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20 Nov 2014, 02:00
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: Consulting & Professional Services Perspectives |
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Submitted by I Putu Mahendra Wijaya, Co-Chair of the Management Consulting Club Hitachi Global Solution Corporate Talk by Mr. Michael Travis, Chairman Emeritus On Friday, 14 November 2014, the Nanyang Business School has been fortunate to receive a visit from Mr. Michael Travis, chairman emeritus from Hitachi Solutions Ltd. The Management Consulting Club, together with the Wine Appreciation Club, has been honored for being given the trust to host him throughout his visit in Nanyang Business School. The event started at 15h30 with a presentation by Mr Travis titled “Consulting & Professional Services Perspectives”. Within the presentation, Mr Travis shared with the attendants of his experience heading Hitachi Global Solution, as well as some the recent important trends in the professional service industry. Some of the interesting insights that he shared is the scale and revenue partition of Hitachi as a conglomerate company. Founded in 1910 by an engineer Namihei Odaira, Hitachi has grown from its initial business in electric induction motors into large conglomerate in Japanese industry. As of 2014, Hitachi businesses encompass areas from Digital Media all the way to Construction Machinery. No doubt that Hitachi has been recognized in the world as one of consistently top performing companies, as evidenced by its annual subscription to be listed in Fortune 500 global companies. As of Financial year 2013, Hitachi reported top line revenue of $93.4 billion from all of its business units, one of which is Hitachi Global Solutions, which Mr Travis had the experience to lead & grow the business. Furthermore, Mr. Travis also shared his insight about the future of consulting industry. One of the important trends, he pointed out, happens in the sphere of IT development. In particular, he argued that the development of the “internet of things: manufacturing 2.0” – where machine can have “social network” between them – would unleash a tremendous potential in the manufacturing in the new world. Important around the idea of internet of things is the capability of machine to collect data, thanks to proliferation of sensor, and processes them in real-time to be presented either to another machine – which would help crunch those data – or to a human user – who will make the final critical decision in real-time if any intervention is needed. Such real-time data gathering & information processing will bring efficiency to a level never before attained in the past, simply because the availability of data which were not present. As such, the development of internet of things becomes not only the latest fad in the technology world, but could have a tremendous impact in the sphere of strategic planning and decision making in the business world, particularly in the sector of manufacturing and public transportation. Indeed, one of the key takeaways from the presentation is the implication of the internet of things to the consulting industry: we can expect that the internet of things would create a middle-field battle ground between companies that traditionally offers services in strategic consulting, and those that customarily offers services in IT consulting. After an interesting presentation, the attendants were then entertained with a fine selection of wines, cherry-picked by our wine connoisseur, Ms Stephanie Zhao – c0-chair of Wine Appreciation Club; accompanied with excellent light snack matched against the wine, finely selected by our caterer Fusion Spoon. All in all, the atmosphere of the entire session was very collegiate, and we were very fortunate to have the opportunity to talk in person with someone as important as Mr Travis. Indeed, the Management Consulting Club and Wine Appreciation Club hope that the event could mark as the beginning of long-term relationship between the Nanyang MBA program & Hitachi Global Solutions. Bonne Continuation!    For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
20 Nov 2014, 03:00
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: Nanyang Business School Goes To Myanmar for Business Study Mission |
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Submitted by Raymond Rueda, Student Exco, Vice President Career Development Myanmar, compared to its Asian counterparts, has been lagging behind for decades in terms of socio-economic and political stability but thanks to U Thein Sein’s rise to presidency in 2011, it has now opened its doors to the global market, bringing in investors from various industries. Multinational companies see its huge potential—it is strategically located between Asian countries with huge populations—India and China—and is next to some developing Southeast Asian nations as well such as Thailand. Because of these factors, the Nanyang Business School has chosen Myanmar for the second time as a destination for its students’ Business Study Mission (BSM), which was scheduled last October 25 to November 1. Now on its second year, the redesigned MBA program requires participants to go on a BSM either in Singapore or overseas. This year, 11 full-time students, 3 part-time students, and 1 EMBA participant joined the Myanmar group, which visited both local and multinational companies with offices in Yangon. A trip abroad, however, would not be complete without sight-seeing so the BSM also had its fun side. During the first two days, we visited popular tourist spots in Yangon such as the Inle Lake, Botataung Pagoda, the Rangoon War Cemetery, the Shwedagon Pagoda, and Bogyoke Market. We also tried out local Burmese dishes in popular restaurants in the city and found them uniquely delicious.  After a weekend of touring the city came the more serious part of the trip—the company visits. Companies that the group got the chance to interact with include Chevrolet, Consumer Goods Myanmar Limited, Tokyo Stock Exchange, Samsung, Coca-Cola Pinya Beverages, Ooredoo, Kia Motors, Schneider Electric, CNQC, and Petronas. Aside from the private sector, officials from the government and non-profit institutions also gave insightful presentations about the current challenges, opportunities, and programs being promoted in Myanmar.  Seeing Myanmar suffering from poverty and corruption is quite saddening especially when one learns that it used to be the the second wealthiest in the region during the British occupation. Nevertheless, it is slowly making progress especially as it gains support from more powerful countries such as the US and Japan. All of us saw how promising Myanmar could be and we hope that one day, we will see it as competitive as or even more developed than its neighboring countries in the region. To Prof. Ravi Agarwal, Prof. Chung Lai Hong, Ms. Lindsay Tan of the MBA Office, and everyone else who made the Myanmar possible, chezu tinbade!  For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
