NANYANG MBA

How Korean MBA Graduates Found The Passport to a World Class Career

A Master of Business Administration (MBA) can advance careers and help professionals improve their prospects in this challenging global business landscape. For professionals from South Korea – where the corporate culture feels largely homogenous – the Nanyang Business School (NBS) MBA provides both a refreshing change in professional direction and a diverse and multicultural setting where they can broaden their perspectives.

We spoke with three South Korean professionals to find out how their experience at NBS helped them navigate different business settings, markets, and industries with a global frame of reference.

Sang Jun Park: pursuing leadership opportunities in a global landscape

While climbing the corporate ranks in Samsung Electronics in South Korea, Sang Jun Park decided a career change was in order. “I sought to transition into the dynamic fields of business development, company strategy, and business consulting,” he says.

Sang Jun found that the Nanyang MBA programme aligned perfectly with his career aspirations. Finding a “diverse and multicultural learning environment” in NBS, Sang Jun was able to collaborate with fellow MBA students from various countries, industries, and backgrounds.

“The exposure to diverse perspectives and the supportive learning environment instilled in me the confidence to embrace change and step out of my comfort zone,” he says. For example, the Nanyang MBA programme connected him to an internship at a Singapore consulting firm, which “required a swift pace of execution rather than a prolonged decision-making process.”

The internship, together with other experiences from NBS, gave Sang Jun the practical knowledge he needed to pursue higher leadership roles. Upon his return to Samsung Display, he took charge of the Apple account, “mainly leading the Watch and iPhone divisions for two years.” He also led the business expansion of OLED display modules into the China market, achieving a ten-fold increase in revenue.

He has since moved to COGNEX, where he first led factory automation projects and business development in Asia, then transferred to the marketing side where he currently oversees the company’s Deep Learning products and businesses around the region.

Sang Jun advises aspiring MBA candidates from South Korea to leverage NBS’s access to Singapore’s vibrant business ecosystem. “Seize the opportunity…engage in internships, attend industry events, and network with professionals in your field of interest,” he concludes.

HongGu Kim: future-proofing a career through sustainability

How do you change the direction of your career? HongGu Kim, a former manufacturing operations manager, hoped to find a new perspective at the Nanyang MBA, to help him shift into a more relevant and in-demand field.

He chose NBS from many others in Singapore because it was the only institution offering a focused 12-month MBA programme, “without the unnecessary curricula,” he says, “allowing me to take a faster track to the industry that I targeted.”

HongGu intended to take this “faster track” to the sustainability sector; the one-year Nanyang MBA programme, in his view, “presented the most relevant and updated perspectives around the world, such as [in] digital transformation and sustainability.”

This has provided HongGu the opportunity to accelerate his career shift. Now working as an analyst at Hong Kong-based business sustainability ratings provider EcoVadis, HongGu attributes his strong grasp of sustainability concepts and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) criteria to his Nanyang MBA experience.

“From the corporate sustainability class, I realised why all industries and companies are keen to develop sustainability as their values, and why ESG-related jobs are regarded as in-demand for the future,” he tells us.

NBS also immersed HongGu in a more diverse learning environment relative to a comparable MBA in South Korea and other countries. All told, the Nanyang MBA more than lived up to HongGu’s expectations. It provided everything he needed “to achieve a successful MBA journey for his post-graduate career.”

Huisu Nam: embracing world-class opportunities

The Nanyang MBA opens the door to global career aspirations. Just ask Huisu Nam: she wanted to move on from her job as a sales associate at a South Korean sportswear manufacturing company, but felt unsure what path to take.

The self-possessed professional, though, was certain of two things: she was open to challenging herself, and she wanted a short but well-programmed MBA in Asia. After attending coffee chats hosted by top-ranked business schools, she found her interaction with NBS “the most informative and concrete.” Further conversations with NBS alumni and listening to their success stories sealed it for her, beating out other schools’ competitive offers.

For Huisu, practical experience with the Strategy Projects at Nanyang (SPAN) enabled her “to understand how [companies] should operate in line with the ever-changing requirements from external environments.” The programme connected her with a mentor who helped her face career realities and guided her to redirect her focus on her strengths.

The international composition of students in NBS also taught her to consider a variety of backgrounds and opinions. “Since I was from a country where diversity is not common, classroom training was key for me to lead the projects in the workspace,” she says.

Pursuing a Nanyang MBA was a life-changing opportunity for Huisu. She secured a full-time internship at Dell in Singapore through NBS’s Graduate Studies Career Development Office (GSCDO), leading to a three-year stint as a Global Supply Manager in the same company before she moved to 3M as its Strategic Sourcing Specialist.

Even today, Huisu relies on her MBA experience as she takes on strategic sourcing and supply constraint management tasks for her present job. “I still refer to the frameworks learnt during the strategic management class to analyse market and industry and to design the strategy.”

Conclusion: from South Korea to the world

For Huisu, HongGu, and Sang Jun, the expertise and insights gleaned from their NBS MBAs helped expand their career horizons. They were able to chart new paths in their careers thanks to NBS’s multicultural setting, progressive curriculum, and access to Singapore’s vibrant business landscape.

The Nanyang MBA gives its graduates the confidence and expertise to achieve the professional transformation they desire, while navigating and excelling in a global and digital environment. It doesn’t matter where you started—whether in South Korea, or anywhere in the world. What matters is where you want to take your career, and a Nanyang MBA opens the world to you.

With its intensive 12-month or 18-month programme, a Nanyang MBA is designed to cultivate your future-ready leadership skills. Visit our website to find out how you can change your career direction with Nanyang MBA.