exercises, tone, pace, to dos and don’ts before a presentation, how to engage your audience, body language, and eye contact.

There was an interactive exercise for every aspect covered during the workshop. The best one was when we had to say “I really wanna have fun” in angry, funny, singing, sad, and happy mode. The participants were quite sporty. I almost felt one of them would hit me when she said I really wanna have fun in angry mode (she was fierce and totally into the character!). The session ended with some of the participants going in front of the group for one minute applying all the tips given.

The second workshop was on Case Analysis and Presentation by Prof Nitin Pangarkar. This was an eye opener for a lot of us. Critical aspects like essentials of a case analysis – financials; facts; assumptions; level of optimism, and flow of the presentation were covered. Every point was iterated by showing award winning presentations. The next part was application of the things covered. We were divided into 10 groups. Each group was given the task to critique an award winning presentation and come prepared with a 15 min case analysis presentation for the next session.

The third session on “Keeping it Short” by Professor Elizabeth Boyle was the best. The session started with tips on color connotations in presentations (recommendations in RED are a big no no! and Green is a big ‘go’ ‘go’), presentation styles, body language, and level of contact with the judges and audience. The next task given to us was to critique one of the winning presentations. The professor was very sharp in her analysis; she had more points than what we had collectively. Just when you think, you know what’s coming next, there is a twist waiting to be unleashed. The twist was that we had to shorten our presentation of 15 minutes to a presentation of 8 minutes and edit the same in the next 15 minutes. One thing that we were sure of was that everyone was going to get ripped apart during the presentation! This session was full of video moments – especially when the professor was providing individual feedback. You have to be there to experience it!

Looking forward to the upcoming sessions and surprises!!

Neha Rehani
NUS MBA Class of 2012

NUS MBA Alumnus Shankar Meembat recalls his MBA journey in conversation with Anuprita Bhomick

2010-06-01T23:44:00.004+08:00

I had the pleasure of serving on the Alumni board with fellow alumni Shankar Meembat (SM), the year that he was elected President of the NUS MBA Alumni executive committee. Shankar has now been with Nokia for close to 15 years and moved back to Finland. I am very grateful to him for taking some time out of his busy schedule for an interview.- Anuprita Bhomick (AB)

Here goes:

AB: Why did you decide to do an MBA? What factors made you choose NUS in 1993?
SM: I started my career in R&D. When I was heading a product development team, I found that there was a discrepancy between what we were developing and what the sales team was selling. They would come back with orders for systems that simply did not match what we were working on. I needed to find out why it was so difficult to sell/market a product, and so I decided to "cross over to the other side". As I made my career change, I want to have that change supported with suitable qualifications and an MBA became the natural choice.
I would love to say that I did extensive research, got great references etc. before I chose NUS. Unfortunately, it was a more practical and down to earth decision. I needed to do this course part time since I could not afford to stop working. I did not want to do distance learning. That left me with very few choices - NUS, SIM, MIS. At that time, NTU did not get into my mind as a management institute. NUS was a very easy choice. I graduated in 1996, three years after I started.

AB: Where were you working before and after the MBA?
SM: When I started my MBA, I was Singapore Technologies E & E, heading a Product Development team there. When I graduated, I had just joined Nokia in a Marketing role.

AB: How did the MBA help you in your career?
SM: Quite a lot! The reason I got the job in Nokia was my mix of technical and business experience/qualifications. Nokia was at a stage where they had realized that they would not be able to keep selling based on technical specifications, but needed to sell based on business benefits. At the same time, the rapid growth of the industry and the nature of the customers (traditional government owned mobile operators) demanded that technology was still at the top of the list of requirements but the MBA was important for a customer facing role. So, the MBA helped me clinch that job at Nokia.
But more importantly, the biggest benefit of the MBA through my career was the widening of my perspective. I was able to communicate with a wider audience on their terms. I could talk RoI and Marketing perception to the CxOs and do that with confidence. I think it was simple things that I picked up and used over and over again to supplement my discussions. Simple concepts such as risk Vs. rewards - useful point to discuss when a customer is struggling on an investment decision to buy your product.

AB: Did you keep in touch with the school, your classmates? What made you decide to come back and join the MBA Alumni board?
SM: Unfortunately I couldn’t keep in touch much. I had just got into a new job when I graduated. There was a lot of travel and I moved to Finland a little over a year after I joined Nokia. The next six years I was posted overseas and had little contact with the school. When I returned to Singapore in 2003, I wanted to get engaged again and look at any means to contribute back to my Alma Mater. I had a meeting with Beng Teck and Patrick, then the VP, who invited me to join the board as a means of actively contributing. One thing led to another, and at the next AGM, I was elected the President.

AB: Can you share some funny incidents on campus?
SM: That was a long time ago…!

AB: Meaning you don’t want to rake up anything embarrassing after all these years. Ok, slightly different topic. You lived in Singapore for at least a few years before your job took you back to Finland again. What did you think of your Singapore experience and what do you miss most about it?
SM: Singapore is a great place to live in - safe, comfortable, everything that works, close enough back to my family in India and so on... Then there is the heat, the cost of housing and cars and lastly the disadvantage of a small place - there is really little variety that you can have. As a place of work, again the meritocracy is great. Singapore is plugged in, so you have access to the latest techniques and technology, making work easier to do. But then, finding work/life balance is tough.
What do I miss ? That's easy - the makkan !

AB: Thank you so much for your time Shankar. Just one last question. Care to share some words of wisdom for our current students?
SM: Academic qualifications are great - they provide the foundation and the recognition. But the true value comes from experience - your own and others. I believe you get the most from your MBA when you contribute yourself. Given the stringent admission process, you can be assured the NUS MBA students are all tops in their respective fields. So, active participation in the class room discussions, networking with other classmates, alumni - these are the things that would be most valuable to you. Don’t miss out on these opportunities. All the best!

The NUS MBA Buzz team expresses sincere thanks to our Alumnus Anuprita Bhomick for taking the initiative of conducting the Alumni Speak series

NUS MBA Social Impact Club Visit to the Philippines

2010-06-01T23:19:00.003+08:00

With support from the NUS Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthrophy, six of us from the NUS MBA and two of the MBA exchange students planned a visit to the Philippines from 4th May – 9th May 2010. During the trip, we visited five organisations in Manila and explored social issues in Philippines. We saw how different actors – Unilever, United Laboratories, Gawad Kalinga, World Bank and Asian Development Bank worked individually but yet are collectively striving towards eradicating poverty in Philippines.

The trip opened our eyes on Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) activities and how companies formulate their CSR plans. One of the key takeaways we had was how collaborative the companies were. Unilever shared with us on how they are working with other companies to collect back plastic sachets and used packaging from consumers regardless of which company the product packaging was from. We also learnt about an NGO which was formed by companies to coordinate and work together on CSR Projects in Philippines.

The meetings we had with Gawad Kalinga (GK), an International NGO, also allowed us to understand more about social entrepreneurship. Prior to the trip, the team researched and put our business skills into good use by putting together a presentation on how GK can expand their social entrepreneurship initiative into Singapore. At Manila, we made our presentation and had an interesting discussion on social entrepreneurship. During our visits, we also saw firsthand how direct selling of Human Heart Nature products by a GK affiliated company provided livelihood opportunities and income for the GK villages. The highlight for the trip would most likely be the one night stay with a host family which allowed us to experience the simplicity of life these slum dwellers had.
Another aspect gained from the trip was the bigger picture provided by the World Bank and Asian Development bank. We saw how these developmental banks work with the various governments of developing countries to cascade resources down to help the poor in a systematic, sustainable and comprehensive manner. These organisations too, placed importance on building and strengthening more public and private partnerships.

In all, this trip complemented our academic learning at the NUS Business School. Each of us saw for ourselves how collaborative efforts outweigh competition and how business disciplines such as entrepreneurship and innovation operate in profit and non-profit organisations.

Yeo Siew Mui
President, Social Impact Club

NUS MBA Alumnus Celena Yew shares her MBA experience with Anuprita Bhomick

2010-05-04T00:45:00.005+08:00

"If I ever started my own company, Celena Yew is someone I would hire in a heartbeat. Incredible work ethics, single-minded focus and a very sharp, analytical mind combined with a humility that is so hard to see in today’s world. She is one of the best gifts that the NUS MBA experience has given me. I have been lucky to have Celena as a group member in almost every one of the classes we took together during our MBA and we’ve cemented a friendship that comes along once in a lifetime. During her recent visit to Singapore, I spent some time talking to her about her MBA experience and her life beyond the classroom. Celena now lives near Los Angeles, with her husband Henry (who she met at the NUS MBA) and their lovely daughter, Erika" - Anuprita Bhomick

AB: What made you pick NUS MBA?
CY: Reputation of the school, location (in Asia), reasonable tuition fees and availability of a part-time program that enabled me to work and study at the same time.

AB: Reflections on who you were prior to MBA?
CY: With only 3.5 years of working experience before starting my MBA course, I considered myself still relatively inexperienced but the burning desire to conquer the corporate world was very strong. I felt that I could go further and wanted to learn more about the business world. I was not satisfied with just working, I wanted a more fulfilling life. Since high school, I had set my mind to obtain a masters, so in 2001, I was ready to realize my ambition. Then, MBA was becoming the pre-requisite for most jobs and I knew that I would need to obtain one if I were to remain in the rat race. True enough, if we look at most job advertisements now, having a degree is no longer sufficient, they want someone with an MBA plus relevant working experience.

