Category Archives: Blog

Blog, Student Leader

MBAs hear views on how Africa can accelerate growth

originally published on Financial Times MBA blog on June 20, 2016
by: Laura Melina Loeven, Nanyang Business School

Africa, home of some of the world’s most impressive wildlife, is a beautiful continent with breathtaking scenery. But the poverty, exploitation and, in some cases, war has hindered its progress. But how do you wake up a sleeping beauty and bring out its best?

The Singapore Business Federation invited Nanyang Business School students and industry leaders to a breakfast session with Guillaume Kavaruganda and Hazel Ngubeni, the ambassadors of Rwanda and South Africa respectively. They shared their views on what is needed to accelerate progress in Africa.

Rwanda on the move

Mr Kavaruganda says the abolition of the excessive protectionism of African markets and a proactive transition to free movement of goods and people in Eastern Africa are the priorities to become competitive. Yet, Rwanda, like its neighbours, still struggles to address structural issues such an unstable energy supply, a lack of housing for its 12m people, poor infrastructure and a deficient education system.

Even though Rwanda prides itself as one of the few African nations to have achieved political stability, there is still a long way to go to win investors’ trust

But the government is aware of its responsibility to provide basic care for its people and has made smart moves to improve the living conditions. Recently, access to basic healthcare has been extended to 85 per cent of the population; a drastic improvement that will not go unnoticed by foreign investors. Yet even though Rwanda prides itself as one of the few African nations to have achieved political stability, there is still a long way to go to win investors’ trust.

Africa is more than gold and diamonds

Having shed light on the forward-looking initiatives that Rwandan officials have brought on its way, Hazel Ngubeni broadened the perspective on the challenges and multiple investment opportunities across Africa.

She projected a map of Africa to visualise the natural resources to be found in each of the 54 African countries. “This is how people see us,” she jokes. “There is gold, diamonds, more gold, and more diamonds.” But Africa is much more than precious metals and gems.

By investing in intercontinental highways, water integration and improved energy supply, the continent shows that it is seriously concerned with improving infrastructure to foster growth of its service and manufacturing industries, and promote trade within Africa and with foreign partners.

Rwanda has converted development opportunities into growth, with annual real growth of gross domestic product averaging about 8 per cent between 2001 and 2015. But South Africa has reached a stage of stagnation and complacency. Despite its past progress, its currency, the rand, is crashing; its credit rating is rapidly approaching “junk” status; and South Africans have taken to the streets. But what issue to tackle first?

Johan Burger, director of the Centre for African Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, argues that the greatest challenge in managing South Africa is setting priorities to tackle social issues.

However, South Africa is willing to learn from its peers and assess high-tech solutions to address its most pressing problem: the provision of adequate healthcare in remote areas. Using innovations, such as drug delivery via drones, the country seeks to emerge from its crisis by meeting the basic needs of the rural population and preparing its people for a much bigger task: economic growth.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. All rights reserved.
Blog, Programme, The NANYANG MBA, Useful Tools and Tips

How do you get interested in business operations? Play a game…

originally published on Financial Times MBA Blog on June 13, 2016

by: Laura Melina Loeven, MBA 2015-16

The last course I have to pass before graduating from Nanyang Business School is a 12-week operations class. As more consumers around the globe demand good quality products at a low-cost, establishing cost-efficient and reliable operations is a fixed part of every corporate agenda to gain an edge over the competition.

Thus, aspiring executives must not only be good strategists, but also need to be prepared for managing the day-to-day operations.

Yet many multinational corporations are criticised for their negligence in operations management, and we read more and more about the difficulties balancing cost and quality. Climate change, depleting natural resources and labour strikes are just some of the challenges faced. But how can you prepare MBA students for a multitude of operational issues in just 12 weeks? How do you engage a bunch of young professionals in a subject that does not sound nearly as sexy as any of the popular strategy design courses, but has an even higher impact on corporate success? The answer is simple: you play a game.

What I saw were just three machines, an order book and a reporting tool that displays real-time analysis of my team’s performance. It all seemed so simple.