25 Nov 2014, 23:01
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: StartMEup Session 1 – Turn Ideas into Action |
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Submitted by Anggono Natalnugroho, Co-Chair of the Marketing & Entrepreneurship Club About twenty entrepreneurial like-minded people, an equal mix of MBA and graduate students, attended the StartMEup session last Friday, 21 November, at The Nest Theatre, Innovation Center. This event is organised by the Marketing & Entrepreneurship (ME) Club, supported by NTUitive, the university’s innovation and enterprise company. StartMEup aims to seed collaboration between business graduates and technologists, and meets them up with startups and support networks all over Singapore. Swarnajeet Mukherjee, a serial entrepreneur, opened the session with the keynote topic “Turn Ideas into Action”. He suggested the importance of starting a business before a venture. Essentially, it means a startup should start as early as possible executing the idea, getting initial customers, serving them the best we can, getting feedback from them, then once the business is stable, we may start to think about a venture, i.e. getting funding from venture capitalists, etc. Another important thing he stressed on is about partnership. For instance, if we start a business selling an innovative pencil, then our impact will be amplified if we can also partner with a startup who sells books. Partnering with complementary product is a way to scale up our business faster. Think this as Network Economy. The second guest was Fang Kok Boon, chief executive of Blacksmith, the world’s first rotary 3D printer startup. He spoke on the topic of sharing secret ideas. In short, we should not be paranoid in sharing our ideas to everyone, with only two exceptions — Do not share your idea with a venture capitalist who invests in startups like yours, and do not share to those who have the same area of interest as you, obviously. About Blacksmith, he was inspired by an old turntable record player when prototyping the rotary 3D printer by himself at home. Supported by NTUitive, he successfully funded his idea via Indiegogo, a crowdfunding platform, in just June this year. Currently in production, this 3D printer will be sold at $2,999. Pretty reasonable, right? The third speaker was Steve Wah, CEO of Smoov, an online payment gateway like Paypal, but focuses on SME in the Southeast Asia region (now operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam). You would think that it is crazy to get into an already fragmented payment apps market. However, Smoov’s offering is not just another app. It offers a very unique proposition, a platform for SME, which would not be taken away even by Apple Pay or Google Wallet. A very sound business model, just like what we learn as business students about strategy. The final speaker of the session was Frankie Lee, representing NTUitive. He explained about the technology and support available from the Innovation Center. This is the guy you want to talk to if you plan to start your own business after graduation. NTUitive has been established for a very long time and enjoyed success from the beginning (at that time it was under the name of NTU Ventures). Frankie is a Nanyang MBA alumni and owns more than 2 startups since graduated. You can tell he is very passionate about entrepreneurship. Most of the attendees came to connect with him after the event.  The ME Club realises that entrepreneurship is not for everyone. Perhaps very few of MBA participants will start up their own business after graduation. Nevertheless, NTU offers many opportunities for startups. Hence, the ME Club tries to optimise the available resources, technology, funding and network of talents for developing an entrepreneurship culture in the Nanyang MBA. We hope it can inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs.  The ME Club Co-Chairs would like to thank Vivek Negi (the last minute MC), Jiajia, and Liu Lei for their ideas, feedback and moral support, and NTUitive for connecting us to the startups.  For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
01 Dec 2014, 21:00
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: Sports Activities Day |
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Submitted by Vivek Negi, Co-Chair of the Sports Club Date: 8th November 2014 Activity Organizers: – Nanyang MBA Sports Club (Vivek and Aditya) Participants: 13 MBA (Full-time and Part-time), 3 Exchange Students, 1 MBA (Part-time previous batch) Venue: Sport & Recreation Centre Games: Tennis, Futsal, Slackline After finishing our poster presentations for one of our elective courses during recess week, the Nanyang MBA cohort was full of energy and went to play sports at the school’s S&RC.  We started the sports afternoon with tennis. Boon Huei was providing expert help to novices like Anand who soon found that the tennis ball was too small to play with. While some were enjoying tennis under the sun, a group shifted to the futsal court. It was great fun to play in a small court but soon people started feeling drained as the energy and intensity of the game was immense. Even though there was shade, the heat and humidity was high. We took frequent breaks to rehydrate ourselves.  Finally the heat and humidity took its toll and we packed up. Some left to cool down in the swimming pool while the adventurous ones stayed behind to experience slacklining thanks to Herve. It was fun to watch someone on slackline trying to maintain balance. It looked as if the person was swimming, dancing, making tai chi poses in air.  For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
01 Dec 2014, 22:00
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: Paintball – An event whose name was later changed to “Painball”! |
