Graduate Studies Blog

NANYANG EXECUTIVE MBA

Leading Digital Transformation with Nanyang MBA Programmes

With intense digital disruption, traditional business models are experiencing new waves of creative destruction. The current upheaval has increased the demand for transformational and innovative leaders. Three industry leaders, who have experienced the transformation first-hand, share their unique perspectives from their respective fields.

People transformation is key to the success of all digital transformation

Janet Young, Nanyang MBA Alumnus
MD & Head, Group Channels & Digitalisation at United Overseas Bank Ltd

“With the internet and digital economy powering ahead, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations embarking on digital transformation can win on many fronts – deliver greater value to their customers, future proofing their workforce and generating sustainable growth for their organisations and stakeholders.”

While most organisations recognise the mega trend of Industry 4.0, and hence have embarked or are embarking on digital transformation to stay ahead and stay relevant, Janet Young observes that not all have invested equally in people transformation – human capital development to meet the organisations’ new and evolving business and operating models.

For Janet, digital transformation is not just about introducing the latest or best of breed digital solutions or technology. It is about taking a customer-centric lens and understanding what is important for the customer, and ensuring the teams in the organisation are aligned and know how to make it happen.

Janet joined United Overseas Bank (UOB) in 2014 and plays a pivotal role in the bank’s strategic digital transformation plans. She champions digitalisation initiatives and works with her team to embed AI and data analytics in all aspects of work so that they possess insights to make banking simpler, safer, faster, more convenient and ultimately deliver greater benefits and value to the customers.

Sharing a few insights from UOB’s transformation journey, she says “As we progressed with each new service or innovation, we built on the learnings – on what works best and what doesn’t. We’ve learnt to be more agile and responsive by constantly driving improvements in customer experience to meet the needs of the customers we serve.”

On people transformation, she believes in ensuring that her teams have a clear sense of purpose. It is about understanding the “Why” behind the objectives and undergoing development programmes to gain new skills, and having the opportunity to be exposed to transformation projects.

Her advice for any organisation embarking on digital transformation is that besides having a clear roadmap of objectives, full support from top management is key to ensure that the transformation of people is included in the agenda.

As a women leader in the cutting-edge digital space, Janet shares that it is an exciting time with many opportunities for growth. “The key is to invest in life-long learning to build skills and acquire domain knowledge. Build strong networks, have a growth mindset, and know yourself, so that you can choose to do what you are good at and enjoy doing it.”

Digital technologies are increasing universal access to financial products

Terry Smagh, Nanyang EMBA Alumnus
Senior Vice President and General Manager (Asia Pacific) at Blackline

“The financial-service industry is rapidly leveraging emerging technologies for value creation to the underserved.”

Financial services have been at the forefront of an unprecedented wave of digital disruption. “As technology advances at an unparalleled pace, finance and accounting services are on the frontlines of digital transformation . Although banks and other institutions have been using new technologies to improve their operations for decades, never before has there been such a rapid change in how we deploy digital technologies,” observes Terry Smagh.

Having been in the technology – data/analytics/finance industry for more than 20 years, Terry has seen how every facet of the industry has been affected. “Particulary, finance automation across industries is rapidly leveraging emerging technologies for a variety of purposes. Investors are better informed, decision-making processes are faster, insights to data and customers are more engaged than ever before. These advances have been catalysts for change in business models and strategies in the industry. Organisations that embrace – both adopting and adapting the new technologies will find themselves ahead of the curve and their competition,” he notes.

Terry believes that to succeed, digital transformation should bring along a better customer experience that directly results in an increased business opportunity. “The new technologies can be used to make financial processes and services more accessible and useful to many more communities of underserved users. Most businesses are now moving beyond pushing an existing product, service, or solution online and leveraging technologies to deliver superior customer experience,” he says.

To move in tandem with the many changes across fnance and accounting, businesses need agility in leaders. “COVID-19 has changed the business world even more. Business leaders now need a massive shift in perspective. The only constant is change. The world of IT and business is moving at lightning speed. To keep up, we need to continue to upskill and upgrade. I realised this and joined the Nanyang Executive MBA (EMBA) programme at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. I learnt to wholeheartedly adapt to changes and adopt a growth mindset as that is the way forward to learning new things. I believe there has been no better time to take up the opportunity to redesign your thinking than now,” he stresses.

Disrupting existing business models in the insurance sector with digital innovation

Yogesh Gaikwad, Nanyang EMBA Class of 2022
Head of Engineering at Pulse, Prudential Corporation Asia

“The speed of technology-led change in the insurance sector is bringing about an ecosystem shift.”

Yogesh Gaikwad witnessed the evolving health insurance sector first-hand where digitalisation was blurring traditional boundaries. “Insurance companies had solutions to help customers manage their health and wealth. However due to limited digitalisation in the ecosystem, insurance companies were not able to proactively engage and help customers manage healthy lifestyles. As hybrid business models sprout up all around us, there has been a massive shift in perspective in the sector,” notes Yogesh.

Being at the forefront of this disruptive change is the Pulse initiative at Prudential, aimed at developing hearts and minds, which Yogesh is leading. “With Pulse, we are trying to bring a unique offering to our customers to preserve their wealth, health and wellbeing” he explains. Pulse is a one-stop-shop for your health and wealth solutions, to help bring all controls into the hands of customers, be it the tracking of health activities, virtual consultations, or personalised offerings. “Ever since our launch, the app has been a tremendous success. It is available in 18 markets worldwide and now has 30 million downloads. Traditionally, you would not associate an insurance company with leadership in health apps!” Yogesh adds.

As an industry leader, Yogesh believes that digital projects should keep a start-up mentality. “Internally, companies have to focus on creating agile teams to push the most benefits to the market. Today, if you do not embrace digital transformation, you risk running into negative customer experiences. But if you manage to harness the power of technological change, it will open more doors for you to help communities and customers get more out of their life which ultimately helps grow your business,” he espouses.

Yogesh attributes his ability to connect the dots to the Nanyang EMBA programme. “The EMBA helped me understand the concept of creative destruction from various perspectives. Right from the the first segment in April, the interactions with people from multiple industries have enabled me to apply new insights of transformation work to my industry,” he shares.

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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