The eight participants of the Nanyang-Waseda Double MBAProgram take their first two trimesters on the NTU campus together with the full-time Nanyang batch. Upon completing trimester two, the Waseda students head off to complete the third trimester in Tokyo, Japan, at Waseda University while the rest of the full-time cohort will complete their coursework at Nanyang.
This year, Double MBA participants come from a number of countries including Japan, South Korea, America, the Philippines, and Singapore. Many Double MBA students wanted to return home to see their families before the start of the Waseda coursework, so an early farewell party was set for February 17th.
As an exhausting Ultimate frisbee game has been a staple of stress relief for many, everyone started off the day with a quick match in the intense Singapore heat.
In the evening, a huge barbecue with plenty of drinks and food to go around was hosted on the ground floor just outside of the Graduate Hall buildings. Most of the MBA students and staff were in attendance and spent time reminiscing over the past eight months. After everyone had plenty of food, Professor Nilanjan Sen, the Associate Dean of Nanyang Business School, and Sancho Causay, a member of the Nanyang-Waseda Double MBA cohort, gave speeches and cut the various farewell cakes to close out the night.
Many chose to stay around for an afterparty, the last chance to be together as a single student body before the Double MBAs begin to head off for Tokyo.
Having made enough memories to last a lifetime in just the past eight months, it’s safe to say that the Double MBA students will be missed. The cohort has become like family through fun times, the academic rigor and stress, and the mere time spent together, so everyone is sure to meet again in the future.
On February 12th, the Nanyang MBA team gathered to celebrate their victory for the huge success of the 6th Nanyang MBA Olympics – both as hosts and players.
In the spirit of sports, the MBA Olympics Organising Committee decided to have a bowling party. The event was organised by the Sports and CSR Clubs – the same two clubs that collaborated for the MBA Olympics – and sponsored by the EXCO and MBA Office. Everyone stormed Orchid Bowl @ the Chevrons on the Friday night for an evening of bowling, food, and fun.
The entire cohort – Fulltime, Parttime, and some of the Trimester 2 exchange students – not only celebrated the MBA Olympics’ success, but also the end of the second Trimester. As it was the last Friday night before the exams and probably the last night when the entire cohort is complete before the exchange students and Nanyang-Waseda Double MBAs leave for the last trimester of the program, everyone took the opportunity to have fun, celebrate, and take photos with everyone.
At 10pm, the lights at Orchid Bowl were turned off and the black lights were turned on. Also, party music was played, for a night of cosmic bowling and laughter.
There were exactly 36 bowlers who registered for the event – which was perfect for 6 teams of 6 each. After 2 games, the student Exco president, Deep Dabholkar, member of the powerful bowling team Johnnie M won the “Highest Individual Bowler” award for scoring the highest total score with 288 pins. He was followed closely by Kevin Tay from team Rocky J who scored the highest score for the first game but finished with a total of 286 pins.
The most successful Team KRISP, composed of Koichi, Rinky, Isaac, Steven, Prashant, and Marcel, won the “Top Team” award after scoring the highest total score with 1,113 pins.
We congratulate all winners – well done – and thank all participants for a truly enjoyable event which sparked great memories of the recent MBA Olympics, and provided a great opportunity to celebrate two wonderful trimesters at the NTU campus.
First, some important information about Chinese New Year in 2016:
According to Chinese Five Elements Horoscopes, this is the year of the red monkey, which contains 2 elements: Metal and Water.
Metal is associated with gold.
Water is associated with wisdom and danger.
This forecasts more financial events in the year of the Monkey, according to the wise predictions of Economics Professor Lee. And, if one wants to have good returns on financial investments, one will need to outsmart the Monkey.
Metal is also connected to the Wind. That implies the status of events will be changing very quickly. So think twice before making changes for your finances and career!
On the 31st of January, the MBA cohort of 2016 celebrated the year of the red monkey with a unique cultural experience for all foreign Nanyang MBA classmates.
The event was initiated by one of the Singaporean MBA students, Kevin Tay, who volunteered to share the festive mood and atmosphere of the lunar New Year. Along with the fellow Chinese and Singaporean students Isaac, Wenduo, Veronica, Steven, Darren and Sheng Jie, he put together an entertaining and educational event program – in just 10 short days!