AB: How the MBA has changed you, opened doors for your career?
CY: During the 2.5 years working and studying part-time for MBA, I became a tougher person and I believed even my productivity level took a quantum leap! Juggling work and studies were by no means easy, moreover when I was working in McKinsey then, as a Senior Information Analyst. Many studied for an MBA to join blue chip consulting firms like McKinsey, BCG, Bain, etc.. but as I was already working in one, I wanted an MBA so that I could venture into a more hands-on role in the business world. The pace in McKinsey was very fast and top that up with aiming to get the perfect score every semester, I did push myself to the limit and evidently it was no walk in the park. Between going back to the office to work on weekends so that I could still keep a good performance and completing my school work, the stress did get to me sometimes. I remembered that during the first year of my MBA course, I didn’t get the chance to even watch TV! Yes, TV was out of my life for one year and leisure was totally thrown out of the window. But I was lucky enough to have a few colleagues in McKinsey who were very supportive of what I was doing. They provided me morale support and cheered me on all the time. Top that up with a dream team of MBA course mates who were always ready to give their best and never say die attitude when it came to presenting the best projects and cracking the toughest case studies, I was rolling!
With the MBA, it did help to make-up for the shortfall in my work experience. Before joining McKinsey, I worked with the biggest commercial bank in Malaysia for 2 years before I joined McKinsey Kuala Lumpur office and then moved to McKinsey Singapore office. When I completed my MBA, I had 2 years experience in the financial industry and 4 years experience in the consulting industry. Still prospective employers are always looking for more. The MBA was like the icing on the cake! The MBA gets you a foot in the door especially if you have fewer years of experience. When you have the whole package (academic credentials and working experience), most prospective employers will at least call you for an interview.
Towards the end of my MBA course, I landed a job with the Scottish government investment promotion agency based in Singapore. Together with the Country Manager of Singapore, we setup the office and established Scotland’s official presence here, to promote investment flows and business alliances between Scotland and Singapore, slowly expanding to South East Asia. I was also given an additional Asia Pacific role supporting the Director of the Asia Pacific. During my work with the Scottish government, I got to experience Michael Porter’s Competitive Advantage of Nations theory at work ( something which we all spent considerable time learning during the MBA). After spending 3 years with the Scottish government, I yearned to go back to the corporate world, and decided to join a Singapore firm which was a distributor in luxury goods. It was a regional role covering 10 countries in Asia Pacific. It was during that stint that I truly put my MBA knowledge into work, as I was involved in costing, pricing, vendor negotiation, joint ventures, performance monitoring and also planning. After a short tenure with the company, I relocated to the States to join my husband. I got my present job with an American company, partially because I have an MBA. That was one of the nice to have criteria listed on the job advertisement. My current boss, the President of the company is an MBA alumni from UCLA and I remembered we did spend some time talking about my MBA experience during the interview!

AB: Do you think there are certain skill sets which the MBA helped to hone and make a part of you forever?
CY: It solidified my business knowledge and gave me a clearer picture of how to approach and solve business issues. All the case studies sharpened my analytical skills further. I have been commended by a few of my bosses that I was good at dissecting problems and coming up with solutions. This is thanks to the numerous assignments and problem-solving case studies which were part of the MBA.

AB: Were you involved in a lot of student activities?
CY: As I was doing the MBA on a part-time basis, there was really no time to join many student activities but I was fortunate to get to know a bunch of MBA course mates who have become more than just my project mates. We have continued to keep in touch and become such good friends that I believe we have cemented lifelong friendships. When we were doing the MBA, we were in the same “boat”, steering and rowing hard to reach the same destination. During those trying times, we managed to bring out the best in each other and many of them gave good support and advice to me. I still remember during the first year of my MBA, I was working so hard, going into the office on weekends, even Sundays that my course mates who were already “seasoned” in the corporate world, said, “Celena, there’s more to life than work. Work is never going to end, but the company won’t close down if you stop and enjoy life a bit”. Well, today, I truly agree with that golden piece of advice!:-)

AB: Tell me of a funny incident during your MBA
CY: One of the heels of my stilettos broke and came off totally when I was getting off the NUS shuttle bus. To make matters worse, it was the day we needed to present a Marketing group project. I placed an emergency call to a classmate who was on her way to school to get me a new pair of shoes so that I didn’t have to “limp” to the podium to deliver my presentation! Luckily, the shoes arrived in time and our team did an excellent presentation. It made me think about how resourceful, dependable and important team members really are.

AB: How was your experience living in Singapore? What do you miss most about it?
CY: I fell in love with the efficiency of getting things done in Singapore. Everything just seems to be so organized, well planned and gets done without much hassle most of the time. People have a much better sense of urgency! I always tell people how I fully adapted to living and working in Singapore, after only my first 3 weeks in Singapore compared to 3 months when I worked in Kuala Lumpur and 1 year in the States!
I miss my friends, the type of jobs (regional roles), the food and pace of life very much. Everybody is on the “Go” mood and “kiasu” which is good when you want to strive for continuous improvement in your career. Without competition, sooner or later you will get complacent, and before you realize it, you are left behind by the rest of the world.

AB: What’s your advice for people just starting on their MBA?
CY: Be mentally and physically prepared if you want to do really well. Of course, there are those who go into the MBA for the knowledge and don’t care much about their scores, but still you need to put in effort to complete the projects. Nobody likes a “free rider” in their project group!

The NUS MBA Buzz team expresses sincere thanks to our Alumnus Anuprita Bhomick for taking the initiative of conducting the Alumni Speak series

Branding as Recipe for Future Success of Asian Businesses

2010-05-04T00:07:00.002+08:00

On Monday (05 April), the NUS MBA Marketing Club welcomed Martin Roll, a business and brand strategist, for a presentation about "Business & Brand Leadership" in their beautiful, new Mochtar Riady Building. Martin (INSEAD MBA alumnus) is a thought-leader on value creation through brand equity and the author of the book Asian Brand Strategy which was named "Best Business Books 2006” by Strategy+Business magazine.

In an inspiring and interactive session, Martin started his talk by asking the participants to name leading Asian brands. After several minutes of discussion, the about 45 strong group of full-time MBA students, faculty members and guests from the corporate world agreed that there are only a few leading global Asian brands - if we exclude Japanese brands as well as some brands from South Korea such as Samsung and LG.

Importantly, the most profitable Asian companies focus on intangibles such as human capital, exploiting network effects and creating synergies based on brands, rather than investing in tangible assets according to a McKinsey study. However, many Asian companies are challenged to follow this approach due to their path dependency with less focus on innovation, dominance of large diversified conglomerates, excess capacity and Asian specifics regarding IP and trademarks. Thus, the challenge for Asian companies is to build brand equity in order to capture a larger portion of the value creation in the value chain and in order to catch up with Western icons such as P&G, Apple, McKinsey or Goldman Sachs.

Martin enthusiastically shared with the group his opinion about the weaknesses of the Marketing function such as a lack of marketing representation in the boardroom through a Chief Marketing Officer. He outlined that functional attributes, points of difference, emotional values and a strong brand are needed in order to create a real connection and a strong global iconic brand. Having discussed the basics, the group learned from successes such as Banyan Tree, Amazing Thailand campaign, Jim Thompson, SK-II what is needed to develop a strong brand. HSBC, Lenovo, Hero Honda, Laneíge, Huawei, Uniqlo were further examples to illustrate parts of strong brand leadership of Asian companies.

For the students of Asia's global business school NUS, the example of excellent brand leadership at Singapore Airlines helped to deepen their learning about self-motivated creativity (success & outperformance) within an organization which is mainly instilled by organizational alignment in a three step process: building awareness, generating acceptance and sustaining commitment through performance management, feedback as well as intensive training.

At the end of the presentation, Martin successfully inspired the participants to take an active role in shaping a bright future for Asia and for Asian companies through mastering Marketing and leading Asian brands to great regional and global recognition. Thereby, they would follow many Asian leaders who return from overseas back to Asia in order to leverage their global mindset and experience creating arising global brands and building highly-profitable businesses through brand equity.

For those of you who are interested in more information about Asian Brand Strategy, I would recommend to watch the 5-minute speech of Martin on Youtube or to consider buying Martin's awarded book Asian Brand Strategy

Markus Graf
NUS MBA Exchange Student
Marketing Club

Futsal Fury 2010

2010-05-03T23:46:00.009+08:00

Not even driving rain could curb the enthusiasm of the more than 100 participants who came to NUS for the 2nd Annual Futsal Frenzy tournament on 10 April 2010. Twelve teams signed up for the tournament, which featured small-sided soccer games played on the Sports and Recreation Center’s Handball courts. Corporate teams from NTUC Income, Société Général, Panasonic Semiconductors and People’s Association joined student teams from the Marketing Institute of Singapore, the Nanyang MBA, and the NUS MBA to raise money for the Kids Inclusive Club of the Singapore Disability Sports Council. Two NUS undergraduate teams and one NUS faculty team also joined in the fun. In the end, the teams contributed a total of S$ 2,156 for charity!

Although the wet conditions caused an initial delay, the professional referees soon took the pitch for the first matches. Grouped into three divisions, teams played through a round robin to determine who would advance to the single elimination playoffs. After surviving two rounds of fierce playoff competition, Société Général and NUS EKZ, an NUS undergrad team, faced off in the final. Both teams started strongly; however, the talented and younger NUS EKZ showed more stamina than their French counterparts, building up a lead that SocGen could not close. In an equally exciting third place game, NTUC Income and the NUS undergraduate team FC Lightning Strike played to a draw, bringing about a penalty shootout to determine the winner. The whole crowd circled around Pitch 2 to watch the nail-biting spectacle. NTUC Income emerged the victors after Lightning Strike missed their final shot.

Thanks to smooth organization, great officiating, good sportsmanship, and a tasty catered lunch provided by Amici, the tournament proved to be a resounding success. We would like to thank all teams for their participation and the following organisations:

1)NUS Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy for their strong support for our event;

2)Red Trees for sponsoring t-shirts for each team;

3)The Terrace: Fruits and Juices for providing us with bananas for the event;

4)Amici for sponsoring 50% of the costs of the food and;

5)Public Utilities Board for giving us bottled water to quench our thirst.

See you all next year, rain or shine!Please click here for more photos of Futsal Fury 2010

Adam James Reinhardt
NUS MBA Class of 2011
Social Impact Club

CONSULTANT UNPLUGGED 2010 - A Confluence of Ideas

2010-05-03T23:18:00.006+08:00

“This is going to be a busy day.” I was talking to Caleb from the MBA office after picking up some things from him. It was the afternoon of 17th March 2010, the day the MBA consulting club’s flagship event was held. Consultant Unplugged, as the event is called, is the Consulting Club’s main event this year and there have been active preparations for it in the past few months. Indeed, today will be the busy day where all these preparations will turn to fruition.

