NANYANG PROFESSIONAL MBA

From ESG beginners to experts: Diverse team excels in the Nanyang Professional MBA programme

In teams and in workplaces, increased diversity tends to expedite innovation and creative solutions.

This is true according to Forbes, and verified by a team of Nanyang Professional MBA (PMBA) participants through their successful capstone project under the ​​Strategy Projects At Nanyang (SPAN) programme, concluded just last year.

Armed with wide-ranging skills and a commitment to teamwork, this SPAN team built a detailed environmental, social, and governance (ESG) roadmap for a leading palm oil producer in Indonesia.

Not only did their fresh perspectives and actionable recommendations make a positive impact on their clients, but the team was also recognised for their thinking and teamwork by the Nanyang Business School (NBS) community and influential ESG community members.

Fast ESG learners assemble

The part-time Nanyang PMBA programme allows its participants to engage in multi-directional learning through case studies analysis, simulations, study trips, and hands-on industry projects such as SPAN. As Nanyang PMBA classes are conducted on weekends, participants do enjoy the increased freedom to balance studies, family, and work.

The SPAN capstone project takes place towards the end of their 18-month journey. SPAN puts Nanyang PMBA participants to work outside the classroom, as they work on a real-life corporate consulting project with a client.

With guidance from faculty mentors and corporate sponsors, each team conducts intensive research and analysis, developing innovative yet practical recommendations and solutions that will be delivered in a final presentation.

“We were told to pick a diverse team with different experiences,” explains team member Razif Ali, a technology business partner. “We had an engineer (Baskar Periasamy), an accountant (Ai Ling Ong), a marketer (Joanne Cabaero), a relationship manager (Agung Nugroho), and me in tech.”

Their wealth of expertise aside, none of the team came in with any grounding in ESG. However, they were guided and mentored by SPAN Advisor Dr Rachel Ooi, NBS’s adjunct associate professor on ESG specialising in the 3Ps (People-Planet-Profit).

Dr Rachel noted that their effort came with some baggage: palm oil companies are subjected to heavy public scrutiny for their environmental and social impact. “The problem they want to solve is quite complicated, as the palm oil industry is always scrutinised for its carbon footprint and labour issues,” she recalls.

The team, however, gamely took on the challenge. “We were intentional from the beginning, and we understood one another’s strengths and weaknesses,” Joanne, the project’s manager, explains. “We understood how our strengths can complement one another.”

As a digital business builder and marketer, Joanne guided and shaped the narrative of the team’s findings. “In marketing, there is power in storytelling,” she said.

Having a story indeed helped, as Razif pointed out the need for the team to scope the data due to the breadth of ESG information and research online. “We realised it was too big. We needed a point of view,” he recalls.

Lack of ESG background was “intentional”

“At SPAN, we deliberately bring in a diversified team of people because we want them to come with a fresh outside-in perspective,” Dr Rachel explains.

She added that even the fact that the team had no ESG background was intentional. Dr Rachel could guide them based on her ESG experience, while the team brought in their skills and a fresh perspective.

“We want them to co-create, with a synergy and joint perspective, and to think differently, not just to solve the client’s challenge, but also to challenge the client, if needed,” Dr Rachel tells us.

“This co-creation is where the magic is,” Dr Rachel adds, pointing out that the client also contributed industry knowledge, which the team learned from.

Joanne personally saw ESG’s novelty as an opportunity. “We were still quite new to ESG in the palm oil industry, so we took this as an opportunity rather than a challenge,” she pointed out. “So, the question is – how do we now make use of the data we have? From there we created our own framework.”

Concrete, actionable recommendations

In their final presentation, the team found the client to be a “strong player” in corporate governance and recommended that the company focus on its strength in governance, while implementing biodiversity policies and engaging with NGOs.

“Governance is key to forming their ESG foundation,” Joanne said.

The team also recommended implementing tools and systems to collect and measure data, as Joanne points out: “You can only have sustainability in your ESG if there is a system in place for data in your business.” This called for further technology transformation and value chain integration.

As Joanne recounts, the client was surprised by the insights. “We helped them see how people, the media, and external parties perceive their company, which may not have aligned with their own views,” Joanne explains. “In the end, they were grateful for gaining this new perspective.”

The presentation earned praise from the client. As Dr Rachel recalls, the executives said that the team gave them an understanding of the ESG ecosystem they were not previously aware of.

Dr Rachel, who has mentored over 20 SPAN teams in her tenure at NBS, commended the “magic” in the team. “They have a curiosity for a problem that no top consulting firm has even solved yet,” she said. “They took up the challenge and were hungry to score. This team is the best.”

Recognition and praise outside the project

The team later gained the opportunity to share their findings in a closed-door presentation to representatives from the ESG community.

“They were recognised as brilliant students who contributed to the industry in a way that no one has thought about,” Dr Rachel said.

Their group was also nominated for the Nanyang Awards for teamwork. Joanne said this to her was one of the highlights of the project. Eventually, the team earned Trade & Sustainability Award for Best SPAN Project (Team) at their recent convocation.

Another perk for the team was meeting respected figures in the ESG community.

“What was exciting was our mentor connected us with the ESG raters themselves, including the sought-after ones,” Joanne said. One of them was the client’s managing director, who the team got to interview for the project, and who was also among those who listened to their findings.

“After this project, I can say they are already ESG experts,” Dr Rachel said with pride.

Win for diversity

Diversity indeed won the day for this team of Nanyang PMBA participants – now, graduates. Dr Rachel highlights this element is indeed essential in a SPAN team, along with critical thinking and a focus on their client’s needs – even those the client has yet to identify.

SPAN is a core, capstone course that encourages Nanyang PMBA participants to apply the latest business thinking and insights to analyse market opportunities and address business challenges of sponsor organisations.

These projects are carefully curated to expose Nanyang PMBA participants to a spectrum of real-world problems faced by companies based in a variety of industry sectors.

Thanks to the SPAN capstone course and other opportunities for multi-directional learning in the Nanyang PMBA curriculum, participants transform from skilled specialists into learned leaders, gaining the domain expertise they need to elevate their skills and knowledge to lead in today’s disruptive business environment.

Interested to learn more about Nanyang’s PMBA programme and SPAN? Find out more here.