Category Archives: The NANYANG MBA

Blog, Business Competitions, International Exposure, The NANYANG MBA

AIM Accelerate Consulting Competition

November 4, 2014 WONG LINLING Leave a comment

Submitted by Cory Reid, Student Exco VP Case Competition

The Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Accelerate business consulting competition was held in the Philippines at the AIM campus in Makati, Manila from October 9th to 11^th, 2014. The purpose of the competition is to serve as a venue for young and talented students to showcase their skills and apply what they have learned in school through actual application.

Four students from the Nanyang MBA program were selected for the finals: Vivek Negi, Vishal Bhatnagar, Bhrigu Vasish and Cory Reid.

The competition is in the second year of implementation and this was the first year it was opened up to MBA students outside of AIM itself. The format of the competition is unique in that each team works directly with a local small or medium enterprise (SME) to tackle their most pressing issues while developing a realistic growth strategy for the company.

With over a hundred applicants from business schools such as ISB, NUS and NTU, the event drew talent from some of the top schools in Asia. 24 students were selected for the finals and were grouped into 6 teams of 4 each. Each team was paired up with a local SME about 4 weeks before the finale in Manila.

The Nanyang MBA students said the competition was a great learning experience since they had to collaborate with students from different universities to solve a real issue for a Philippines SME. In fact, they only met their teams and SMEs in person when they arrived in Manila two days before the final presentation.

The competition also featured seminars on ASEAN integration in 2015, faculty and industry mentors and a 30 minute pitch clinic for each team. The finale on Saturday had each team present for 15 minutes to a panel of three judges, followed by 10 minutes of Q & A. After dinner, the winning team was announced and the award was presented to Team Beauchem, which Nanyang MBA student Cory Reid was proud to be a part of.

Members from Team Mr. Wilson at the opening event with Nanyang MBA student, Vivek Negi, in the centre:

Team Beauchem at the finale dinner with Nanyang MBA student, Cory Reid, third from right in the back row:

Team Wilkonstruct at the finale dinner with Nanyang MBA student, Vishal Bhatnagar, second from left:

Teams on stage:

Faculty and the winning team – both students and SME participants:

The competition was featured in local newspapers such as the Asian Journal and Business Mirror. Articles can be retrieved from:

http://asianjournal.com/news/aim-accelerates-smes-potential/

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/aim-local-smes-need-to-forge-tie-ups-to-compete-effectively-in-aec-2015/

For more information about Nanyang Business School click here.

Blog, Business Competitions, International Exposure, The NANYANG MBA

Amazon ACE Challenge 2014

October 2, 2014 WONG LINLING Leave a comment

Submitted by Dilina Fernando

The Amazon Customer Excellence (ACE) challenge, organized by Amazon India, was held in two phases. In Round 1, 18 top business schools across Asia were invited to form teams to solve and submit three case studies within 96 hours. The case studies were across 6 categories, namely Category Management, Operations, Product Management, HR, Sales, and Onboarding. According to the Amazon representatives, about 3800 teams submitted solutions in the first round, out of which 3 teams were selected from each category into the final round.

One team from the Nanyang MBA, Team Stormtroopers comprising of Dilina Fernando, Sharan Grover and Aditya Bhargava, was selected in the Product Management Category. It was the only foreign school team selected to participate in the final round.

In the finals, the teams were given 5 days to solve a case which involved giving solutions to real life problems of Amazon India. After submission of the solutions, Team Stormtroopers flew to Hyderabad, India to present their solution on 21^st September 2014. The panel of judges comprised of Amazon Senior Leadership in India who evaluated the merits of the ideas proposed.

In the end, Team Stormtroopers did not win in the final round in the Product Management category, of which the team from IIM-Bangalore won. However, the experience was truly an enriching one, especially for a team just 2 months into the MBA program. Working as a team on tight academic deadlines, facing a panel of experienced judges, understanding what they look for and what details they expected provided valuable insights to competing even better in the future.

For more information about Nanyang Business School click here.

Blog, Happenings, The NANYANG MBA

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

September 23, 2014 WONG LINLING Leave a comment

Submitted by Reina Wong, Student Exco VP Communications

The Nanyang MBA ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, organized by the Nanyang MBA Student Exco, took place on 27 August. The event was very successful with a great turnout of participants as well as generous donations from faculty staff and students.

