Category Archives: Careers

Get the Edge with the Nanyang Fellows MBA Programme

  By hmteam • November 3, 2015 ,

When you’re a seasoned professional looking for the right MBA programme for yourself, you also seek new skills and techniques that will let you handle more responsibilities and critical analysis at work. You aim for even better communication skills and a growth in strategic thinking. Are you focusing on leading more people with your vision? Or are you an entrepreneur looking for some nurturing? No matter the results you want, the Nanyang Fellows MBA Programme will enable you to get there.

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Here’s why:

The Sum of Experience

When you are in an MBA programme where the minimum years of experience of candidates is 8 years, you know that you’ll be bombarded with fresh insights, knowledge and concepts from all over the business globe. Being surrounded by peers from a wide range of career backgrounds is always a plus because you never know what you’ll end up learning. Since you’ll have similar goals, your combined experience can bring a lot to the table. Maybe you’ve never had a long conversation with somebody from the American biomedical engineering industry? Or maybe you had no idea how people in India react to condom ads? Get ready to know a lot more.

International Exposure

The Nanyang Business School is known for its world-class faculty members. The Fellows start their journey in Singapore and progress to the United States to attend courses at top B-schools like Wharton, Georgetown University and University of California at Berkeley. Take this opportunity to soak in practical knowledge and a conceptual foundation of business models that make the best of East and West industry practices. Immerse yourself and understand how business is conducted in a global setting. At the end, you also get a certificate from the American university that you attend.

New Leadership Skills

A good leader needs to be good with people. In order to do that, you need to know what drives people as individuals, as a society and in the environment in question. The Nanyang Fellows MBA Programme makes sure that you learn or improve every hard skill and soft skill required to succeed. That’s accomplished by the hands on, expert faculty at NBS along with the other emerging leaders whom you’ll be sharing your education space with. For example, if you lacked an organisational skill that affected your work in the past, you’ll certainly deal with it here.

An Evolving Thought Process

Fellows from the past years have credited the programme for helping them develop a broader analytical framework and critical thinking that lead them to solve fundamental issues that had been lying untouched. Learning and reflection are priority here. Your curriculum will be supplemented with lots of research, thanks to the school’s reputed research centres. That means that you’ll have access to cutting edge information that can contribute towards your knowledge bank.

In fact, major international publications including The Economist and the Financial Times continue to highly rate the B-school’s academic quality. With networking being the need of the hour, this is one place where you can invest and gain. The eclectic mix of Nanyang Fellows MBA will stand by you whether you need life-long friends, business partners, mentors or powerful role models.

Getting Ready for a Leadership Role

  By hmteam • November 1, 2015 ,

You’ve been there, done that. And now you’re ready to transition into a new role where you’re going to create an even bigger and a better impact. Prep to move up to the C-level and be one of those leaders that you’ve always admired. Are you ready to support your company’s business strategies? Great. But there’s more to the job; a good leader has to offer his/her own insights and contribute in key decision-making. You already know the company’s vision – but what about your vision as a leader? Managing people may come easily to you, but do you know if you can lead them too?

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Here are a few things to keep in mind when you are eyeing that new title.

Personalise Your Role

Your key to success lies in understanding your company’s vision and values. It is in your hands to make them meaningful on a personal level because the leader is a role model for many. Don’t tie yourself down with ideas about how managers at your level should behave. Focus on maintaining a dedicated work ethic that lets you be true to yourself. Stick to a clear-cut plan and set goals, motivating your team to set their goals too along the way.

Communicate Effectively

Always show people the big picture. Never assume that your team members know what that picture exactly is. Instead, update them on a regular basis so that they are informed of the goals and changes. Take care of your team. Don’t forget to say thank you and praise in front of others. Playing the blame game is a strict no-no. A leader is responsible for team results. Take ownership of both the positives and negatives.

Make Informed Decisions

Today’s business globe is witnessing innovation every day, so a good leader needs to know how to adapt and be well informed at all times. Evaluate situations with the help of multiple resources because a single perspective just won’t do. And then arrive at a decision. A diversity of views shouldn’t confuse you. Just keep an open mind and listen. Learn to leverage your ideas by taking in inputs from your team members. The exchange of new ideas and feedback can lead to great results. Blocking out everybody else would be a mistake.

Be Tech Savvy

An effective leader understands how IT and business strategy, risk management and finance work together. And as you move up the corporate ladder, you’ll need to upgrade your technical knowhow, because a leader’s job involves understanding how the use of technology affects the organisation. More importantly, you’ll need to know how to exploit this technology in your industry.

Tackle Change

Change management is a relatively new area. Businesses are on the search for change drivers who can lead a transformation. It isn’t about leading change throughout the organisation as much as it is about being at ease in a state of constant fluctuation. That basically means that a leader has to keep continuous improvement on his agenda – such as building better processes and increasing the market share of the company.

The MBA as a Stepping Stone

A top class MBA like the Nanyang Fellows MBA is a stepping-stone to your leadership role. An MBA programme focused on candidates with years of experience will encourage lots of application. It will be a makeover for you. You can experience so much during the programme, in terms of work, culture, networking and a foreign business study mission that will add to your list of leadership abilities.

Are you ready to get ahead? You have to work on yourself but don’t forget the support system you’ll get from your B-school. You’ll be a part of a new, supportive community. A business school is a powerful tool for socialising. So make the most of it!

Making Sense of the Global Workplace

  By hmteam • October 25, 2015 ,

 

 

 

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Businesses have been tackling an evolving scenario post the 2008 market crash and the subsequent economic downturns. You’ve probably confronted some of those changes yourself whilst being part of a team. The demand for sales and trading roles isn’t as high as before. Mergers & acquisitions roles have gained popularity. With the jobs market being more stable now, a lot of people are interested in financial training as a key to switch roles or move to a different kind of a company. Reflecting on the globalised nature of the industry, top business schools are welcoming more and more students from around the world. There’s clearly been a rise in internationalisation.