Consultant Unplugged is designed as a panel discussion involving unrestrained interaction between the panelists, the moderator, and the audience. Although there is a main topic, the spirit of the discussion is such that anything that is related to theme, the relationship between consultants and their clients, is fair game. This year, we were very honoured to have four esteemed panelists: Mr. Stephan Muench, the Head of Deutsche Post DHL In-house Consulting; Ms Jane Horan, Founder of The Horan Group; Mr. Sam Wong, Director at Ernst and Young; and Mr. Steve Saxon, Engagement Manager at Mc Kinsey & Company. Without a doubt the strongest panel we have had for years, and this is matched by the size and diversity of the audience. Almost 120 participants, (though it sure felt more than that!) comprising students from NUS, NTU, and SP Jain, made up the bulk of the audience.

I was given that task of ushering in the panelists as they arrived at the venue. Initially, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Will the panelists remember to turn up? Will there be any prima donna to manage? Fortunately, my worries were unfounded as all the panelists turned up on time. I also had the opportunity to have personal conversations with some of them as I ushered them to the discussion room Not bad at all, especially considering that some of them rushed to the venue from the previous appointments or even came directly from the airport after a working trip. So much for horror stories of ultra-aggressive and impersonal consultants that have sometimes been heard.

After some eager anticipation, the event started with Dr. Jayanth Narayanan serving as the moderator. He skillfully created a relaxed and informal atmosphere to the discussion; and the panelists opened up and offered their opinion without reservation. Coming from four different types of firms, the panelists gave their individual perspectives to the questions. Some of these responses complemented each other; and some were contrasting in their positions. But in all cases, the responses were sharp, critical, and totally unadulterated. It gave the organizers and the participants an insight into the culture of the different firms, and the different types of projects, colleagues and clients that one has to manage as a consultant.

The audience participation was equally uninhibited. Wave after wave of questions flooded the stage throughout the discussion. The moderator even had to select and merge questions so that the panelists could address a larger number of the queries within the limited period of time available. Even at the dinner held after the discussion, the audience continued to interact with the panelists. Mr. Muench was very much in demand and he didn’t even get to start his dinner until almost 10pm! There were also groups of students who gathered among themselves to share their views on different topics. The place was practically bursting with energy and ideas; and from that moment, I knew that this year’s Consultant Unplugged is an undisputed success.

The interaction between the panelists and the audience lasted till past 10pm. It would have gone on longer if not for the auditorium closing for the day. As the students left the building, the volunteers congratulated each other for a job well done. As expected, it was indeed a busy day. However, the sense of satisfaction gained is worth every ounce of energy and effort that we put in. Somehow, I get the feeling that this time next year, when NUS once again hosts Consultant Unplugged it will be an equally great success.

Lee Pak Kiong
NUS MBA Class of 2011
Ex-co, Consulting Club

Celebrating Cerebration

2010-05-03T10:25:00.009+08:00

Cerebration

Organization Span: 8 months

Annual Participation: About 500 teams from over a 100 business schools across the world

Arguably one of the biggest business case competitions in the world

Probably one of the few B-school competitions of this scale driven entirely by the students

Definitely the biggest event organised by NUS MBA students.

Each year a few dedicated individuals take up the herculean task of continuing this great tradition started in 2005 by NUS MBA students. I had never heard of Cerebration before I came to NUS. But then I hadn’t heard of much else of the MBA world either; so as I sat there listening to the Cerebration 2009 orientation in my first semester I could not understand what was the big fuss about.

Flash forward: August 2010.

My involvement in Cerebration 2010 started right from the sponsorships phase. But it wasn’t easy. Markets were very slowly beginning to recover, and companies didn’t want to spend on what wasn’t absolutely necessary. And we saw the need to change the format of the event, and go truly global by getting large MNCs on board as sponsors.

The rest as they say is history. Only we were all so busy organising the event, that no one really had the time to write it ;)
8 months of sleepless nights working from sponsorship proposals to writing cases to coordinating judging & feedback session to making event plans. Nearly 60 MBA students worked at different stages of the event. With big brands on board, our onus had gone up manifold. The event had to live up to the stature of its sponsors. Planning, organising and attention to detail became the key drivers.

The change in format also demanded innovation. The event theme was changed from blue to Black & Gold; and all collaterals, brochures, letterheads, website etc were redesigned in this theme. The sponsors were involved in judging from early stages of the competition. One-to-one feedback sessions were organised between the semi finalist teams and their sponsors before they flew in for the Semi finals event. A new sponsorship concept, Event Sponsors, was introduced to Cerebration. New features were added to the Cerebration Website. We rejuvenated the Cerebration Facebook group and created a Cerebration twitter profile; and actively used these 2 as our channels of PR & communication.

In the last few weeks preceding the event, there were about a 100 Cerebration emails & countless phone / skype calls every day! My friends frequently joked that I would die if I didn’t stop to take rest. And there were times when I thought they were right.

The final 2 days of the event went really well, and appreciation poured in from all the Grand Jury Members, Sponsors and the School authorities. It was heartening to see that the general consensus among these parties was that Cerebration 2010 had taken NUS Business School to the next level.

But much before this, as I sat there in the audience on the finals, listening to the first presentation, I got goosebumps. I suddenly realised that despite all setbacks & hardships, we had done it.

I knew then, that Cerebration 2010 was a success. And I knew then, that it had been worth the effort.

And yes, I have realised, too well, what the fuss is about.

Click here for all pictures, videos and updates for Cerebration 2010

Shipra Gupta
NUS MBA Class of 2010
Co-lead, Cerebration 2010

Success @ ISB: NUS wins VCIC

2010-03-30T18:29:00.007+08:00

The team (From left): Alexander Freberg, Shashwat Dhakal, Jayson Huang, Arthur Leung and Yeung Chia Li

Shashwat Dhakal shares his experience of the VCIC tournament and the joy of victory

It was sometime in late November, when we all were very busy with many things (an MBA norm), that the MBA office sent out the invitation from ISB to participate in the inaugural Asia VCIC competition. First of all, a quick google on VCIC competition told me that this is not the usual business case competition. Secondly, I started thinking about how to go about building a winning team. While I was thinking about the competition and the probable team, I got a mail from Chia Li offering me a place in a team that he had already made. I looked at the members in the team and I thought to myself, now this looks like a winning team! I immediately signed up and hence the journey started.

Nothing happened after we signed up for the competition. We all got very busy with all the semester end happenings of a typical business school and at the end of November, we left for the vacation. Back in school in January and we were told that the planned internal competition for the VCIC selection had been moved and so had the planned VCIC competition at ISB. A quick check of the calendars suggested to us that the competition at ISB would fall smack in the middle of the mid term break. We decided to give the VCIC competition a pass as most of us had prior commitments for the mid term break. Then suddenly there was a lifeline thrown to us! The competition at ISB was to take place a week after the mid terms. We wrote to the MBA office immediately and the MBA office along with the professors was very kind to give us a chance.

The surprise and happiness turned into misery and anxiety in a hurry as we had our first meeting about how to go about preparing for this competition. This was something completely new to NUS Business School so we had no one to go and talk to. Although we had an investment banker and a fund manager in our team, we soon figured that we would need to work extra hard to figure out the VC industry. The first couple of meetings were particularly frustrating as all of us tried to figure out a way forward. Slowly but steadily, we started to find a way with sheer hard work and perseverance, we managed to come up with an idea of a template.

After a month or so of hard work, we finally boarded the plane to Hyderabad. I am sure we had many things in mind when we boarded that plane. As for me, I was thinking about what would be a good enough showing at ISB. Given the fact that ISB had held internal rounds and that the team at ISB had already had an experience with negotiations with real entrepreneurs, I was thinking that a 2nd place should be a good achievement. We had no practice with negotiations and we had never even written a term sheet before. We had however talked to a couple of VCs and with a past VCIC winner which I believe was extremely helpful.

The airport at Hyderabad was surprisingly wonderful. We had the driver waiting for us and in the middle of the night we reached ISB. The first thing we noticed at ISB was that for a business school, it was heavily guarded!!! Finally after the security let us in, we reached Student Village 1 where we had the organising team members from ISB waiting to welcome us. We had been assigned rooms within the student apartments and I must point out that the facilities at ISB were wonderful.

Day 1

The day was spent exploring ISB and planning for how we were to go about analysing three business plans, prepare questions for the three entrepreneurs, write a term sheet for one of the business plans, negotiate with one entrepreneur and answer questions from the VCs in the end. At 5 pm that day, we were given the business plans. Soon after, we found ourselves locked into one room analysing the business plans. At around 2 am, we all concurred we needed to call it a day and so we headed for our rooms.

Day 2

Next day, we were at it again and by the day’s end, we had pretty much decided on the two business plans to pick. We had planned to concentrate on the best two and then start to think about a term sheet for one of those two. We were running a couple of hours over our planned schedule but we all knew we had no choice. All it meant was that the time allocated for sleep had suddenly shrunk by a couple of hours.

Day 3

The day of reckoning was finally here. This was the day when we got to actually meet the entrepreneurs and validate our assumptions of the business plans. After listening to the three entrepreneur pitches, we found ourselves asking questions to each one of them separately. We had 14 minutes with each entrepreneur and the VCs would judge us on how we performed in these sessions. The overall weight for these due diligence sessions was 33%. We did very well with the first entrepreneur team. The major confidence buster was with the second entrepreneur team. This was essentially the plan that was last in our preference order. Something extraordinary had to come out of this session for us to back this plan, if at all. We ended up doing very badly. In fact we were unable to fill up the entire 14 minutes we had. The only positive out of that session was that it pretty much solidified our intention of not picking that business plan to back. The third session went very well. This was the plan we had decided to back contingent upon the interview with the entrepreneur. During our interview, we pretty much reinforced our decision to back this business plan.
There was a catch though! We had thought of a valuation of 8 million for this business and the entrepreneur was expecting a valuation of 30 million. We had to pull out some trick in the term sheet to convince the entrepreneur to go with our valuation. Sure enough, we went back and within the 2 hours given to us, we pulled out a trick in the term sheet which we believed was fair to us as well as the entrepreneur.

