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Asia School of Business

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Innovation

Month: February 2019

“I wanted to earn the leading role in my family’s business where I worked through high school,” Azra Becirovic recalls, “so I decided to open my laptop and start searching for an MBA program.” After working in commercial banking in Germany and Italy for a year, Azra came home to Bosnia and Herzegovina to pursue her passion for entrepreneurship. “I was in charge of my family business, a mid-size retail company with a work environment that promotes positive and healthy collaboration,” she says.

Upon her return, Azra discovered that she liked the responsibility of managing her own business, exploring new ideas and negotiating sales transactions. Handling the family business excited her, especially when she was tasked with helping develop and improve it. But growing a business is also a tough challenge, one that pushed her to find ways to develop entrepreneurial skills.

“I wanted to gain knowledge and experience by learning from top professionals. I wanted to expose myself to different markets where growth and opportunities are surging,” she says. “More importantly, I knew I needed more confidence in taking on a bigger leadership role in the company.” Earning an MBA degree was a natural next step. After weighing her options, she decided to enroll at Asia School of Business (ASB).

“I had never been to Asia before so the decision was a quite a big shift, but an exciting one for me,“ she explains. The ASB MBA curriculum, with its focus on experiential education through Action Learning projects, was the main factor that encouraged Azra to take the leap. “I was curious about the Action Learning projects. I thought it was a good opportunity for me to work on real business problems while developing leadership skills that can help me be more confident in taking leadership roles,” she says.

She also appreciated the school’s strategic location in Asia. Before joining ASB, Azra had never been to Malaysia but was interested in learning more about its culture, lifestyle and people. And from the transportation hub of Kuala Lumpur, she had the opportunity to experience numerous other diverse cultures across Southeast Asia. Living in Malaysia, which is far from her home, was also the first step to practicing courage.

“I didn’t know anything about Malaysia and I didn’t know anyone. It was like starting from scratch. I told myself this is exactly what I wanted. If I want to build my confidence, then I have to go out of my comfort zone,” she says. Among other things, Azra had to adjust to new weather, unfamiliar cuisines and a distinct culture. “It was truly an eye-opener,” she admits.

For her, adjusting to life in Malaysia is another way to develop self-confidence. “MBA candidates develop numerous rewarding skills and the first one is confidence. I believe that having confidence already takes us halfway to realizing our goals,” she says while recalling her first few months in the program.

Azra also cited ASB’s gender diversity as a factor that made the school more attractive to her. “A business school with a student body that is 40% female is interesting for me. Having a vast number of female MBA students makes the environment even more supportive. We all share a common goal, male or female, and that is to pursue our careers, or for some of us, to discover a career path,” she explains.

For Azra, learning does not begin and end in the classroom. Early on, she involved herself in clubs and activities that allowed her to express herself and contribute to the program and her fellow students. One of these organizations is ASB’s Women’s Association, of which she is the incoming president. “Nominating myself as the president of ASB’s Women’s Association was a good opportunity to build my confidence.

To be honest, I didn’t feel comfortable nominating myself, but the support I got from my classmates was empowering,” she explains. She adds, “Getting the role and now leading the Association with an amazing group of young women who share the same passion gave me greater motivation and persistence to accomplish more.”

Azra knows that to pursue her passion, she must have the courage to take the first step, which is made easier by having supportive classmates to share in the journey. As she notes, “I am just at the start of my MBA journey, but I can say that I have not only learned new skills and discovered newfound confidence, but also built valuable connections with friends who play an important role in my constant improvement.”

When I woke up in the middle of a rainforest one month into the MBA program, I knew this wasn’t going to be the typical business school experience. For my first Action Learning project at Asia School of Business, three of my classmates and I worked closely with the Orang Asli, Malaysia’s original inhabitants, in the Belum-Temengor rainforest. While the Orang Asli had no problem living off the rainforest in the past, recent increases in poaching, pollution, and illegal logging have threatened their way of life.

Working alongside our host organization, Yayasan EMKAY, we were there to design a business that would benefit the Orang Asli. Considering only one of us spoke Bahasa Malaysia and none of us had ever been to the rainforest, it was destined to be a tough challenge.

