NANYANG EXECUTIVE MBA

SPAN – A Capstone Nanyang EMBA Module that Fosters Innovative Solutions-Based Learning

The ​​Strategy Projects At Nanyang (SPAN) programme is designed to prepare future leaders through a rigorous live-consulting strategy module. SPAN offers Executive MBA (EMBA) participants the opportunity to apply their knowledge through real-life corporate consulting assignments that give them an unmatched learning experience.

For business executives, there has never been a greater need for agility and flexibility in decision making. In an era when businesses must embrace key emerging forces such as sustainability and digitalisation, it is crucial for visionary leaders to also possess cutting-edge problem-solving skills.

The Strategy Projects At Nanyang (SPAN) module in the Nanyang Executive MBA (EMBA) programme is a core capstone course that is specifically designed to prepare business leaders for such inevitable shifts. The programme, offered at Nanyang Technological University’s Nanyang Business School, develops students’ analytical thinking and problem solving to address business challenges.

“Many companies are now under pressure to transform their business models to keep up with the need for digitalisation and respond to higher goals like sustainable development. Critical thinking and agility are essential skills,” says Kentaro Takenaka, a graduate of the Nanyang EMBA programme and Head of Corporate Hedging for Asia at Western Union Business Solutions.

Honing multi-disciplinary skills

SPAN is a unique collaboration between NBS and industry leaders. This tie-up allows Nanyang’s EMBA students to work with sponsor organisations to create and test business hypotheses on live strategy consulting projects. This is facilitated by multi-cultural teams and faculty from the business school within a collaborative environment.

The team is guided by senior faculty supervisors from both NBS as well as accomplished industry experts who are part of the programme’s Advisory Council. “SPAN brings together a multi-disciplinary team with more than 75 years of collective rich industry experience that enables the participants to come up with innovative solutions for the real-world problems faced by the sponsor organisations. The aim is to hone their critical and analytical thinking to propose recommendations that are concurrently creative and realistic”, explains SPAN Programme Director, Associate Professor Rohit Bhatnagar.

A unique aspect of SPAN is that it encourages the participants to cultivate and nurture entrepreneurial ideas.. If the project is deemed rigorous enough, it is offered as a SPAN project, and the students get to choose the cohort mates they want to work with. This serves as a lever for students to spin off their ideas into start-ups or entrepreneurial ventures after successfully completing the project.

Students also have the opportunity to learn through many workshops along the way. “These workshops are designed to help students develop a deeper understanding of strategic issues related to sustainability, venture capital, and entrepreneurship.  Extending over a few months, SPAN enables students to apply classroom learning to solve critical business problems in a real set-up,” Assoc Prof Bhatnagar explains.

Ringside view of the Asian market

The Asian market is one of the toughest to crack even for global players. The socio-economic factors, political impetus, and volatile external factors can impact the fate of a project in Asia. SPAN allows participants to gain industry exposure in cross-sector projects from consumer retail to healthcare, IT, supply chain, government, public sector, and technology, among others.

For candidates, SPAN offers an opportunity to implement a whole gamut of skills, including effective team building, strategic communication, research, detailed data collection, and analysis to arrive at realistic solutions.

“It is a great opportunity for our sponsoring companies too, as they can leverage the SPAN module to prepare their businesses for upcoming business challenges,” adds Professor Bhatnagar.  A testimony to the success of SPAN is the multitude of acknowledgements and appreciation that industry leaders like GE, Microsoft, Cambodia’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), ANZ have lavished on the SPAN programme.

Capitalising on multiple benefits

In a world where industry insights are incomplete without the latest business thinking, SPAN focuses on cultivating leaders who have strong global acumen, with the ability to analyse and address market opportunities and business issues of the real world.

SPAN participants like Takenaka affirm how SPAN taught them to think critically while applying all the learnings from the EMBA programme. “I got a chance to build my competencies in the SPAN module. This module prepared me to experience first-hand how to bring about such  transformation through a consulting project. This experience was one of the most valuable and meaningful modules in the Nanyang EMBA programme,” he says.

For students like Takenaka, SPAN has been the highlight of the Nanyang EMBA course. “The best part of this project was that I had accomplished the project goals with a team that brought together varied capabilities from a diverse mix of backgrounds and nationalities, which I would not have experienced in my company,” he concludes.

The Nanyang Executive MBA is a part-time 13-month programme designed for senior leaders aspiring to transform the way they lead. The programme aims to embrace the connection between business, technology, and innovation – delivering a relevant curriculum to business leaders to help them excel in global environments and adapt to each new wave of digital change.

Keen to learn more? Contact us at execmba@ntu.edu.sg or schedule a chat for a 1-to-1 discussion on your postgraduate aspirations.
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