Tapping into the competitive spirit of MBA students always works, and soon after firing the starting gun of the Littlefield simulation game, enthusiasm for operations issues increased notably. The class is split into groups and the game is played over the course of one week. The goal of each group is to maximise revenues from customer orders while maintaining optimal machine capacity utilisation. Yet, the only decisions a team can make is to buy or sell machines. The catch? One hour in the Littlefield world represents a full day in real life, so inevitably you end up monitoring the game before breakfast, skip lunch to check the capacity utilisation figures, and wake up at night to make sure operations are still running smoothly.

When typing the key word Littlefield into Google search, I stumbled across a scary YouTube video of a particularly committed student who fully dedicates himself to the game, monitoring the virtual factory floor 24/7. But he drops all other responsibilities, neglects his girlfriend and eventually loses his mind. With this off-putting story in mind, I am hesitant to engage in this exercise and approached the game with scepticism. However, what I saw were just three machines, an order book and a reporting tool that displays real-time analysis of my team’s performance. It all seemed so simple.

Littlefield

 

For seven days, I logged into the Littlefield game and saw the reporting graphs climbing up and down, and found my team’s ranking moving in sync. Staring at the chart that reflects the capacity utilisation of my factory left me in awe, and even after 10 months of business school I feel helpless. Puzzled by the uncertainties of Littlefield, my team decided to follow the most complacent of all strategies: do nothing. While ignoring our managerial responsibilities seemed to work well for us for a while, we eventually dropped to the bottom of the field and finished the game as the second last team. Still, Littlefield taught me crucial lessons on operations management, and life itself:

  • If you want to go far, go together. Only working with a team leads to success.
  • You are never prepared enough. Making decisions when uncertain is an art you have to master.
  • Even simple set-ups bear risks. Be proactive, bold, and balance a holistic overview and attention to detail when it comes to managing daily challenges.
  • Doing nothing is never a good idea. Observe, analyse, act and react to succeed.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. All rights reserved.

Blog

Meditate to be better than a goldfish

originally published on Financial Times MBA Blog on June 6, 2016

by: Laura Melina Loeven, MBA 2015-16

As part of my MBA degree at Nanyang Business School, I sought relief from my stressful student life by joining a meditation and leadership workshop with Laurence Freeman.

Laurence Freeman

Father Freeman is a Benedictine monk who became famous for practising meditation with Lee Kuan Yew, the prime minister of Singapore between 1959 and 1990. Meditation describes themental discipline that helps individuals to discover their inner consciousness and to develop spiritual energy. It can also promote relaxation and calm a distracted mind.

I was there because I wanted to deal with issues caused by my frenzied lifestyle: insomnia, coffee addiction, hair loss, you name it.

In the first lesson I discovered the average person’s attention span is incredibly short. Since the digital revolution, most people can only focus for just eight seconds. This is even less than a goldfish, which has an attention span of nine seconds.

It seems the human race needs to relearn attentiveness and break some of its unhealthy habits. Dividing our precious attention between the virtual and real world, television ads, phones and all other distractions of daily life, we have lost the ability to just sit and be in the moment.

At the time of the workshop, I was an MBA student close to graduation, I confess that I felt unable to just “be” in the present, but rather contemplate the next move. Simply being, not doing anything, poses a seemingly insurmountable challenge to the self-titled workaholics.

The downsides of multitasking are obvious — we pick up only 20 to 30 per cent of the information available. We can waste valuable time and resources by overthinking merely for the sake of thinking about something — a mental activity which serves no purpose.

In his soothing voice, Fr Freeman outlined his strategy for dealing with stress: meditation which provides a moment of silence in a noisy world. This has the power to reduce anxiety, increase productivity and improve human relationships, Fr Freeman explained.

But where do I find the time to meditate in my jam-packed schedule?

Fr Freeman’s response was simple: you never have time, you make time. Stress is a choice, and most of us choose to be stressed, because this simply is what everybody else does. Throughout the day, we volunteer immediate attention to every small agitation in our environment, and hence become creators of our own misery.

‘The downsides of multitasking are obvious — we pick up only 20 to 30 per cent of the information available’

However, meditation corrects this tendency towards distraction, and resets our busy minds. It is certainly no coincidence that meditation and medication start with the same prefix “med-”, Greek for care and attention.

