Category Archives: Programme

The NANYANG MBA Associate Dean talks about CSR in roundtable discussion : Sustainability can boost profits

Businesses are facing increasing global pressure to pursue sustainable growth by managing stakeholders’ interests and the social, environmental and economic impact of their products, services, processes and other activities to achieve both financial and sustainable success. In fact, businesses can turn this into an opportunity to boost their bottom line.

In a Business Times-Nanyang Business School Roundtable discussion series, senior professors at Nanyang Business School and a visiting professor at the school who is a global authority on the subject, examine how businesses can promote sustainability and suggest some ways of integrating it into their operations to achieve a better bottom line.

Click here for full article

An Interview with Mr. Zafar Momin on “Strategy Implementation”

Author: Balaji Rajhavan, India

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview one of the stalwarts of business and consulting in Singapore, Mr. Zafar Momin, about strategy implementation from a CEO’s perspective. I was also fortunate to attend his course on the same subject and felt that an interview highlighting some of the more practical issues related to implementation would be both useful and interesting for all MBA participants.

Mr. Zafar has over 24 years of experience in business and consulting in Asia, Middle East and the USA. Mr. Zafar has held a variety of positions in prestigious companies: Executive Vice-President of Alghanim Industries in the Gulf, Partner and Managing Director of Boston Consulting Group in Singapore and Dubai, and Partner and Asia practice head with A.T Kearney to name a few. Here is part I of our discussion:

“Why should a CEO or the senior management of a company bother about strategy implementation? Especially when they have many other things like PR, stakeholder management, strategy formulation, etc. on their agenda.”

No matter what other items the CEO has on her/his agenda, the primary mandate for the CEO is usually ‘enhancing shareholder value’ and ‘creating a successful enterprise’. You can define success in terms of financial measures, operational excellence, people development, community enrichment, or whatever measure makes sense for the company. Every firm has a reason for “being” and this reason is usually articulated in their vision, mission & strategy. If the CEO can’t get these executed or put into action, can he/she be successful? So strategy execution cannot be something that he/she can delegate off to somebody to concentrate on something else, because what else could be more important than putting the company’s strategy into action.

“How much of a CEO’s time would typically be taken up by implementation issues?”

It’s hard to define how much of her/his time would be taken up exactly as it would depend on the specificity of the situation. However, implementation will surely be a priority on her/his “things to do” list. Most successful implementations have the CEO playing a key role in them. It doesn’t mean that he/she is necessarily leading
everything but that he/she is playing a significant leadership role; which may range from a hands-on driver to a facilitator to a decision shaper role. It is a very key that the CEO ensures that the strategic initiatives are moving forward, all the bases have been covered, budgets & resources have been allocated, and that there is a
detailed translation of the strategy into an actionable list of initiatives for the organization to act upon.

“Does the time spent by the CEO also depend on the size of the company? Say large companies like GE as opposed to a SME?”

Yes it might. A CEO at a large global company e.g. GE is leading a very complex & diverse organization, but probably has a lot more bench-strength and resources available to him. So the role he might play and the time he might spend might be different than the time spent by the CEO of a SME. The CEO of the SME might not have the
luxury of bench-strength and he may have to do a lot more of “rolling up the sleeves” stuff himself. But the importance of strategy implementation to both CEOs would be pretty much the same.

“What are the most common challenges faced by the CEO in executing strategy?”

There are several actually, but the typical ones are: getting the various layers of the organization to buy-in and align with the strategic direction of the company, identifying and mobilizing the correct resources for execution, planning the execution steps in detail and putting them into action with milestones, KPIs, control mechanisms and proper risk management. Implementation can be a very long and difficult journey, especially if it involves getting people to change. Often people resist change because they are comfortable with the status quo or feel they are not motivated or incentivized sufficiently to change.

In order to execute strategy effectively, CEOs have to make sure that they are exploiting all the levers that they have at their disposal such as organizational structure, processes, rewards, etc. One big problem in organizations is that people are asked to execute a strategy but are not given guidelines, processes, structures or systems to enable them to do that. The other issue is related to coordination and control mechanisms. People need lots of
information sharing, learning, empowerment, and also need measurement devices to know how they are progressing. Strategy formulation takes a lot less time than strategy execution. Yet, people underestimate how difficult it is to execute strategy, even though many start off very well they tend to get lost or wander off-course over time.”

Part II of the discussion continues in the next post with details about what tools or techniques a CEO can use, how to distinguish between a flawed strategy and flawed implementation, etc. Hope you all found this interesting. Over and out!

Why the NTU-ESSEC Double Masters Programme?

Author: Arjaree Lordamrongkiat, Thailand

I chose the NTU-ESSEC Double Masters programme because it equipped me with knowledge of both the Asian and European business environments.

I spent my first year offering courses from The Nanyang MBA at Nanyang Business School. The programme’s emphasis on student diversity resulted in participants from more than 20 nationalities in my batch, which enabled me to see things differently and with global perspectives. The extensive network and close relationship of alumni and
faculty further provided me with opportunities to network with and establish lasting friendships which I will always treasure.

Another great aspect about The Nanyang MBA is its flexibility. As a full-time participant, I was able to offer courses conducted in the evenings together with part-time participants, who were from various industries. I also had the opportunity to participate in the John Molson competition in Canada with three of my classmates.