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Submitted by Vivek Negi, Co-Chair of the Sports Club Date: 16th November 2014 Activity Organizers: Nanyang MBA Sports Club (Vivek and Aditya) Participants: Total 24 — 17 MBA Full-time, 2 MBA Part-timer, 3 Exchange Students, 2 Partners We gathered at the bus stand near the Graduate Halls to wait for the bus at 9:30am. After a late night outing the previous night, some people found it hard to get up early (it was early for a Sunday). Mr Exco President turned up looking like a zombie. The venue was at the School of Paintball which is near NTU and it took us around 10 minutes to reach there. The paintball arena was about size of a football field and there were bags filled with air kept at different positions to create hiding places in the battleground. The organizer gave us safety instructions and told us the rules of the game. Then the organizers made a statement that those who were not feeling manly could wear a protective vest. This statement forced guys to go without the vest and take shots on the body.  The 24 participants were divided into 4 teams and each team was distinguished by a different coloured face mask. There were 3 plastic pods near the centre of the field and teams had to compete to get the pods in their possession.  The teams made strategies giving different roles to different team members. Some people went all out shooting wildly while others were very calculative and played safe. In the first round, Teams 1 and 2 played against each other, and Teams 3 and 4 played in the next game. The respective winning teams played against each other to declare supremacy and the two losing teams also played against each other. Lot of paintballs did not burst and just ricocheted off players’ bodies leaving painful marks. Those body marks changed the girls’ fashion for the next 2 weeks. Now the event has become known as “Painball”! Overall, it was great fun and left us with loads of memories (and bruises). Teams 1&2:  Teams 3&4:  For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
02 Dec 2014, 04:00
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: Japan MBA Case Competition |
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Submitted by Reina Wong, Student Exco VP Communications The Nanyang MBA joined the Japan MBA Case Competition for the first time this year. After three rounds of selection process within our class, the team representing the Nanyang MBA in this competition consists of Teo Angie, Wong LinLing Reina, Diyora Karabaeva and Noopur Singhal (left to right).  The Japan MBA Case Competition is organized by McGill University Japan, Aoyama Gakuin University and Hitotsubashi ICS. The 12 participating teams were given the case at the beginning of November and had about one month to work on the case analysis and recommendations. Although marketing was mainly done in Japan, this year’s competition attracted two schools from outside of Japan, namely Nanyang Business School and Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, in addition to the 10 participating schools from Japan.  The competition took place on 30 November 2014 at the beautiful campus of Aoyama Gakuin University. We were divided into 3 divisions in the preliminary round by drawing lots, and each division were assigned 3 judges to choose the best performer in each division to enter the final round that would take place later in the afternoon. Our team gave our best during the presentation to showcase our effort put into the competition in the past month. The preliminary round result was announced shortly after all 12 teams had finished their presentation within their divisions. Unfortunately, our team did not come in first in our division. The 3 teams that entered the finals were McGill Japan, Waseda Business School and Hitotsubashi ICS. All other teams were allowed to stay and watch the finalists’ presentations. We learnt much from the 3 teams’ presentation.  After the finals, all participants were invited to proceed to an after-event party held at Icon Lounge in Shibuya where the results would be announced. Invitation was also open to the public and students from the participating schools. It was a great opportunity to interact with other participants, the judges, the event organizers and sponsors. Teams were also given the chance to sit down with judges to understand how we had performed during the preliminary rounds, such as our strengths and areas for improvement. We were glad to hear from our judges that we came in second in our division. We also received valuable feedback on how we could have improved our analysis and presentation. McGill Japan, the defending champion, came in as the champion again this year. Waseda Business School and Hitotsubashi ICS came in as runners-up. Our team would like to sincerely thank the school for providing us the opportunity to compete in this case competition. We have learnt much and the trip is an unforgettable experience. For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
08 Dec 2014, 02:01
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: Nanyang Business School Participation in CEIBS 2014 MBA Career Trek |
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Submitted by Noopur Singhal, Co-Chair of Management Consulting Club Date: 6-7 November 2014 Organizer: CEIBS Participants: 3 students from NBS, and students from SMU and CEIBS The 2014 CEIBS MBA Career Treks is an annual program organized by CEIBS MBA students with the help of their MBA Career development center. The 2014 program was launched simultaneously in three different locations, Singapore, Hong Kong and Beijing. The program aims to help students deepen their understanding of their target industries and functions, and explore potential career opportunities through company visits and meetings with senior executives.  For their Singapore visit, CEIBS invited MBA students from the top three business schools in Singapore (NTU, NUS and SMU) to participate in the Trek, and three students – Noopur Singhal, Richard KW Lee and Chen Chi volunteered to participate and represented Nanyang Business School in the CEIBS trek. We visited five companies in two days: DHL In-house Consulting, Credit Suisse, TradeHero, Abbott Labs and OCBC, which gave us an insight into several industries, including pharmaceuticals, logistics, mobile gaming and finance. The company visit on the first day was followed by a networking dinner and Mathew Stenger, Aswathi Suresh and Jeffery Zou joined us for the dinner.  Overall, this two-day event not only gave us a good platform to build contacts in the industry but also helped us in knowing all the participating students at a personal level. For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
17 Dec 2014, 04:00
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: Exciting Corporate Talk and Networking Session with ASEAN Private Equity & Venture Capital Association, and Mercer Consulting |
