Campus Living, Clubs, Happenings, Life at Nanyang, Sports

The 6th MBA Olympics – let the games begin!

January 25, 2016 Laura Melina Loeven

On 17 January 2016, business students from all over Singapore gathered in the Sport and Recreation Center of the NTU campus to compete in the 6^th MBA Olympics, hosted by The Nanyang MBA team.

The volunteer interscholastic sporting event brought together the MBA students from NBS, NUS, SMU, ESSEC and SP Jain to meet for a friendly competition of badminton, basketball, football, table-tennis, running relays and volleyball.

After Prof. Nilanjan Sen, the Associate Dean of the host school, Nanyang Business School, addressed the students with encouraging opening remarks, a horn was blown to officially kick-off the competition and send contestants off to the field. Despite intense heat and humidity, all contestants exhibited great competitive spirit and overwhelming stamina throughout the tournament.

Prof. Nilanjan Sen addressing the students to kick-start the competition

The event schedule was tightly organised and players who participated in more than one of the Olympic disciplines hurried from one court to the other to support their teams. To refill the contestant´s energy reserves and boost the competitive spirit, the event sponsor Kashmi, provided 100PLUS energy drinks, Red Bull had donated their famous energy drinks to give students “wings”, Bayer offered Berocca multi-vitamin tablets to boost energy and mental sharpness, and the Soup Spoon gave out coupons for a hot meal at their food outlets.

After a hectic morning with group competitions in all disciplines, players gathered at the running track to enjoy a lunch break. Students had the opportunity to network, make new friends, and regain energy for the next round of competitions. Often, the race between schools was tight and supporters had to give their every bit of energy to cheer on their teams at the top of their voices. Being the event´s organiser, NBS had the advantage of having their school mascot around. Rondel Apelo, a Nanyang-Waseda Double MBA student, could not care less about the extreme outside temperatures and put on the heavy plush costume of NTU´s official mascot, Lyon, to cheer on his classmates, and of course, be the accessory in many memorable photo shoots.

Mascot “Lyon” with NBS students

The final winners in the respective disciplines were awarded with bronze, silver and gold medals to honour the tremendous efforts and great sportsmanship of all players. Professor Pete Giulioni, Head of the NBS Career Development Office, proudly handed over the many medals to the exhausted contestants and congratulated every student on their outstanding performance as well as good sportsmanship. “This was a terrific day”, Pete stated with a beaming smile. “I am truly impressed by hospitality exhibited by all our students.”

Prof Pete was assisted by a crowd of agile volunteer helpers who had formed the event organization committee from the NBS cohort. The MBA Olympics event committee had done a great job in preparing for the tournament, setting up the venue and taking great care of all players throughout the game day. Everyone had given their best efforts to make the event a success and the Nanyang Sports Club Co-Chairs, Sancho Cuasay III and Anoop Bolisetty, were truly delighted. “We are proud that all guests had a lot of fun and enjoyed the day”, said Sancho after a long day of coordinating the various matches of the day. “Thankfully, nobody got hurt and we only heard good feedback from all participating schools”, Anoop added.

Action on the football field

The purpose of the full day sports event was not only to measure up to each other in various sports disciplines, but also to raise awareness for a noble cause among future business leaders. The event sponsors, Lee Foundation, Mitsubishi Electric and Renesas, offered generous donations to support the sporty students in their fundraising endeavours. All surplus funds raised from the event were donated to Special Olympics Singapore, the beneficiary of this year´s MBA Olympics. The NBS Corporate Social Responsibility Club Co-Chairs, Aki Narita and Gauri Agarwal, proudly presented a cheque in the amount of SGD 5,000 at the end of the awarding ceremony.

Singapore Special Olympics receiving a SGD 5,000 cheque

Upon honouring all players and teams for their efforts to support the 6^th MBA Olympics, and presenting the trophy for the title “Overall Champion” to the winning school SP Jain, the event was closed with a friendly football match between the Singapore Special Olympics and a mixed team of all school´s football players, just before sunset. A truly successful event!

The trophy for the “Overall Champion”

….and medals for all teams !