The negotiation round started well with the entrepreneur intrigued with our valuation. This was completely expected and we had a plan to convince him. We managed to get him on our terms and suddenly 8 minutes into the 14 minutes assigned to us, the entrepreneur agreed with the term sheet. We looked at each other and wondered about how we could keep the session going for another 6 minutes. It is never a good sign when the entrepreneur agrees so early. In fact, it tells the VCs that we gave the entrepreneur too good a deal. Somehow, we managed to pull out another term from the term sheet and we kept the session going for the full 14 minutes. The Q&A session that followed was pretty uneventful as we pretty much managed to answer all the questions that were thrown at us.
After the negotiations, we could go and take a look at how the other teams were faring in their negotiations. After looking at a couple of other teams, we were pretty convinced that we wouldn’t be last (very comforting!!!). Finally, the moment of truth arrived and we were all ushered into another hall where all the entrepreneurs and VC were present. The 3rd place team was announced as IIM Bangalore. By this time we had pretty much figured out that we could be within the top 2. The 2nd place team was announced and that was not us. In fact at this point, I started to have apprehensions about our chances because the ISB team hadn’t figured in the 2nd and 3rd place. Finally, when the winning team was announced, we were pretty much stunned! All kinds of mixed emotions prevented at least myself from showing much emotion. All that hard work and perseverance had paid off and that was the best part of this win for me. The congratulations and handshakes soon followed and suddenly, we were the first ASIAN VCIC Champions!

Looking back I think that we had tremendous complimentarity within our team. We also had very good plans about how we wanted to go about the entire competition and we pretty much stuck to it. We also managed our time pretty well. Looking forward to the final round at the University of North Carolina, I think these skills will hold us in good stead. We certainly need to improve to get up to the level of the US teams that we will be pitted against. These schools have been doing the VCIC competition for the past 15 years! However, I think we will be looked as underdogs in the international round. As for me, the fact that I will be representing the NUS Business School at one of the premier competitions is very humbling. As we did at ISB, we won’t go in with very high expectations. I think we will focus very much on getting the basics right and playing to our strengths as a team. Very much like the ASIA round, I feel that if we manage to execute our plan well, we should come out with our heads held high, irrespective of the result.

Shashwat Dhakal
MBA Class of 2011

KM Club Event CEO Speak

2010-03-30T18:17:00.004+08:00

The NUS MBA Knowledge Management club hosted Udhay Mathialagan, Founder and CEO of Insight Infrastructure, Singapore to come talk to the MBA cohort. Mr. Mathialagan has extensive experience in the telecom infrastructure industry and shared his experiences as an entrepreneur and a CEO.

Mr Mathialagan talked about how he started the company and their initial plans for growth. The company constructed many telecom towers in the North-Eastern region of India which is considered a difficult region to do business in primarily because of the lack of infrastructure and adverse socio-political conditions. After successful operation for a couple of years, the company has now been sold off.

Looking back at the past two years, Mr Mathialagan commented on some of the early failures they had in securing capital. His advice to emerging entrepreneurs and aspirants among the cohort was to approach business with a thick skin and be prepared to handle rejection. He also stressed on the importance of networks and stated that good opportunities or simply lucky breaks can come from a wide network. He gave us a couple of examples where he got opportunities to present his ideas to financers only through personal contacts. He did however observe that once his company had some early success, getting more contracts was not too difficult.

Mr Mathialagan also touched upon the importance of having good partners in a start-up business. He stressed that good partners do not necessarily agree with each other all the time but offer constructive ideas and feedback, serving as good motivators to each other. He also mentioned the importance of having contrasting personalities in the top management as being a driver for new ideas. Commenting on his own leadership style, Mr Mathialagan said that he did not compare himself to any particular leader but was influenced by many. He said that each leader needs to carve out his own individual style of management and leadership. He did say that passion, drive and self belief were qualities that any good leader needs to have.

The Q&A session was very interesting with questions from the audience about Mr. Mathialagan’s future plans and his brief role in a private equity firm. After the audience had picked his brains to their satisfaction, Mr Mathialagan was presented a token of appreciation by our Vice Dean, Professor Quek Sir Aik. The session concluded with some refreshments where the MBA students got to interact with Mr. Mathialagan personally. On the whole, the session was a success with the students hearing from a CEO about his experiences within the telecom industry and as an entrepreneur. Mr Mathialagan’s success story inspired the budding entrepreneurs within the batch as well as those who aspire to reach the upper echelons of management at young age!

Rajas Karandikar
President, NUS KM Club

NUS Business School Excels in Asian Stock Pitch Challenge

2010-03-16T14:28:00.009+08:00

Colors of HOLI at NUS Business School

2010-03-16T13:23:00.009+08:00

NUS Business School has always had a history of celebrating cultural festivals with amidst great excitement and enjoyment. Holi, the Indian festival of colors was no exception. The event started off with Mihir Mohite describing the history of this festival and the celebration. See below Mihir singing “Chalat Musafir” as other members of the cohort pitch in.

Then Rahul and Kapil shook their legs to the very funny lyrics of “Padosan Teri Murgi”. One must say these two members of NUS MBA are becoming quite a dancing pair.
Rahul and Kapil were then joined by Neha and Geetali as they performed to a medley of Holi Songs.

After the performance it was time for the event everyone waited for. There were colors of every kind, some of which took days to come off. Everyone joyously immersed themselves in the celebrations and got painted in red, green, blue, pink and what not by their batchmates.

For more pictures please click on this Link.

No Indian celebration is complete without good food. And it was delicious as we ravenously gorged upon the Indian delicacies.
All in all, it was a very memorable event made even more special by the enthusiastic participation of batchmates from other countries as well. Mandy, our classmate who hails from China had this to say:

"It's my first time to experience such a wonderful ''HOLI CELEBRATION"! The interesting thing is to put pigment on other people's Hair, Faces, Necks, Arms and Legs! However, my favorite sector is that many Indian Guys Pulled a hesitated and dressed girl to the "Treatment Ground" and pour a whole barrel of Colored Water on her, yes! Colored Water, Pink, Purple, Yellow, Red, Green, Blue and Orange~Everyone became crazy as naughty child.
I like this Indian Celebration, Happy Holi Celebration! It's like a Minority Race celebration in China called “the Water-Sprinkling Festival of the Dai”. People pour as more water as they could on others. The person who get the most water on is said to be the happiest one for the future year.
Happy Holi! Already looking forward to the next and greater one!"

Kudos to Neha and her team for this fantastic event.

Nirmalya Maitra
MBA Class of 2011

The first Li Ka Shing Professor of the LKY School of Public Policy

2010-03-16T09:41:00.003+08:00

‘Hello Mr. Morgan Freeman, can I have your autograph please?’

The auditorium was in splits of laughter as Mr. Kofi Annan related this amusing incident when he was staying incognito in a remote Italian hamlet, after his retirement as the UN Secretary General. Mr. Annan relates, ‘I had gone to the local bar, hoping that no one would know me here. But when this Italian man came over to me from his table, I was afraid I had blown my cover. I was only too happy to play Morgan Freeman after he said that’.

Mr. Annan is the first Li Ka Shing Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, a tremendous honour for the school and for NUS. This was his first public talk, held at the University Cultural Centre Hall, NUS on 26th February 2010, and as NUS MBA students, we had special seats reserved for us. The topic of the day was Asia and Africa: Past Lessons; Future Ambitions.

Mr. Annan talked about Africa as the next Asia. Though endowed with tremendous natural resources, Africa, sadly, has also been bequeathed with a multitude of social and governmental problems that threaten to stall its hopes.

Talking about governance, Mr. Annan observed how governments typically spend the first year in office undoing the policy changes of the previous government. They then are left with only a few years in which to implement their own agenda, part of which will again be undone by their successors. This crippling inefficiency must be done away with, and political parties must have their broad national policies in alignment, said Mr. Annan.

And yet, he said, there was hope for Africa. Citing Botswana as one of Africa’s great developmental success stories, he told the audience of the efforts being made worldwide to liberalise and invigorate African economies. He went on to talk about Asia’s responsibility towards Africa, of showing it the path that Asia itself has followed on the road to economic progress. At the same time, he cautioned that Asia’s involvement in Africa could be controversial if not responsibly executed, since Asia is still a developing region, and competitor.

In the last part of his talk, Mr. Annan took questions from a very enthusiastic audience who queued up at microphones in the auditorium with questions. Dean of the LKY School, Dr. Kishore Mahbubani moderated the questions, which ranged from ‘Would you ever think of being the President of Ghana’ to ‘Should we have an African Union, along the lines of the EU’. Mr. Annan answered each question patiently, at times intensely, and at times very tongue-firmly-in-cheek.

It was a great opportunity to listen to a Nobel Peace Laureate and a man who has been hailed as one of the greatest leaders of our times. Mr.Annan enthralled one and all by his profound sense of commitment, his deep insights stemming from a vast and rich experience and sparkling humour. Peppered among his answers to questions, was one such amusing incident. He was once asked, ‘God made the world in 7 days, why does the UN take so long to make even minor changes’. Not missing a beat, Mr. Annan replied, ‘He had a unique advantage. He worked alone. He did not have a security council’.

Mihir Mohite
MBA Class of 2011

Chinese New Year Celebrations at NUS Business School

2010-02-27T14:30:00.008+08:00

NUS MBA Chinese New Year Celebration: Together in Diversity

This Year of Tiger came early for NUS MBA students. On February 5, the NUS MBA Student Council staged Chinese New Year Celebration at Munchie Monkey. Chinese New Year marks the start of new year on the lunar calendar and the start of spring. Though, it was initially celebrated in mainland China, but with the dispersion of Chinese descendents around the globe, this festival is then celebrated all over the world. Hence, this year Spring Festival in NUS also celebrated diversity. Students from other countries such as Canada, India, Indonesia, Korea, and the Philippines to name the few were being involved with the celebration. We had good food, good entertainment, and most importantly good company… After all, the gist of Chinese New Year celebration is indeed togetherness.

