Student Experience, Action Learning, MBA – Page 8

Most business schools, for their fall intake, post their round three or four application deadlines in March and April. But the COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything, and schools across the world are pushing back their start dates, extending their application deadlines, and even accepting applications after the deadlines.

Asia School of Business (ASB), in Malaysia, for example, has pushed its fall semester start date back to September 28th. Despite deadlines having passed, the school continues to consider strong applications for its MBA class. So if you’re starting to put together your MBA application, here’s what you need to take into consideration if you want to give yourself the best chance of getting in.

1. Consider what you stand to benefit from an MBA

The investment of going to business school is not insignificant, especially in the face of economic recession. But many will attest to these times of economic crisis being the best time to apply for business school.

Evidence for the impact of a business education on your development is both anecdotal and research-based. 94% of business school alumni saw their experience as ‘personally rewarding’, according to the Alumni Perspectives Survey from the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC); 89% saw it as ‘professionally rewarding’ and 73% as ‘financially rewarding’.

Gulnura Rakhyshova, associate director of admissions at Asia School of Business, believes now is a great time to apply. “People [often] go get their MBA during a recession, because once they come back, the market is a lot stronger,” Gulnura says. This is true for candidates whose job, company, or industry might be in a state of uncertainty. “Many people aren’t sure if they’ll keep their jobs, so an MBA is something they know they can do.”

2. Identify the right location and type of program

As with any time of the application cycle, candidates should take their time to research different schools, locations, and MBA program types to find one which is the best fit. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on candidate preferences, given the pandemic’s varying effect on different parts of the world. Typically US schools have seen sharp increases in applications during times of economic recession—but with the disease continuing to spread quickly in the US, this might seem less likely.

Gulnura believes that many countries in Asia where the response has been celebrated, Malaysia included, will be more attractive to applicants. “Asia was actually able to recover a lot faster, and address the situation, because it’s not the first time these countries have experienced this pandemic situation,” Gulnura says. Gulnura also believes that schools who responded quickly to the pandemic will stand out to applicants. ASB was quick and relatively seamless in making the move online.

Professors, many of whom are based abroad or at ASB’s associate institution MIT Sloan School of Management, are used to conducting much of their coaching and support online. In the long term, however, Gulnura believes that in-person programs, as opposed to those conducted entirely online, remain the superior format for those looking to make a significant career change.

Networking is more integral on full time programs, given the time you spend forging relationships and bonds with your classmates. At ASB, the Action Learning Projects—five semester-long projects at real companies across the region—form the backbone of networking on the MBA, giving students introductions to real employers. “This is something you wouldn’t have on an online degree, and you’d have to make these introductions alone.”

3. Get in contact with the school

So you’ve decided on the right program and school? The next step is to reach out. Gulnura recommends that any candidates who are considering submitting an application should get in touch with the school as soon as possible. Firstly, from an informative standpoint. “Being in touch with the school means a lot. The school can tell you about changes to their application process.

They can connect you with admits, current students, and alumni, who can give you ideas on how to strengthen your application,” Gulnura says. But more than that, registering interest with a school might strengthen their interest in you as a candidate. “If you stand out as a prospect before you even apply, you’re going to stand out even more when you’ve submitted. Schools tend to like people who are engaged.”

4. Articulate why you’re a good fit

Trying to stand out, and making a convincing case as to your fit, is the aim of every MBA applicant. It’s actually simpler than you think. It comes down to doing the right research and understanding the specific value proposition of the school.

“If you’re sending out a message about yourself, you have to align it with the school’s value proposition,” Gulnura says. “Some schools have more of an innovation focus, some have more of a consulting focus. Make sure your future career goals, and what you believe in, are aligned with what the school offers you.”

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

MBA meeting, 12 March 2020, 1:00 PM. The atmosphere was heated as discussions turned to the surge in COVID-19 infections in Malaysia and what preventive measures the school should take. All of a sudden, Charlie Fine (Dean and President of ASB) turned to the Co-Presidents of the student government and said, “I think the students need to come up with a BCP for ASBR.”

For a building that had only been in operation for two months, ASB Residensi (ASBR) was occupied by students and occasionally some staff. There were hardly any SOPs, let alone a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) for such a crisis. The team wrestled with the need for a BCP. Shouldn’t it be the school’s responsibility instead of the students’? “When we got this request from Charlie, I was skeptical.

Why should we [the students] be developing this when it should be the school’s role to start?” Mohd Faizal Mohamed Sulaiman, Co-President of the Class of 2020, asked. Then it dawned on us – with 30-40 of our friends stuck at ASBR, it would be more effective for the students to put the BCP together ourselves.

This would ensure that our classmates not only understood and had ownership over the SOPs, but they would also know what to do in the event a lockdown happened and nobody from ASB was available to support us.

Navigating Uncertainty

“We knew how important it was to get this BCP right. It was a lot of pressure. If something goes wrong and people are infected, and they have to stay in ASBR, what are the stakes? It was a huge weight!” Ilham Bazi, Co-President of the Class of 2021, explained. So how do you get a bunch of bright, young MBA students who have never seen, let alone completed, a BCP to create one? The ride was certainly bumpy.

“I don’t think any of us had any real-life experience in designing a BCP. We were all just trying to nail it as we went along. [The journey] felt like a roller coaster ride with maniacal ups and downs. We started from nothing, in 24 hours we had something, and in 48 hours, it was ready for presentation. That just blew my mind,” Yizhen Fung, a student from the Class of 2020, shared.

Yizhen was invited to be part of the BCP Leadership team as the Head of Internal Communications, and it was imperative that she got firsthand updates as we went along. Luiza Massari, the Clubs Officer of the Class of 2021 and a member of the BCP Leadership Team, added, “I didn’t even know what a BCP was. I had to google it! I remember we thought ASB was overreacting. They imagined a situation where we had no food.