Under instruction, I sat with my eyes closed, back straight, hands folded on my lap, and soundlessly recited a mantra. Pretty soon I discovered just how difficult it is to focus for 10 minutes.

My first steps into the world of meditation became an incredible journey of discovery and self-reflection. Taking baby steps on the long walk to peace, kindness, joy, patience, self control and many more big words, I discovered how difficult it is to just focus for 10 minutes straight. My mind wandered again and again, and seemed to resist stubbornly any effort to empty my brain’s Ram.

After two days of practising meditation, I left the workshop feeling deeply impressed with the world of imagination and inner peace that opens up to those who regularly meditate, but at the same time I am utterly ashamed of my inability to shut down. However, I also felt much calmer.

Yet, drawn in by the science of meditation and its positive impact on the mind and the work of successful leaders, I vowed to practise regularly — and made a promise to beat the goldfish in the discipline of attention.

Today, I still get distracted during meditation, but I appreciate that taking this regular time out allows me to relax and withstand stressful situations.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. All rights reserved. 
Blog

Crafting a Perfect Resume

Most of you would have dedicated valuable hours to the GMAT on your quest for the perfect score. You’ve probably also rehearsed replies to all kinds of possible interview questions. But have you put enough effort into your resume? You definitely should, because a resume written for an MBA admissions committee isn’t the same thing as one that you send to prospective employers. In other words, a bit of tweaking here and there won’t work.

This is what you need to do:

  • Quantify Your Achievements:

Talking about your professional achievements in terms of words or self-praise is a no-no. Your resume needs to include quantifiable data to set the context of your accomplishments. So be honest and write the figures to show what kind of a difference you made. For example, instead of saying that you were a part of a well-known marketing programme, include the percentage of new customers you helped the organisation acquire. Another example: Led a team of four people to increase downloads of app X, resulting in a 12% increase in downloads that quarter.

  • Keep it Brief:

The Nanyang MBA’s admission guidelines tell you that they don’t expect more than a three-page resume. So do the admissions committee a favour by keeping it concise and professional. Use to-the-point headline-style writing. Do not try to pack in excessive information by using a small font size – size 10 to 12 is the norm. If you find it overflowing, delete the unnecessary points. Remember that a long, cluttered resume can give people the idea that you cannot communicate well.

  • Exclude What Isn’t Needed:

When you are applying to the Nanyang MBA, you are introducing yourself to admissions officials who want to know if you have the leadership ability. Some applicants make the mistake of including information that isn’t required. A photograph, and your height and weight, are not a part of your resume. If you have lots of technical knowledge on a subject, the resume is not the place to write paragraphs on it. Personal interests should be included only if they make you stand out as a candidate. That means that reading science fiction or working out doesn’t make the cut. But more significant events like a published book or a charitable fundraiser where you created a big impact should be present.

  • Keep the Education Details Brief:

The education section of your resume should contain your educational history in chronological order. You need to mention the areas of study and any significant achievements such as making it to the Dean’s List or achieving a top rank in class. Make it easy to scan so that the reader can quickly identify the schools and years to arrive at a sense of where your background.

  • Run a Final Check:

Is every point on your resume important? Have you missed out on any position or activity that could showcase a particular skill set that you have? Can anybody reading your resume detect your career path? Does it support your career development goals? And have you started each point with a strong action verb like ‘generated’, ‘maximised’ or ‘spearheaded’?

The Nanyang Business School MBA programme is on the lookout for individuals who will be successful as leaders and in highly collaborative work environments. You need to show them that you have the skills that can lead to success. Keep the above pointers in mind and share your MBA relevant skills such as teamwork, collaboration, innovation, etc. with them.

Here’s more about the application process: http://www.nanyangmba.ntu.edu.sg/admissions/

Good luck!

Blog

Working With Cross Cultural Teams

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A good manager has to have the key skills required to manage teams in every country where the company operates in. With the globalised industry expanding, to take advantage of cost-effective technical expertise and other benefits that may not be present in the home location, cross cultural team management is more vital than ever before. Whether you’re sitting in a foreign office or holding a meeting via video chat, you need to understand, respect, and integrate each culture and its people into your system.

