One of NanyangBusiness School’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Club’s aims is to help develop leaders who are compassionate, innovative, and who use their business acumen to solve social issues hovering over communities all over the globe.
The first and the most vital step towards this aim was taken through finding opportunities for MBA students to interact with budding social entrepreneurs in Singapore. The club wanted to achieve more than just a talk so that students get to experience the journey to social entrepreneurship rather than just a monologist lecture on how to become a social entrepreneur. This made “The Hub” an obvious choice for us to visit given that it is one of the biggest professional centers that not just provide office space to social entrepreneurs but also promote social entrepreneurship.
14 MBA students coming from both full-time and part-time programmes interacted with 5 social entrepreneurs. . Social entrepreneurs from organizations Akaraka, Milaap, The Hub, and Silverline Mobi shed light on various issues that a social entrepreneur deals with and a few examples of how they dealt with those same issues during their journey. Highlight of the day was the unique opportunity to mingle with several social entrepreneurs present at The Hub in their weekly evening get-together. The enthusiasm of us, Nanyang MBAs ,at the Hub made Akaraka invite the MBA cohort to its forthcoming fund raising event at The Arts House at The Old Parliament.
We at The CSR Club, will continue to search for more opportunities for MBAs to be a part of such worthy endeavors such as social enterprises such as those in The Hub.
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.
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.
Marketing & Entrepreneurship Co-Chair Raza Irshad giving a short introduction of the film documentary
The event, organised by the Marketing & Entrepreneurship Club, showed the documentary, “Art & Copy”, which showcases some of the most iconic advertising campaigns of their time and how they were successful in breaking grounds at the time when they were released. The film also includes reflections on the careers of some of the finest people in this field like Hal Riney, George Lois, Mary Wells Lawrence, Dan Wieden, and Lee Clow.
The purpose of the event was to share an insight into the world of marketing and advertising, how it has evolved over the years and to share some real life examples of how people have actually been inspired to produce some of the most memorable ad campaigns of all times.
This activity was a light yet very enriching way to learn more about the marketing and advertising industries as well as to get to know more the members of the club.
On November 25th 2013, the Management Consultancy club organized its first event “Walk the talk”. The event was organized as an information sharing session among the cohort’s members. MBA students who worked previously as consultants shared their experiences and knowledge about their consulting job. The purpose of this event was to expose MBA students to different types of consulting, to familiarize them with what working as a consultant looks and feels like, and to guide them how to look for jobs in the particular fields.
Jason, Rey and Akshay Sharing on their experience
We had a total of 8 speakers and 20 students attending the event. The speakers represented many different industries. Jackson spoke about Risk consulting, Emily shared her experience on oil refining, Vicky on development consulting, Akshay about technology consulting, Rey on HR and Tax and Mohammed, Sukhjeet, Charu shared their experiences on management consulting.
Mohammed, Charu and Vicky in Action
Each of the speakers spoke about their qualification, how they made into the job, experience and one particular project. They had their own style of presentation- some used designer slides, some used whiteboard-marker, some spoke directly and tried their best to make us understand the nitty-gritty of their industry. The attendees in turn asked many questions specific to the jobs and tried to find out what they need to do if they want to join a particular type of consulting.
Token of Appreciation from the club
Thanks to the MBA office for dinner and token of appreciation presented to all the speakers. And the speakers specially for the presentation, enthusiasm, warmth, and confidence.
Given the popularity of IT industry among Technology consulting club members at Nanyang Business School (NBS), the Technology Consulting club organized the industry talk on 23rd November 2013. NANYANG MBA alumni Mr. Robin Tanudjaja delivered the talk.
Mr. Robin Tanudjaja eagerly sharing his experience with the attendees
Mr. Robin Tanudjaja comes with 11 years of rich experience in a project management role in IT industry. He has previously worked in Schlumberger, Cisco systems, American President Lines, Dubai world, and very recently, he joined HP in Singapore. During Robin’s stint in Dubai world for 5 yrs as IT Project manager, he was responsible to manage the delivery of IT solutions to business needs for all the business units under Dubai World umbrella.
The main objective of talk was to allow the club members to meet, network, and gain valuable information -and with a fellow MBA ( alumni) . The talk was specifically targeted to those who are looking for management roles in IT industry.
Mr. Tanudjaja shared his valuable insights about IT project management and what it takes to be a good project manager. He suggested a few certification programs which are very well recognized in Singapore. Certification programs which were suggested are PMI certifications, Prince 2, CITPM etc. He also shared upcoming IT industry trends, and lessons learned by him while working in different companies. At the end of the talk, he also shared about how to do interview preparation and what are the few frequently asked tough questions one can expect in an interview in Singapore. He also mentioned that before going for an interview, it is very important to do a thorough research on the company and the position being offered. In addition, he also stressed that the interviewee should be aware of the range of pay offered so that salary negotiation can be done in a better way. He recommended the website Payscale to serve this particular purpose.
NBS students networking Mr. Robin Tanudjaja over food and drinks
The talk gave the club members a very good opportunity to gain relevant industry information for their career planning. The members also engaged in friendly and meaningful discussion with Robin during the refreshments and networking session after the talk.
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.
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.
“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.
My life while taking the MBA at Nanyang is both busy and hectic. It is always nice to find time to take care of one’s health. A short run or walk can make a lot of difference. I can run and walk while immersing myself in the lush greenery of Nanyang’s campus.
How about taking care of our health (by running) while at the same time contributing to a good cause? That’s the reason my peers and I signed up for the Terry Fox Run 2013 at the scenic coastline park, East Coast Parkway.
