Featured in the Media – Page 30 – Asia School of Business

AS her family members faced issues in managing orders for their online business during the Covid-19 pandemic, Wooi Zhuang Ru came up with an automated management solution. That solution to simplify the work for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and live streamers was the inspiration behind her recent win at the regional finals of the ASB101K Entrepreneurship Competition (Student Track), which saw her three-member team bagging the first prize worth RM101,000.

Calling themselves the Ottermate Team, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) students Wooi and How Chao Xun – who study computer science and financial economics, respectively – together with Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC) graphic design student Tee Kuok Hin, emerged the grand prize winner after beating three other teams at the regional finals.

The competition, hosted by the Asia School of Business, had two tracks – namely, the Student Track and the Startup Track – which were open to students and aspiring entrepreneurs from South-East Asia (SEA). Tasked with addressing current market challenges and opportunities through innovative technology-driven solutions, the Ottermate Team came up with a social media business enabler – named Ottermate, an incubatee at UTAR Unovate Centre – which offers an all-in-one live commerce management solution for retail live streamers.

Its key purpose is to provide an accessible, user-friendly and hands-off approach to order management, built with social media sales in mind. Ottermate founder Wooi, who is also the team leader, said the original idea came from her family members who owned SMEs and ran them traditionally over the years but were forced to transition to online business due to the pandemic.

“Ottermate started as a simple solution to a personal problem but my team and I eventually found its potential for growth. And that is how we are here today,” she said in a recent press release. Speaking of their win, she attributed the team’s success to their advisors and mentors – UTAR alumnus Pang Chong Xian, UTAR lecturer Tan Chiang Kang and UTAR Unovate Centre Dr Lee Sheng Chyan.

“This was truly a team effort. Everyone in the team worked very hard to write a compelling business document and prepare for our question and answer session. “This applies to our mentors from UTAR and ASB101K, as well. We are really grateful they took time out to help us with our business idea and find answers to difficult questions,” she said, pointing out that her team “weren’t filled with seasoned entrepreneurs or competition-goers”.

She shared that she herself had felt “very inadequate” initially, especially in the first two rounds while creating the decks and documents, because of her non-business background. “We were very lucky to get Fabian Boegershausen as our mentor from ASB101K. He helped us with our business calculations and went above and beyond to bring his expertise to the table. I’d say we definitely could not have done it without him,” she added.

Through their participation in the competition, Wooi said they had picked up some valuable learning points. “We learnt how important it is to get advice and iterate over ideas; a sentence can be said in many different ways but getting the concept down can be a very tedious process. “I really value the input from external people, be they mentors or even my parents.

Putting ourselves out there, asking for feedback and listening to advice helped us a lot in understanding our product and how the public perceives our product. “We were also able to anticipate the potential questions we would get during the Q&A,” she added. Having won the substantial prize money, the team plans to launch the Ottermate after going for a Series A seed round.

“The prize money will allow us to scale up our team and speed up development, so the majority of it will go into that,” she said, adding that she is splitting a small portion of the money among the team. Team mentor Tan advised students to be proactive in order to get the most out of such competitions. “Students need to stay focused, do their groundwork, and be as prepared as they can be.

If they have done that, even if they don’t win anything, the experience will still be invaluable in their startup journey,” he said. In the press release, UTAR president Prof Dr Ewe Hong Tat congratulated the Ottermate Team, Unovate Centre and UTAR Faculty of Information and Communication Technology for their combined efforts which resulted in the achievement.

Prior to the regional finals held on April 2, a total of 24 teams from universities across SEA – the Top 12 for each track – battled it out at the semifinals. Another team from UTAR named Quadrifoglio made it to the Top 50 of the competition in Round 1 .

Originally published by The Star.

MALAYSIA could experience more shortage of domestic helpers if there is no willpower to improve wages and job treatment of foreign workers in the country, experts said. “If wages and treatment do not change, I don’t see much changing in this sector aside from it experiencing more shortages and potentially pushing Malaysians into these jobs, which typically are lower-paying with not many amenities,” Asia School of Business assistant economics Prof Dr Melati Nungsari told The Malaysian Reserve (TMR) in an email interview.