Here’s how you can do it:

  • Focus on daily communication:

Communication is the major chunk of effective team management. When you’re interacting with individuals from a culture that isn’t your own, you need to keep cultural norms and habits in mind. For example, many eastern cultures are fairly rigid regarding the hierarchies in the office. That means that they won’t be used to open discussions where subordinates speak their minds too. And bringing up certain topics may be a taboo because good workers aren’t expected to speak about or report such things. Some managers think that merely asking everybody to speak up does the job, but it doesn’t. Changing beliefs and long-term patterns is never easy. So take the time out to encourage each person in the team to talk to you on a one-on-one basis too. Work out a process that can give you accurate information about how the project is going without seeming like you are being insensitive to their ways. At NBS, you’ll get expert training on this in the comprehensive Leading People Globally module. Also take a look at the programme structure to understand how you can become a well-rounded MBA graduate:

  • Build an awareness of the differences:

Cultural differences stand out even as you travel from one state of a country to another. Like in India where you have hundreds of languages and enough cuisines to make you wonder if you have entered a new country each time you visit a new state. Difference should never be seen as a detractor because it can actually bring more skills and knowledge to the table. Successful managers do their research and don’t just notice the differences and ignore them. Building trust is impossible without understanding. As you continue to identify differences in the way things are said, done or perceived, find out where the differences are coming from. For instance, is something that they’re doing stemming from a religious belief? In fact, during the Nanyang MBA programme, you will get a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in another culture.

  • Keep your language positive:

Always keep negatives out of your conversations. That includes the use of negative language, negative tone, and negative body language. So you and other team members who are new to the culture will not frown and raise eyebrows or roll their eyes if you don’t understand or agree with a point. Also avoid saying ‘I disagree’ or ‘You can’t be serious?’ Instead, you can say ‘I do not quite understand what you are saying’ or ‘Can you please elaborate this for us?’ If there is a language barrier and you work heavily with that team, why not attempt to learn the language? Ideas and communication might flow better then.

Working with teams from different cultural backgrounds is challenging. But good management can prevent the risks that can occur from a lack of understanding and contrasting values and attitudes since all of these factors affect how work is done.

Be flexible. Be ready to learn!

 

Blog

Boost Your Career With A Global MBA Programme

01_Boost_Your_Career

Top MBA programmes are intensive and global. They want you to be ready to face the world and not just the industries in your geography. The Nanyang MBA is one such programme that is designed to make you a global leader within 12 life-changing months. Whether you are trying to figure out where to take your career next, or you’re considering a change of field, a global MBA is your passport to growth and success.

Here’s why people like you should apply for the NBS MBA programme.

  • International Exposure

Singapore is a diverse city with international corporations and citizens making up a large part of the industry. Still, further exposure to other locations and their business practices go a long way in shaping your MBA experience. That’s why the Nanyang MBA offers additional opportunities that can really put you out there. The most popular of these is the Overseas Business Study Mission or BSM, which involves travelling to a location that is relevant to your MBA courses. You get one week to apply your newly learnt theories and practices to a real setting. Once you’re done, you will find yourself with lots of knowledge regarding the business environment of your host country. In addition, you get to build a great network.

  • More Overseas Opportunities

Even after you are done with the Nanyang MBA programme, you can extend your business education by taking part in an exchange programme, which lasts between three to four months. NBS has close associations with academic institutions around the world and encourage students to take advantage of the collaborations. So why not choose a partner university from the list and acquire some fresh knowhow.

  • Global Faculty

All the classes conducted for the Nanyang MBA candidates are led by experts who are leaders in their industries or internationally qualified. From interactive learning, to industry talks and visits to companies, you’ll get the global edge even before you set out abroad. And just like your fellow students, your professors will come from diverse backgrounds and talents that will add more to your MBA experience.

  • Another Foreign Degree

For those of you who are extra ambitious, NBS’s MBA programme allows you to work toward a double MBA or a second master’s degree. Our partner business schools include Waseda University in Japan, University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and ESSEC in France where you can devote extra months to your MBA time and gain another globally recognised degree – and of course, the chance to immerse yourself into another business destination. Here’s more about that: http://www.nanyangmba.ntu.edu.sg/why-nanyang-mba/double-mba-master-degrees/

We all know that an MBA is a big investment. Your money, time and hard work should be worth it. That’s why you need to select well from the large number of MBAs around you in order to get the personal and professional makeover that you want. When you go home with your degree, you should be able to adapt to leadership positions in any country with success.