The Terry Fox Run is the world’s largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research organized by the Canadian association of Singapore in conjunction with Singapore Cancer Society (SCS). The annual event in Singapore is held in honor of Terry Fox, the one legged amputee cancer victim who embarked on a cross-Canada run to raise funds and create awareness for cancer research.
Our group of 10 woke up as early as 6 a.m. as we were too eager to embark on our run which started at 8 a.m. We had chosen the 10 km run instead of the 5 km run as we did not find it challenging enough. It was a great way to shed off the pounds gained during our holiday break while at the same time help raise funds for the Singapore Cancer Society research program. Without prior preparations and practice round, all 10 of us still managed to complete the 10km run. Hooray!
It was a challenging yet fulfilling day. Thanks to the Corporate Social Responsibility Club for organizing the registration and transportation of the participants.
Fun, excitement and delicious runs through my mind upon hearing the words cultural celebration. During cultural celebrations, there will be games, art and most importantly food! Life at Nanyang MBA has been thrilling and entertaining at the same time. I was thrilled to get to know 117 peers from 27 different parts of the world. Past 8 months have been an entertaining journey for me personally.
Nanyang MBA is very diverse in terms of nationalities as well as Industry and background. I was exposed to many different perspectives of thinking, strategies from different industries and various cultures which is the best part!!
There had been several celebrations of culture during my stay at the Nanyang MBA, such as German Beer Fest, Thai Loy Kratong, Deepavali, Christmas (of course), Chinese New Year, and many more to come in the coming weeks. How could I not be excited??Let me share my stories, photos and probably videos about interesting things that happened at these events. Yes, that’s right, some parts of these F.U.N. events are captured LIVE on HD video!! So tag along!! ;D
Beer Fest!
I’ll start with German Beer Fest, as you m ay well aware of what the name implies; it involved a lot of beers and its many varieties. German beer festivals are among the largest beer festivals celebrated around the world, which in Germany is usually known as Oktoberfest. Many places have beer festivals style as “Oktoberfest’s”. Oktoberfest is a 16 day festival celebrating beer held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, running from late September to the first weekend in October.
In conjunction to the Beer Fest, it was Verena’s Birthday who is from Germany. Happy Birthday Verena! I had a great time tasting variations of beer.
Guess who is the birthday girl in the photo above?
Loy Krathong
Next celebration that was celebrated was Loy Krathong. Loy Krathong is a Thai cultural celebration. Loi Krathong takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar. In the western calendar this usually falls in November. Loi means “to float”. While krathong refers to a usually lotus-shaped container which float on the water.-Wikipedia.
Loy Krathong can be translated to “Floating crown” or “Floating Decoration”.
Munchuga and Apiwat, my Thai friends, organised the event. Sumptuous Thai food was provided and we listen to soothing Thai songs. The highlight of the evens is to make wish and release the handmade loi krapthong float on the water.
Loy-KrathongThai Food!
Deepavali Celebration
Touchdown!! To INDIA!! Some say Indians are exotic, some say Indians are born to be dancers. You got that right! I experienced a Deepavali celebration, and guess what?? My Indian cohorts danced for Deepavali! And they live up to the expectations!! And Yes, it’s on HD resolution!! ;P starting from Art, which was to create colorful pictures out of colored powder debris (Pardon me, I’m not really familiar with the name :P. Below are the pictures of the team that created the arts.
Henna session done by Saini.
Deepavali or Diwali is popularly known as the “festival of lights” which is celebrated by Hindu across the world. Deepavali is the celebration of good over evil and light overcoming darkness. During this festival, new clothes are worn and delicacies such as sweets and snacks are shared. Not forgetting temporary tattoos which are done using henna. Henna is a flowering plant used for dye skin, hair and fingernails as well as fabrics.
Next Stop Will be Our favorite time of the year!!Chriiiistmas tiiime… time to share our love… Come and join… the tidings to the world… Chriiiistmas tiiime… the best time of the year… Yes, it’s Christmas timeee…
To get everyone in the festive mood, we decorated the venue (one of our classmates home actually!) with Christmas ornaments, neon lights and Christmas trees.
After the decoration is done, we begin our celebration with Christmas carol. 4 of our classmates – ,Filipino John-Rae and Taiwanese Mimi were singing, accompanied by Malaysian Alex on Keyboard and Singaporean Jonathan on Violin.
Finally the “Secret Santa”!This is the fun part whereby we got to choose our gift from the santa sack. Nanyang MBA cohorts were so creative and out-of-the-box!! You need to expect the unexpected. The gifts were no ordinary gifts.
Merry Christmas!
CNY Dinner…
Quite recently we celebrated Chinese New Year. !! Before the celebration was done we did a lot of preparations such as grocery shopping, decorations and lastly food preparations. We started with our “reunion dinner” by having the traditional Chinese Hot pots. Definitely, it is not complete without beers and Chinese liquors. The food prepared was marvelous and delicious. After filling our stomach we have the Cheongsam competition-“Ms. Cheongsam” competition and voted for best-dressed Ms. Cheongsam.
Unexpectedly none of the girls won… Guess who wins the competition?
The winner Is no other than Mr. Henri!Happy celebrations Everyone!
After the contest, we started writing of Chinese FU Character to bring good luck and good fortune for everyone.
So there you are – a sprinkling of various cultures – there is no substitute to these experiences – and while you are doing your MBA!
You must be logged in to post a comment.