In order to have an authentic experience of how Chinese New Year is celebrated in its own unique way in Singapore and China, the team planned were 3 highlights to the event:
The evening started with a wonderful presentation which explained the mythical origins of “Nian”, the Chinese word for “Year”, and how Chinese New year got its traditions.
A long time ago, a mythical monster has terrorized the peace of villages every year; however one day, a wise old man prepared fireworks and red decorations. When the mythical monster Nian came, the loud noises and bright decoration managed to scare the monster away. This was how the Chinese New Year came about and ever since, the people love to gather with loud noises and red, the colour that symbolizes luck.
Next, the event´s MC, Shen Jie, started the celebration with Yusheng (Chinese Salmon Salad). This is a tradition unique to Singapore and Malaysia. Everyone gathered around platters containing the mixture of grated carrots, radish, pomelo salmon slices, and garnishes it with sweet plum sauce, spices and crunchy ‘pok chui’ crackers. Each ingredient represented blessing, fortune and good luck.
an introduction to CNY traditions in Singapore
The MBA students then equipped themselves with chopsticks, and started tossing the salad as high as possible while shouting, “Prosper”, “MBA”, and all the wishes for the New Year. It was definitely a vibrant & joyous atmosphere, just like how Singaporean families & friends do it. Huat ah!
To kick off the last activity, the most exciting highlight of the night, Kevin instructed all participant on THE game to play for Chinese New Year – Mahjong 101.
From the basics to the complex, advanced rules, Kevin explained the art of tile building to bring all students up to speed for a series of gambling. It was quickly evident that the gambling module involved a high level of strategic planning, patience, keen observation skills and critical decision making – and certainly invigorated the competitive spirit of the MBAs.
students at the gambling tables
The topics covered in the quick Mahjong lecture included superstitions and quirky practices, such as wearing red undergarments to maximize luck. At the end of the evening, the top scorer in class was Ms. Aki Narita, sweeping a staggering 7 out of 8 games. Then, Anshul, Gauri and Aditiya also topped their respective tables.
All in all, the event organisers hope that everyone who attended not only learnt more about Chinese traditions, but really got to experience the full atmosphere, activities, food and liveliness of this festival.
Special thanks to everyone who attended, and the organizing committee for a job well done. Indeed, we strongly believe that in many years from now, the highly diverse MBA cohort of 2016 will still gather and practice the skills learnt from this cultural module, Mahjong 101.
In January, the MBA 2016 cohort found yet another reason to celebrate: the very own Student Exco President’s birthday.
Exhausted and tired after running around while competing in the Nanyang MBA Olympics, hours of cheering for the cohort´s contesting teams and combatting the burning heart, the cohort decided to extent a long, but successful day to an unofficial midnight celebration of the president´s birthday.
The next morning started early: as usual, a sore but happy class gathered at 9:30 AM for a lecture in the lecture hall. Yet, during the break, the class got together at the MBA lounge with a box of surprise for Deep, Student Exco president.
Excited, he opened the box to reveal the lip-smacking black forest cake. With 8 candles (editor´s note: number of candles is purely notional and was kept small to fit the size of the cake..) we officially wished Deep a very happy birthday.
While the delicious cake with big red cherries did not last long, the memories of yet another tasty birthday celebration are here to stay forever.
On Wednesday, 27 January 2016, the members of the Banking and Finance club of the MBA class of 2016 were warmly invited to the Bloomberg office in Singapore.
During the visit, seven students enrolled in the Nanyang MBA Banking and Finance track learnt how to use the Bloomberg terminal in their daily work and had a chance to visit the fantastic working environment of news bureau.
Bloomberg is one of the leaders in financial software, data and media in the world. As the finance classes in the second trimester gave an introduction to financial tools, students intensively used Bloomberg to obtain data and news and were interested in visiting the staff working in Bloomberg´s Singapore office to get a personal tour around the local offices of the world leading financial news agency.