Neda Tanaga
MBA Class of 2011

Every family in China celebrate Chinese Spring Festival,called "Chun Jie" in Chinese. "Chun" means spring season promising a fruitful year, and "Jie" stands for festival.
Chinese New Year celebration at the NUS Business School organized by the NUS MBA students Council on 9th Feb was a fantastic experience. Students from all over the world enjoyed famous Chinese Food and appreciated many colorful performances, such as the Lion Dance which is believed to be able to dispel evil and protect people from danger, and also a kind of Chinese Opera performance called "Huang Mei Xi" and so on.
People in celebration felt that they enjoyed the Spring festival with their own family. Greeting and wishing "Gong Xi Fa Cai" predicts a proper New Year for all people in the celebration.

Huang Mandy Jingjing
MBA Class of 2011

START THE NEW YEAR WITH A BANG!

2010-02-09T17:06:00.010+08:00

By: Roland G. Lim

Last January 31, 2010, twenty eight NUS MBA students participated in a school-sponsored activity that demanded quick decision-making, intense teamwork and thorough execution. No, it was not your usual business case competition or career services workshop, it was something, let’s say, more life threatening. It was Paintball – a game where teams would shoot down targets (and of course, each other) with dye-filled gelatinous bullets known as paintballs.

The activity, which was organized by members of the NUS MBA Sports Club (Byun Sang Jin and the guy who had too much free time to write this article), was held at TAG Paintball at Turf City, Singapore. The games started at 12 pm but before that, each participant was asked to accomplish a waiver form to “sign his/her life away”. Of course, helmets and vests were provided to ensure safety and to make shooting other people with paintballs less unsettling and more fun!

The participants, which belonged to the MBA 2008 and 2009 cohorts and the exchange programs, were divided into four teams. Two teams were on the field during each game, and the mission for each team was to shoot down two targets on the opponent’s side and then be the first team to bring back an ammo box to home base while all hell was breaking loose. All-in-all, seven games were played. Apparently, the team that won the most games was the one that had the most students from the 2008 cohort (not sure if this is statistically significant). In the end, the paintball activity provided an avenue for teambuilding and camaraderie among the cohort members. Each team had to strategize, work together, and motivate one another to accomplish their mission. Except for a few bruises and scratches, all participants came out alive and had fun but seriously needed a bath afterwards (hey, it was a sunny day). Surely, the activity was a good way to kick off the Student Council’s activities for the year.

Roland Lim,
NUS MBA Batch of 2011

The John Molson MBA International Case Competition

2010-01-31T22:45:00.019+08:00

It all started by an email from the MBA Office inviting people to participate in the John Molson Business Case Competition. The students needed to submit an essay, their resumes and also solve a case which was judged by our distinguished professors.

About a month after the whole process started, the team was announced; Jaimin Shah, Hugo Rufino, Suveer Rajpal and of course, me. Then started the rush for flight tickets, visas etc. Hugo was chosen our team leader and he did a good job ensuring everything went well.

A little more details on the competition itself "The John Molson MBA International Case Competition" is a not-for-profit event organized by MBA students from the John Molson School of Business at the Concordia University. The competition is open to top business schools worldwide.

The competition format is a round-robin tournament consisting of five business cases. With three hours to prepare, teams of four students analyze and evaluate unpublished business cases using the skills, knowledge and experience they have acquired from their respective MBA curricula. Students rely on their own abilities as they are without the aid of tools such as PowerPoint and the internet. The final product is a hand written presentation (!!!) that demonstrates the students' ability to dig into the problem and develop a feasible solution. Once preparation is complete, they present their strategic solutions and a detailed plan of action to a panel of senior business executives.

Once we got to Canada, we were exposed to the -25 degree cold, which was rough coming from +30 degree Singapore! This was the first obstacle. Second, the 13 hour time difference; took us all a day to adjust to the jetlag.

Competition Begins:
The 36 schools participating in the tournament were divided into 6 groups of 6 each. NUS Business School was group 5 along with the University of Pittsburgh, University of Ottawa, University of British Columbia, Dusseldorf School of Business and Laurier School of Business.

Round 1 – University of Pittsburgh
This was the first case that we competed in and it was against the team from the University of Pittsburgh. The case was regarding a business expansion plan and was very interesting but it being our first time, there were some nerves during the presentation and QnA. Regardless NUS Business School won this round with a score of 6-5.
Round 2 – University of Ottawa
The case was about a family owned business in the Eastern Bloc and the problems this business now faced with the 3 owners expectations changing as the business grew. NUS Business School won this case too with a score of 7-4.
Round 3 – Laurier School of Business
This was a short case ( for 90 mins instead of the usual 180) and was leaning towards the finance side as it required us to come up with an investment strategy for a client of the bank we were supposed to be working in. Jaimin was the main contributor to this one. Unfortunately we lost this one 3-8.
Round 4 – Dusseldorf School of Business
This was the longest case of the tournament, which went on for 6 hours end to end. It was a ‘Live’ case meaning it was regarding a current problem faced by a company and the company executives were present to explain the problem to us. This year the company was the Montreal Ice Hockey team, the ‘Montreal Canadiens’ and the team owner Mr. Jeff Molson along with his VP, Marketing was present to explain the case to us. It was a marketing case and was a very good experience for all of us. Being new to Ice Hockey culture we tried our best to understand the intricacies of the case and gave our recommendations, but it didn’t go down well with the judges and our team lost this one 3-8 too.
Round 5 – University of British Columbia
The final round and we were all charged up. The case was a finance case again with a lot of exhibits and was about a small winery which faced a problem of losing market share and a takeover bid. We tried our best to understand the issue and managed to grab a win with a score of 6-5.

Thus the round robin ended with NUS Business School winning 3 of 5 cases but not making it to the semi final round. We were disappointed but at the same time were very happy we had the chance to compete in such a tournament where we all got to expand our learning and interact and network with so many people from different schools.

Looking Forward:
This was the first year the NUS Business School participated in this particular event and we got to learn a lot from the experience. We won 3 cases out of the 5 we competed in and we made a lot of new friends in the MBA community.
We can now contribute a lot to the team that goes next year as we now know the format of tournament well. Some important things we observed are:

1) The schools that participate in this tournament have a dedicated coach with whom they usually practise for 2-3 months prior to the competition. The coach usually carries over from year to year, in fact we saw coaches who had been coming in year after year for the last 10 years or even 15 years. This helps the team to hit the ground running when they get here.

2) Apart from analysis, skills in drawing and writing on transparencies are important – without the use of laptops or PowerPoint, the team has only basic transparencies to convey their ideas to the judges.

3) Tackling the -25 degree temperature and the harsh Canadian winter is no easy feat - One of our team members kept getting a nose-bleed every night due to the extreme cold – I’m sure the team next year will be better prepared

All in all, it was a great experience, one which will be cherished forever. We are proud to have represented the NUS Business School at this tournament.

Gaurav Kundarap

Student Council President

Batch of 2011

Reflections on the first semester

2010-01-25T14:59:00.008+08:00

Today as I look back at the term gone by, the last few months spent (/squandered) at the MBA come back to me in flashes. All that excitement of wrapping up the transfer of responsibilities and KTs at work, a short but sweet trip to my hometown and packing for the exciting trip ahead to Singapura. It all seems as if it happened yesterday…

I started the “brave” (someone’s bravery is someone else’s foolishness) MBA journey with a sense of accomplishment (for I had managed to crack into one of the best MBA programs in Asia Pacific), and the next thing I find myself doing is trying to walk on a tight rope about 50 feet above the ground and shaking vigorously out of fear. Every time, I glanced down, I saw a bunch of nincompoops egging me to go on and telling me not to give up. Was all of this a bad dream?? No!!! This was three day team building exercise at the OBS. It gave me my first two lessons at MBA:

1. Your team could get you killed!!!! (or could have bring you safely down which they eventually did)

2. Never do such a foolish thing in life, EVER again!!!! (Does a week qualify as EVER?)

Little did I realize then that I had to spend a good year and half with these buffoons and that some of them would become my best friends…

Next I see myself sitting in my very first MBA class. It’s all so clear in my failing memory of the grey matter between my ears. “Whoa!!!!!”, I thought “It’s nice to be back to class again after a gap of almost a decade, old man!!”. The module was “Financial Management” and the Prof., probably younger than me, started by talking about innocuous looking topic of “corporate structure” and “securities”. However, in no time I had missiles coming and hitting me from all around from smart twenty-somethings: credit default swaps, mortgage backed securities, derivatives, futures and options. I distinctly remember wondering, “Am I the only one for whom all this is over head transmission (OHT)??” As time would tell, the answer was “depends”!! (For further clarifications you may want to follow the link)

The other classes were no better. Well, at least the first few!

I pretty much cursed everyone during the first week at MBA for helping me make it to the program. If my parents really wanted me do a MBA, couldn’t they have been more sensitive by teaching me 4P’s of marketing, Game Theory, Supply and Demand, dual entry system, put and call options, etc. in my kindergarten rather than teaching me “Jack and Jill” and “Baa, Baa Black Sheep”?? What wrongs did I do to those friends who pushed me into this quagmire of jargon and knowledge?? Why did the bank foolishly lend me the money to pursue an MBA - just because the NUS MBA program was number 1 in their list of approved programs?? Was I mad at the world or the world just wanted to kick me hard in the “you know where”??

Then there was sheer madness of activity around me. CSO sessions with presentation experts, personality counselling, club introductions, placement talks (am I crazy? Placement talks in the very first term into the program?), resume review sessions, etc. and not forgetting the gradually creeping loads of professor’s expectations (as if I cared a lot about it...haha!!!).

