Graduate Studies Blog
NANYANG EXECUTIVE MBA
New economy, new challenges: leading better through the Nanyang Executive MBA
Business leadership is like playing a game with constantly changing rules.
Today’s business leaders face evolving challenges that test their abilities across multiple disciplines, cultures, and industries. They must constantly upgrade their skills to handle these challenges, or else risk being left behind.
Brian Chen, an executive with over 15 years of experience in the industrial sector, found himself at an inflection point. He had just finished his stint as Philippines country manager for French industrial conglomerate Air Liquide, and moved to Singapore for another role in the same company.
Brian recalls thinking at the time: “What should I really do that can be beneficial for my career development?”
Today, Brian serves as General Manager of CIRCOR International Inc.’s Asia-Pacific office in Shanghai, China – an industrial pump and valve manufacturing company with operations throughout the region. The Nanyang Executive MBA (EMBA) programme provided Brian with the right background and outlook that helped him better adapt to the long-term changes sweeping his industry.
A framework for change
At the outset, Brian decided on three objectives he hoped to accomplish with the EMBA.
First, he hoped the EMBA could help him create a framework synthesising his experiences and knowledge. “I want to be more structured in managing and leading,” he explains. “The framework is important to connect the different pieces together.”
Second, Brian wanted to develop his professional network. Finally, Brian wanted to broaden his knowledge base beyond the viewpoints he had been exposed to in a single industry and company.
EMBA’s experiential learning model went a long way in helping achieve these objectives. The programme’s in-depth discussions and case studies helped him gain a broader perspective on the business world; for example, a case study on shoe retailer Zappos turned out to be surprisingly relevant to the industrial sector that Brian worked in.
“Zappos was able to deliver not only customer satisfaction, but customer delight through supply chain innovations,” he recalls. “Discussions on those cases helped me to understand how new technologies and business model innovations can transform the business I’m working in.”
The case studies and discussions clued Brian in on the real value of innovation, and the need to go beyond one’s own industry to find it.
Increasing the cultural intelligence quotient
In his present role at CIRCOR, Brian engages a highly multicultural internal and external audience: overseeing businesses in more than a dozen countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and collaborating with over 40 different channel partners.
Brian’s cultural intelligence quotient is now more than equal to handling the challenge of such a diverse work environment, thanks to his EMBA cohort’s variety of cultures and backgrounds, complemented by the EMBA’s cultural intelligence module.
“The cohort is already very international,” he explains, recalling the EMBA’s mix of entrepreneurs, successful executives, and people from very different industries – from insurance to retailing to fast-moving consumer goods.
“I consider cultural adaptability as one of my strengths that I’ve developed in my career,” he says with pride, noting how his interactions with his cross-cultural mix of classmates enhanced his post-MBA ability to collaborate with people from different cultures. “Also, the EMBA’s cultural intelligence module confirmed concepts that help me make business decisions in different markets.”
Learning and applying lessons about sustainability
With sustainability as a critical issue worldwide across different regions and industries, the EMBA’s exposure to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues helped Brian gain “a holistic view about ESG as a subject for corporate management.”
The EMBA’s ESG component helped to increase Brian’s awareness about his role in “including sustainability into the conversation, the business decisions,” as he puts it, with the end goal of helping his company shift resources to areas that contribute to sustainability in the long term.
“If we only lecture about sustainability, but we don’t make it a factor in our business decisions, nothing will happen,” Brian explains. In his experience, ESG isn’t just a fleeting feel-good principle, but a long-term strategy for growth within his particular industry.
“Based on our customers, we see that segments that contribute to the low carbon economy will have more sustainable growth in the future,” Brian explains. “That influences our product line: we see strong growth potential in pumps and valves for hydrogen, for lithium battery manufacturing, driven by the increased consumption of electric cars.”
The EMBA as an investment in your future
The disruption of the last two years is not a reason to postpone getting one’s MBA – quite the opposite, Brian tells us. “It is a major commitment in terms of time and money, not to mention the support of your loved ones,” Brian explains. “But in such an uncertain or complex world, investing in yourself is still the best recipe against uncertainties – I think it also brings the most returns.”
Brian sees his decision to take on the EMBA programme as a worthwhile investment in oneself, which he recommends to anyone willing to sacrifice in return for its substantial dividends.
“As long as there’s this motivation to grow, anyone can consider the MBA programme a good investment,” he concludes.
About the Nanyang Executive MBA
To thrive in the digital economy, leaders must understand how innovation can be harnessed to build a more agile digital enterprise. Designed for seasoned business leaders, the part-time Nanyang EMBA helps you:
- Deepen your understanding of business and its intersection with technology and innovation
- Gain global perspectives with immersions at UC Berkeley, USA and Tsinghua University, China
- Benefit from the rich experience of one of the most senior EMBA class profiles in the region
Visit our website at https://bit.ly/NanyangEMBAweb or download the Nanyang EMBA programme brochure to learn more.