It was our honour to have Prof Ravi Kumar, Dean of the Nanyang Business School, to grace the event and enthusiastically participate in the challenge.

A video clip of our Ice Bucket Challenge has been uploaded to YouTube here showing the participants in action. We also challenged the MBA classes at SMU, NUS and Insead to complete the challenge.

A grand total of USD 700 was raised and donated to the ALS Association on 9 September. We thank all donors for your generosity in making this event a meaningful one.

What is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge? 

It is an activity involving participants to dump a bucket of ice water on their head or donate to the ALS Association in the United States. It went viral throughout social media and became a pop culture phenomenon in mid-2014. On August 18, 2014, the ALS Association announced that it had received $15.6 million in donations compared to $1.8 million during the same time period (July 29 to August 18) in the prior year. (Source)

For more information about Nanyang Business School click here

Blog, Cultural Events, Happenings, Life at Nanyang, The NANYANG MBA

Celebrating Christmas with our MBA Family

December 14, 2013 Joan Wee Leave a comment

By Joel Austria

Before the Christmas break in December, our MBA cohort celebrated Christmas – with the theme ” the Filipino way” , the way we Filipinos do it back home, and so we Filipinos were the hosts.. The fun started a few hours before the event itself, as volunteers decorated the room, prepared the food, and set up the photo booth and sound system. One by one, people started showing up carrying their gifts and looking excited to start the program.

NANYANG MBA students having fun at the photo booth

The party started with the traditional Filipino feast. We had some Filipino food favorites such as ‘adobo’ (pork & chicken stew) , ‘crispy pata’, (pork knuckles like the ones in Germany) ‘inihaw na liempo’ (grilled pork ), and ‘pancit palabok’ (noodles) . Iris, another Filipino MBA participant, also prepared and served ‘sago’t gulaman’, a cool and refreshing drink with tapioca and gelatin. For dessert, Claire made her special ‘maja blanca’ which is a coconut pudding with sweet corn bits.

Steven can’t hide his excitement to finally get to taste Filipino food

After the feast, we asked the participants to form three separate teams to compete in Filipino parlor games. First up was the newspaper dance but with an added twist. Instead of just a pair trying to keep themselves within the confines of the newspaper, we asked the teams to send five representatives. It made the game more challenging and it was very interesting how our classmates strategized and executed their game plans. The next game was ‘hep hep hooray’, a game that required fast reflexes and concentration to not commit a mistake when asked to recite the next word in the sequence together with the corresponding hand gesture. The contestants in this game became very competitive and did a really good job of mastering the sequence and action. And so, to determine the winner, we introduced some changes by switching the hand gestures. Finally, we capped off the games with a relay. During the relay, we introduced the contestants to the ‘calamansi’, a fruit that Filipinos love to use as food seasoning. We also asked them to recite a simple Filipino tongue twister, ‘Pasko paksiw’. Just so you know, ‘Pasko’ is the Filipino word for Christmas.

Our classmates realizing that the Newspaper Dance is not as easy as it looks

Before ending the wonderful celebration, everyone gathered around the Christmas tree for the gift-giving and revealing of each one’s secret Santa. The activity highlighted for us that Christmas is really the season of giving and sharing. It was very interesting to see what the secret Santas bought for their recipients. The most entertaining part for me was when Li Qin received a number of joke-gifts from Pratik before finally getting the real thing. It was very funny to see Li Qin’s reactions and Pratik’s creativity. I was also touched when Catherine gave Emily (Student ExCo President) some home-baked goodies and a special drawing made by her daughter.

The Christmas tree was filled with gifts from the Secret Santas

By the end of the activity, everyone looked happy and content with their gifts and people were getting ready to leave. But as a final touch to the whole program, Mr. Nick Soriano, our admissions director, arrived with a small washing machine to be raffled off. The winning name drawn was Sumin. But he decided that a woman should win the raffle, and so, after a few more attempts, Charu was lucky to take home the prize. Indeed, Chrsitmas spirit is in the air-gifts!

As the day ended, I was very happy that I got to spend Christmas with my new friends and share with them how Christmas can be more fun in the Philippines.

Blog, Clubs, Happenings, Networking, The NANYANG MBA

Turning Ideas into Reality

December 13, 2013 Joan Wee Leave a comment

By Pete Thanapornpun

In December 2013, Nanyang MBA’s The Venture Capital (VC) Club invited Kelvin Ong, Executive Director of FocusTech Ventures and also NANYANG MBA Alumni, to be a speaker for this session.