Radical shift, she said, does not only involve increasing wages, it also should look into improving the work package and mindset as a whole. “Our modus operandi of paying little and treating poorly will not work anymore. With higher wages and better policies surrounding the treatment of migrant workers, we could potentially lure them back into our country, but given the current trajectory, this would require a quite radical shift,” she explained.

Indonesia has recently announced that it is phasing out its domestic workers gradually, which experts said may result in households and the agencies scrambling to source from other countries. “As Indonesia, one of the biggest exporters of domestic worker labour to us, phases out domestic workers, we can expect shortages in this sector to continue as demand for such workers does not seem to be declining,” Melati explained.

As a result, the female workforce will be impacted the most and the cost of hiring would be higher, which could potentially see Malaysia losing its female labour. “Women were already disproportionately affected by the pandemic — in general, they occupy the lower-level jobs, which were the first to be laid off, and tend to be engaged in more precarious work.

“Now that the economy and social sector is starting to recover, these women may now be looking to return to the workforce. Question is, however, who will tend to their children? Domestic helpers could help fill in this gap,” she added. Malaysia seeks to expedite the hiring process of foreign workers to fill the vacancies in various sectors, from plantation to domestic work. Malaysia’s rubber industry has lost RM30 billion in the last three years due to the lack of workers.

TMR previously reported that despite the government’s green light, some businesses could not afford to operate fully as in pre-pandemic. Meanwhile, EMIR Research head of social, law and human rights Jason Loh Seong Wei said Malaysia would not be able to reduce heavy reliance on domestic helpers, thus, there is a need to source from other countries — beyond the traditional ones.

He expects severe short-term impact with needy households and the maid agencies looking to source from other countries in the Asean region which would include Timor Leste. “If things become even more desperate, we might even have to start sourcing from beyond such as looking to countries like India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and not least Papua New Guinea,” he told TMR.

“Unless there’s a culture shift whereas in Japan, children are taught to be independent and resourceful from young and robotics play an integral part of daily living, we would continue to be ‘beholden’ to the need for domestic helpers in the long-term and foreseeable future.” He recommended prospective local employers to have pre-employment counselling and briefing sessions for migrant worker treatment.

“We propose that the licensing regime and supervision of recruitment or placement agencies under the Private Employment Agencies Act (1981) be subject to stricter approval. In addition, there’s also a need to augment the digitalisation of the application process to cut out the use of these middle-men or brokers,” Loh said.

He added that the role of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Council established under Section 6 of Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 in investigating and charging enforcement agencies for corruption relating to and collusion in facilitating trafficking activities should be reviewed and strengthened.

Read the full article HERE.
Originally published by The Malaysian Reserve.

The Ottermate Team won First Prize at the Regional Finals of the ASB101K Entrepreneurship Competition (Student Track), held on April 2. The team walked away with RM101,000 as the first prize win. The Ottermate Team consisted of two Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) students, namely, Faculty of Information and Communication Technology student (FICT) Wooi Zhuang Ru, Faculty of Business and Finance (FBF) student How Chao Xun; and Tunku Abdul Rahman University College student Tee Kuok Hin.

They were aided by UTAR alumnus Pang Chong Xian and FICT lecturer-cum-mentor Mr Tan Chiang Kang. Dr Lee Sheng Chyan from the Unovate Centre was appointed as the business mentor of Ottermate. The Ottermate is an incubatee of UTAR’s Unovate Centre. The ASB101K is an entrepreneurial competition, hosted by the Asia School of Business.

It brought together, in two different tracks, talented students and aspiring entrepreneurs from Southeast Asia to address current market challenges and opportunities through innovative technology-driven solutions. The competition had two tracks, namely Student Track and Start-up Track and it was open to all student teams from any discipline, and at any level of studies from any tertiary level institutions in South East Asia.

The semi-finals of the ASB101K Entrepreneurship Competition (Student Track) saw the participation of various universities from Southeast Asia, namely, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), Asia School of Business (ASB), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), The University of Nottingham, Universiti Malaya (UM), Xiamen University Malaysia (XMU), Monash University Malaysia, Bandung Institute of Technology, Gadjah Mada University, North Sumatera University, Mapúa University, Batangas State University, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Quest International University, Sunway University, Multimedia University Cyberjaya (MMU), Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), HELP University, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College and UTAR.

