NANYANG EXECUTIVE MBA

Moving the Needle on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

A Nanyang EMBA Alumnus’s Perspective

Singapore businesses have made notable strides in creating greater inclusivity and building opportunities for women and minorities. This success can be attributed to professionals like Nanyang Business School (NBS) EMBA programme participant Joyce Chen.

Currently the Asia-Pacific Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Leader at Cummins Inc., Joyce’s work advances a specific area of corporate sustainability: attracting and retaining talent that reflects Singapore’s diversity; and ensuring that an employee’s multi-faceted identity does not hinder career growth within the company.

DEI is presently a global hot button. News headlines have increasingly sensitised the populace to gender and race discussions. At the same time, diversity has become a boardroom issue: a McKinsey report found that companies with higher racial and gender diversity were up to 35% more likely to enjoy above-industry-average financial returns.

These factors have made DEI a business imperative, a prerequisite for leaders seeking to grow and sustain the businesses they run. As Joyce puts it, “the business case for DEI is becoming mainstream.”

How Joyce made a meaningful career shift to focus on DEI

Before assuming her current role, Joyce spent 12 years in Cummins working across corporate talent management and business projects. Her career took a unique turn after her second child was born. Joyce recalls thinking: “How can I continue growing my career yet still play my role as a parent?”

She found the answer through a Cummins Women’s Conference on gender inclusion, which Joyce attended not long after returning from maternity leave. “I was blown away by the sharing and empowerment that came up, so much so that there was a recognition to pay it forward,” she tells us.

Joyce subsequently co-founded a women’s network within Cummins Singapore, “creating awareness of the business case for gender equality and also inviting our fellow females to lean in and share their voices.” By 2019, Joyce had become a DEI leader in Cummins: “My journey has been unique,” she explains. “It just so happened that things fell into place and my experience is a testament of Cummins’ values regarding diversity & inclusion.”

Day-to-day DEI challenges

Today, Joyce oversees Cummins’ regional DEI strategy and engagement: “On the strategy side, I help to ensure that we have a scope for the particular year, and that we are able to measure progress and drive continuous sustainable changes.”

One goal on her to-do list is a 1:1 male to female ratio in the workforce, representative of the macro environment.

In terms of engagement, Joyce works with senior leaders to move the needle on corporate DEI. “One important fabric of inclusion is to build psychological safety,” she explains. By enabling sponsorship of employee resource groups (ERGs), Joyce creates an environment where both management and rank-and-file feel comfortable to make DEI concerns their own.

For Joyce, getting management buy-in is absolutely essential to her work. “Making sure that your managers feel connected to the initiatives is important,” she explains. “We are setting the tone from the top, ensuring that our systemic efforts progress in the communities that we operate in.”

Encouraging empathy, dancing with resistance

Beyond hard numbers, Joyce also works to increase managers’ empathy and recognise their own unconscious biases.

It’s not always smooth sailing; many managers (even rank-and-file workers) may oppose DEI for reasons of their own. “To enable inclusion, you need to face resistance. And it’s like negotiation,” Joyce explains. This calls for dancing with resistance, “to figure out the right frequency at which to engage the other party.”

Joyce believes that employees and executives, whatever their stand on DEI, deserve to be engaged on the basis of their individual lived experience, cultural values, and preconceived notions: “We invite employees to voice out and share their experiences.”

Personal payoff

Joyce has pioneered ERGs in Cummins Singapore to encourage these encounters. The ERG activities were derived from the concept of lean in circles, popularised by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

“In the [ERG], we want to bring like-minded, underrepresented talent together,” explains Joyce. “We have a safe space to share our experiences, to come together and understand common concerns; or think about business solutions that will further help underrepresented groups.”

ERGs were some of Joyce’s first DEI initiatives within her career with Cummins – and in the long run, they’ve proven to be the most personally rewarding. “I continue to mentor diverse individuals, especially my colleagues who have succeeded me in the ERGs and fellow female aspiring talent,” Joyce says.

Many of these mentees have subsequently risen through the ranks; the ERGs’ collective encouragement helped them overcome impostor syndrome and eventually claim the roles that suited their strengths.

“It keeps me feeling encouraged – seeing them go on through the journey and succeed in their new roles, it reinforces the work I am doing,” Joyce says.

Building a foundation for more effective DEI practice

Joyce’s ongoing participation in the Nanyang Business School’s Executive MBA (EMBA) programme is a natural outcome of her mission to expand the space for DEI in Singapore.

Skills learned in the EMBA are helping Joyce improve leadership buy-in for DEI initiatives within Cummins. “[They’ve] helped me be more confident, to get my leaders on board,” Joyce tells us. “I’m able to better speak in their frequency, think about how to design strategies, and work through solutions.”

Joyce hopes to see more women consider the EMBA as the programme offers a ‘safe environment to learn difficult things’.

The EMBA’s staggered schedule also gives her the flexibility required as a working mother. “There’s a period where it’s two weeks of lessons, and then we’ll break for two months before the next segment starts,” Joyce explains. “I can plan ahead of time to manage my commitments. And when it comes to the two weeks of classes, I’m able to focus and learn.”

While Joyce believes the EMBA programme has put her “in a better position for the next stage in [her] career,” she knows from experience that many women executives might hesitate to break out of their comfort zones or prioritise existing commitments over their own need for upward career mobility. Joyce concludes by sharing this piece of advice: “It can feel scary. But I encourage them to take the first step.”

For business leaders interested to grow in Asia, with a global outlook on high-level issues such as sustainability, digitalisation, and economics, the Nanyang EMBA can help you realise your vision.

The Nanyang Executive MBA is a part-time 13-month programme designed for senior leaders aspiring to transform the way they lead, delivering a dynamic curriculum that bridges business, technology, and innovation for businesses to excel in global environments and adapt to each new wave of digital change.

To find out more, visit our website or contact us at execmba@ntu.edu.sg to schedule a 1-to-1 discussion on your postgraduate aspirations.

Register here for a chat: https://bit.ly/NanyangEMBAchat.

Download the Nanyang Executive MBA brochure