NANYANG MBA

Shipping and Energy Club Activities

Not only did we share the passions of the invited guest speakers during their
presentations, the question and answer session was fully optimized with a host of long
-awaited queries. As such, the event was extended by an hour to allow for more
information sharing, an important objective of the event.

NANYANG MBA

The Second Trimester @ The NANYANG MBA

Author: Winston Song, China

My first trimester ended with a short but relaxing holiday to Phuket, Thailand. That refreshed me
enough to look forward to the second trimester, where school life is supposed to be more
dynamic, with lots more interactions with my classmates and the courses more functional.

True enough, before my classes officially begin on Thursday, I have already received an email
from our Decision Making and Control course professor, telling us to submit presentation slides
for a case study by Tuesday. Yes, we have to submit our homework before the course even
begins!

We were already divided into groups and each group is to prepare a 10 page powerpoint
summary of the said case study. As part of easy facilitation, we are instructed to make use of
the Google Wave communication tool, so that both part-time and full-time students would be
able to effortlessly manage a project without being physically together. (How brilliant!)

Immediately, things were executed; the work was evenly divided amongst my team members,
and using Google Wave, we were able to effectively communicate and work with available
content and resources, making it a live document up until we were ready to submit it.

Just a few hours upon our project submission, our professor replied us with good news! Our
team had been selected to present to the rest of our course mates.

The day came for us to present, and it turned out to be a hot debate. All other groups had come
prepared with their own summary of the case, so they were well-equipped with relevant
questions and opinions, and it was a day of bouncing ideas off each other with our professor
mediating and facilitating the session. Through such a session, we were able to clarify concepts
and gained a deep understanding of the case through different views and insights.

Already, I’m looking forward to more of trimester 2 and cannot wait for more challenging
assignments in the months to come!

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NANYANG MBA

CDL MBA Olympics – A Success!

Author: Snigdha Nandan, India
Co-chair (CSR Club)

Dreams turned into reality when B Schools in Singapore got together
on 14^th Nov 2010 to celebrate the ‘ CDL MBA Olympics’, organized by CSR club of THE NANYANG MBA. MBA graduates from schools such
as NUS, INSEAD, SMU and SP Jain and Nanyang Business School, who are otherwise entangled in their fast paced curriculum, took time off
on a joyful Sunday morning to participate in this ‘first of its kind’
sporting and fundraising event. The goal of the event was not just to bring B schools together on a playground for fun but also to raise
funds for ‘The Cambodia Trust’.

Despite some B schools having exams during the week, 52
participants attended the event displaying sportsmanship,
enthusiasm and amicability all through. Various sponsors for the
event were CDL (title sponsor), DHL, SPH (magazine sponsor),
McDonald’s (beverage sponsor) , GNC and Frolick.

The day began with a welcome note where they were familiarized
with the campus and schedule for the day. Students were also
provided with an exhaustive information document and campus map.

As the day progressed students participated in various
aforementioned sports. Excitement and Enthusiasm was reflecting in
every drop of sweat. During the event DHL had set up a recruitment
booth with Diana Sani (representative from DHL), providing insights
to students on ‘In house consulting in Asia Pacific’ and job
opportunities at DHL.

The games were followed by a dinner event which was graced by
Vivian Lim (Manager, Corporate Communications, CDL). Vivian gave
away prizes (lucky draw) and medals to winners and encouraged the
participants. The winner for various events were-

Badminton doubles- SP Jain

Badminton singles- SP Jain

Table Tennis- NUS

Basket Ball- Nanyang Business School

Futsal- Nanyang Business School

The day was concluded at the Staff club with a round of drinks and
dinner, where students were seen exchanging experiences and
rejoicing new bonds. Total Funds raised for the event were 6800
SGD, out of which 5500 SGD would be donated to Cambodia Trust.
The CDL MBA Olympics indeed created some beautiful memories for
each one to cherish!

NANYANG MBA

Life in Trimester 2

Author: Gregory Edwards, Canada
Student Exco President

Mid-way through the first week and Trimester 2 (T2) is in full swing. Hard to believe the full timers have all been together now for 3 months already. The pre-orientation party at
Oosh and after party at Zouk feels like it was just yesterday.

Some of the planning over T1 by the various social and business clubs is coming to
fruition and quickly it seems. T2 is starting out with a flurry of different activities
including the MBA Olympics, T2 Welcome back party, seminars and speaker series, and
even a tour of an ocean going tanker ship. Additionally, a Diwali celebration is coming
up which promises to have lots of food and dancing and live up to last semester’s
Mooncake Festival which set a high-benchmark for organization, commitment by the
organizers, and fun!