That said, the drive to make Cerebration-our annual business plan competition a big success, the passion to turn CSR-Kaleidoscope into a triumph, the amazing participation of multiple nationalities at the international day, the crazy gusto to be the foosball king were the highlights in the journey that gave one a feeling that an MBA is what one makes out of it. Thanks to persuasive abilities of some of the office bearers, I even managed to assist them in organizing some club events and probably learnt a thing here and a thing there.

Some enlightened soul back home had told me, “MBA is a time to find what you really want to do in life. It’s as much about learning from other people’s experiences as delving within oneself and finding out ones true colours” (How clichéd!!! ). It has been a term of learning from others and digging deep within me, and now I think the soul back home was right. The constant prodding by the second year junta, “CAP doesn’t matter” and “you will know what you really want to do” helped a lot. I have (I think) toughened myself to attack the second term with new energy and hope that this term I will be at least a step closer to finding out what I really want to do.

Karunesh Pandey
Batch of 2009

CFA Competition

2010-01-25T10:10:00.008+08:00

Our team emerged second in the CFA University Investment Research Competition (UIRC). Held on 12 December 2009 in Singapore, nine teams pitted their skills and knowledge against teams from five other schools.

“Opulen Investments”, our team, comprising Geetali, Jaimin, Kapil and Kirti, wrote an investment report and presented recommendations on Wilmar Internationl Ltd. We wrote a comprehensive equity research report on the company and then pitched the stock to the eminent judges from GIC, CIMB-GK, Apollo Capital, Booz Allen Hamilton and Business Times.

Mr Kevin Gin from Pacific Star Group and Professor Lam Swee Sum guided us through the preparation stage, we then underwent Thomson Reuters training at their office and vocal training by Ms. Rebecca Low. The vocal training was a first for all of us; we learnt the methodologies for a better voice, pitch and tone. In addition to this, NUS also organized a meeting with Investor Relations at Wilmar’s office which was essential for us to make our recommendations.

Our first deadline was for the report - this was an all-nighter! Multiple cups of masala tea kept us awake, and the next day we had to submit our presentation. We went right to the wire by submitting exactly at the stipulated time limit.

After several sleepless nights, the day finally arrived. We were dressed in our best attire and had been preparing all night for the presentation. While Kapil and Geetali kept revising their speech for the presentation, Jaimin and Kirti kept thinking about answers to potential questions. We were excited and confident. Being the last team to present, we were hoping fatigue didn’t seep into the judges. We took the stage and it went just as planned. We thought the judges went easy on us in the Q&A round, or maybe we were well prepared! Kapil and Kirti were our in-house CPO (Crude Palm Oil) experts after several nights of researching on this interesting commodity.

We ended second, and were happy with the result (though not exhilarated)! We celebrated with a dinner at one of our favourite restaurants that night and bumped into another finalist team.

I would thoroughly recommend that others take part in these events. Overall, it was a great experience working together as a team, understanding our strengths and weaknesses and the learning that we will take back eternally.

Geetali Kumar
Batch of 2009

The year gone by...

2009-12-08T17:31:00.006+08:00

Thanks to a chance discovery by Dr. Lalit, the fact that I blogged had reached NUS before I had. Whatever he had to say at the time must have been something good, for soon after our orientation, I was approached by one of our seniors & then Editor of the Buzz.

He asked me to write a one pager for OBS and I happily obliged. Writing was a passion and as far as I was concerned, this was going to be my 2 cents contribution to the NUS MBA community and the blog; and the only extra-curricular activity I would do in the next 17 months. If there ever was a bigger misconception!

Before I knew what hit me, it was December, the new Council had taken over, and I found myself as the de-facto editor of the buzz. My qualifications for the post of Editor: 3 articles that I had written until then. Naah! I guess it was just that no one else wanted to do it. And no one asked me if I did!

My transition meeting was short and sweet.

“It’s a tough job because people just don’t write. Nobody’s interested in this blog”

CRASH! I could hear my hopes, of winning the “Student Editor of the Year” award amidst a thunderous applause, falling down the staircase from the canteen all the way to the HSSML Library. If nobody wants to read it, and nobody wants to write it, then why on earth do you need an editor for it….why not just shut it down…Would have been the natural question to ask. But alas my slow brain! [No wonder I never get those case interviews right!]. Instead a brilliant idea revealed itself to me. That I will do my best to keep it alive and kicking!

What a piece of sheer genius you may say! For I used to be a writer, I knew nothing being an editor. That too, when there was no writing team or set pattern of things to be written. I really had no clue how to get others to write or what to ask them to write. I did not have a plan. Did not know if I could even make one, and even if I did, what will be my end deliverable? What was I planning for?

And hence started my long and seemingly endless journey of scouting of bloggers, keeping a tab on every possible event that was interesting enough to be covered on the blog and following up with people endlessly to cover it.

I had a few simple rules and targets. I coaxed, encouraged, nagged [urrmm yes!] people to write. I got exchange students, Cerebration finalists and even alumni to start writing for the blog. Some people wrote it just for fun, and some as personal favors. My favorite and most memorable bloggers however: Alex and Ruhaini.

Alex, the only voluntary blogger I had in the entire 1 year. And Ruhaini, who had laughed heartily before agreeing to write. I think she took pity on me. And thank God to her for that, no one else was ready to cover that event! :P

But it was all fun. I made many new friends with people I wouldn’t have otherwise known that well. I got many names, the nice ones that I actually heard: “Blog girl” , “article girl” , “write-up girl” and most recently “Ms. Buzz”. The not so nice ones, may be some of my peeved writers would share ;)

I remember walking through the corridor one afternoon and asking everyone I met to write for the blog. On second thoughts that might have been a nightmare I remember. And I must been running around NUS Business School, screaming for bloggers! :P

A year later, with many new friends, many new names and many memories that I will cherish for a lifetime I think all the effort was totally worth it. And with hits increasing from 5000 to close to 18,500 in 1 year, followers from 4 to 28; many new Search & RSS features and the highest number of write ups on this blog, I think the blog is now definitely out of the “Nobody cares” segment.

As for my own writing, I am very good at writing emails now you see! :P

Now in my last write up as the Editor, I thank my numerous bloggers, from NUS MBA and other schools. Without them, I definitely would have had nothing to write in this address today. And I wish Mihir, the new editor, Vice President - NUS MBA Student Council 2010, all the very best for this unique, sometime funny sometimes frustating.. but always cherishable journey!

And all I have to say to you, dear faithful readers, is that this is a very interesting blog to read & write; to keep memories of our MBA alive, to get a peek into the latest @ NUS MBA, to leave your own stamp on the history of NUS MBA pages as a writer.

Be a part of the Buzz community..write for the Buzz, it’s a fun place to be!! :)

Keep Buzzzing!!

Shipra Gupta
Former Editor- NUSMBABUZZ
Class of 2010

Cerebration 2010 - Asia's Global Business Challenge

2009-12-05T23:06:00.001+08:00

Three leading organizations with unique business challenges seeking innovative expansion plans! One common mission: to tap the best MBA talent of the world. Welcome to the Largest Business Plan Competition in the world...

Welcome to Cerebration 2010!

With close to 500 registrations from 115 Universities across 30 different countries, Cerebration 2009 was a remarkable achievement by the MBA students of NUS Business School. Cerebration has built a reputation for itself in the business school community, the world over and is now looked upon as a benchmark for all such events around the world. In its sixth year since inception, Cerebration now aims to elevate itself to the next higher orbit.

Traditionally Cerebration has focused on the international expansion plans of Singaporean SMEs. However with 5 years of experience of organizing Cerebration on a global scale, we believed it was time that Cerebration started benefiting global organizations. This would align Cerebration with NUS Business School’s vision as Asia’s Global Business School. This strategic shift has seen Cerebration associating with some of the biggest brands in their respective industries globally. With brands such as BP, Lenovo and Vestas supporting Cerebration 2010 and sponsoring the cases, the cases this time are far more interesting and challenging. Focusing on Energy, Environment and Technology, these cases represent some of the most contemporary challenges faced by businesses worldwide.

Having associated with some of the major global brands, Cerebration is all set to move to the next level. We are experiencing tremendous enthusiasm in terms of participation from teams around the world and expect to far exceed last year’s registrations count of 500. Cerebration 2010 also has a superior planned media coverage spanning the entire ASEAN region and even beyond. We are already in process of working out partnerships with potential media partners for both print and electronic media coverage. We are also working out a partnership with potential knowledge partners to raise the overall quality of the competition.

We hope that Cerebration in its new avatar will be an exciting journey for the participants, sponsors and the organizers. We welcome all of you to Cerebration 2010 – Asia’s Global Business Challenge and wish that this biggest battle of mind, matter and mettle proves to be a memorable experience for all of you.

Best Regards,

Abhishek Prakash

Co-Lead - Cerebration 2010

NUS & KPMG - Battle on Cricket Grounds

2009-11-22T00:54:00.007+08:00

As I passed through the Ceylon sports club near the Farrer Park MRT about a month back, I wondered if I will get to play in this lovely ground.

This small dream of mine came true quickly when I heard that the NUS MBA team is going to play a friendly cricket match against KPMG at the very same venue. I was also excited because of my extreme love and passion for the game of cricket and felt it could prove to be an exclusive opportunity to catch up with some folks from KPMG to find out more about their operations and work culture in Singapore.

Coming to the match, we had an early start by 7:30 am on a nice warm Sunday morning and due to overnight rains, the outfield was wet. Srini and I opened the bowling and did well to restrict them in the first five overs but the first breakthrough came from Eesh’s gentle off-spin. Despite getting wickets at regular intervals and some tight bowling in the middle by Bilal, KPMG batters played out of their skin to post a challenging 199 of 25 overs. As usual being MBAs from a top B School we showed how to organise and plan quickly in order to end up as the winners.

NUS got off to a shaky start but Kashif along with Rahul ensured there were no further hiccups and put on a brave partnership that brought the 100 up in no time. But once Rahul got out, Kashif started running out of partners and he finally lost his wicket for a well made 75. After that the asking rate climbed up rapidly leaving us with hardly any chance and NUS was eventually bowled out for 25 runs short of target with 10 balls to spare.