Prior to the final competition, Top 12 teams from Student Track and Top 12 teams from the Startup Track advanced to the semi-finals. From among the top 12 semi-finalists, four teams were selected to participate in the finals. The Ottermate team from UTAR was selected as one of the four finalist teams for the Student Track.

The Ottermate is an innovative social media business enabler that provides an all-in-one live commerce management solution for retail live streamers. It provides an accessible, user-friendly, and hands-off approach to order management, built with social media sales in mind. “The original idea came from my family members who owned Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and ran them traditionally over the years but were forced to transition to online business due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ottermate started as a simple solution to a personal problem, but we eventually found its potential for growth. And that is how we are here today,” said Wooi, who is the Team Leader-cum-Founder of Ottermate. “We really learnt a lot of things along the way. In the beginning, we learnt that being genuine is the most valuable asset; any situation or status can be a strength.

Besides that, we also learnt about how important it is to get advice and iterate over ideas; a sentence can be said in many different ways but getting the concept down can be a very tedious process. I really value the input from external people, be it mentors or even my parents. Putting ourselves out there, asking for feedback, and listening to advice helped us a lot in understanding our product and how the public perceives our product.

We were also able to anticipate the potential questions we would get during the Q&A,” she added. Speaking of the challenges the team faced during the competition, she said, “I’d say our biggest challenge was that we went in blind. We weren’t a team filled with seasoned entrepreneurs or competition goers with the aim to win.

Personally, as the team leader, since I am not from a business background, I felt very inadequate initially, especially in the first two rounds while creating the decks and documents. But over the course of the competition, because of the overwhelming support from our team as well as our mentors from both UTAR and ASB101K, we eventually found our groove.”

Wooi enthused, “We feel great, but also very stunned at the same time, we are just so happy to be a part of this rather unique experience and inspiring event. We really owe a lot to our mentors, who guided us one step at a time. Our team really took their advice to heart, pulling long nights and drinking a lot of coffee while doing so. We are so glad that our work has been recognised and we were able to get so far.

I’m personally very grateful that I got to meet so many talented people and learn so much from both peers and judges. The whole experience was surreal and I’m very excited for the future.” “This was truly a team effort. Each one of our team members worked very hard to write a compelling business document and prepare for our Q&A. This applies to our mentors from ASB101K and UTAR Unovate Centre as well.

We are really grateful they took time out of their day and helped us talk through our business idea and find answers to difficult questions,” she said and added, “We were very lucky to get Mr Fabian Boegershausen as our mentor for ASB101K. He helped us with our business calculations and he went above and beyond to bring his expertise to the table. I’d say we definitely could not have done it without him.”

When asked about the team’s plans for the future, she replied, “Well, we are planning to launch Ottermate after going for a Series A seed round. This prize money that we won will allow us to scale our team and speed up development, so the majority of it will go into that. Besides that, I’m splitting a small portion of the money amongst the team since they have been pivotal in us winning. They deserve to see some prize money for bearing with me constantly on our way to the finals.”

UTAR President Ir Prof Dr Ewe Hong Tat sent his heartiest congratulations to the Ottermate Team, Unovate Centre and FICT for their combined efforts which resulted in this amazing achievement at the regional level for Ottermate. The team’s mentor Tan has some advice for other aspiring students, “To get the most out of such competition, they must be proactive.

We, as mentors, and the Unovate Centre can show them the door, link them up to opportunities, and help guide and prepare them, but ultimately they will be the ones doing the business pitching. The vibes of the competition can be intimidating, as there will be strong competition from others, with some even more experienced, or with better business ideas.

So, students need to stay focused, do their groundwork, and be as prepared as they can be. If they have done that, even if they don’t win anything, the experience will still be invaluable in their startup journey.” Another team from UTAR named Quadrifoglio also made it to the Top 50 of the competition in Round 1.

Read the full article HERE.
Originally published by Business Today.