FocusTech Ventures (FTV) is an entrepreneur-led startup accelerator that combines private investment, active mentoring, and advisory to help capital- efficient startups transform venture ideas into fundable, profitable companies. Kelvin shared his experiences and what he does exactly in his daily work (Fund Raising, Strategic Management, Recruitment and, Deal Sourcing). To end the session, he gave us some good tips :

Don’t go to the area that you are not familiar with.
Enter the market with ready infrastructure.
Pay attention to the cost projection rather than the revenue.

The key insights shared during the talk are really useful not just in the future, but can also be applied in our case studies and group reports in class.

Blog, Campus Living, Life at Nanyang, Sports, The NANYANG MBA

Asian MBAs compete for Football Glory

May 25, 2013 Joan Wee Leave a comment

By Jad Abou Ibrahim

NTU-MBA-Football-Team---Image-10-eDIT — The 10 participating teams

The Credit Suisse Asian MBA Football Tournament is a prestigious tournament that pits MBA teams from Asia’s top business schools. Held yearly, and organized by HKUST’s MBA students, the 2013 tourney featured 10 teams -.HKUST has three (3) teams, (HKUST International students, HKUST, HKUST Alumni, CEIBS, Nanyang (NTU), NUS, Chicago Booth, Tsinghua, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the major sponsor, Credit Suisse.

This is the 3rd year that Nanyang MBA is participating. Our multi-national team comprise of players w from Lebanon, Singapore, Canada, Austria, Germany, Pakistan, India and Singapore. The participating teams were divided into two groups of five teams- and two games were played simultaneously in courts next to each other. The top two teams from each group will qualify to the semi-finals of the Gold Cup, the two runners up teams from each group will then qualify to the semi-finals of the Silver Cup, and the last team from each group will play out a consolation game called the “Best of the Rest”.

Our first game was against CEIBS and it was one of the opening games of the group stage. As expected, excitement and nervousness was evident on the field from both teams. However that did not stop us from playing what we like most: attacking football from the second the referee blows his first whistle till the end of the match. We pressed towards our opponent’s goal when they had the ball and pressured our opponents when they had the possession. We managed to score a goal. Jad’s deflected shot from outside the goal area went in – 1-0, Nanyang take the lead. During the match two penalty shouts against CEIBS went unanswered by a very incompetent referee who caused more tension on the field between the two teams. However, CEIBS were able to tie the game, as they stole a point game by scoring a goal towards the dying minutes of the game. The game eventually ended in a draw- 1-1. A good start!

Waiting for our next game, we watched and observed our other opponent’s game very carefully. Our second match was against Tsinghua (from China) who played a counter-attacking style with wingers who boast good pace and skills. Our defense was rock-solid as we thwarted successfully any of their counter-attacks. Our team, however, was not able to find the net as well and the game ended 0-0. We haven’t loss a game still; nor have we won one yet!

Our third game was against Chicago Booth (from Singapore). Both teams were fighting hard for a win but this time, the referee issued many badly judged calls and his lack of discipline on the field nearly caused injuries. Chicago Booth took a surprise lead at the first half of the match but with our never-say die spirit, we fought on with Joshua scoring a goal to tie the game at 1-1. So far, 3 draws.

Our final group game was against NUS (from Singapore) and we needed to win to qualify for the semi-finals of the gold cup- if another draw or loss, it will put us in the silver cup playoffs. The game ended 0-0 with both teams hesitant to making mistakes on the field – we did have a couple of good attempts that were not converted into goals.

Thus we ended up in the silver cup semi-finals to face HKUST Alumni. With fatigue starting to show on some of us as we ran tirelessly over 20 minutes per game on a large field with relatively smaller goals; the task to win one game seems to loom a lot bigger as we hoped for a lucky break. This time, we used other players who have not played much during the initial games; and yes, some of us were physically tired to continue to play on. With both teams battling it out, the result ended in HKUST Alumni’s favor 1-0 in spite of the several chances we had to draw the score level.

Over-all , our team enjoyed our brief Hong Kong, experience especially the football tournament – we gained more international and cultural experience on a physical, emotional, and mental level. “I think we gained a lot from this experience, and will recommend to continue participation in this wonderful tournament “, said Daniel.