However it was a well fought match and I enjoyed the great camaraderie within the team, which will make me miss NUS and its great students even more as my exchange term comes to an end by early December. I would also like to thank the MBA office as well as all my team members for this great day.

-Surya Raghava Srinivasan

MBA Full time Exchange Student

University of British Columbia

MBA Table Tennis Tournament

2009-10-27T20:30:00.010+08:00

The NUS MBA Sports Club continues to provide great sporting events, this time by holding the MBA Table Tennis tournament on Sunday, October 18th. The event had a great turnout as more than 20 students from both the first and second year came together to interact and compete in good spirit.

It was very exciting to see the high level of play throughout the tournament. The action was intense as our MBA cohort has highly skilled players competing in each of the categories: men’s singles and doubles, women’s singles and doubles, and mixed doubles. In the end, the winners came out and took their well deserved spots on top of the winners’ podium.

The event was a success and once again allowed MBA students to take a break from their busy academic lives, and come together to connect and mingle in an informal setting.

The club would like to thank all student participants and congratulate the winners once again. Special thanks to Eesh & Sitanshu for organizing the event.

-Arthur Leung

Class of 2011

Tournament Winners

Women's Doubles

Winners - Swanzel & Lin Jun

Runners Up- Hima & Geetali

Men's Doubles
Winners - Mayank & Lokesh

Runners Up- Eesh & Jaimin

Mixed Doubles

Winners - Hima & Eesh

Runners Up - He Yue & Naeemuddin

Men's Singles

Winners - Eesh

Runners Up - Wang Jianqiang

Women's Singles

Winners - Lin Jun

Runners Up - Swanzel

Career change? Be focused

2009-10-27T02:38:00.003+08:00

Radhika, Class of 2007, talks about how to make a career switch post MBA

When I decided to pursue an MBA it was primarily to enable a career change, a move from Information Technology to Consumer Marketing. This was just a gut feeling though, something based on my passion for creativity, communications and the idea of "selling-ideas". I knew that without hands-on experience in Marketing it was impossible to make a career-change unless I was willing to start from scratch. Being realistic I obviously did not want to start at the bottom again, compromising the 4+ years of work experience I had.

And so when I made it to the MBA programme at NUS Business School, I was intent upon specialising in Marketing. Everything I did in my two years at NUS was in one way or another driven by my goal to make this shift possible.

The best decision was to take advantage of the exchange programme at HEC, Paris. Not an easy decision, mind you, considering the additional investment required. HEC had a specialised track for Marketing which covered a lot of interesting electives as well as a core Marketing track around New Product Design & Development. Some due diligence must be done though and so I contacted some of the students who had been through it. Almost everyone had great things to say about the curriculum, methodology and the professors at HEC and today I can vouch for it too.

So the idea of my future dream role was shaped while I was in Paris, exploring the extensive world of Marketing. On hindsight I realise how important it was for me to define that perfect role so that when the day came and I was sitting in front of the interviewers at OCBC Bank, I could spell it out and find the right fit.

Now let me clarify that working for a Bank was definitely not something on my mind. I mean I could imagine going back to the Information Technology industry but not a Bank, not the financial industry for godssake! That’s how much I hated banks.

But as a career-changer I had my feet on the ground and was very keenly aware of my options. Every time I applied for a role, I knew what were the odds of getting a favourable response. Consumer Goods is of course a dream industry for Marketing wannabes but considering my background and age, I knew I was not their ideal candidate. So regardless of industry I kept looking for the right role. I gave almost every industry a chance, taking “We wish you luck” letters in my stride.

So even when OCBC Bank (a Bank!) came on campus I went for their career-talk and came out feeling slightly motivated. This is what caught my fancy and respect for the company- “We recognise that there are talents from outside the banking industry and we pride ourselves in having welcomed people from diverse backgrounds into the programme”

Bingo! For more than 2 years now I’ve been working at OCBC Bank in a Strategic Marketing team for the Premier Banking segment and it has been a great learning curve.

If you have come so far, it might seem like a great bollywood story where things just come together and everyone lives happily ever after, but of course in reality it was a great struggle. Without spelling out what I might have done right or wrong, I’m sure my journey could provide guidance to those who have a similar journey ahead of them.

As a potential career-changer, above all, an MBA gives you the skills, the exposure, the network and the time (22 months in my case) to figure out where you want to be and what you want to do.

-Radhika Z

Class of 2007

CSR-Kaleidoscope: Behind The Scenes

2009-10-21T00:19:00.006+08:00

I woke up on Oct. 8th, 2009 with butterflies in my stomach. This was the day I had toiled tirelessly for the last 5 months, when ‘CSR Kaleidoscope 2009’ would make its debut. It was over lunch at the NUS Business Canteen in May 2008, that Kathrin (executive committee member of the Social Impact Club) and I decided to host a CSR conference targeting MBA students from leading Business Schools in Singapore. And today was the day when this idea was going to unfold itself into reality.

I would liken the experience of conceptualizing, planning and organizing CSR Kaleidoscope to that of a roller-coaster ride. There were times when things would magically fall into place making it seem ‘too good to be true’ and at times there were unexpected surprises enough to give me a minor heart-attack! The key challenge for me was to get ten panelists for the 2 panel discussions for the event. Trying to coordinate the availability and time of ten prominent people from different industries on one day for an event was not an easy task. With help from Prof. Bob Fleming, Mr. Thomas & Minju from Singapore Compact and some NUS Alumni, I managed to get most panelists confirmed by August end. I struggled the most in trying to get corporate panelist for the discussion on ‘Socially responsible advertising’ and later realized why-being a grey area without any defined criteria on what is ‘socially responsible’ I guess no company wanted to be caught on the wrong foot in a public forum like ours. The final panelist for this panel discussion confirmed just 3 weeks before the final event and I heaved a sigh of relief.

My other major concern for the event was that of student interest and attendance. Being the youngest club of the NUS MBA Student Council with no ‘history’ or ‘flag-ship event’ to boast of and being one of the ‘non-mainstream’ student Clubs, generating interest amongst the MBA students would be a task by itself. To tackle this, I had devised an aggressive promotional strategy for not the NUS MBA students but also for students from the target Business Schools in Singapore.

My first step was to talk at length about the objective and rationale behind CSR Kaleidoscope to the relevant person of contact at all these schools. This was followed by an e-flyer on why CSR is relevant to MBA students and what is in it for them at the event. Within a week, the registration e-flyer giving details about the program and the distinguished panelists was mailed out to all the schools followed by a poster that was given to them to be put up at strategic locations within the campus.

I had one first year MBA student in-charge of following up with each School on the interest level and registrations from their students. This was followed by ‘count-down’ e-flyers that were sent out on 7, 5, 3, 2 days and 1 day from the event. I believe this strategy worked as was evident by the audience of 200 that turned up for the event.

As the event unfolded on the evening of October 8th, I was in a state of daze – this is what I had been working towards over the past few months and I found it hard to believe that it was actually happening. Details of the event have been vividly described in a separate blog by my counterpart at Nanyang Business School, Jenny Costelloe. From an organizers point of view, I was very happy and relieved at the final outcome – the event had turned out exactly the way I had envisioned it to be when I set out with this goal 5 months ago. The panel discussions, the audience turn-out, the dinner and networking post-event, everything went as planned.

The feedback I received from the panelists, faculty, students (NUS and other schools) was unanimous-that it was a ‘great event’! I guess these words are like music to the ears of any person organizing a major event, especially when it is being done for the first time. It was worth all the effort and time that had been invested and I am all set to finally start my job hunt and look forward to embark on another exciting phase of life post-MBA.

- Dr. Vikram Jaisinghani

Class of 2010

(CSR-K Organising Committee)

A Borderless Night:International day @ NUS

2009-10-20T00:08:00.004+08:00

Why do people come to Singapore on exchange? To travel, learn about Asian cultures and to escape the cold are all logical answers. My reason is a bit personal and different. Being an Asian who had spent many years in North America, I needed to reacquaint myself with Asia and Singapore seemed like the perfect location. However, charting on unfamiliar territory is not always fun. Coming to a classroom full of strangers and sitting alone at lunch are not the experiences I had envisioned. After juggling mixed feelings and undergoing withdrawal symptoms, I finally decided to try to mingle and attend a social event. In hindsight, I realize this decision has been the turning point of my exchange experience. As corny as it sounds, I feel at home at NUS now.

The MBA International Day is an annual celebration organized by Student Activities, NUS MBA Student Council. This year, it was held on a Sunday, October the 4th. The Guild Hall at the NUSS Kent Ridge Guild House came to life for the occasion. First and second-year MBAs, joint-degree MBAs and a few exchange students came together to celebrate the event. The students, some along with their partners and children dressed up in their national costumes, showcased their rich cultural heritage and celebrated the diversity of the NUS student population.

The night started with a welcome speech by Prof Nitin Pangarkar, NUS MBA Academic Director. The two emcees Jennifer and Luke spiced up the night with their wit and humor. Presentations about various countries like Indonesia, Ireland, Brazil and Canada allowed the student body to understand and appreciate the uniqueness of each nation. It was interesting to learn that Indonesia is comprised of thousands of islands and also how Rio de Janeiro won the bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. The subtle differences between USA and Canada were also explained. Dance and song performances from different countries and varied musical genres took the audience to another level of excitement. Shipra enthralled everyone with her rendition of Kathak while Vivian performed a wondrous Chinese dance.

The final portion of the night was aptly titled ‘Crossing Borders’. Bilal’s song entitled ‘Dosti’ or ‘friendship’ seemed to capture the hearts of all present, no matter if they understood the language or not. Music, like friendship has the magical power to break down barriers and unify people. The night ended with a mesmerizing fusion of musical genius – a Carnatic Raag (Srini) combined with Spanish beats (Rashid) and Pakistani pop music (Bilal). Crossing Borders could very well be the theme of the night – a borderless world that celebrates cultural diversity and religious harmony. Overall, it was truly a night to remember, not only because of the flawless performances, but more so because it brought the diverse student body together.