Now I see that it is important to determine how to manage ASBR. It is a major success that we have had no infections [so far].” Yizhen added. “Everything was going so fast, and everyone was on the same ride as you were, so you had to buckle down.

The first 72 hours were fast and furious. Some of us got little sleep. A lot of new information was coming in on an hourly basis. When there was a new development, you had to be willing to go back to the drawing board and do away with the initial processes. Nothing was ever certain.”

Despite the stress, and with zero intra-community infections as the measure of success, the team managed to move swiftly “from the moment of conception [of the BCP] to drafting and testing the scenarios with multiple stakeholders to stress-testing the processes to ensure everything holds,” Yizhen noted.

The team had to collectively generate an exhaustive number of scenarios, as well as a set of protocols that were thorough and ensured the wellbeing of the community. “In the beginning, we were just sticking to the basics. But if we had done that, we wouldn’t be in good shape. We went so many steps further and followed Rhoda’s (Chief Operating Officer of ASB) and the community’s lead in imagining all sorts of creative scenarios,” Luiza explained.

Leadership in Crisis

“In the midst of every crisis lies great opportunity.” – Albert Einstein How often do MBA students get to show leadership in a crisis? For Faizal, the journey was a chance to prove himself. “We talked about how to be agile and lean, but the whole experience, at least for the first 72 hours, puts you to the test to see if you can put agile into practice…

People said, ‘I’ll do this because I have some experience, let me just be part of this.’ There was no need to message anyone directly to get their participation. We started with three or four of us, and then it was a big team.” The BCP was also an opportunity for other students to step up to the plate. “Despite spending about 20 months at ASB, I was pleasantly surprised to see people who are naturally reserved stepping up,” Faizal said.

Ilham added, “Everyone was a leader. It helped a lot with the team dynamics in the BCP journey. It is not a feeling that you need to do something or report something. You knew you wanted to do it, and you wanted to help. It was a different type of leadership.”

The BCP team also had Rhoda to thank for leading them through this unknown process. Luiza explained, “I believe in leadership by example. When we saw Rhoda working a lot and being worried about the situation, this pushed me harder to help her, and all of us as well. The other students also tried to help solve the problem. Rhoda didn’t need to do this, but she was pushing hard to make this happen.

That is leadership. That is how you lead by example.” Yizhen chimed in as well. “I am not what Faizal or Jon might perceive as a typical, natural leader. I don’t step up to these things on my own. The BCP was an opportunity for me to try and see what I could do. It was a high-pressure moment. I haven’t quite done anything like this in my life. If there was anything I learned, it was the importance of having a vision of how things can be better for all of us, sharing that vision with the team, and helping the team execute.

These were the three things I needed to do, as my unit needed this.” In fact, the final product showed the amount of professionalism of each team. “When I saw the different teams’ portions of the BCP, I was impressed. In only 24 hours, the level of detail and expertise in those documents – that was very surprising,” Ilham beamed.

Action Learning at Its Best

Many of us came to ASB for its Action Learning program. When the BCP Leadership Team got together to reflect, we realized this was by far not only one of the most challenging Action Learning projects, but it was the one that most pushed us to grow our Smart and Sharp skills.

Leadership

“From Charlie we were asking for certainty. We wondered, ‘Can’t you just decide?’ But the school wanted to allow students to discuss it. In hindsight, that was great. Empathy-based leadership was something that I learned,” Faizal shared. Rhoda demonstrated that in times of crisis, leaders are challenged to communicate their intentions before all else. When people understand the intention, they will move. “In times like this, establishing and articulating the intention may make it seem like you’re going slow. But you’re in fact going fast,” Rhoda shared as she reflected upon her experience.

Failing Forward

“This task of putting the BCP together gave us a headache after our meeting with Charlie. We had to just start the Word document. Once we started, it flowed. Then it went so fast. Even if the task is huge and complex, just start. Don’t overcomplicate anything in the beginning,” Ilham shared. Faizal chimed in. “This is where ‘failing forward’ comes in. We use that phrase a lot at ASB. We were going through that process, and it was difficult for me to adapt. I am so used to structure and processes. But in this case, we had to just go with it. Test the prototype quickly and improve from there.”

Building Teams

In a crisis like this, we had no time to monitor everything. We had to delegate, then let go and trust. Unlike in companies where managers are challenged to be specific with their directions, here the scope was broad. “If you give people a chance, they will surprise you about what they are capable of doing, how far they are willing to go, and the amount of ideas they have,” Jonathan Chu, Co-President of the Class of 2021, reflected.

“Enthusiasm is infectious. I noticed that we were encouraging ourselves. When some of us got a bit overwhelmed with the work, we managed to delegate it to others who had some capacity. Those who had a lot more capacity volunteered for more work. It was this kind of enthusiasm that kept the entire team going. This was such a large team. It’s tough to keep a large team motivated. We were 30-odd people, and yet we managed to move together as a class,” Yizhen said.

Classes of 2020 & 2021: Thank You for an Amazing Experience

“It makes me proud to be surrounded by these people, the RIGHT people. They showed real leadership when it was needed. You can be paid to do a job, but the real test comes during times of crisis. You can be appointed or picked to do a job. But real leadership is taking that responsibility even if you don’t have the title,” Faizal said. “I was floored when I had the chance to work with everyone in the team, even my seniors in the Class of 2020!

Here I was thinking that I may never have the chance to work with my seniors. This experience demonstrated to me what 20 months could do for you, and this was good company,” Jonathan added. “I remember in the beginning it was like a task, something that had to be done. Now, thinking about it, I feel that pride. Wow, we did a BCP. That is what’s left with you. It is what you will keep, the pride of doing something like this, and that is amazing,” Ilham shared.