PETALING JAYA: Maybank has endowed RM21 million to the Asia School of Business (ASB) to establish the Maybank Asean Research Centre with the aim of conducting research on topics related to emerging markets in the Southeast Asia region. The endowment is based on the understanding that social welfare can be a bridge towards improving policymaking.

ASB is a collaboration between the MIT Sloan School of Management and Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM). Maybank Asean Research Centre’s co-chair, Datuk Nora Manaf, who officiated the launch, remarked that data and information are imperative to power insights which guide policymakers to respond swiftly to crises, improve economic growth, and enhance resilience to future shocks.

She said the bank aims to humanise financial services not only by providing sustainable financing solutions and supporting the underbanked. “We are now extending our reach to them by making available impactful research findings that can benefit society as a whole,” Nora said in a statement. “We believe that the real-world discoveries can better prepare us all to overcome existential challenges and seize opportunities in today’s volatile operating environment.”

To date, the centre has completed two studies related to the Covid-19 pandemic, the first of which explored the rationale behind vaccine hesitancy in Malaysia and whether social norms and government policies play roles in affecting one’s decision to register for vaccinations. The result from the study provided insights on how policymakers can help incentivise residents to register and receive the Covid-19 vaccine.

The school’s president and dean, professor Charles Fine believes academia plays a salient role in equipping leaders and policymakers with accurate and current information to make sound decisions. “With the generous support from Maybank, we will continue to gather more relevant data, contribute insightful research and spark intellectual dialogues that will create a better future for the next generations and the advancement of the emerging world,” he said.

Its second study explores the impact of the pandemic on Malaysia’s “hawker culture” utilising machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to generate a map of hawker and roadside operations in Malaysia, as well as deepen the understanding of how they access credit. Maybank Research Centre’s faculty director and ASB’s assistant professor of economics, Dr Melati Nungsar commented the pandemic has affected us all in various ways.

“We continued our mission by exploring the impact that pandemic has had on Malaysia’s hawkers, the roadside economy, and the changed dynamics of the labour market,” she said. “Through our partnership with Maybank, we intend to invigorate the region with more meaningful studies that will help policymakers in developing effective and favourable policies to support emerging markets and the livelihood of its citizens.”

Read the full article HERE.
Originally published by The Sun.

The hybrid Digital Leadership Forum, organized last week by Sarawak Centre of Performance Excellence (SCOPE) in collaboration with Sarawak State Financial Secretary’s Office, and co-hosted by Asia School of Business (established by Bank Negara Malaysia in collaboration with MIT Sloan), served as a platform for knowledge exchange and ideation between the public and private sector, to drive greater economic progress for the state of Sarawak.

Hosted at the newly opened campus of Asia School of Business (ASB), the forum was held at a pivotal moment as the state approaches the tail end of its five-year Sarawak Digital Economy Strategy 2018-2022. This year marks the start of the state embarking on its eight-year Post-Covid-19 Development Strategy 2030 as a continuation of its digital economy strategy.

Addressing attendees which included board members, C-suite officers, general managers, and senior to middle managers, the Deputy Premier of Sarawak Amar Douglas Uggah Embas (pic), emphasised the importance for state leaders to continue to drive the digital agenda forward.

“We are delighted to work with Asia School of Business especially because of their strong ties with industry and the MIT connection which strongly emphasises a practical, action-based approach to development and transformation. Additionally, corporate leaders and management teams are to adopt innovative business process reengineering via the adoption of digital tools and technologies in order to be competitive and achieve sustainable growth,” he said.

Amar urged for the State Financial Secretary Office to spearhead the digital transformation initiatives for the GLCs and Statutory Bodies in collaboration with Scope as the secretariat to facilitate, collaborate and conduct more capacity building programs. “These forums and programs not only provide an excellent opportunity to identify best practices, create leads but – most importantly – create space for direct networking, knowledge transfer and matchmaking discussions,” he said.

The forum speakers, who touched on current and emerging market trends and issues from the context of a gig and digital economy, included: Azran Osman Rani, Founder of Naluri, Dzuleira Abu Bakar, Chief Executive Officer of Malaysian Research Accelerator for Technology and Innovation (MRANTI), Dr Inma Martinez, Expert Member of the Global Partnership on AI, a G7 / OECD Initiative, and Prof Charles Fine, President and Dean at Asia School of Business.