-Preeti Adhikary
MBA Exchange Student
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

CSR-Kaleidoscope

2009-10-15T00:22:00.003+08:00

Jenny Costelloe, President of the Nanyang Business School-CSR Club shares her experience and key takeaways from the CSR-Kaleidoscope Conference 2009

I’ll be honest; I went to the Kaleidoscope 2009 event with mixed expectations: was this going to be yet another presentation on corporate “do-gooding” and donations, or would the NUS Social Impact Club be able to demonstrate a similar interpretation of CSR to my own (which I’ll explain later)? I’m pleased to say that from start to finish, the conference content was a careful balance of “the what, the how and the why” of CSR – and not a single mention of a big cheque!

Starting with the warm welcome of coffee and snacks, the atmosphere was friendly, inviting and open – exactly the right tone for dialogue on CSR. After a somewhat lengthy, formal welcome of all the dignitaries, speakers, guests and so on (I know, I know – it has to be done!), the conference programme kicked off with an insightful and personable keynote speech by Ms Jessica Tan. This impressive lady was wearing two hats at the conference: one, as Singaporean MP and Chairperson of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Finance, Trade & Industry; and, that of the MD of Microsoft in Singapore. This was the perfect keynote speech, encapsulating both the willingness of the Singaporean government to address CSR and the exemplary CSR activities of one of the best known brands in the world. Indeed, the messages conveyed by Ms Tan were, “We’re Singapore and we’re ready for CSR” and, “Look what an MNC can do for society and still be profitable!” A very powerful, positive lesson for all of us.

Having whet our appetites for what companies can do with CSR, Ms Tan’s speech was shortly followed by a brief, enthusiastic overview by Professor Albert Teo (Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy) of the Social Impact Club’s enterprising activities of the last year. Then we were treated to a humorous yet intellectual presentation on CSR, by the eminently likeable Professor Bob Fleming, who set out to explain just what CSR is and what it can mean for companies. Fuelled with plenty of ‘real’ examples, Professor Fleming’s presentation ended with a five-point justification of CSR: it has moral appeal; it gives companies a licence to operate; it protects and builds a company’s reputation; it relies on internal values and creates a legacy of CSR; and, it’s about sustainability. Difficult to argue with!

Next came the much awaited first panel discussion. It was about the “social responsibility of advertising” and the panel line up featured some of Asia’s experts on the subjects of CSR and of communications and marketing. (I’ll admit that alarm bells were ringing because I feared that the discussion was going to go down the route of “CSR is a communications activity”, but thankfully I was wrong again…). Capably chaired by Mr. Jorg Dietzel, the first panel discussion was thought-provoking, insightful (especially with regards to the snapshots of the CSR policies of Tiger beer’s brewers) and at times controversial (“it’s OK for companies to exaggerate the benefits of their products in advertising”). But, the panellists were well behaved (disappointingly!) and made constructive contributions to the discussion, rather than fling accusations at one another. It was clear even in this short debate that the role of the company is difficult to define – where does it stand between moral, social guardian and profiteering, capitalist corporation?

The second panel discussion had a different but equally credible line-up, chaired by Dr. Jayanth Narayanan. The topic this time was about the competitive advantage of CSR and the panel aptly included representatives from banks, a construction materials company, a shipping firm and a coffee manufacturer – along with the head of the Singapore CSR Compact. The conversation was again informative, enlightening and stimulating. Comments such as “CSR is about how you make your money, not how you spend your money” confirmed to me that the days are over when one could soothe one’s corporate conscience by handing over large sums of money to charitable causes. Indeed, this was further confirmed by comments that proved the real benefit of CSR: while one organisation weathered the recent financial storm better than its competitors and attributed this relative success to sustainable business practices; another organisation felt that CSR is one of the main reasons its current employees stay with them, and potential employees apply. Yet more compelling thoughts for the audience.

The event closed with many heartfelt thanks – for the guest of honour, for the presenters, for the panellists and chairs and, most deservedly, for the organising team who brought this high-calibre event together. As President of the CSR Club at another business school in Singapore, I left the event feeling inspired by the content and the discussions, reassured that the large audience shared my belief that CSR has to be at the core of businesses of the future and, if I may end as I began, with a touch of honesty, I was just a little bit jealous that the NUS Social Impact Club had succeeded in delivering the kind of event that many similar clubs will only talk about!

- Jenny Costelloe
MBA Participant
Nanyang Business School
President, Nanyang CSR Club

Learning & Fun

2009-10-11T22:13:00.007+08:00

2009 Alumni conference and Oktoberfest

Being one of the first few to arrive at the Shaw Alumni House Auditorium for the 2009 Alumni conference, I signed up with the front desk personnel and got my registration confirmed. It was very obvious from the start that a lot of detailed planning and coordination had been employed to organize this conference. I saw some of my fellow MBA course mates from the organising committee ushering in the guests and ensuring that guests were registered promptly upon arrival. The Global Alumni Network Office (GANO) had indeed performed a top notch job in putting together this conference.

The theme for this conference touched on the prospects for the global economy in 2010. The panel of distinguished alumni speakers were to address this and other related issues. The speakers on the panel included Philip I. Overmyer, CEO of Singapore International Chamber of Commerce, Kee Poir Mok, former managing director of Private Wealth Management, Goldman Sachs (Singapore), Teresa Lim, Managing Director of IBM Singapore and Charles Yong, Senior Client Partner, Korn/Ferry International.

The event kicked off with the Deputy Dean, Professor Kulwant Singh giving a quick update on NUS Business School and how much it meant and contributed to the growth of Singapore as a whole. This was followed by the speakers from the panel addressing issues such as the moving of markets into Asia, the Singapore property bubble, economic growth, the challenges ahead, the use of specialised IT tools in organizations, and why leveraging and collaborating with others and adapting to change in organizations is an important feature for organizational growth and success. I found the perspectives given really honest, thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating.

I was also able to gain a better insight into how much economic growth was to be expected and which were the booming industries to work for upon graduation. I knew that I had done the right thing by attending this conference. ;) The speakers handled the question and answers session that followed with tact and insight and I was definitely able to learn a lot from them. The discussions covered an array of interesting topics ranging from the China’s economic growth to whether it was advisable to invest in the Chinese economy. I felt that this could give me the edge that I needed when faced with an investment decision in the future.

The end of the Alumni Conference marked the beginning of the eagerly awaited Oktoberfest. We got our own free beer mugs from the front desk at the entrance as we entered the arena. The free flow of beer was the main highlight and motivation for the not surprisingly huge turnout that evening. ;) I However, there was one thing working against us that day which was the really long queue for the beer and food that stretched on endlessly. Nonetheless, the organizing committee had done an incredible job of coordinating and planning this event. And once the technical hiccups were resolved, there were loads and loads of beer that people could get their hands on!

Not only was the evening filled with fun but there were also opportunities to meet up and network with our senior Alumni members and recently graduated BBA students. I had the chance to hear from Mr. Alan Soh, a senior Alumni member of the BBA class of 1981 who felt that events such as this gave him the opportunity to meet with younger people from the business school and share his experiences. He recounted how much the business school has grown since his graduation and the rapid changes that had occurred in terms of size and infrastructure. It was really interesting to hear from an experienced Alumni member who had witnessed the growth of the NUS business school first hand.

It was indeed a great opportunity for all the students of the NUS Business School to gather together as one, take a welcome break from the rigours of our business school lives and rejoice with great food & loads of beer. There was a general sense of camaraderie that enveloped the entire student cohort that had gathered that day. The Oktoberfest had definitely succeeded in drawing us all closer together.

As the event finally drew to an end, we bid our farewells, snapped our photographs to remind us of the good times that we had spent together on this occasion and brought our memorable beer mug souvenirs back home with us. This marked the end of an amazing experience that I will never truly forget for a really long time.

-Thiruvarsu Damodharan
S3Asia MBA Program
Class of 2010

MBA Badminton Tournament 2009

2009-10-08T01:16:00.003+08:00

NUS MBA Badminton Tournament 2009, 6th September, 9 am to 1 pm @ MPSH 5

Sports have always been an integral part of NUS Campus life, and a way for students across batches to interact. Badminton is a game which most of us would have played as either a serious sport or for fun. The MBA Badminton Tournament 2009 organised on 6th September was a creative way of getting students from different batches to come interact away from academics and bond. It was first such event for the students from the new batch.

The day started with chances of the event’s occurrence being jeopardised by the unreliable Singapore weather. Heavy rains in the morning reduced the organisers’ expectations of the number of participants for the event. Surprisingly, many students came to the tournament, including 50 participants who registered for the event, and people who came to cheer for friends and classmates. 6 courts had been booked for the event at the Multi Purpose Sports Hall and the tournament started by 10 am. The matches were held simultaneously across different categories (Women’s singles & doubles, men’s singles & doubles and mixed doubles).

There was a lot of energy and enthusiasm both on and off the courts, with participants sweating it out on the courts and the audience cheering them on. The competition in the matches was immense and the matches took longer as the players/teams progressed further. The complete tournament lasted for 5 hours before the winners for different categories were decided. The prize distribution was after the tournament with Caleb giving away medals to the winners followed by a photo session. The winners of each category were:

· Men’s Singles – Arthur Leung (MBA Year1)
· Men’s Doubles – Chai Li Yeung / Arthur Leung (MBA Year 1)
· Women’s Singles – Wai-Lene Leong (S3 Asia MBA, Year 2)
· Women’s Doubles – Lin Jun / Swanzel Rautela (MBA Year 2)
· Mixed Doubles – Rajas Karandikar / Hima Bindu Rudraraju (MBA Year 1)

Thanks to the MBA office for their support and to the NUS MBA Sports Club for their efforts for organizing the tournament, giving the students a break from the strains of school, and an opportunity for fun and to make new friends.

- Hima Bindu
Class of 2011