To all the 30 ASBR ‘Inmates’ who contributed tirelessly to this BCP project, thank you. This will forever go down in history, when 30-odd students banded together and came up with ASBR’s Business Continuity Plan. Within 72 hours, we created something out of nothing, and you are all to be celebrated. Class of 2020 Students and their Significant Others (SO) who contributed to the BCP:

Amrutha Harish
Sara Konbor
Sebastian Vasquez
Yizhen Fung
Mohd Faizal Mohamed Sulaiman

Sharifah Nor Baizura Wan Muhammad
Jishnu Gandhi
Rajiv Chawla
Allenie Caccam
Esther Han

Duncan Marwick
Muhd Izzat Suliman
Akram Yusof
Eizaz Azhar

Class of 2021 Students and their Significant Others (SO) who contributed to the BCP:

Ilham Bazi
Luiza Massari
Jonathan Chu
Amjed Ali
Rex Ericsoon
Diana Ayala Gomez

Hyunwoo Kim
Chloe Yoon
Jamie Tam
Benjamin Suren Kee
Dilip Suresh
Leonardo Cunha
Amir Seddik

When you’re stuck inside, Netflix binges and scrolling through social media can sap your energy. One mind-stimulating alternative is learning something new, which is especially beneficial if you’re preparing for business school in the process. Luckily, ASB faculty have curated a list of the 15 most transformative books to help you through your boredom. MBA students, faculty, and executives alike can get behind these interesting and engrossing reads. See below for more details.

Eli Remolona
Professor of Finance and Director of Central Banking

Firefighting: The Financial Crisis and Its Lessons

Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geithner and Henry Paulson

Prof. Eli says, “It reads almost like a thriller, and it is somewhat relevant to the current crisis.” From the three primary architects of the American policy response to the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression, a magnificent big-picture synthesis–from why it happened to where we are now. (Amazon)

Hans Genberg
Professor of Finance and Associate Director of Central Banking

The Art of Strategy

Avinash K. Dixit and Barry J. Nalebuff

Prof. Hans says, “This book applies game theory to many interesting practical problems.”

Using a diverse array of rich case studies—from pop culture, TV, movies, sports, politics, and history—the authors show how nearly every business and personal interaction has a game-theory component to it. (Amazon)

Good Economics for Hard Times

Abhjit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo

The winners of the Nobel Prize show how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social and political problems of our day. (Amazon)

Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy

Cathy O’Neil

A former Wall Street quant sounds the alarm on Big Data and the mathematical models that threaten to rip apart our social fabric. (Amazon)

Kevin Crow
Assistant Professor of International Law and Ethics

The Market as God

Harvey Cox

Prof. Kevin says, “This is a very readable provocation, not heavily academic but fascinating. It welcomes readers to examine how beliefs about ‘the market’ create limited ranges of what is often considered ‘reasonable.’”

Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality

Katharina Pistor

Prof. Kevin says, “This is a very readable introduction to law’s role in creating both wealth and inequality. Each chapter in the book is a window into an entire domain of legal scholarship. A good read for business students interested in questioning whether law itself can be considered a commodity.”

Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism

Quinn Slobodian

Prof. Kevin says, “This is a fascinating (if deterministic) intellectual history of neoliberal globalism going all the way back to the Habsburg Empire. It convincingly challenges a broad collection of conventional wisdoms. A good read for those interested in rethinking the role of the State in global governance.”

Loredana Padurean
Associate Dean and Faculty Director for Action Learning

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

David Epstein

David Epstein examined the world’s most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors, forecasters and scientists. He discovered that in most fields—especially those that are complex and unpredictable—generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. (Amazon)

Michael Frese
Professor of Management

Poor Economics

Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo

Why do the poor borrow to save? Why do they miss out on free life-saving immunizations, but pay for unnecessary drugs? In Poor Economics, Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, two award-winning MIT professors, answer these questions based on years of field research from around the world. (Amazon)

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman

Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. (Amazon)

Ong Shien Jin
Professor of Practice

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari

Prof. Shien Jin says, “This book gives a broad perspective of how the we (humans) have developed over the millennia. I find it useful to put the current COVID-19 situation in context.”

The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-but Some Don’t

Nate Silver

Prof Shien Jin says, “This book taught me how to understand and deal with uncertainties. It is rare that we can predict anything with perfect accuracy, but instead we can form ranges of possible outcomes.”

Willem Smit
Assistant Professor of Marketing

Recession Storming: Thriving in Downturns Through Superior Marketing, Pricing and Product Strategies

Rupert M. Hart

Prof. Willem says, “This book contains actionable advice on new strategies to generate more revenue from customers, increase margin by resisting price pressure, change the game with recession-specific product offerings, and expand into new markets. It reviews over 100 marketing strategies from 80 companies over 5 recessions and 40 industry downturns.”

Contagious: Why Things Catch On

Jonah Berger

Prof. Willem says, “In this book, Jonah Berger reveals the six basic principles behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. This book also provides a set of specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread – for designing messages, advertisements, and information that people will share.”

Brand Activism: From Purpose to Action

Christian Sarkar and Philip Kotler

Prof. Willem says, “Kotler and Sarkar convincingly argue why values-driven marketing requires taking the right actions too. People expect brands to help solve the world’s problems. It is a timely, progressive and groundbreaking book that provides a brand activism framework and guides marketers to make a difference with their brands.”

I can’t believe it was nearly two years ago when I showed up at a Class of 2020 Immersion Dinner. It feels simultaneously like just yesterday and a million years ago. The first thing that struck me was how excited every student was to be there. I met people coming from India and Ireland, from Mexico and Malaysia. I met some who had lived abroad for years and others who had never traveled outside of their country before coming to ASB.