Business Competitions, Student Leader

Nanyang MBA at the John Molson Case Competition

January 10, 2016 Laura Melina Loeven

A diverse Nanyang MBA team consisting of Sheng Jie Tan, Deep Dabholkar, Priyanka Khosla and Pierre Vinarnic took part in the 35^th edition of the John Molson MBA International Case Competition, from 03 Jan – 08 Jan 2016 in Montreal, Canada.

The John Molson Case Competition is a not-for-profit event organized by MBA students from the John Molson School of Business in Montreal, Canada. The competition is among 36 teams from top business schools worldwide, and is recognized as the largest and most prestigious competition of its kind.

The event was a very enriching experience for the team, right from the first session of the preparation phase, with the guidance of coach Akshay Regulagedda, the Nanyang MBA John Molson alumni and part of the previous year’s winning team as well as Professor Vijay Sethi. While the team experienced a tremendously steep learning curve, all team members really bonded through a strenuous preparation phase. It was particularly memorable that Coach Akshay guided the team through a full case preparation despite a loosing his luggage and suffering from severe jetlag.

During the actual competition phase, the Nanyang MBA team sought to tackle various real life case problems, within a 3 hour time frame. The issues presented and industries covered were very diverse, including a fascinating case on turn-around strategy for MacDonald’s. After preparing a compelling case solution, the team proceeded to present a ppt outlining the case solutions to a panel of judges, predominantly senior leaders from major enterprises in North America.

One of the most memorable cases was a live case presentation by a Spanish Joint Venture, who presented their “Beauty & Go” product. The teams had the opportunity to interact with the actual stakeholders of the business, who presented on the case and business issues that they were facing in person.

The dynamic nature of the competition format really broadened the horizons of all participants, and served as an enriching platform for interaction and learning.

Overall, while the Nanyang MBA team did not win the competition in this edition of the event, it was definitely one of the most memorable experiences in the MBA program. For the competing team, it represented an opportunity to make the Nanyang MBA program proud, and to showcase the “Nanyang” perspective towards resolving business issues. The friendships and bonds forged will be fondly remembered as a highlight of our MBA experience.

Career, Clubs, Life After MBA, Networking

What it takes to be a good consultant

January 8, 2016 Laura Melina Loeven

Many of MBA candidates aspire to become a management consultant via post-MBA career path. In lectures and workshops, professors share lots of consulting specific frameworks, tools and problem solving methodologies with carefully chosen business case study materials but Nanyang MBA students are always eager to go the extra mile.

In October 2015, form consultant of Singapore Deloitte and member of the Nanyang MBA AY16 cohort, Kevin Sehoon Son, conducted a 2 hours sharing session to showcase a typical day of a consultant. All participants were extremely keen to learn from a real-life story of a former consultant and appreciated the chance to get a glimpse into the types of problems that consultants solve for business leaders, such as market entry strategy, turn-around strategy, post merger integration, business transformation and etc.

As the session was a success, Kevin´s mentor from Deloitte Singapore, Dr. Yong Chet, was invited to address the cohort so that students get a feel for what it takes to be a good consultant from a senior executive level’s point of view.

On December 15, Dr. Yong conducted another 2 hours-long sharing session at the NBS Bistro. The speaker brought an inspiring carrer-changing story to the event: the senior executive once left his job as a surgeon to become a business consultant. He just recently rechieved his MBA title and with over 5 years of management consulting experience as a Director he was able to provide valuable insights into the management consulting industry.

Dr. Yong´s speech was highly relevant for all session attendants to prepare for a career in consulting. Besides offering tips how to fine-tune resume and coverletter for successful applications, the 3 most important take-aways from his speech are the following:

Likeability: Consultants communicate with clients on a daily basis. Even if a candidate has fluent communication skills and brilliant problem solving skills, clients would not want to continue business a consultant who is not likeable and warm hearted. As we all are human beings, we are inevitably biased to prefer likeable people.
Quick learning skills: Consultants are not genius in evey aspect of a problem as there must be more than zillion types of different problem scenarios in the worlds. There is no cookie-cutter solution to solve problem dynamics. Hence, consultant must be able to quickly acquire required knowledged. As Dr. Yong was a surgeon, he know that it is a difficult challenges to gain knowledge about unfamiliar industries when handling a diverse range of clients.
Time management: Consutant are given flexibility in terms of work hours but there are heavy responsibilites to take care of to meet clients’ expectations. Time management is crucial and sometimes consultants need to make tbe commitment to wake up at 3 am to join conference calls from other continents. Thus, candidates must have the right mindset to best serve clients and become a competent consultant.