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Submitted by I Putu Mahendra Wijaya, Co-Chair of the Management Consulting Club The Nanyang Business School has been fortunate once again to host a talk and networking session with two industry leaders in Singapore. Last Monday, 15 December 2014, the Management Consulting Club (MCC) and the Women in Business Club (WBC) welcomed two great speakers to share with the students about the many different aspects in the world of business. Our first speaker, Ms. Anu Sahai, was from ASEAN Private Equity & Venture Capital Association, and she was a former CEO & Director of Aditya Birla Sun Life Asset Management Pte Ltd. Her session was about her career journey and decisions. She spoke about the road blocks she faced as a woman as she went up the career ladder, the dos and don’ts of the corporate world, the road blocks and struggles that all of us will face and how to deal with them. She gave numerous practical real life examples to make the session more personable and relatable for everyone. Indeed, one of the most interesting insight she shared during the corporate talk was the oft-neglected link between work-life balance, workplace success, and personal happiness. To this end, The Economist magazines recently has run several articles which show practically that longer working hours do not mean better productivity (it may even harm productivity, thanks to overburden). Hence, Ms Sahai’s insight on work-life balance was indeed one of the most important takeaways from the talk.   Next, we were also very fortunate to host Mr Dion Groeneweg, a Partner in Mercer Consulting. During his session, he instilled passion and curiosity among the participants about how the practice of human resource consulting is about to be revolutionized thanks to the development of technology. Particularly, he shared with us the interesting evolution that has happened in the sphere of human resource consulting: how some aspects of the human resource are now on the convergence path with IT consulting, and paradoxically, how human resource will result in more specialization in the future – a trend which will bring more transparency and efficiency to the world of human resource management. Indeed, these dynamics in the industry are exactly examples that you would not find in textbooks.   Some day in the future, perhaps, we will find these topics in textbooks. But for now, at least, the students at the Nanyang MBA program have the privilege to have a sneak peek at all these exciting development before everyone else, right from the leaders themselves. It was indeed an exciting experience to go through. For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
18 Dec 2014, 01:00
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: Banking and Finance Networking Session |
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Submitted by Johnny Kwon, Co-Chair of the Banking and Finance Club On 5 December 2014, the Nanyang MBA Banking and Finance club organized a networking session with industry professionals at Three Bistro, located near Suntec City. Three Bistro is managed by a Nanyang MBA alumni and we were fortunate to have our event accommodated by her. The event had a successful turnout and the invited guests came from a wide range of banking and finance fields namely: Treasury sales, equity sales, equity research, remisier, private banking etc.  It was an excellent opportunity for the MBA Banking and Finance Club members to network with industry professionals to better understand the various positions available in the banking and finance industry, understand the job scope of these positions and develop contacts within the industry.  The ambience was cozy with nice music in the background. We had good conversations with attendees over our favorite beverages, be it beer, wine or cocktails. Following the event, the Nanyang MBA participants had a sumptuous Vietnamese meal at Millenia walk and, subsequently, headed to boat quay for further bonding. Work hard, Party hard!  For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
04 Jan 2015, 08:00
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: Diwali Cultural Term-End Party |
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Submitted by Sunitha Vijiyasingam, Co-Chair of the Social & Cultural Club Being a part of an international cohort of MBA students, fellow Indian classmates and I had the opportunity to share a part of our culture with the rest of the cohort – Diwali, otherwise known as Festival of Lights. By a stroke of sheer luck, the festival fell just after a very busy first trimester and immediately after our last paper. We gathered together to celebrate Diwali and Oktoberfest on 21 October. Diwali is an extremely important festival in India – Deepavali or Diwali is certainly the biggest and the brightest of all Hindu festivals. It’s the festival of lights that’s marked by a few days of celebration. In each story of Diwali, the underlying significance is the triumph of good over evil; from darkness into light.  After an explanation by Vishal about the essence of Deepavali, the group enjoyed a tasty Indian dinner and as with all Indian functions the evening ended with some dancing to both Bollywood and Western tunes.  For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
04 Jan 2015, 08:00
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: Air Rifle Shooting |
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Submitted by Vivek Negi, Co-Chair of the Sports Club Date – 10 December 2014 Activity Organizers – Nanyang MBA Sports Club (Vivek and Aditya) Participants: 14 MBA(FT), 1MBA(PT), 1Exchange, 2 PhD(NBS), 2(Guests) Venue – Air Rifle Club, NTU While exploring NTU during the induction period, I came across the NTU Air Rifle club and felt that the Sports Club should organize an air rifle shooting for the Nanyang MBA cohort. The Sports Club co-chairs got in touch with the President of the NTU Air Rifle Club and set the date of 10th December 2014. As there was a lot of enthusiasm around this event, we went on to organize 3 sessions instead of 1 session. Each session lasted for 1.5hrs. It began with safety instructions on handling pistols and rifles. Thereafter, participants got to try their hands at a pistol and a rifle. Keeping our hand steady to get a good shot with the pistol was a challenge for many of us. The sessions ended with a shooting competition. In the first leg, a map was used as the target and participants were supposed to target the specified area. Later on, candles replaced targets and participants were supposed to extinguish their target candle with their shot. Two points were awarded for shooting the candle and 5 points for extinguishing candle without moving it. All in all it was great fun and a different experience. The Sports Club would like to thank the NTU Air Rifle Club for this fabulous event.    For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