The Digital Leadership Forum marks the start of a longer-term research and education relationship between the State of Sarawak and ASB as its knowledge partner in supporting a strategy for transformation and human capital development for the State, working closely with Scope as a collaborative partnership, said Dr Asleena Dato Helmi, CEO of Scope.

“Especially during these volatile pandemic times and global instability, digital readiness and building resilience is more crucial than ever, not only to shield citizens from drastic shocks but also to build towards a better, more sustainable way forward.

At Asia School of Business, equipping leaders to drive positive, transformative impact is a key part of our mission and ethos, and we are extremely honoured to be able to host the Deputy Premier of Sarawak and delegates to the Digital Leadership Forum at our campus,” said Prof Fine.

Post the forum ASB hosted the Sarawak state delegates for a series of talks and discussions with ASB’s international resident faculty to learn about trends and new innovations in several key streams, and how these can be leveraged for the state’s sustainable economic development.

The streams include Digital Transformation, Oil & Gas & Resources, Forestry, Agriculture (including Oil Palm), Transportation, Logistics, Shipping, Financial Sector, Governance, Education and Human Capital, Industry and Manufacturing, Informal Sectors, and Services Sector.

Read the full article HERE.
Originally published by Digital News Asia.

Dubai: Over 50 MBA students from 19 countries took part in the “first-ever climate and healthcare-focused hackathon” in Dubai on Tuesday to develop solutions to real-world problems. The five-hour hackathon saw students proposing several innovative ‘hacks’ like AI-based predictive analytics combining patient data with meteorological data and other historical data to inform capacity planning.

Another solution focused on a real-time carbon tracking dashboard using procurement and planning data to simulate the impact of a new project or policy. The hackathon, jointly organised by Asia School of Business (ASB), a collaboration between the MIT Sloan School of Management and Malaysia’s central bank (Bank Negara Malaysia), and VPS Healthcare, one of the leading integrated healthcare providers in the region with 24 operational hospitals and over 125 healthcare centres, resulted in several innovative solutions.

Problem-solving approach

Students also learned about Dubai’s healthcare industry through applying ‘Action Learning ‘problem-solving approaches and frameworks gained during their MBA to address a pressing real-world challenge faced by VPS Healthcare and healthcare groups all over the world – climate change.

The students, hailing from 19 different countries, had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the city of Dubai as part of a longer four-day Dubai visit that included visiting Expo 2020 Dubai and interactions with corporate partners to understand how Dubai has transformed itself from its reliance on oil, which used to account for 50 percent of GDP, into a global trade and tourism destination with over 95 percent of GDP coming from non-oil industries.

This includes healthcare and medical tourism, which has grown into one of Dubai’s top sectors, thanks to a rapidly growing urban population as well as a high influx of medical tourists who trust Dubai’s high-tech facilities to receive treatment.

Climate change and healthcare

Dr Shamsheer Vayalil, Founder and Chairman of VPS Healthcare, said: “We believe it will take collective effort globally to mitigate and address the climate risks we face today. There are unique challenges in the health care sector that needs to factor in challenges that will become increasingly hard to ignore, including increased fatalities and injuries due to extreme weather events and a rise in chronic health conditions like asthma, infectious diseases, and mental illness.

The partnership between VPS Healthcare and Asia School of Business represents our commitment towards addressing what experts are calling one of the greatest public health threats of our time.” At the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, 45 countries, including UAE, committed to transforming their health systems to be less carbon-emitting and more environmentally sustainable.

Sean Ferguason, Senior Associate Dean of the Asia School of Business said: “We’re extremely grateful to be able to partner with VPS Healthcare to address such an important challenge while providing our students with a rich, international learning experience, especially during these volatile pandemic times.”

Read the full article HERE.
Originally published by Gulf News.

Technological innovation is at the heart of Asia’s growth. Asia accounts for over two-thirds of worldwide tech exports, and the region’s use of technology to combat Covid has aided Asia’s robust economic recovery from the pandemic.