The Banking and Finance club was fortunate to get an invitation for a one-hour training session in Bloomberg’s office, and learned how to use different functions to search for types of FXs, Equities and Commodities. Also, the trainer explained how to set their personal preferences to easily analyze different markets.
All participants felt that the office tour was very helpful and were happy to find out that the design of Bloomberg´s terminals is very user-friendly. It was an exciting experience to take a tour around the well-equiped facilities and allowed everyone to get a deeper understanding of the way of working at Bloomberg as well as to gain insights into the valuable services that Bloomberg provides for investors worldwide. Learning how to use the terminals efficiently will be of great help for the further coursed and will certainly be beneficial for all students who aim to work in the financial industry in the future.
Banking and Finance Club at the Bloomberg office, Singapore
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 6th 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 6th 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!
A diverse Nanyang MBA team consisting of Sheng Jie Tan, Deep Dabholkar, Priyanka Khosla and Pierre Vinarnic took part in the 35th 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.
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
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.
By Laura Melina Loeven, posted on Financial Times MBA blog
Every Monday morning, Professor Gibbons walked into the lecture theatre with a smile on his face. He cheerfully set up his laptop, turned on the beamer and settled to wait for his students to come in. During the first trimester of my MBA, Professor Gibbons beat the Nanyang Business School’s MBA batch of 2016 to show up to class first. Every time.
The very first core course to take on my MBA journey was a compact six-session module with the promising title “Leading People Globally”. Not knowing what to expect from this class, I turned up for the first lecture with a sense of curiosity as well as concern and scepticism.
During my undergraduate studies, courses supposed to enhance students’ soft skills were mostly packed with lectures on social sciences, readings on theories, and discussions of abstract concepts. Reading the syllabus made me fear another episode of dry and fluffy elaborations on how to reach and stay on the top of the food chain. I sincerely hoped that it would be different this time.
Luckily, from the first minute of the lecture my scepticism proved unnecessary. I was thrilled to see the professor fueled with energy, engaging with each and every student. Being Irish, Prof Gibbons had a straightforwardness that left students with no choice but to contemplate his suggestions. A seasoned businessman with intensive experience in people management, he held strong views on what kind of conduct is most effective. Despite provoking passionate arguments, he had the unconditional respect of the class at all times.
The cohort being composed of students from various ethnic and professional backgrounds, controversy and disagreement was unavoidable. During case discussions, we inevitably entered heated debates on conflicts of moral or opposing interests. The lessons learnt on how to resolve those conflicts were deemed priceless.
Before participating in the “Leading People Globally” module, I was confident that I was a rather effective learner and knew exactly in which contexts I develop best. When being asked for an example of exceptional learning success, along with many of my batch mates I would have cited the story of a child who touched the hot stove and only then learnt that it is hot. I learn from experiences, and from making mistakes. Then, one of Professor Pat´s first sentences burst my bubble:
“ You do not learn from failure.”
For a moment, I was confused and impulsively raised my hand to object. But the lecturer went on claiming that
“You learn from your reflection on failure”.
To be frank, as a 24-year old MBA candidate with only a few years of working experience in a well-performing multinational corporation, I have not really come to know what it feels like to miserably fail. I have no experience in dealing with fiascoes, nor do I feel prepared to deal with one.
Even more so, I slowly realised that even in those rare cases where I was unsuccessful in pursuing my goals, or experienced rejection, I have not even fully pondered on the root causes to spare myself the pain of identifying my wrongdoings. However, failing to reflect on failure might be even worse than failing in the first place, and I start to acknowledge the risk of falling prey to the same traps over again.
In the weeks after the class, I began to question how good I really was at developing myself or if the notions “lifelong learning” and “continuous improvement” were nothing more than buzz words.
As the average MBA class seems full of self-declared overachievers, participants might not have had excessive exposure to failure themselves. Certainly, nobody should start to seek failures to artificially accelerate their learning curve, but as responsible business school students we should definitely start truly reflecting not only on big scale mistakes, or the failures of others, but also on careless mistakes and day-to-day flops.
As painful as it sometimes is to unveil personal deficiencies, I am thankful for an eye-opening experience that helped me to acknowledge areas for development. Thankfully, there are two more trimesters left to work on those.
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