15 Jan 2015, 09:00
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Gala |
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Submitted by Aswathi Suresh, Co-Chair of the Marketing & Entrepreneurship Club The EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award is a prestigious business award that is handed out every year in multiple countries across the world to honor enterprising entrepreneurs who have made outstanding contributions to their local economies. Within Singapore, the annual awards gala ceremony has evolved into a tradition and a hallmark event of the business community and this year, the Nanyang MBA was privileged to be a part of it. The only MBA program to be represented at the event, the school was represented by Anggonno Natalnugroho and Aswathi Suresh, co-chairs of the Marketing and Entrepreneurship club.  The 2014 event was held at the Ritz Carlton on the 2nd of December 2014 and the students were at their prettiest best for the black tie event. The actual awards ceremony was preceded by a cocktail networking session where the students got to meet and interact with senior EY executives as well as executives from EY client companies, covering industries as diverse as financial services to construction, healthcare to government. The insights they were able to provide on current trends in their industries, and on doing business in the Singapore environment were invaluable to the students, both of whom are from outside Singapore.  They were also fortunate to be able to have a one-on-one personal session with each of the four finalists – Dr. Kar Wong, CEO of Advanced Group of Companies who was the eventual winner, Mr. Alfred Chua, CEO of The Wok People, Mr. Ong Tze Boon, CEO of Ong&Ong Group and Ms. Susan Chong, CEO of Greenpac Pte Ltd. It turned out that Dr. Kar Wong had quite the personal connection to the Nanyang Business School – a few of his former colleagues and friends are currently undergoing the Executive MBA program, and he said that the program came highly recommended from them and he expressed the desire to visit the school in the future.  During the event, the students were seated along with some representatives from Singapore’s young and dynamic entrepreneurship community. Closer in age to the MBA cohort, these entrepreneurs were able to relate easily to the students and detail the highs and lows of their entrepreneurial journeys. In conclusion, the event was an exciting eye-opener for the students, who came back from it thoroughly inspired and energized, hoping that the Nanyang MBA will be able to continue this tradition of attending this event for all future batches as well. For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
22 Jan 2015, 06:01
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: Homecoming Party for the Champion Team |
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Submitted by Reina Wong, Student Exco VP Communications The Nanyang MBA participated in the John Molson MBA International Case Competition held on 5 to 9 January at Montreal, Canada. The team comprising of Cory Reid, Aswathi Suresh, Sunitha Vijiyasingam and Jonah Wong emerged as division champion, and eventually beat all other semi-finalists and finalists and emerged as the champion team. In fact, the team won every single round of the 7 intensive cases throughout the competition. It is also the first time an Asian school won in this prestigious international competition. (News coverage on Channel News Asia, Straits Times, NTU Website) On the final day after the results were announced, the class was immediately informed and we decided to hold a celebration in the form of a homecoming party for the team. We celebrated the team’s victory on 13 January at The Attic at NTU’s Campus Clubhouse. It was also a chance for the class to get together after an exciting 2-week vacation where many of us went back to our home country or went overseas for holiday. By 9pm, many of us had arrived at the lounge and we enjoyed some finger food along with drinks from a selection of beverage. Much laughter was heard throughout the party while the class mingled to catch up with each other in the midst of our hectic schoolwork schedule.   Professor Vijay Sethi, the team’s mentor, graced the event and celebrated the team’s victory together with the class. Akshay Regulagedda, a Nanyang MBA Alumni and also the team’s coach while they were at Montreal, attended the event and shared stories about the team’s participation in the competition. Gaurav Goel, a Nanyang MBA Alumni and one of the team’s coaches, was also present at the party and he shared his own experience and learning when he joined the competition 2 years ago.  At the end of the celebration, Professor Vijay Sethi gave an inspiring speech to the class on the history of NTU’s teams at the John Molson International MBA Case Competition, and encouraged everyone of us in the class to believe in our own abilities and build confidence by the end of our one year at the Nanyang MBA Program. All in all, we are extremely proud of the Nanyang Team who brought back the Champion Cup to the school. We hope to see more student achievements in the various upcoming competitions.  For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
28 Jan 2015, 22:00
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: HK & SG MBA Networking Event |
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Submitted by Reina Wong, Student Exco VP Communications The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) invited the Nanyang MBA for a networking drink session on 28 Jan. Six students from the Nanyang MBA, Cory, Vivek, Stony, Jiajia, Chantel and Reina, attended the session held at Drinks and Co. at Club Street. CUHK also invited participants from other MBA programs in Singapore including Insead, NUS and SMU. The attendance of the event was great, and the venue was soon filled with enthusiastic networking conversations. The 6 of us had a great time networking with both full-timers and part-timers from other schools. We were also happy to meet people from our home countries, as well as people from different cultures and backgrounds.  During the networking, we brought up the upcoming MBA Olympics (1 Feb) organized by the Nanyang MBA, and we were pleased to know that some of them will be attending the event. Inter-MBA events allow us to interact and know new people who may have the same business and personal interests, enabling us to expand our network and make new friends. We hope to see more similar events in future. For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