Good luck!

Blog, Happenings, Life at Nanyang, Networking, Student Leader

Why you need 100+ approvals to cut a tree in India

On Tuesday, April 12, Nanyang Business school invited to the third session of the quarterly ”CEO Breakfast Series” at the Fullerton Hotel in Singapore to explore challenges and opportunities when doing business India. Panelists, current NBS students, alumni and faculty engaged in a lively sharing session of the benefits of investing in India, discussed obstacles that individual and institutional investors face when entering the Indian market, and outlined the rewards of a long term foothold in the fastest growing economy of today.

Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at Nanyang Business School, Professor Nilanjan Sen, introduced the crisp 90-minutes sharing session on the opportunities and challenges when doing business in India by addressing the current macro- and microeconomic context of the largest Commonwealth country. India is not only affected by the slowing demand of the superpower China, a shrinking export market, and more conservative investment policy of the west but also fights against typical internal challenges of an emerging market. Touching on the 3 dimensions of future growth, Prime Minister Modi´s 3 D, demand growth, demography, and democracy, Professor Sen opened the stage for five expert speakers of Indian descent to present their views on the Indian market, and the prospects for foreign investments.

The majority of panelists who joined the early morning event to elaborate on their experiences with doing business in India has significant professional experience in banking and investment management, or held senior positions with large multinational corporations, so that the audience large benefitted from a pool of real live experiences and insider insights.

Even though India allegedly is the fastest growing economy with a 6-7% average annual growth rate, the seemingly attractive percentage  by itself represents a far smaller absolute economic growth in India than a 6-7% growth rate in China. Also, the challenges that institutional investors and multinational corporations face in when expanding into booming markets with large one digit to double digit growth rates are fairly similar. Despite significant differences in the root causes of obstacles, doing business is not less challenging than doing business in other emerging markets.

India scores low on “ease of doing business” due to unusually frequent elections in the different states of its large territory, and political power struggles in the fragmented republic prevent a much needed consistency in decision-making and harms sustainable infrastructure investments. Hence, panelist advise to find a local partner to enter the fragmented and culturally diverse Indian market. Bringing a global brand to India, it is recommended to redesign one´s value proposition for the local market, as for example providing small quantities for daily demand to the the bottom of the pyramid and customise one´s offering for the Indian market to match cultural expectations. When looking for best practices on how to approach, and sustainably attach the Indian consumer in the long run, newcomers to can learn from successful MNCs, as global brands such as Czech “bata” and American “Colgate” are exceptionally well established in India, considering that the brands are commonly recognised for their “Indian” heritage by the local costumers.

When contemplating about gambling on India´s growing economy, panelist recommend to prioritise the prospering logistics industry which significantly benefits from the rise of Indian e-commerce. Further, investments into infrastructure and transportation are especially rewarding as they support the filling of institutional voids, and lay the ground for the country´s road to unparalleled commercial success.

Still, India´s current competitiveness is suffering from a below standard road network and the country is severely disadvantaged by its complex regulatory, taxation and public administration system. MNCs seeking to cater for the needs of the upscaling middle class of Indians, face a series of appointments appointments when knocking on the doors of governmental offices to beg for the necessary approvals needed to start a business, or even wait up to 13 months to simply cut a tree. Panelist report that they have seen peaks of 100 plus approvals needed to get going on an investment project and Foreigners and Indians alike criticise the artificially erected bureaucratic hurdles and missing dynamics of the Indian market, prompted by an unnecessary complexity that foreign investors encounter when dealing with Indian authorities.

Although the challenges highlighted during the 2016 panel discussion have been present for over one decade, they have not been properly addressed so far. Yet, India still promises 7.7% annual growth due to the the peoples’ entrepreneurial spirit and the prevailing start-up culture that builds the backbone of India´s competitiveness and promotes technical innovation and unique solutions to global challenges. In addition, public and private sector joined forces to spot the gap in global manufacturing capabilities and aim to position India in an untapped niche as a specialised manufacturing service provider that might translate to a distinct competitive advantage which will allow India beat other emerging economies in the race for FDI.