On a final note, on behalf of the Nanyang MBA Football team, we would like to thank from the bottom of our hearts, our kind-hearted donors and supporters, who believed and supported their fellow students in this worthy undertaking.

Blog, Campus Living, Life at Nanyang, The NANYANG MBA

Getting Ready for Leadership using Reiss Profile

April 30, 2013 Joan Wee Leave a comment

By Claire Kwa

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, great for a breather and moments of relaxation. However some sacrificed this pocket of time for the opportunity to be introduced to Reiss profiling tool.

Organized by Nanyang MBA Women in Business (WIB) club, together with Executive Coach International and Reiss Asia, the workshop was set up with the intention to introduce this scientifically validated profiling tool to current and future managers. The club also opened the event to non-members.

Reiss Profile is based on human personalities that are intrinsic and genetically predisposed. Dr. Steven Reiss, the former Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry of Ohio State University (USA) created the Reiss profile test by studying the 16 basic desires which is the basis of all our personalities.

REISS 2 — “Take the lead” -Part of the REISS profiling tool.

With the objective to develop leadership skills in its members, the WIB club invited Executive Coach international to provide an insight into the application of the Reiss Profile in leadership styles.

A sample profiling test was issued some days before the workshop itself to individual participants. The feedback was given almost instantaneously. Armed with the feedback, the participants were given a deeper insight into what it means for them in terms of personal growth and managing others.

Chaweewan Gatepithaya,from Thailand, describes the workshop aptly, “Reiss provided me an assessment that is relevant for me to understand myself better and how I can motivate myself to bring out my personal power in both work and personal life.”

In conjunction with the “coaching module for managers” launched by the school recently, the Reiss tool was also included as a complementary tool for those who had attended the coaching module.

We saw the power of the tool in understanding consumers. Ultimately, the participants have their own takeaways , as they now have access to this powerful tool.

It was a long yet fulfilling day attending the REISS profiling workshop. However, I feel that the Reiss profiling tool allows me to better understand myself – and others too.

Blog, Campus Living, Living in Singapore, Sports, The NANYANG MBA

‘Detoxification’ at the gym

October 25, 2012 Joan Wee Leave a comment

By Shilpa Ramesh Vaswani, Indian, Intake Class of 2012

As I walked alongside the lush foliage across campus and felt the soothing evening breeze of Singapore refreshing me with its gentle blow, I thought to myself, “Where did the first trimester go!” I was headed to the gym, after an intense two week span of mid-terms, to debit my much deserved leisure and credit my study time liability for later (let’s blame that random analogy to the mid-terms)!

A dig in the soccer pit with the women’s varsity football team as amazing as it was intense. It brought back so many memories (I love football!) and I loved the fact that the team is open to integrate with passionate football lovers and not just ‘professionals’! With all due love for the affiliation to the team, I couldn’t wait to hit the treadmill and make use of the amazing gymnasium equipment. The Sports and Recreation Center (SRC) offers a football arena, a synthetic track field, tennis courts, indoor as well as outdoor basketball and badminton courts, a refreshing pool and two remarkable gymnasiums. The walk towards the place is refreshing in itself; watching individuals play their hearts out, and realizing how an effortless drag to the SRC and a little bit of sports, can be such a radiantly enhancing experience on campus! I stopped by to grab a Gatorade at the much revered 24 hour convenience store in the area (how cool is our campus)!

I got digressed from my walk towards the gym, and got pulled towards the basketball court. I had the opportunity to watch and somehow experience the NTU women’s basketball team in full action, who stood victorious as they literally thrashed the opposing team with their consistent rain of shots made. I almost felt like I bled NTU and was so proud of the series of 3-pointers that shot up OUR score!

After much digression, I finally hit the treadmill – upbeat, with an electrifying bhangra, (a popular lively fusion of traditional North Indian Punjabi and Western pop, hip-hop, house and reggae music), playlist on my shuffle, de-stressed, rejuvenated, fulfilled, content, and liberated… Bhangra is always great for an energetic exercise regimen. The sports streak in me was alive again and I don’t think the NTU SRC amenities will let it fade. As I ran at a speed of 10.2, I watched my neighbor running at least 15 and thought to myself, ‘This is risky but will definitely yield a high return in terms of calories burnt and less guilt while munching on French fries’ – I’m telling you, it’s the mid-terms!

Nanyang Technological University