01 Feb 2015, 08:01
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: John Molson MBA International Case Competition |
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Submitted by Cory Reid, Student Exco VP Case Competition As mentioned in the earlier journal entry on the post-competition celebration, the Nanyang MBA team was victorious at the 2015 John Molson MBA International Case Competition. (News coverage on Channel News Asia, Straits Times, NTU Website). Not only that, but we remained undefeated throughout the competition. The team consisted of myself, Cory Reid, and Aswathi Suresh, Sunitha Vijiyasingam and Jonah Wong. We were accompanied by our coach, Akshay Regulagedda whom we couldn’t have done without. We also had coaching by past participants and Nanyang MBA alumni Gaurav Goel and Minti Sen. In addition, Prof Vijay Sethi was instrumental in helping select the team and provide feedback after multiple practice sessions.  (from L to R: Aswathi Suresh, Cory Reid, Jonah Wong, Sunitha Vijiyasingam) Before I go into my perspective as a participant, let me expand on the details of the competition. The event was held on 5 to 9 January in Montreal, Canada and consisted of 36 teams of 4 MBA students. There were three rounds in the competition; the first was a round robin format where each team competed 1 on 1 with the other 5 teams. This round included 5 cases: 3 ‘standard’ cases, 1 short case, and 1 live case. For standard cases, the participants are given 3 hours to read the case, discuss and analyze, prepare slides, and submit for presentation. The presentation itself is a maximum of 25 minutes with 15 minutes of Q&A time from the judges. In the short case, the teams are given only 90 minutes to prepare a presentation of 15 minutes, with 10 minute Q&A. The live case consists of one hour of assigned reading, followed by a one hour presentation by the actual company and one hour of Q&A. After which the teams have 2 hours to discuss, analyze and prepare the slides. The 3 semi-final rounds include 3 teams each. Finally, the top 3 from the semis went to the final round. Both these rounds used the standard case format. Now for my perspective. All I can really say is what an amazing experience. After about a month of intense practice we had arrived in Montreal. The sheer size of the competition was hard to grasp with over 180 students, 36 coaches and hundreds of volunteers descending on the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in the heart of Montreal. We weren’t sure how we would fair; we had been coming together quite well as a team but each practice session seemed to identify multiple areas for improvement. After one last practice case on Sunday night, we had our first real taste of the competition on Monday morning. The first case was challenging but it seemed like we had just enough practice to put together a decent presentation. The case was on an eyewear manufacturer called Warby Parker and although we felt like we had left some ideas on the table, we still came out on top over Universität Düsseldorf from Germany. At the same time this felt like the turning point; we knew we had to come up with more innovative, more creative and more structured recommendations. The next case was Tuesday morning on Paris Saint-Germain F.C., a Parisian football club. This is where the team really came together – a combination of our love for football and nascent creativity helped to propel us over the strong team from the University of Ottawa. Tuesday afternoon brought us to the short case; a very peculiar one that asked the team to prioritize a CEO’s schedule based on a list of voicemails he had received. Building on our innovation in the morning, we were able to build a strong slide deck and triumph over the Schulich School of Business from York University. Wednesday then brought the live case which basically took the entire day. Lufa Farms, from Montreal, Quebec, was the subject of this case and presented a very interesting company. They grow food on rooftop green houses in Montreal and partner with organic farmers to provide organic food throughout Montreal. Although we only had 2 hours for the actual slide creation it really came down to structuring our many ideas into a cohesive presentation. We nearly ran out of time on this one and stumbled slightly in the presentation but managed to overcome the team from The American University in Cairo School of Business. It was especially nerve wracking because one of the executives from Lufa Farms was sitting in on our presentation! This case also made us realize that finishing early was very important so we could collect our thoughts before delivering the presentation.  (The Nanyang MBA Team with their coach, Akshay Regulagedda) The final case was on Thursday morning against the University of Florida. This time it was Brunet Pharmacies, a company that had been acquired by the large grocer Metro and was struggling to differentiate itself from its competitors. At this point, our quick grasp of the challenges and creative solutions were almost second nature and we put together a solid presentation. Winning this last round put us at the top of our division and gave us 187 points, which tied us for overall point leader with I.H. Asper School of Business from the University of Manitoba. The semi-finals pitted us against our division rivals Universität Düsseldorf and the Université de Laval who had also been undefeated in their division. Because the competition is bilingual, some schools presented in French. Laval was one such school and since none of us spoke French we really didn’t know what to expect from them. The level of complexity of the semi-final case took us by surprise; it was long, numbers heavy and from a very specific industry: battery manufacturing in India. The company, Xtra Power, had supply chain issues and the case asked the teams whether they should replace their vendors and logistics provider. The team’s initial reaction to the case wasn’t good – it just seemed so difficult. However, we really motivated each other to brainstorm ideas and figure it out while crunching the financial numbers to back up our recommendations. This also had to be one of our best presentations. The flow was superb and our timing impeccable. Even the Q&A, which we had trouble with in the first few cases, was rock solid. Later that night there was a costume party in one of