Supporters of crisis-prone, but inventive India highlight the public sector´s increasing investments in infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities, and predict a stable upward trend for Indian society and the standards of living, eventually leading to improvements in the ease of doing business. Yet, despite all promising prospects, there are different viewpoints on doing business in India. Experts cast a critical eye on India´s demographics, its sluggish reform progress, and suggest carefulness in dealing with authorities. The tax bureau might have announced taxation reforms and committed to creating more investor-friendly business environment already a few years back, but is actually just about to pass the GST and tax reform bill. While the US Fed hikes interest rates, US foreign investment streams dry up, liquidity flows out of India and tells the uprising country to combat corruption and social unease in its the multi-religious and multicultural Indian society before the money comes back. A nation that is publicly characterised by the lavish lifestyle of its billionaires and their excessive spending rather than a conservative savings policy, struggles to attract investments in the light of previously disappointing foreign engagements.

Going forward, investors are strongly advised to set the right expectations instead of hoping to reap short term profits from businesses in India. First, one has to obtain clarity on the target segments, and business goals, to find its sweet spot in the vast Indian market. Despite continuous progress on the reform and regulation front, India seems to be market that rewards investors to come to stay, and punishes those looking to reap short term benefits. Hence, the recipe for success in India involves a step by step approach that acknowledges the diversity of a country which is best compared to is culinary richness: analyse the customer, understand the recipe to success, select ingredients, cook a sample and then scale-up.

By Melina Loeven

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Panelists of the CEO Breakfast Series “India: Opportunities and Challenges”
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Questions from the audience
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Associate Dean, Nilanjan Sen, thanks the audience and panelists for their contribution
Blog

Holi Festival of Colours – Splash the fun!

On Saturday, March 26th, the Beer, Wine and Liquor Appreciation Club and the Culture Club co-hosted an event to celebrate all things Indian!

The MBA students, ready to get their hands dirty and bath in a cloud of color dust, started off by convening on campus to prepare for the day. It is customary in India to drink during this day, which is why beer, wine, and liquor was providing beverages. Afterwards, the crowd joined the traditional Indian festival hosted by the Wave House on Sentosa.

Once the guys and ladies in old clothes, which they were ready to dispose after the event, made their way to the Wave House, they first faced a patience challenge while waiting in several long queues. The venue was packed with excited people from all over the world. The wait was worth it, however, as there was a DJ and a festive, colorful atmosphere all around that involved much dancing, mostly to Bollywood hits from the 90s.

The games began when the group of NBS MBAs finally started to smear each other with the colours purchased, and occasionally people in other groups would do the same to the students. At this point, everyone in the Warehouse was all messy, ready to move on to the fountain where the party guests were spraying each other with hoses. It was a good way to get clean, only to have someone smear paint on you all over again!

The fun even reminded the graduate student of their business lectures when they started trading their orange colours for other ones, such as pink and green to make the event even more colourful – such a rewarding day of fun and networking! 🙂

After 2 hours of playing with colour powders, everyone was exhausted and tried to get the paint off for good to embark on the journey back to campus, but some where more successful than others in this regard.

Finally making their way back to the NTU Graduate Hall, the Holi group agreed that this was surely a high point for the Culture Club this year!

holi_1

BEFORE….

holi 3

…and AFTER!

Blog

You do not learn from failure

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.

 

published on: Financial Times – FT.com

http://blogs.ft.com/mba-blog/2015/12/01/you-do-not-learn-from-failure/

Blog, Life at Nanyang, The NANYANG MBA, Travel

Big in Japan: doing business in the Land of the Rising Sun

By Laura Melina Loeven, Nanyang Business School

At the prospect of spending one week on a business study mission in Tokyo, I felt slightly nervous about offending senior Japanese managers. Being European, the manifold unwritten rules of Japanese business culture were still a mystery to me.

Thankfully, prior to my departure for my first MBA study trip I got to attend a crash course on Japanese business culture and the ‘dos and don´ts’ of socialising, hosted by my fellow Japanese class mates.