But no matter their nationality, industry, race, or religion, all of them had agreed: they may have only been together for a week, but were already best friends for life. I was skeptical. I remember cautioning them, “You’re in the honeymoon period, but just wait three months. You’ll be yelling at the other members of your Action Learning groups about which framework to use soon enough.”

Fortunately, I was largely wrong (though I’m sure some arguments still took place during the projects, it’s inevitable). More than any other class, the Class of 2020 has stuck together through good times and bad, supporting each other with love and compassion. There have been many firsts in the cohort, as well as many initiatives created and organized by the students.

For example, they created the first inter-class groups based on animals, where certain students within each class were classified as “tigers” or “elephants,” as a way of fostering connections within and between cohorts. They also hosted the first-ever Club Fair on the premises of one of the student’s businesses, with more yelling and raucous cheering than I would have expected for presentations about finance and data analytics activities.

They were also the first cohort to attend the China Trek, a week-long immersive journey through the innovation landscape in the country, which resulted in rave reviews. They also, along with the Class of 2021, moved into the newly built residential campus at ASB for the first time. And, unfortunately, current circumstances surrounding the spread of COVID19 forced the Class of 2020 to host the first-ever micro-graduation, a last-minute heroic effort that brought together students, faculty and staff spread out across the globe.

While many of the firsts and changes were exciting, they could also be destabilizing. As someone who graduated with the first MBA cohort at ASB, I know that being the first to do anything is tough. Nothing is well-defined, not all of the details have been filled in. A lot of time is spent orienting and re-orienting (or “immersing,” if you prefer). And, worst case, sometimes new initiatives fail or go badly.

When the structures around you are ever-changing, it helps to look for support in something dependable, an anchor amid the raging sea. For the Class of 2020, you can tell that the anchor for most of the students is their classmates, as well as the broader ASB community. When one student struggles, everyone steps in to help. When there is a systemic problem, everyone steps in to both propose and implement the solution.

And when crises happen, like the one we’re in the midst of now, the students step up to buy supplies, coordinate aid to each other, and organize a graduation in less than 48 hours. With rock-star professors and exciting travel opportunities, sometimes the ASB MBA program can feel like living the dream. But the unique way the program is designed also has inherent challenges.

Getting along in a cohort with 18 nationalities is tough. Juggling coursework, Action Learning projects and the job search, all while taking over a half-dozen flights every semester, is tough. In many ways, it’s a stress-test for one’s ability to handle change and uncertainty. So while I’m proud of the Class of 2020, both for graduating and for their impressive response to the current circumstances, their cheerfulness in the face of adversity, I’m also not surprised.

If anyone were well-equipped to deal with a global pandemic, it is this group of globally-minded, resilient students. The weeks following my own graduation were a flurry of activity. I negotiated and signed a job offer while on vacation with my family, then spent a hectic few weeks securing housing, stocking my apartment, and settling into a strange new routine without my classmates. And I only moved within Kuala Lumpur.

Given what I went through, I can only imagine how unsettled some of our new graduates are currently feeling. Most were forced to leave Malaysia abruptly, while others cannot return to their home countries. Many have taken jobs with start dates that are now uncertain, and for others the job search process has been put on hold indefinitely.

While this class is facing a difficult and unprecedented situation, I have more confidence in them than almost any other group of people to make it through and come out stronger than before. The ASB MBA has given them the tools and experience to prepare them, as well as the interpersonal bonds to support them, through almost anything. And, though they may now be physically separated, I have no doubt that they’ll come out of this together.

PS: If you are reading this and have remote work or full-time positions available, consider hiring one of our Class of 2020 graduates. Reach out to us and we will coordinate introductions to the best-fit graduates.

If you think winning one global branding award is tough, try doing it twice. That’s what Andy Chin (MBA-WP 2021) achieved for MR. DIY, a leading Malaysian retailer of household appliances. MR. DIY, of which Andy is Vice President of Marketing, took the trophy for the World Branding Awards 2019 in the home improvement category for the second consecutive year.

Previous winners in other categories include Apple, Coke and Louis Vuitton, so MR. DIY is in good company. It doesn’t hurt that the winners are chosen by consumers themselves. The homegrown brand, which has expanded to more than 1,000 stores in eight countries across Southeast Asia with some 13,000 employees, opened its first India store last November.

MR. DIY’s win is all the more impressive considering the staid and highly traditional home appliances business is hardly the place where one would expect to see innovation in marketing and branding. But this is precisely where MR. DIY saw an opportunity to stand out.

Keeping it fresh

Andy’s goal is to make MR. DIY a fun brand, he says. The company was an early adopter of social media marketing and today has some 3.8 million followers on Facebook and 280,000 on Instagram. But the brand is more than just a slogan, as anyone who has stepped foot in a MR. DIY store will know. The retail experience embodies its fun and ready-to-explore image. Part of the reason why MR. DIY has been so successful at marketing is that it has never been shy to take risks.

Andy recalls that one particularly impactful campaign was its “Biar Kami Rugi, Anda Puas Hati” slogan, which translates to “let us absorb the losses so you don’t have to” in Bahasa Malaysia. The campaign struck a chord with Malaysians because it was MR. DIY’s response to the arrival of the 6% goods and services tax back in 2015. The move was exactly in line with MR. DIY’s brand promise of “Always Low Prices.”

But on top of delighting customers, the campaign attracted so much attention that other retail brands started to copy the idea. As they say, imitation is the best form of flattery. To keep the brand fresh, MR. DIY pushes out a new marketing campaign every six months, Andy says. His challenge is to make the campaigns relevant to local audiences, which is not so simple given MR. DIY’s ASEAN-wide presence. “We need different billboards in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia,” says Andy, who was responsible for expanding MR. DIY to these countries.