When it comes to the future of digital currencies it’s no different. Decentralized cryptocurrencies that rely on blockchain technology, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, have gained traction across Asia, with Vietnam and the Philippines ranking as the second and third highest users of cryptocurrencies respectively in a recent survey. Many countries across Asia are even designing their own centralized digital currencies, or Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), to keep pace with digital transformation.

What could the future of digital currencies in Asia look like?

Like unregulated digital currencies, CBDCs can support better financial inclusion and cheaper cross-border transfers, while allowing governments to maintain greater control of their country’s monetary systems. Banks can also design CBDCs in a way that’s less harmful to the environment than some cryptocurrencies.

“If we want a resilient, inclusive financial ecosystem, then the environmental footprint of fully decentralized platforms like Bitcoin is way too high for it to be the future of the payment system,” says Anella Munro, professor of economics at Malaysia’s Asia School of Business (ASB), speaking at ASB’s Leadership for Enterprise Sustainability Asia (LESA) 2021 conference.

Currently, Bitcoin, one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, consumes roughly the same amount of electricity as Finland. There are other problems facing existing decentralized digital currencies. China banned all cryptocurrency transactions in 2021, while India looks set to follow suit. This is mainly due to the lack of control countries have over virtual currencies like Bitcoin, another issue CBDCs could solve.

“Many central banks are looking at CBDCs and experimenting with blockchain technology,” says Anella. “It’s within most central banks’ mandates to keep on top of payments technology and know what the options are.” There are various versions of CBDCs cropping up. Retail CBDCs are available for everyone, while wholesale versions are limited to banks and payment service providers.

The People’s Bank of China, China’s central bank, has created a Chinese digital currency called the ‘e-yuan’, or the Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) system. The digital yuan is currently being trialed by consumers as well as Chinese tech giants like JD.com.

Across South East Asia (SEA), Bank Negara Malaysia (Malaysia’s central bank), the State Bank of Vietnam, and the Bank of Thailand are also investigating ways to introduce regulated digital currencies in retail or wholesale forms.

Since people across SEA have embraced mobile phone payments—proven by the popularity of ecommerce services like Thailand’s PromptPay and SEA’s ShopeePay—SEA’s population is likely to adapt to digital money with relative ease.

How can you tap into the future of digital currencies?

The rise of digital currencies in Asia offers an opportunity for the brightest business minds to lead the future of the sector. Governments will need professionals with sound project management skills to perfect the infrastructure required to roll out their own digital currencies, while a business solution is needed to lessen the environmental impact they have.

ASB’s 20-month MBA program offers courses dedicated to financial trends such as Financial Analytics and Innovation and Strategic Management of Financial Institutions. There are also opportunities to explore SEA’s fintech scene during Action Learning projects, where students participate in five real life consultancy projects across organizations like Bangkok Bank, Maxis Communications, and Microsoft.

Many ASB grads land MBA jobs in the South East Asian fintech industry. One successful alum, Varun Singhi, leveraged his MBA to become head of blockchain at a Malaysian fintech startup, Stealth Mode. For more experienced professionals, ASB provides two-day courses under its executive education arm, offering an introductory overview of the rapidly changing world of digital currencies.

Business school can be a way for ambitious professionals to keep up to speed with the evolving financial landscape, the latest cryptocurrencies, and changing policy decisions impacting virtual currencies across Asia.

As Anella from ASB puts it, digital currencies are here to stay. “We have these wonderful, cheaper, faster, more transparent ways to transmit value in data, and this really is an exciting new generation of technology that’s going to generate a lot of interesting applications,” she says.

Read the full article HERE.
Originally published by BusinessBecause, a network helping MBA students make connections before, during and after their MBA.

PETALING JAYA: Zangabir is a brand of homemade ginger beer with a twist. The range of non-alcoholic carbonated beverages was created by 25-year-old Moorgan Kris, who started the business in August after pitching his idea under the Rapid Youth Success Entrepreneurship (RYSE) programme. RYSE is a research and social outreach project that aims to reduce youth unemployment and empower them by funding feasible business ideas.