My second year was at ESSEC Business School in Paris where I had the opportunity to understand how European businesses were built, grown and flourished. I offered courses in luxury marketing amongst others. Lectures were conducted by professionals from leading global companies. The practical knowledge and insights learnt were invaluable and useful for my future career. I was also fortunate enough to be offered an internship at the head office of one of the leading French hospitality companies just three months into the programme.

Joining The Nanyang MBA has been one of the best decisions I have made in my professional career. The knowledge and experience gained is invaluable and will certainly give a big boost to my career at the global level.

One Half of My Double Masters Programme at University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

Author: Aung L.M, Myanmar

I arrived at St.Gallen on a snowy night in February. The University of St.Gallen (UniSG) is one of the best European management schools. Memories of group works, student parties and travelling were some highlights of my stay there. I met and worked with many high caliber students from Europe as well as all over the world. The professors were well-known academics and practitioners in their various fields and could therefore, share from both academic and industry perspectives. There were also many industry-linked workshops and events where top executives from well-known private and public organizations were invited to share their knowledge and experiences.

One trademark of UniSG (HSG) and especially the SIM programme was the intensive interaction among student peers. At any one given semester, a SIM student could be doing seven to eight group projects with different course mates. While managing meetings for all the groups was a challenge, the opportunity to meet and work with them outweighed the
hassle of scheduling. I also had opportunities to mingle with students from other programmes. The traditional SIM Regulars’ Table (RT), wine tasting events and house parties were activities that enhanced my student life in St.Gallen.

I also gained cultural knowledge while travelling across Europe and visiting countries such as Hungary, Spain, Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg), and Italy. I am amazed by the rich historical and cultural background. Overall, my decision to pursue this double master programme is one of the best decisions I have made in my life as I have been tremendously enriched by the programme and the time spent in St.Gallen, Switzerland.

Bala’s Day Out

Author: Balaji R., India

It has been 8 months since I packed my bags and set sail from the land of the vikings and landed in the ‘Lion-city’ Singapore. And phew… what eventful months have they been!

So let me introduce myself: I am Balaji Raghavan (bala, henceforth) an engineer in my previous life and now, as you might have already guessed a participant of The Nanyang MBA. I have traveled widely and lived in different countries over the last 10 years… I have seen the sakura blossom in Japan in Spring, auroras snake their way across the sky in the depths of snow-covered winter and the sun set over the British empire along the coasts of England, to mention a few. Ok enough said… There will be time for an autobiography later—when I am more closer to senility, that is.

I will attempt, over a series of posts, to introduce life as part of the MBA program and at times even beyond it! Yes, even poor sods laboring their way through intensive B-school courses do have time to party and bring the roof down once in a while! I will endeavor to capture in the blog the highs and the lows of the program, the events
that occurred, the classes that we enjoyed, the wonderful memories of the times we spent together, the many laughs we shared and the unforgettable friendships and relationships forged with fellow students, faculty, and the people of Singapore. So buckle up, sit tight and enjoy the ride!

Let me begin, with the story of a trip we made to Pulau Ubin– a small island located north-east of Singapore– during the beginning of the program. This trip packaged under the guise of team-building and orientation, seemed pretty innocuous at first; It even began well with a scenic boat ride to the islet and relatively simple and fun
activities involving hula hoops and an alphabet counting game. As we were just beginning to have fun, we were thrown a seemingly insurmountable organizational challenge. We had to coordinate a class of close to 150 members in concurrent tasks of varying difficulty to earn $$ for building a real boat, more of a raft actually. One of the tasks even involved scaling a wicked climb. Now as we got down to business we realized that it was a difficult challenge that required coordination, courage, motivation and above all dealing with a whole ambiguity under time pressure. In the end, some astonishing acts of team work and individual brilliance got us to the target and we were able to buy enough raw materials to build the raft in time!

However, hold on! there was yet another twist in the tale, as we had to use the raft to navigate the seas around Pulau Ubin to plant a flag on a nearby islet. We had a raft ready but no way of knowing whether it was seaworthy. Some brave souls volunteered to take the raft out for a spin and their courage got us to the target on time! In retrospect, the orientation was a resounding success: it got us together working as a team, introduced us to the challenges faced in management, and gave us a whole day of fun and a heapload of memories that we will cherish! And if you are one to believe in good beginnings, the raft that did not sink might bode well for the class of 2009!

Second Place, in Mobie-ODAI Competition!

Recently, Hitachi and A-star developed a Mobile Application Platform called “Plog-in” to
collect and record activities done by users on the mobile phone. Mobie-ODAI Idea
generation required contestants to come up with ideas that utilized this platform
effectively. The contest started in October 2009 with initial submission of a 1-page
write-up detailing our ideas.

Subsequently, the short-listed teams were expected to make a presentation and a
business plan based on the idea that we had already submitted. 3 teams amongst the
shortlisted teams were then chosen to present at the finals of the competition held in
Fusionpolis. I was the only team with a single person in the Idea generation category.

I participated in this competition because it required an understanding of the technology
underlying the Plog-in platform and then develop ideas which could effectively utilize
the platform and at the same time made business sense to be developed. The
competition helped me in going through the nuances of developing a business plan
based on an application platform developed by a 3rd party. Since the competition
required me to setup a booth, I also made a short video explaining my idea.

I am proud to announce, I came in 2nd!

Check out my video here:

Check out the results website here:
http://www.plog-in.com/mobie-odai.php

Author: Girish Muzumdar