Branding secret sauce

The secret to a great brand, Andy believes, is to first understand and listen to the customer. Step two is to keep communicating and maintain a consistent message. Step three is to always have a story to tell, which MR. DIY does through its popular “Lifehacks” series on YouTube, among other content. True to its do-it-yourself DNA, the company does not hire agencies to craft its messages, preferring instead to work with an in-house content creation team.

But Andy didn’t come to ASB just to add to his marketing toolbox. The MBA will come in handy as MR. DIY transitions to the IR4.0 era and ramps up its young B2B e-commerce platform, which Andy has led since its formation in 2018. The new venture involves operating an automated warehouse, which is one of the biggest in Southeast Asia, Andy says.

Stumbling into ASB

Andy stumbled onto ASB by chance. When he first started exploring an MBA, he didn’t have the required work experience and decided to focus on his career. In 2019, he began the search again. When he heard about ASB, he decided to show up unannounced on campus in Sasana Kijang to learn about the program from the Admissions team. That was when he met Juliana Roth, Deputy Director of the MBA for Working Professionals program.

Andy remembers being sold on the program, but he was not sure if he could invest the time needed for an intensive program like ASB’s, which requires – on top of a demanding syllabus – a once-in-six-week residential visit and month-long MIT Immersion in Cambridge, Massachusetts. But Andy’s CEO and managing director encouraged him to go for it. He ended up becoming the first employee in MR. DIY to be sponsored for an MBA.

More than marketing

One of the classes Andy enjoyed the most is operations management taught by Dean Charles Fine and Associate Dean Loredana Padurean.

The case studies on McDonalds and Burger King, which go into minute detail on how each fast food chain organizes their in-store production lines and workforce, left an especially strong impression on Andy.

“Now whenever I go for dinner with my wife in Kuala Lumpur, I find myself thinking about how these restaurants can improve their operational processes,” says Andy.

He has been able to directly apply the learnings from the operations course to MR. DIY’s warehouse, especially when it faces “bursty arrival” situations that cause backlogs and delays during periods of high volume, such as the 11.11 shopping extravaganza.

In the past, congestion at the warehouse resulted in cancellation of customer orders, a problem Andy says has been reduced thanks to the application of the utilization rate formula, among other operations concepts.

Though warehouse staff were once stumped by backlogs and unable to pinpoint the root causes of delays, a framework Andy helped put in place has led to smoother operations.

“Many of my friends told me that an MBA will change your life,” Andy says. He feels this has been true of his MBA-WP experience at ASB. “Each time I come to campus for residence I gain a new perspective and am able to see things differently.”

In our lives and careers, we are surrounded by reward systems that shape our behaviors—maybe you can qualify for commission if you hit a sales target, or you’re trying to get the highest grade in the class. But the trickiest reward system that might be influencing your decisions is the praise and validation you receive for good work.

My decision to join Asia School of Business was a choice to break away from that system of motivation—one where I was exclusively focused on pleasing others—and join a community where I could take an active role in shaping my career and become uncompromising in defining my path.

Rediscovering my intrinsic motivation

Before coming to ASB, I was the third employee at a property management technology startup, growing into their Detroit Head of Operations, and was later the third operations person at an autonomous-vehicle transportation startup, creating the playbook for their first few market launches.

Startups already blur the line between who you are and what you do, so instead of thinking about what I wanted to learn or what I was interested in, I focused exclusively on what the company needed from me, and became addicted to positive feedback.

Even if I was performing well in my job, day-after-day I would return home numb and exhausted, with no energy to see friends, read, or exercise. I remember sitting in my boss’s office, completely distraught trying to come up with an answer for the simple question, What would you like to do next here? I would reply, “Maybe supply chain, that could be interesting. Or business analytics! Partnerships and strategy?” Every answer I could come up with was anchored to the context of my job, and none of them felt right.

I had been suppressing my own interests and goals for so long that I lost sight of what actually motivated me. I needed to find the answer. Before ASB started, I spent many painful hours reconnecting with my interests and drivers, completely independent of external rewards. During that time I rediscovered my love of writing and fascination with the topic of work—the dynamics between employees and employers as well and the role that technology is playing in redefining jobs across the labor market.

The ability to take a step back from your job and try to find a deeper purpose is both a privilege and perceptably individualistic. But when I moved to Malaysia, still filled with uncertainty, I felt ready to make the most out of every second—ready to act on my desire to build new knowledge, explore the topics that stimulated my curiosity, and invest in myself.

Practicing self-accountability

Fast forward to where I am today: pursuing a degree 15,000 kilometers (take that, American measurement system!) from home, starting a monthly e-newsletter called Workable, writing articles about what I’m learning in my courses, and working as a Research Assistant. This radical shift came completely from a shift in priorities: from performing for others to learning with purpose.

Instead of being shackled by the need for approval, I told myself that I would focus on learning and building a better understanding of the dynamics of the labor market. That’s much easier said than done, so I needed to introduce some structure to ensure I would put my learning at the forefront of my experience.

Classes at ASB moved quickly, and were filled with interesting topics that I wanted to get to know in greater detail. I’ve always loved using writing as a tool for learning, so to give myself more time with the material, I began writing articles that incorporated what I was learning in class into the labor concepts that I am so passionate about.

After learning about Porter’s Five Forces I applied them to the labor market in The Five Hidden Forces That Help Determine a Worker’s Value. After learning how to use a balance sheet, I wrote What if Human Labor Was an Asset, not an Expense?. After learning about queueing theory I wrote, The Social Consequences of Operational Efficiency.