Moorgan tells FMT he completed his education degree in 2020 but decided to put his teaching career on hold. He currently has a day job in events, although his passion lies in the food and beverage business. The programme, he says, provided him the opportunity to get into the F&B industry. Zangabir isn’t your average ginger beer – Moorgan has given it a twist by creating flavours that cater to the Malaysian palette.

There are currently four flavours: Ginger Kaw, Lemony Ginger, Flower Power and Pandan Grass. As ginger is an acquired taste, those who enjoy that spicy kick will love the “strong” ginger or lemon ginger, the latter of which is his current bestseller. Meanwhile, those who prefer something milder will enjoy the hibiscus or pandan lemongrass, which are made with natural ingredients.

Moorgan says he came up with the brand name after toying with variations on the word “Zingiber” – the Latin for “ginger” – and also learnt about fermentation to create his homemade brews. “I follow the natural fermentation process, which takes at least three days,” he explains. “I like to know exactly what goes into the drink, to ensure everything is of good quality.”

Each 300ml bottle is priced at between RM12 and RM15, and customers have the option of ordering in packs of six, which is priced between RM70 and RM75. They can opt to mix flavours as well. Orders have to be placed at least a week in advance, as he only makes each batch once orders have been received to ensure freshness. And once they have received their drinks, customers are advised to refrigerate and consume them within two weeks.

Moorgan says setting up pop-up stalls has helped boost sales of Zangabir. (Moorgan Kris pic)

Moorgan says public response to Zangabir was initially slow as many were not familiar with the brand. But business began to improve after he set up pop-up stalls in Kuala Lumpur, which allowed people to sample his products before buying. He is currently running the business on his own, although he has the help of family and friends.

“The process of meeting orders can be quite time-consuming, especially as I have a day job,” he says. “However, I hope to one day fully transition into solely running the business.” Moorgan teases that he has plans to introduce new flavours, and even hints at a mandarin orange flavour for Chinese New Year next month.

Zangabir currently delivers within the Klang Valley. To give these bubbly drinks a try, visit Instagram or Shopee to place an order.

Read the full article HERE.
Originally published by Free Malaysia Today.

The green agenda outlined in the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) bodes well for Malaysia’s energy industry as it moves in line with global transition towards clean and sustainable practices. Asia School of Business assistant professor of business and society Dr Renato Lima de Oliveira (pic) said the 12MP was the first “green” Malaysia plan, in part because of the one-year gap between when it was originally scheduled to be tabled back in August 2020.

Speaking to Bernama, de Oliveira said the green growth agenda is much stronger now and the new five-year plan captured that sentiment. “In the meantime, the European Union has pushed an ambitious carbon reduction strategy, making its stand with border-adjusted carbon taxes for the future; environmental, social, and governance (ESG) funds have grown tremendously and several companies announced net-zero targets by 2050, including Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) which did so in November last year.

“Carbon-intensive long duration assets like new coal power plants are a liability in today’s world. They should be avoided, from an environmental standpoint but also because they are losing competitiveness. So this readjustment of priorities should be very welcomed,” he pointed out. Under the 12MP, the government announced that carbon pricing instruments will be introduced in the form of carbon tax and a domestic emissions trading scheme.

These tools essentially set a value or price on greenhouse gas emissions to be paid by the parties responsible, and effectively make it a necessity for businesses to reduce emissions to remain competitive and sustainable. Details of other measures for carbon reduction will be announced once the low-carbon long-term development strategy study is finalised by the end of 2022.

According to de Oliveira, a carbon tax is technically the best solution to encourage less carbon intensive investments. “However, it has shown to be politically hard to implement. Instead, governments frequently resort to other ways to encourage renewable sources of energy, such as tax breaks and large-scale solar auctions, or penalise carbon-heavy production via direct emission regulations,” he added.

For a carbon tax to work, it will be key to gather the necessary political support for implementation. De Oliveira pointed out that a very high carbon price at the beginning will create political backlash while a very low price will not have an impact. “It may also be important to make this revenue neutral. The 12MP announced a feasibility study on carbon pricing but (it’s) not a firm commitment yet,” he added.

Read the full article HERE.
Originally published by The Star.