For one evening, I was fully drawn into the Japanese lifestyle while enjoying sushi and sake, admiring a traditional Japanese dance, learning bowing ceremonies, practising the correct exchange of business cards and eventually pondering the acquisition of Jim Beam whisky by a Japanese beverage company.

After I learned never to decline an invitation to socialise, I glanced at the tremendous amounts of sake that businessmen consume and quickly became concerned about the bowing ceremonies that I had been introduced to previously. The trip to Japan promised to be exciting.

Thinking about the city life in Tokyo, I dreamed of sky-high office towers, large and flashy advertisement screens and hordes of Hello Kittys. Crowds of business people in black suits, glued to their smartphones, appeared in front of my inner eye.

Yet, finally arriving in Tokyo, the city presented a very different image of itself. While some parts of metropolitan Tokyo felt like travelling back to the 60s, others were truly modern and impressed with trendy, simplistic and cutting-edge architecture. The streets of the hip districts of Shibuya and Shinjuku were indeed glitzy, but did not provoke the sensory overload that I anticipated.

Before heading to Tokyo, my classmates had warned me that most Japanese tend to seek harmony at all cost. Meetings run without friction and most people shy away from challenging authority by whatever means. I expected somewhat dull sessions on non-debatable company facts and figures and was prepared to sit through long, presentations from high-ranked executives.

What I found was the exact opposite. The executives that entertained the challenging questions of this bunch of ambitious MBAs did not fear any confrontation but exhibited great vigor, flexibility and a solid sense of humour in presenting their work. Instead of counting the minutes during dusty standard presentations, I was deeply impressed with the creativity, resoluteness and sincerity of the hosts’ responses to even the trickiest interrogations.

I learnt about the various strategic plans, experienced different company cultures and discussed Japan´s growth plans from every angle during our trip. Never a dull moment on this business study mission!

Five days of back-to-back meetings with 12 Japan-based companies and their highly inspirational leaders allowed me to gain valuable insights into Japanese management styles and to develop a firm understanding for growth strategies and corporate development tactics.

Currently, many Japanese companies find themselves at an inflection point. As a result of “Abenomics”, structural and fiscal reforms introduced by prime minster Abe, the nominal GDP has grown by 2.2 per cent over the past year, the highest growth in 17 years. How well an organisation responds to the challenges that arise in periods of change will determine the share of the overall national growth that the company can enjoy in the future.

The most common issue pinpointed by all presenters, an aging society as well as an overall decreasing population, will significantly impact Japan´s competitiveness in global markets in the long run. Further, many Japanese do not have a professional command of English so that their employers are often confronted with major obstacles when doing business with overseas partners.

The programmes introduced to improve the command of English are a necessary investment to make Japanese firms more attractive for foreign investment as it will eventually facilitate collaboration across borders.

I was delighted to learn that Japanese companies attach ever more importance on people development and increasingly focus on hiring international talent. Many of the companies who hosted Q&A sessions with my MBA class emphasised that they experienced radical progress by selectively incentivising employees and revising their HR policies. Offering flexible work style solutions to attract more women to the corporate world, providing training and international exchange programmes as well as shaping an overall growth mindset, has proven effective to nurture business success.

All the leaders who welcomed me and my classmates to their office agreed in saying that heavy investments in research and development programmes are crucial to compete on an international scale. While attentively monitoring innovation cycles, the firms aim to stay on top of market trends and best tailor products to customer needs.

With limited talent pools and only little entrepreneurial spirit in their own country, Japanese businesses focus on expanding through investments beyond the saturated Japanese market by asset purchases, joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions.

Nikkei Inc., publisher of the largest Japanese financial newspaper, has recently announced the acquisition of the Financial Times to strengthen its global and digital growth profile. Suntory, a Japanese beverage distribution company group, has taken over the American whiskey brand Jim Beam to enhance its footprint beyond Japanese markets.

Even though Japan was not on my list of most intriguing business environments, the insights gained from the visits to companies have definitely put Japanese businesses on my radar as future employers.

 

published on: Financial Times – FT. com

http://blogs.ft.com/mba-blog/2015/11/18/big-in-japan-doing-business-in-the-land-of-the-rising-sun/