the ball rooms, but our team was just too exhausted to attend. However, the organizers decided to release the results there and the team arrived just in time. Once they announced us as a finalist, my energy was renewed. It really felt great to not only come together as a team but also succeed at such a competitive event. After getting a decent amount of rest, Friday brought the last case. This was tough because we knew that the audience would be much larger than any before and that the presentations would be filmed. The two other teams in the final were the Moore School of Business from the University of South Carolina who had finished 3rd in 2014 and the Porto Business School who had won the competition a few years ago. We knew we had to come out strong with innovative yet practical recommendations for the subject of this case: a Brazilian bus manufacturer named MarcoPolo. With operations around the globe, the company faced tough competition from lower cost Chinese manufacturers. The challenge posed was to determine which emerging and mature markets to enter and how best to do it. Again, the team was firing on all cylinders. Churning out creative ideas, number crunching and structuring the presentation at breakneck speed. I can’t speak for my teammates, but this was my favourite part of the competition. Analyzing the case, pulling it apart, figuring out what we could do and then putting it all back together.  Regardless of the result, I was extremely proud to be part of the team and all in all, the experience was better than anything I could have anticipated. The team grew beyond what I thought was possible and it made for a week I will never forget. For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
08 Feb 2015, 21:00
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: Bowling at Mount Faber |
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Submitted by Aditya Bhargava, Co-Chair of the Sports Club To start Trimester 2 on a fun and exciting note, some of us went to bowl at the Superbowl at Mount Faber on 9 Nov. The excitement started straight away as we already had some camaraderie and competition building up in the first round. To the players’ surprise, they had just scored their personal best as you can see from the scoreboard picture below:  The scores continued to drop as each game progressed, since tiredness and fatigue crept in. However, the second game was the most exciting as we had a complete turnaround during the last three sets, when one of us languishing at the bottom came from behind to take the game. We also had some couples competing against each other as well which added to the thrill.  Overall it was a fun, relaxing and rejuvenating event which ended with a few beers and some amazing memories to cherish for the future.   For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
12 Feb 2015, 20:00
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: Happy Friendship (Valentine’s) Day ! |
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Submitted by Phua Boon Huei, Student Exco VP Finance Today (12 Feb) is a special day. Notably, this marks the last day of our Trimester Two class; and for our friends on the Nanyang-Waseda Double MBA program, the last day of NTU class before they head off to Japan to continue their MBA journey. The MBA gentlemen wanted to mark this day with laughter and loooove (like what our Marketing Professor would say). And it is with perfect timing as well, because Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! Love is in the air After our class ended, each gentleman proceeded to give a rose to every lady in our class! The MBA ladies were really special, and we are thankful and honoured to share this journey with them! There was much chemistry and sparkle, just like the song “Fireworks” by Katy Perry! Here’s some of these highlights! Highlights *** Angga successfully proposed to Noopur! Everyone around were moved to tears by the sight….  There were the sweet love triangles between Diyora and Samuel…  .. and the inevitable skirmishes between couple as seen with Aswathi and Sharan…  There were love letters flying around between Vishal and Angie…  .. Meanwhile, Anand was busy networking and kept Reina waiting. Thankfully the flower did manage to reach her in the end !   All gentlemen were smartly dressed up, just like Vishal …  … and so were the ladies, who were all so sweet, as pictured here Akanksha with Eric, and JC with Liu Lei!   We even have a Singaporean couple, congrats Dominic and Sunitha!  And of course not forgetting our lovely Megan, who has been working tirelessly behind the scene in making our MBA program so enjoyable! Pictured here is Barry and Megan – we have never seen them happier!  Not forgetting our lovely MBA part-time class, who had a great time!  I love my MBA Class As Anand mentioned post-event, “Wow. I love my MBA class! I’m not drunk”. All of us couldn’t agree more with him! And having just completed our ethics class this trimester, we know Anand means what he has said! Here’s wishing everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day! *** Author’s disclaimer: Author’s own imagination only for this article section. Believe it at your own peril !  For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
08 Apr 2015, 21:01
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: Bangkok Business Challenge and Asia Venture Challenge 2015 |
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A team from the Nanyang Business School comprising of Jeffery Zou, Stephanie Zhao, Sona Sethi, and Dr. I Putu Mahendra Wijaya participated in the Bangkok Business Challenge and Asia Venture Challenge in February and March 2015 respectively, both held at Bangkok. The team was guided by NBS’s Prof Vijay Sethi. Bangkok Business Challenge The MAI Bangkok Business Challenge (BBC) was organized by the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration of Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok from February 11-14, 2015. BBC was a multi-stage business plan competition that started with 64 teams from business schools around the world, who were required to submit a 20-page business plan summary. Out of those, 16 teams were selected for the semi-final round, which was held in Bangkok. Before arriving in Bangkok, Sasin paired each team with a “buddy” who would help with competition logistics and any general questions about Bangkok. On the first day of the competition, Sona represented the NBS in the 99-second elevator pitch. There was a non-competitive feedback round on the first day, where the teams had the opportunity to present their business plans and receive feedback from industry experts, thus greatly helping them prepare for the next day’s challenge.  