The ability to deconstruct a topic, think about it, and put it together in a new way brings me both unparalleled joy and satisfaction. I still have so much more to learn, but writing has helped me explore topics that I’m curious about.

But outside of the classroom, I also wanted to make sure that I was following the present-day challenges to the workforce in both the U.S. and Asia. After being inspired by a friend who runs a political newsletter, I decided that a newsletter would be a great medium for consolidating the high-level topics that I’m writing about, and the present-day changes in the nature and experience of work. Workable was born.

I’ve written an article, read a new book, and published an edition of Workable each month for the past 5 months. I’ve been asked whether I have a long-term plan to monetize the content, and I’m proud to say that I don’t (which might be especially surprising coming from an MBA). I do it because I love the process and the work challenges me to think harder about topics that I care deeply about. I’ve found something that’s energizing and rewarding for all the right reasons.

The Point of It All

I am grateful to Asia School of Business for creating an environment where I can feel empowered and supported in following my curiosity. I am learning to focus less on where I want to go, and more on what I want to learn.

Although I’ve made progress in discovering and prioritizing what I intrinsically love doing, I am by no means free of the inclination to seek the approval of others. Still, I know that purposeful learning is my priority here, and will continue to be my priority in whatever it is I do next.

If you’re interested in labor dynamics and the future of work, consider subscribing to the Workable e-newsletter or following Amanda on Medium for her monthly posts.

It’s been close to six months since our first day in ASB! I must say it’s been a roller coaster ride, one with highs and lows, but always exhilarating. In sweet reminiscence, I received my first MBA in the late 1990s when I was offered a job in a multinational company and assigned to their Malaysian office.

At that time, the management theories I learned were occasionally useful at work, but as a young engineer focused on sizing pipelines (the demands of the day back then) and ensuring buckling theories do not become a reality, it was too early to have taken an MBA.

With the pains of working and studying still very fresh in my memory, I decided to attempt this second MBA for three reasons:

By now I would have experienced many real-life issues and challenges at work
The world has changed significantly and business models have evolved, so it is important for me to update myself through a structured and rigorous learning process
I would not be earning a conventional MBA, but an entrepreneurial one that dared us to be “extraordinary and unconventional”

I’d like to share some of the monumental memories of my first semester:

1. We can’t describe ASB without talking about Action Learning

I touched on the value of an MBA that focuses equally on theory and practice. The gem within the ASB MBA for Working Professionals program is the Action Learning curriculum where this concept is demonstrated. Students carefully select company projects to undertake, and through a structured problem definition and problem-solving process, ASB faculty and business coaches work closely with students, providing us with concepts, tools and methods to ensure the best solution prevails. This results in students pitching to a panel of faculty members and company sponsors. If you’re lucky, you even get to present onstage at a symposium!

2. Pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zones to become stronger

ASB provides many opportunities for growth – class participation, group collaborations and even video interviews! However, the most important challenge for working professionals is the ability to juggle family, work, and school. This is a mindset challenge. I think we, the first group of working professionals, are still trying to optimize how we juggle all these elements. Slowly but surely, we can see each other “evolving on our own terms.” I’m confident that by the end of the 22 months, butterflies will have emerged from their cocoons! Let’s wait and see.

3. Becoming a close-knit student and faculty community

I must admit, it was odd at first. ASB is a true melting pot and diverse set of people from all walks of life, cultures, ages and ambitions. And, dare I add, corporate moulds (working professionals) walk amongst free spirits (full-timers with entrepreneurial aspirations). Thanks to the respect and open-mindedness that ASB instills in us, classes and corridor talks have become more interesting and fun, taking our relationships beyond “just academics”.

This is my perspective of the first six months. It has been roller-coaster ride with exhilaration, but more importantly one that is filled with knowledge-building, network-forming and life-changing moments. I look forward to the next milestones in this journey with my newfound friends, who are all life teachers in their own right.

The MBA For Working Professionals (MBA-WP) Class of 2021, whom those of us in the full-time residential MBA program fondly call “the WPs,” brought the house down at the December edition of ASB’s Action Learning Symposium a few weeks ago. The MBA-WP, which allows students to work full-time while completing the program, is still in its first year and very much an experiment for both the school and the students.

Unlike the full-time MBA program, the WPs fly in for class (or drive, if they live in Kuala Lumpur) every six weeks or so, temporarily putting their day jobs and family lives on hold as they switch into academic mode. But that balance is often difficult to achieve given how demanding ASB’s curriculum can be.

The Story of 20%

The WP presentation, titled “The Story of 20%,” was a simple but powerful reminder of just how far we’ve come as the Class of 2021, and how much of the journey – and how many challenges – still lay ahead.

The 20% in the title refers to the fact that we have all finished the first term of our five-semester MBAs. The Action Learning Symposium, a twice-a-year, end-of-semester capstone event at ASB, is a showcase of students’ semester-long projects and includes corporate hosts, external partners and friends of the school. Here’s what the students had to say about their first semester in the MBA-WP program.

Expectations v. Reality

There were many clashes between expectations and reality once the MBA started. “We are a bunch of workaholics already used to grinding. No weekends? No problem. How much worse could it get?” Paul Dylan Lim said of his initial impression.

WP students are required to be on campus for about a week at a time, joining those in the full-time residential MBA program for classes and group assignments. But unlike the full-timers, I’ve witnessed a few of my WP classmates jump from homework discussions to midnight conference calls with their colleagues in another time zone. Many of the WPs are senior managers in their respective companies, and work doesn’t stop because class is in session.

And while the full-timers typically get weekends off, classes stretch into Sunday – and sometimes public holidays – for WPs. “It’s a weekend to weekend commitment, and we have classmates who have to travel to ASB from Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam,” Paul said. “Ironically, those who fly in from Mexico are Malaysians.” For Rafael Böhm, it all started “with a smile.”