Many students pursue an MBA for reasons that don’t always revolve around attaining sky-high salaries and fancy titles. For Asia School of Business (ASB) MBA grad Mathias Varming, it was about developing the business skills to have an impact on the world and tackle climate change issues head-on.

After graduating from the MBA, he’s now combining his sustainability sector experience with everything he learned at business school to head up Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) at energy company Ping Petroleum in the heart of Southeast Asia (SEA).

Finding the right MBA

Denmark-born Mathias worked in greenhouse gas management and as a partner in climate change mitigation for a risk consulting firm across Malaysia prior to joining ASB. During that time, he developed a passion for and strengthened his expertise in environmental issues.

But he wanted to learn more about sustainability strategy alongside developing a generalist skillset. That’s when he landed on an MBA as the solution. “I wanted to develop the tools to frame the sustainability problems I knew within the language of business and urge companies to consider these as core business issues,” he explains.

When he began looking for the perfect program, the fact that the ASB MBA is partnered with the MIT Sloan School of Management and connected to the Bank Negara Malaysia were both extremely tempting factors to him, he explains. “Since graduating, I’ve found that ASB’s connections have been resonant with employers, particularly those who are more government-oriented,” he adds.

Developing skills to combat climate change on the ASB MBA

Like many prospective MBA students, Mathias wanted to join an MBA program that emphasized project-oriented and problem-focused learning. Learning about the ASB MBA’s Action Learning (AL) program—an immersive initiative where students participate in five projects and work with global companies to tackle real-world problems—further spurred Mathias on to join the MBA program there.

From figuring out ways to tackle the social inequalities faced by gig economy workers in Malaysia to working with a semiconductor manufacturing plant to improve its business efficiencies, Mathias learned how to strategize and think on his feet—skills that have proved valuable in his sustainability career. “It was in these AL projects where I had the sudden realization that I can actually go into a completely new industry, with relatively short introduction periods, and make a difference,” he says.

Throughout these projects and within his MBA courses, Mathias developed hard and soft, or ‘Smart X Sharp’, skills. In terms of ‘sharp’ skills, he built his knowledge of financial modelling, which has helped him in his current role as head of ESG at Ping Petroleum, where he’s involved in quantifying the impact of ESG measures. On the ‘smart’ skills side, he says he’s enhanced his ability to understand multiple perspectives from working alongside peers from vastly different educational and cultural backgrounds to him on the ASB MBA.

Since sustainability issues cannot be considered in a silo, working in the sustainability sector entails collaborating with global companies worldwide. So, having the ability to build meaningful relationships across regions is essential. “Having that playground to interact with a bunch of different people in a safe environment was really valuable for my career,” he notes.

Building a career within the SEA sustainability space

When thinking about the countries at the forefront of tackling environmental issues, people often look to European countries like Denmark or Norway. However, many SEA countries are becoming leading figures in the urgent fight against climate change, offering exciting MBA jobs in the sector. Malaysia is one country that’s proving its commitment to climate change mitigation, having announced its ambitious carbon neutral target for 2050.

Mathias was able to leverage this ambition post-MBA. Before he became the head of ESG at Ping Petroleum—based in Kuala Lumpur—he cofounded a startup, Evenergy, with Mimi Aminah Wan Nordin, an ASB MBA peer. The company is a trading platform for businesses to buy renewable energy certificates. Now, Mathias has further positioned himself at the center of the fast-moving sustainability sector in SEA.

He’s combining his sustainability and business expertise to lead Ping Petroleum towards a Net Zero agenda. “ESG is a really interesting space right now because there’s a lot going on in areas like building systems in existing organizations—there’s a lot of space to influence businesses’ impact on the environment,” he notes.

Besides making lifelong connections on the MBA in the form of his former cofounder, Mathias has widened his scope of the sustainability sector by sharpening his knowledge of business operations and finance, enabling him to tackle environmental issues from multiple directions. He credits the MBA for enhancing his career.

“A common term in sustainability is that the Net Zero will be the next CEO’s problem, but it should be the current CEO’s problem,” Mathias notes, “the MBA has provided me with the tools to bring sustainable issues higher up the priority list so that businesses confront these issues.”