Ethics and responsibility

The effects of economic ups and downs have not stopped impacting world financial centres. That is why there is a big emphasis on risk management, with B-schools updating their regulations curriculum consistently. Ethics is another area of interest that scores high on importance. Sustainability doesn’t lie far behind. What started as a small module in many business schools has become a core subject for many. A good knowledge of mathematical tools, plus a confident grasp of world financial markets, and IT techniques, is your recipe for success here. In fact, your current role has certainly exposed you to these aspects in some degree already. But even if you know it all, you need to know how to use it. An MBA programme such as the Nanyang Fellows MBA aims to create managers who are able to reflect on and look at the implications of their action AND their inaction.

Internal Collaboration

Collaboration and teamwork characterise today’s professional life, regardless of your location. Businesses want their employees to work together and create results even if they are thousands of miles apart. The global workspace now demands that you work together remotely, so a greater focus is given to international teamwork. If a business has teams collaborating efficiently, problem solving and the creation of positive results will come easily.

Knowing how to effectively collaborate is a skill you can nurture every day. Just always be open to spending time with all kinds of people even if you have a language or cultural barrier. Think of the executive who had coffee with a visiting colleague and how he found out that India doesn’t allow people to find out their unborn baby’s gender. That would definitely help him when he’s working on a campaign involving pregnant women in India.

Cultural understanding and agility

Global employers value cultural awareness and agility. You need to be ready to take care of yourself and business irrespective of your surroundings. That means that you could be sent off to live in a remote country for three months and you would have to deliver results while you are sitting there with the local people, eating their local food, speaking their language, and joining them for festive occasions. You may have already spent some time outside your home country, but did you stay there as a mere tourist? Next time you go somewhere, venture to spots that are not traditionally touristy. Who knows? You could find out something that the people don’t like and never repeat it again with clients from that country.

Leadership, consulting and entrepreneurship

Everybody wants to be a leader. The evolution of business and management careers has brought entrepreneurship and consulting to the limelight. It isn’t always about creating great products – it could also be about delivering unparalleled service that impacts multiple countries and thousands of people. The business industry sees people breaking away from the corporate ladder to start their ventures every day. When you choose to do an MBA, you get the opportunity to rethink your career path. Some successful start-ups have started from a college dorm room. So what are you waiting for with your years of experience? Build your business plan and take it from there. See how it goes. If consulting is your passion, then go for it. Once you are into it, you’ll know what is going right and what is going wrong.

The Nanyang Fellows MBA is for seasoned professionals like you, who are ready to embrace these challenges head on. The evolving business world needs well-trained professionals who can combine their experience with top class knowledge. That’s how leaders are born.

Kickstart Your Managerial Career

  By hmteam • October 22, 2015 ,

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When you decide to begin your MBA journey after a few years in the corporate world, you should know that you are taking a major leap. Everybody knows that there’s a huge difference between a junior level manager and a senior manager armed with a top class MBA Fellowship degree. Making the choice of applying for the programme is your first step. But there is a lot more you can do to kickstart your managerial career. The more proactive you are, the better chances of success. Build your career strategy with your eye on the next phase of your work life. In other words, you need to do your research and figure out where your future lies and what you can do to go in that direction. Start planning and get moving!

Discover Opportunities

You’ll have lots of opportunities to take advantage of, but sometimes you can’t pinpoint them. Sometimes, you’ll need to create those opportunities as well. Compare your current role to the managerial role that you aspire for. Have coffee or dinner with seniors you know in that role already. Get the inner story about what happens every day in that job. Compare your current role to that role and take notes. Admit your strengths and weaknesses to yourself. Ask yourself if you are running after it all just for a huge pay hike. Once you are done answering your own questions, you’ll know if you are ready to get on the managerial bandwagon. Then you can step up things at work and put in that extra effort. For example, you could be a manager with two people managing you, but why not offer to take up additional responsibility? You’ll learn on the job and earn respect in the field as well.

Plan Ahead

You’ve been here a few years. You’ve seen companies grow and business go up and down. A place that looks good right now, may not be that great once you get there post the MBA fellowship. Industries change rapidly and the ‘next big thing’ alters frequently. So, you should do chalk out a plan. Why do you want to spend a year in this programme? Maybe it is because you feel like you aren’t growing in your current job. Or it could be that you are ready to specialise in what you know you are best at. Whatever the reason, you need to be able to visualise your future when you are armed with this degree. Yes, you could be a manager already, but there are more of them at the top. How will you contribute to the industry in ways that you haven’t already?

Make Networking a Habit

You can’t be a manager if you stay stuck inside your office alone all day. You already know that a manager’s career involves using people skills on a daily basis. As you aim higher, communication is more important. If you are an introvert, push yourself. If you can talk to more people, they will know more about your accomplishments and interests. Networking is all about selling what you have. There is no point having a boss who loves you if nobody else in your industry knows about your good work. At this stage in your career, you’ve already built a reputation – so spread it. Use social media, events and get-togethers to let people know you’re ready to move forward.

The Nanyang MBA Fellow Programme

Once you get things rolling, you’ll need to work on your B-school applications. Some top MBA programmes require hardly any work experience from its candidates, while others require a significant amount. The Nanyang Fellows MBA Programme is one year long. The typical Fellow has about eight years of work experience and is in the middle of his career. The combined experience in the classroom brings great expertise to the table. The programme also includes a month’s residency at a top United States business school, which will help you understand how things and people function globally.

Once your application is submitted, don’t put your managerial career on hold. Keep moving. Keep talking. And keep learning!