The previous batch grads are gone from campus but not forgotten. We hope that they
can find time in their “new lives” to come and visit, attend a party now and then, and
give us updates. I have to thank Vishal Bansal, outgoing EXCO President, and the other
members of the previous EXCO team for their support and guidance in getting the
current EXCO up and running.

For myself, I had the first course of the Waseda portion of the NTU-Waseda Double MBA program last night and came away impressed. I am looking forward to tonight’s session
and other upcoming courses. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect from a
Japanese-led MBA even after living in Japan. The open attitude and personality of the
professor, Dr. Hideki Shirai, made it informative, encouraging, and engaging.

I also attended the Value-based Innovation recess course as part of the Double MBA, a
one-week course presented by Shlomo Maital, a visiting professor from a university in
Israel with experience at MIT. Like myself, Shlomo spent some of his formative years in
a small town in Canada, so we have some shared background. Like most in the class I
was impressed by his experience, energy, and positive nature. Taught over 5-and-a-half
days, he never seemed to run out of batteries. Once you understand that he has run
marathons and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, teaching an MBA course seems less difficult.

With one-third of my program completed, I look back and think about all the things we
have done already; pre-orientation parties, orientation week, the migration to Grad Hall,
meeting new friends and getting a better understanding of cultures, various group
projects, day trips and extended vacations, the birth of the first child for one of our
classmates, and of course the EXCO elections, getting things started, and moving
forward.

With so much done in only a few months I can’t wait to see what the next few months
bring!

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NANYANG MBA

Ariane Game @ ESSEC

Author: Alexander Stanza Tan, Indonesia

We, the double masters students, joined an orientation week for new students at ESSEC. At the end of the orientation week, we played a business simulation game, called “Ariane Game”. There were roughly 250 participants in this game where we were all divided into 10 universes, each universe having 5 groups. In groups of 5, the students would manage a ‘company’ that sells ski and racket products to compete with the 4 other companies within the same universe.

To motivate us, ESSEC gave out prizes for the winner of each universe and for the winner of a specific category, e.g. best presentation, best forecast, etc. To make the game a little bit more challenging, we could sell 3 types of products: ski elite, ski 2000 and racket. The qualities of the ski elite and the racket were fixed while we had freedom to define our own ski 2000 quality. Of course, this complicated the pricing strategy. Furthermore, the interest rate for financing the company may change along the way when the demand for financing increases.

The ‘scariest’ moment of the game as results were being announced!

My team consisted of 2 other new ESSEC students, one from a double masters student from Mannheim University, and the other member, a double masters student from The NANYANG MBA as well. In our first meeting, I proposed to formulate a broad objective while focusing on our individual roles. We decided to adopt the low-cost strategy and divided the company into 3 main parts: Marketing, Production and Financing. Since I am pursuing my MBA with a specialization in Finance, I took on the finance role.

Leveraging my computing skills and knowledge that I gained from The NANYANG MBA, I constructed an Excel spreadsheet to ease the financing decision. This allowed us to foresee 4 periods ahead of us. As a result, we were able to forecast our cash inflow and outflow with around 1-2% error and to generate sustainable profit. We ended up being the second highest gainer in our universe. Fortunately, impressed by our management capability, the judges chose us to be the winner of our universe. Additionally, we won the “Best Financial Forecast” title as well!

From this game, I learned that everyone in the same company must go toward the same goal. To do so, everyone in the company must think of themselves as being in a team. They must trust each other and contribute the best they can for the team. No one should regret the mistakes they made, instead, learn from them and move forward. I also learned that forecasting sales is difficult and making financing decisions play a major role within a company. Some firms were bailed out, while some others went bankrupt.

What I also realized from this game is, without a good understanding of Cost Accounting, a company may overstate or understate its profitability, or worse it may end up in losses. Cost Accounting also provides guidance for a company’s production department to realize that it increases unitary cost if the department cuts down its production.

I feel very fortunate to have this opportunity to come to ESSEC and to experience this game, and I personally wish that my colleagues in The NANYANG MBA can participate in similar business simulations or case competitions as well. It will not only give them the necessary experiences in a business environment but also make them apply all that they have learned from The NANYANG MBA.

I cannot imagine how I was a Computer Engineer when I first entered The NANYANG MBA, but by now, I can really see the progress I am making and I look forward to the day when I will run my own company very soon in the future.

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