Everything was rosy in the beginning, but there was self-doubt too about why we were here among all these C-suite executives, he remembered thinking. “Those concerns were dispelled when they told us that each of us are here because we are extraordinary and unconventional,” Rafael said. Then the work began, and reality hit home.

Why is this so hard?

Unlike the full-time MBA, where students work in groups with host companies across the region, WP students complete Action Learning projects with their own companies, which they scope together with their managers. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less of a struggle.

“We picked our own [Action Learning] projects. So why is this so hard?” Nik Aisyah Amirah Mansor said when it was her turn to take the stage. “That’s the whole point. We are here to unlearn and re-learn.” To make the best use of their time on campus, the WP schedule is usually packed with working lunches and other appointments, on top of the multiple assignments all students – full-time and WP – have to finish every day. There were certainly moments when “it was just too much, and we asked ourselves what we were doing this for,” Nik Aisyah said.

Supportive student community

Thankfully, they are not doing this alone. “Because of you, we are here, and still alive,” said Surawut Sristhita of the entire ASB community. “The difference between success and failure is the team. Life is like a marathon, but we are only just getting started.” Mohd Ash Harith Mohd Raihan, who had the final word, said: “We’re picking ourselves up.” We know that 80% of the journey is still ahead of us, and there are many more mountains to climb.

But I couldn’t be more proud of my WP colleagues for all they have accomplished and are still accomplishing. To be in the inaugural WP cohort was a real leap of faith. One of my WP classmates told me recently, “You’re so brave to quit your job and do the MBA full-time.” I merely nodded, but my response should have been, “You’re the brave one.” My dear WPs, may we all have the courage to persevere together until the end.

It’s been 100 days since I embarked on this journey called the “MBA” at Asia School of Business. Life has been a constant roller coaster, and I have been deeply challenged to rethink the way I work and engage with others. In just 100 days, my perspectives about leadership, friendship, teamwork, culture and strategy have shifted. Here are 10 key takeaways that have impacted me the most:

1. It’s not about me, but the team.

The work will only be as strong as the team, so invest heavily in building trust and understanding within the team. Take extra effort to understand your teammates, as understanding fosters trust, and trust creates results.

2. I don’t need to always be right.

I am among talented people who have abundant knowledge and experience. What I bring to the table is only a fraction of our combined talent. I need to be ready to put aside my ego and experience, to listen and to follow.

3. Ask, even if it makes me look like a fool.

I would rather ask my burning question and be a fool for a day than remain silent and be a fool forever.

4. There is a bigger game, and it’s not about the grades.

Sure, grades can be an indication of how much I have been learning. However, there are other skills more difficult to attain than going through my professors’ slides and textbooks. Skills like communication, leadership, teamwork, building a strong team through culture, listening, developing empathy and executive presence, networking, building friendships, and so forth. Focus on those.

5. Be okay with feeling average and mediocre.

If I am not the smartest one in the room, that means I have a lot more room to learn and grow, and isn’t that a wonderful place to be?

6. It’s okay to not be the hero.

I don’t need to be the one with the best idea. I don’t even need to be the one in the limelight. Not having the best idea or being in the limelight does not diminish my worth or my strengths in any way.

7. Be unapologetic about rest and do what recharges me.

There will always be more articles to read, emails to send, parties to attend and group discussions to have. Nobody will die or catch fire if I do not immediately attend to any of them. I need to prioritize my rest and recharge because that is something only I can do for myself. My effectiveness in resting determines my effectiveness in my work.

8. Be militant about how I deploy my energy and focus.

The only currency I have is energy. It is perishable and can never be regained if I were to waste it. With how scarce energy is, I need to ensure I maximize it. I aim to find balance and be careful about how I spend my energy and focus.

9. Spend time with people who tell you the truth and build you up.

Not everyone is interested in that. One of the key purposes of doing an MBA is to find comrades who are aligned and willing to give honest (and sometimes painful) feedback. They ask good, piercing questions with the intent of supporting, building and developing me. They are interested in understanding my intentions and perspectives. They are quick to encourage but slow to criticize, quick to provide honest feedback and slow to express anger and impatience.

10. Relax

It’s not the end of the world. Find joy in every situation. Be ever-ready to lean back and laugh. Take a chill pill; no one is going to die. Enjoy the journey and savor every moment. This is just the first 100 days. Who knows what else is in store? I can’t wait to see how life unfolds, the kinds of friendships that will form and deep conversations that will take place. So come at me, life. I welcome you with open arms.

Here’s to exponential growth and transformation!

Do you know how much time a manager spends usually on dealing with people aspects versus dealing with technical aspects of their job? Depending on the seniority of the role, anywhere between 60%-80%! And why is that? Well, it turns out that the job is simple, but people are not! The truth is that managing people is a hard job, especially in a highly heterogenous global environment, defined by multiple generations and perspectives (ok boomer?).

But also, in actuality, most of the global education system places a higher value in teaching technical skills such as such as finance, accounting, statistics, mathematics, coding, machine learning, engineering, etc. (otherwise known as hard skills). However, it turns out that what’s really hard is managing diverse teams, navigating competing perspectives and cultures, handling and delivering critical feedback, dealing with office politics, etc. (otherwise known as soft skills).

This reality brings up a difficult challenge to educators around the world: how to prepare market ready graduates that can easily navigate between soft and hard skills, or how we call them at ASB, smart (soft) and sharp (hard) (read more on MIT Sloan Experts). So, how does ASB prepare the MBA graduates with an education that makes them transformative, principled market ready leaders, that balances smart and sharp skills and provides a more holistic education?