On the next day, the team competed in one of the 4 divisional rounds, the winners of which were to compete in the finals. NBS then proceeded to compete in the Play-Off Round the next day against other teams from the divisional rounds, with a total of 12 teams vying for the remaining two places in the finals. There was also a booth display where the team presented its business idea in an audio – visual format. Teams were provided basic stationary/crafts materials and could also use local printing facilities to print additional materials on their own expense. As NBS presented first in each round, the team took advantage of the option to watch the presentation and Q&A portions of the teams that followed. The award ceremony was a formal, royal affair where the prizes were given out by the HRH the Privy Councillor of Thailand. The BBC staff informed all the guests about proper etiquette during the formal presentation in the afternoon dress rehearsal. The competition ended with an evening cruise dinner over the Chao Phraya River. The organizers had also arranged a Bangkok sight-seeing tour for all the participants on the next day for those who could stay. The NBS team was awarded USD 500 for competing as semi-finalists.  Asia Venture Challenge The Asia Venture Challenge (AVC) is the Asia regional qualifying round of the global Venture Labs Investment Competition (VLIC) and was organized by the Thammasat Business School, Thammasat University, Bangkok from March 10-12, 2015. The competition was attended by 12 Asian business schools, divided into three groups. The event started with a booth display and reception where the team presented its business idea to the public, competition judges (real VCs, investors, lawyers and other professionals), “secret” Grant Thornton judges of the Grant Thornton New Venture Showcase award, and the local news media. The reception also had a 60-second elevator pitch competition with a cash prize of USD 500. Though Sasin ultimately won this award, several judges and competing teams approached Sona throughout the competition, praising her for her wonderful presentation. The next day the team competed in the divisional rounds in the first half and was chosen as the runners-up in the division. This allowed the team to compete in a play-off between the runners-up of all three divisions who fought for one place in the finals. NBS performed admirably but did not advance to final rounds, leaving with a cash prize of USD 500 for competing in the Play-offs.  Good luck with your ventures! The 2014-2015 Team |
14 Apr 2015, 20:01
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: Chinese New Year Celebration |
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Submitted by Stephanie Zhao, Co-Chair of the Wine, Beer & Liqueur Appreciation Club Chinese New Year is upon us! For this festive occasion, our Chinese classmates have organized an afternoon of immersion in Chinese culture on 19 February. And there is nothing better than small games: – Chopsticks skills test, or how to train your dexterity and your patience – How to write your name in Chinese and using calligraphy: yes, the Chinese brush is hard to master  – Paint something with the Chinese brush: maybe a design class should have been mandatory  – Ancient Chinese costumes photo booth: despite their dislike for the costumes, the guys gathered their courage to put them on  The afternoon was filled with laughter. A good beginning for the year of the goat! For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
14 Apr 2015, 21:01
| FROM The Nanyang MBA Blog: Wine Appreciation Week |
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Submitted by Stephanie Zhao, Co-Chair of the Wine, Beer & Liqueur Appreciation Club The Wine, Beer & Liqueur Appreciation Club organized a series of wine tastings at the end of Trimester 2 for the class. Second trimester wine tasting crash course Day 1: Rosé Night 18 Feb 2015, MBA Lounge The second trimester wine tasting crash courses have started again! On the menu this time: Rosé tasting. What is Rosé? No, it’s not a mix of red wines and white wines. A lesson was needed there, clearly. Some of us hadn’t even heard of this type of wine, so that is why the Wine Club presented two different French rosés, the best refreshing wines for a hot summer day. A Cabernet d’Anjou from Val de Loire, and a Côtes de Provence from Provence. The Cabernet d’Anjou is an easy wine to drink: it is slightly sweet with acidity to keep it refreshing. The Côtes de Provence was a more floral and mineral wine, but equally good to quench thirst.  Rosé got the approval of all, at the end of this hot summer night.  Second trimester wine tasting crash course Day 2: White and red wines tasting 19 Feb 2015, ACI Building White or red? Why not both? On this festive day, the Wine Club presented:
 To cope with the strong taste of red berries laced with cigar from Malbec and the Vaza Reserva, we also prepared Muscat wine for the sweet tooth. After the first trimester’s red wines introduction class, everyone was able to come up with some adjectives to describe the red wines, which made the club co-chairs very proud. As for the white Muscat, the success was so great that everyone asked for more.   Second trimester wine tasting crash course Day 3: White and red wines tasting 20 Feb 2015, Graduate Hall 2 This is the third day of tasting, and the MBA class is getting better and better at it! We have tasted wines from Italy, France, Spain, but there is still a lot to taste. On the menu today:
The Grenache was well appreciated by those who had a liking for strong tastes. And the Pinot Grigio was perfect for the white wines lovers.  Second trimester wine tasting crash course Day 4: Champagne tasting 21 Feb 2015, ADM To close the tastings of this trimester in a grandiose way, the club has prepared the most famous sparkling wine: Champagne.  A semi-dry Champagne was chosen so that the sweetness is well balanced with the acidity. Sparkling wine production process differs a lot from the other types of wines. After a very thorough explanation of the grapes, the production, the etiquettes and tasting methods, the wine club finally popped the Champagne. During the previous sessions, some had strong preference for white or red or rosé. But for the Champagne, it was unanimous: everyone loves champagne!   For more information about Nanyang Business School click here. |
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Hi Generic [Bot],
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