At the end of Dr Yong´s speech, students proactively approached the speaker and started outlining their career goals to seek advice over beer and soft drinks.

Looking back on a successful club event, the Consulting clubs would like to say thank you to the graduate studies career development office for sponsoring the initaitve and promises that The Nanyang MBA will carry on the initiatives to invite industry experts to share knowledge and actively expand networks.

Rachel Ng Mui Cher from the Post-Graduate Office with Dr Yong from Deloitte

Campus Living, Living in Singapore, The NANYANG MBA

Impatient Singapore pushes the boundaries

January 7, 2016 Laura Melina Loeven

by Laura Melina Loeven, posted on Financial Times MBA blog

I cannot count how many times I have read the word “moor noissucsid” over the past few weeks. It sounds like a mystic secret language from The Lord of the Ringsdoesn’t it? But it is just plain English for discussion room. Sadly, I spend so much time inside the study rooms that I often find myself reading the label on the glass door backwards when I happen to stare at the one door that separates me from the outside world.

I had two days to go until the Christmas break and to my despair the list of assignments to finish was much longer than my shopping list.

Most days the two best friends of any MBA student, laptop and extra large coffee mug, share the peaceful quiet of the discussion room with me. From time to time, the door opens and the head of one of my fellow students appears. We are all in this together, and the many sharing sessions or quick bouncing back and forth of ideas between doors were worth the long hours spent in a dimly lit study hall.

Joining an MBA programme and relocating to Singapore has changed my life. Back home in Germany, I grouchily complained about the penetrating cold outside and lamented the ruthless heating of indoor facilities. Now, I start sweating as soon as I step outside but shock-freeze when I enter a building. The temperatures across campus are adjusted to facilitate optimal brain activity. It turns out that my body and brain have very different requirements in terms of climate, and while my head is working at high speed, the rest of me goes into shock mode.

Not only have my MBA studies affected the way I dress (I wear long pants and a scarf at 30C outdoor temperature), but I also changed my sleeping patterns, eating habits and exercise schedule.

The challenges of juggling classwork, assignments, workshops, career talks, a symposium here and a lecture there will quickly transform even the most efficient of all multitaskers into a restless jitterbug. Singapore is a great place for the ambitious, the disciplined and the determined. The vibe of the city will teach you to always keep an eye on the goal and to keep an eye on the competition while walking towards that goal. In a city where everything works, public transport runs smoothly, no escalator ever breaks, and even the pizza delivery company keeps its “30 minute” promise when ordering to a remote university campus, you cannot but drop your jar and decide to work harder yourself. The pizza man just shrugs his shoulders, utterly unimpressed.

German by birth, I strive for efficiency, value speed and reliability, and I definitely appreciate punctuality. Now I share a city with textbook workaholics, and I wonder if I ever even properly understood the definition of punctuality. For the first time, it is possible that I am last to show up for an appointment. My homework might receive a “nice, but more thorough analysis required”. And I am still baffled that I have not ever waited for a delayed train.

What bewildered me at first, makes total sense to me these days. Singapore is impatient. An austere yet friendly nation that is poised for further growth. Uniting tradition and modernity, Singapore demands an increasing share of the world’s attention.

In the middle of this place that looks like Disneyland but works like the “good elves”: my business school. A school that might cool down the body, but successfully heats up a student’s mind. A school that will go above and beyond to prepare its graduates to wander on the path of growth, personally and professionally. Even if that means they live in the moor noissucsid.

Having reached the halfway mark of my MBA journey, I have already discovered that it will not be enough to just be prepared to reach my goals. Here in Singapore, goals are stretched and limits pushed.

published on: Financial Times – FT.com

http://blogs.ft.com/mba-blog/2016/01/05/impatient-singapore-pushes-the-boundaries/