The Brains at BRainS

Our first week in Belum coincided with the second ever Belum Rainforest Summit (BRainS). Our team had the chance to meet an amazing group of people who were experts in a wide range of fields such as tiger conservation, sustainable eco-tourism, and rainforest genetics. The Summit taught us two important lessons:

  • We’re not experts in most areas and that’s normal.
  • When you’re not an expert, find somebody who is and steal as much of their time as possible.

With only four weeks to create a business from scratch in an unfamiliar environment, access to experts and their wealth of knowledge was crucial to our project’s success. One of our most informative meetings was with professor Kamal Solhaimi from the University of Malaya, who had spent over 20 years working with the Orang Asli on various projects.

Kamal informed us that tour groups who visit the villages do not treat the Orang Asli with respect and view them as “another tourist attraction in the rainforest.” This caused many people in Semelor to view outsiders as untrustworthy and it became clear that we would have to work hard to gain their trust.

Facing Challenges

For social impact projects around the world, two of the most significant challenges are defining the scope of the project and managing a diverse set of stakeholders. Our project with the Orang Asli was no different. We started our project with the broad goal of finding a sustainable source of income for the Orang Asli. After several brainstorming sessions, we came up with dozens of approaches ranging from setting up a Conservation Fund to selling honey from stingless bee farms.

We then analyzed the various options for their feasibility and degree of impact, deciding to establish an eco-tourism package for Belum visitors.One of the most important things we learned from the scoping challenge was that our project didn’t have to save the world.

While building 10 schools and getting the entire rainforest protected as a UN Heritage site would have been great, we didn’t have the time or resources to achieve such lofty goals. A step in the right direction is better than no step at all. Small wins can lead to bigger wins. To say our set of stakeholders was diverse is an understatement. When developing our business plan we worked with a nonprofit organization (Yayasan EMKAY), a for-profit business (Belum Rainforest Resort), a government agency responsible for Orang Asli development (JAKOA), and the indigenous village of Semelor. Each group had their own desires, opinions, and restrictions.

After experiencing firsthand the complexities involved in getting so many different organizations to agree with each other, our team was able to see how difficult social impact projects can be. Despite this formidable challenge, there were many signs that our project was having a significant impact and we were excited to see the project implemented by Yayasan EMKAY.

Memorable Moments

While it’s difficult to narrow down the best moments from our project, there were two experiences that seemed to stick out from the rest that involved a blow-dart gun and a single sheet of paper. The first promising experience for our project came during our second onsite when we spoke with the Orang Asli about the potential for an eco-tourism experience in Semelor. While they had some reservations about the logistics and how often guests would be coming, the idea was met with excitement.

So much excitement, in fact, that the next time we went to Semelor the Orang Asli walked us through tourist activities that included learning to shoot a blow-dart gun, tapping a rubber tree, and cooking rice and chicken inside a bamboo stalk. We even built a campfire and stayed the night in one of the village chalets. We were proud that we had managed to gain the trust of a people that didn’t even speak our language in such a short period of time.

The best moment of the entire four weeks, however, came on our third onsite visit when one of the village leaders showed us a printed “pricing sheet” for the eco-tourism packages. While a single sheet of paper might not seem like a big deal, it was the process behind the pricing sheet that really mattered.

To produce a physical copy of the pricing sheet, village leaders had to discuss and agree on a pricing structure, travel an hour and a half to the nearby town of Gerik to print the pricing sheet, and prepare to explain it to us upon our return to Semelor. Although past projects with the Orang Asli had mixed results due to a lack of engagement, this single sheet of paper proved that they had bought into our plan and were ready to execute.

Saying Goodbye

When it came time to say goodbye during our last morning in Semelor, it was bittersweet for our team. While we were proud of the relationships we formed and the plan we had put in motion, we felt as though we could work on the project for another few months and have an even larger impact.

We felt lucky be part of such an amazing Action Learning project. Now, we are already in the midst of planning a return trip to Semelor to spend another night in the rainforest, this time with some old friends.

Employers value business graduates with practical experience under their belts. According to a recent survey by the Financial Times, the most important skills recruiters look for include the ability to work in diverse teams, the ability to solve complex problems, and time management—all skills which are bolstered by working in a real-life business environment.