The answer comes in the form Action Learning and how we imbedded this methodology of learning in action in our curriculum, a feature for which PoetsandQuants considered us the most innovative MBA in the world. The intense ASB action learning curriculum provides our students productive opportunities to engage, each of the 5 semesters with partner companies all across the region and beyond in month long projects of various range and focus.

As an ASB MBA student, you could end up with 5 different projects, in 5 different companies, in 5 different teams and even possible in 5 different countries. So far at ASB, we had over 237 projects with 127 companies in 22 countries across the world. Why do we think this is valuable? “Because to develop transformative leaders, we have to create a transformative experience, so every semester has to include an experience that students have not had before,” says Prof. Loredana Padurean, the Faculty Director for Action Learning.

“To create market-ready leaders, we have to expose students to those experiences as early as possible. To teach principles, we have to allow them to observe principled leaders in action. And to teach managers how to manage people, we have to expose them to as many types of people and management styles as early and as much as possible. Read more about Action Learning at ASB on the AACSB website.

The ASB students

But who are these ASB students? To start with, they come from over 26 countries from all over the world, have an average professional experience of 5-7 years, and along with the ASB MBA they get to study at MIT Sloan for one month and obtain a Certificate of Completion from MIT upon finishing the MIT Sloan Immersion Program. After graduation, many of them chose to stay in SE Asia and join various companies such as AirAsia, Petronas, Maybank, CIMB, but also choose international careers with McKinsey, Esquel, Microsoft and more.

Thanks to the generous ASB corporate partners, many of these extraordinary students are sponsored by companies from Malaysia, SE Asia and beyond because they recognize the need for a sustainable pipeline of talent market ready talent. If you are interested to learn more about how to sponsor a student in the MBA program, contact us at partners@asb.edu.my.

Why host an Action Learning project at ASB?

Donald Lim, CEO of Hotel Equatorial, a returning host company for the third time, said, “We are facing the same problem (but) in a very different perspective because the ground is shifting. (And) because the ground has shifted, we’ve got to recalibrate again. And this is where the students’ perspective is so valuable.” Host companies, Donald believes, need to have an open mind to benefit most from Action Learning.

“At the office level, we’re doing the same thing every day. This whole exercise of being back in a classroom-type lab is very helpful to me.” Another happy consequence of Action Learning, as Prof. Charles Fine, ASB President put it, is the “mini-MBA” that participants from host companies receive. “The people in your organization who work with our students are going to get exposed to a broad range of the curriculum that our students do.”

Working in new environments is not without its challenges and it stretches the ASB students’ capacity to balance the smart and sharp skills in action. Prof. Fine has three nuggets of advice for the new Action Learning hosts.

1. Be ever-ready for change

“One thing we’ve learned about AL projects is that they are unpredictable. Although all projects begin with a project description, none of those project descriptions will come true because organizations and the world are in a constant state of flux. What is important is to find a balance while navigating changes, and to focus on learning something new.”

2. Maintain a practical mind-set

“In Action Learning projects, you never get nice neat tables of data.” That’s why is important for students to learn how to find a balance between “the great analysis we’d love to do” and what is practical using the data currently available. Similarly, students will need to navigate wisely through differing points of view. “Welcome to the real world. You’ll never get 100% alignment from all stakeholders but we still have to decide.” Ultimately, “we want students to be responsive to all the advice they get, sift through, make sense of them and go ahead and do something productive.”

3. Learn to bridge cultural differences

Especially in initial Action Learning projects, Prof. Fine noted, “it takes time for everybody to learn how to interpret the statements of others.” The diversity in ASB’s student body and Action Learning host companies often results in people from 3 or more continents sitting at the same table—while it can pose a challenge at first, it’s also a unique learning experience for all.

To Johan Khoo a very prominent industry leader and one of ASB’s student business coach, believes that the value of Action Learning comes from the breadth of experience available. “I’ve been a consultant for over 20 years so I’ve seen a lot of business issues; but I’ve seen more types of business issues in the (past) year-and-a-half than I could ever expect because of the breadth of the Action Learning program across the region and in a variety of industries,” he shared.

Offering an academic perspective, Prof. Renato Lima de Oliveira, Assistant Professor of Management at ASB, enjoys the unconventionality of Action Learning as a learning tool. “We have the world as a classroom!” he enthused, referencing past projects at supermarkets in Thailand and banks in Myanmar, among others. As faculty, his job is to ensure that the project deliverable is academically sound as well as business-relevant.

Speaking from a student’s perspective, Alex Snedeker, an alumna of ASB’s inaugural MBA Class of 2018, shared how Action Learning dramatically shifted her US-centric world-view. Her Action Learning project in Bangkok with the Acuvue brand transformed the way Alex perceived the contact lens market in Thailand, which is drastically different from back home in the US. “There’s no way to learn these dynamics any other way than going on the ground.”

Alex also highlighted another benefit of Action Learning—as a connector between students and companies. “These companies are test driving you,” she reminded students. “Action Learning projects are excellent opportunities for students to discover their passions and culture fit, and for companies to find the talent they need.”

The Action Learning Symposium

Each semester at ASB (usually December and April of each year) ends with the flagship event – the Action Learning Symposium, an event that celebrates the successful completion of these challenging action learning projects. Here students, current hosts, potential and future hosts and various friends and sponsors of ASB, gather to learn more about this innovative learning process, observe the evolution of our students in action and engage in future project discussions.

Watch here a highlight from the Action Learning Spring 2019 Symposium and join us on Dec 12, 2019 from 10.00 – 14.00 at Sasana Kijang. Just simply RSVP here (no fees, by invitation only) and if you want to learn more about becoming an Action Learning host just email us at partners@asb.edu.my.

For more information about Asia School of Business contact our Corporate Development Office.