At Asia School of Business (ASB) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, this need for practical skills forms the basis for their two-year MBA program. Intensive, real-life consulting projects—so-called Action Learning Projects—are a huge part of the MBA curriculum at ASB. Students at ASB—a school founded in partnership with MIT Sloan that aims to be on the front-line of Asia’s emerging markets—participate in five of these projects throughout their MBA, accounting for a third of their degree.

Working on one project throughout each term, students conduct two to three site visits, spending sometimes up to two weeks on site at a time. In the school’s first two years, ASB MBA students have participated in Action Learning projects in 18 different countries with 83 host companies. A total of 90% of the projects so far have taken place in Asia, with a focus on emerging markets in the ASEAN region.

Immersed in Asian Culture

For Angeline Stuma, a student from the US, Action Learning Projects offered the chance to get further immersed in a part of the world she had always loved to visit. Growing up in Kenya and India, Angeline experienced plenty of different cultures as a child, and these experiences have grown into a love for travel and exploring new places. “Choosing ASB was a no-brainer,” Angeline says.

“It aligned with what I wanted to do professionally, and I could get exposure living professionally in Southeast Asia.” Angeline started the MBA at Asia School of Business in 2016, and during the 20-month program worked with companies including Proctor & Gamble, Singha Beer, and advertising agency TBWA. In particular, Angeline credits the Singha Beer project, which took her to Vietnam and Thailand, with giving her immense exposure to the way of doing business in Asia.

“We started off in Thailand so we could understand Singha’s presence and dominance in the Thai market and we then went to Vietnam as that was the market they wanted to enter,” Angeline explains. Angeline spent a total of almost three weeks in Vietnam, conducting interviews with potential consumers in four of Vietnam’s biggest cities for Singha’s new beer brand, Leo.

“We travelled with translators to beer gardens, restaurants, bars, and clubs, to really understand where people are consuming beer and how they are consuming beer,” she explains. While the project was at times a challenge—“sometimes we would literally have to find a translator while we were travelling to the next city in a sleeper bus!” Angeline recalls—she says the project was a pivotal part of her MBA experience. “

Action Learning projects give you an appreciation of different cultures and, ultimately, humble you,” she reflects. “I definitely want to continue working in international roles that expose me to meeting different people and cultures.”

From Musician to the Malaysian Government

Malaysian student Eizaz Azhar has had a self-proclaimed “unorthodox” journey to the MBA at ASB. Eizaz got his start in the music industry, personally growing his home studio into a musical instrument wholesaler—“at one point we were one of the largest music retail stores in Malaysia!” Eizaz avows. “I’m a self-taught businessman—I see things really in dollars and cents,” Eizaz adds. “Before starting the MBA, I had to ask myself: have I learnt enough in my time doing business? Am I able to compete on a different level?”

Eizaz graduated last year, and, looking back now, Eizaz is certain that it was the Action Learning projects at Asia School of Business—especially his time working for Proctor & Gamble in Myanmar—that gave him the necessary skills to progress in the business world.

Working for P&G’s laundry detergent brand Ariel, Eizaz travelled to Myanmar to conduct market research and produce a market entry strategy for the brand. “We started on the ground, interviewing mums, housewives, or anyone that had been in contact with the brand,” Eizaz explains. Like Angeline, Eizaz had some unconventional experiences during the project.

“There was one point I had to conduct an interview with the P&G sales ladies, and I had to take a survey in the back of a moving truck on the highway!” Eizaz recalls. But it’s also these experiences that Eizaz credits with getting him his post-MBA job. “I got a call from the Malaysian government, from the director of the Ministry of Economic Affairs,” Eizaz says. “He said, ‘You’ve got experience in Myanmar, you’ve done interviews with people. Those skills are something we want.’ And that’s basically how I got the job.”

Asia-Ready MBAs

For Angeline and Eizaz, their experiences on the Action Learning projects at ASB have been crucial to giving them the skills to help them thrive in the business world of Southeast Asia. “There is no other learning experience that would give you a better network and foothold in Southeast Asia than these Action Learning projects that Asia School of Business is doing,” Eizaz states.

This article was originally published on BusinessBecause, a network helping MBA students make connections before, during and after their MBA.