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Category: ASB Experience

Venezuelan-born, American-raised Klara Markus had always wanted to work in the public sector, and got her start in business working for education tech startup Quad Learning in Washington, DC after graduating from Yale University. “The idea was to work with students that would benefit from focused attention, and help them transfer to universities,” Klara explains.

“I ended up being much more interested in the business side, and moved into operations and business development.” In the end, it was a growing interest in business and a stint working with international recruitment in Vietnam that sparked her interest in an MBA in Asia—“I absolutely fell in love with the region! “In a way, it was going back to where I was from, but it was also very different,” she adds. “I found that super exciting.”

In the end, it was meeting an old college friend who happened to be in the first MBA cohort at Asia School of Business that sparked an interest in the school. While the school is still relatively new—it accepted its first cohort in 2016—Klara saw “academic rigour” in the program, while its collaboration with MIT Sloan School of Management also set it apart.

“I was super attracted to the fact that It was new, and as a student I would have a role in shaping the program,” she says. “I wasn’t just going to be passively sitting in a classroom—my input would help.”

From the education industry to business education

Though Klara initially started her job at education company Quad Learning as an honours adviser, directly assisting students and local colleges, she soon found that she wanted to “be involved in the decision making process, and helping shape the company,” she explains. “That meant being in a different role.” Moving up to associate director of international operations in Asia and the US, it made sense that an MBA was on the horizon.

“My background was very specific to the international education industry,” Klara reflects. “There are a handful of big players that dominate, but I wanted to broaden my experience and my understanding of different industries in the region.” Asia School of Business prides itself on its mission to develop business leaders in emerging markets around the world, especially in Southeast Asia. “It wasn’t a program in Malaysia, but a Southeast Asia program,” Klara points out.

It’s ASB’s Action Learning Projects that provide the most immersive experience during the MBA. Totalling five throughout the program, these semester-long projects can take MBAs all around Southeast Asia and worldwide working with companies from fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) to financial firms. For Klara’s Action Learning Projects, she was partnered with Astro, a media company in Malaysia; Big C, a hypermarket in Thailand; PricewaterhouseCoopers in Germany; and Unilever in Vietnam.

“One of the things I was really interested to learn was that there are different ways to run a business, and no right or wrong way,” Klara reflects. “Being in companies that were sometimes American and sometimes 100% Thai or Vietnamese, and trying to understand how to do operations—we needed to develop a common language to understand what the problem was and deliver results. “I used to just think ‘obviously we’re different,’ but that was a really interesting challenge that looking back now was really important.”

Working at Amazon

Aside from the time spent assisting real companies, Klara also managed to co-found the Data Analytics Club during her time on the MBA. “It’s a skillset that is key—we need to know how to handle big data,” Klara asserts. “We wanted to create a space where people that are really good at it can share their skills, connecting resources and people that wanted to learn more.”

In a stroke of serendipity, Klara’s post-MBA role ended up being “the heaviest role I’ve ever had in terms of data analysis”—at Amazon in Spain, working as a senior category merchant manager. Even though she’s left Asia behind, the diverse and multicultural experience at Asia School of Business still sticks with Klara. “Going into my MBA, I wanted to see other business models and learn from them, and I was able to do that at ASB.”

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.

2020 is looking to be a monumental year for Asia, as the continent’s total gross domestic product (GDP) is set to overtake the combined GDP of the rest of the world. Asia’s extraordinary market growth bodes well for MBA jobs and graduates in the region. But launching a career in Asia is by no means easy, with many differences and challenges that European or US job-seekers won’t face back home. Knowing the secrets and tricks of the market can make the difference between success and disaster.

Here are our insider tips for launching a career in Asia.

1. Employers are experience-seeking

For many, choosing to do an MBA is an assurance of quality and a fast track to a top job. In the US, the MBA is an established institution, and is widely recognized by employers. But in Asia, MBA graduates don’t necessarily have the same instant recognition. It’s much more about what graduates have done practically, and the experience they’ve got. MBAs must consider their value proposition differently when applying for jobs.

“Employers look more to experience, [looking at] what is the proven ability to perform,” explains Rhoda Yap, chief operating officer and MBA career development director at Asia School of Business (ASB) in Malaysia (pictured right).  The Action Learning program at ASB ensures that students have a rigorous introduction to work in Asia’s most dynamic markets over the course of their MBA.

Each student undertakes five projects during their 20-month degree with 127 different companies including Nestle, AirAsia, and AB InBev. This involves immersion in the organization, addressing particular challenges, conducting research on the ground, and delivering actionable solutions to the company. “It gives students the opportunity to put five roles and markets on their resume by the end of the program, to show their proven ability in a specific industry or subject matter,” Rhoda underlines.

2. Soft skills are key in Asia’s fast-moving environment

The rate of change in Asia is a significant challenge for MBAs, particularly for those looking to lock down jobs there. Skills are transitory—useful training five years ago could very well be irrelevant today. The emphasis, for ASB, is much more on skills that will help graduates stand the test of time in the job market, such as creative problem solving, critical thinking, and strategy.

“It’s a future-proofing skill set,” stresses Sean Ferguson, associate dean at ASB (pictured right). This comes through in the iterative approach of the curriculum. The course is split into five semesters, with an Action Learning project in each. Students repeat the same process—class, work experience, research and data gathering, presentation—to ensure they can evaluate their approaches, learn from their mistakes, and build their skills for each new semester.

“It really maximizes what the learner can gain from the educational experience,” Sean adds. Tech and consulting firms remain the top employers in the region. Tech alone hired over half of ASB’s MBA class last year, with global companies like Google and regional players like DiDi snapping up graduates. For both of these industries, a person-oriented, creative approach is beneficial.

3. Adaptability is crucial

Asia’s geography—with lots of diverse countries and cultures in close proximity—is both an advantage and a challenge for MBA students looking to maximize their international experience. Grads must be prepared to navigate the differences of each culture to successfully launch a career there. “It’s about the adaptability of a candidate, and their ability to understand the nuances of cultural difference, and how each culture gets things done,” Rhoda imparts.

The Action Learning program might take students to Vietnam in one semester and to Japan the next semester. Given the highly localized focus of the placements, and the research projects which accompany them, adapting to new cultures is key. “It really builds their flexibility muscles,” Rhoda underlines, “Employers look for that because they want to be sure that whoever they hire will flourish wherever.”

4. The recruitment cycle is different

Asia’s rapid growth has considerable implications for hiring and recruitment. Employers don’t work in recruitment cycles like they do in the US, but rather on a more instant, real-time basis. This requires that students start to network and prepare for employment over a longer period. It’s what Sean describes as the “seeding, tending, and harvesting” model of applying for jobs, ideally timed perfectly to coincide with graduation in April.

ASB’s network is indispensable to this. The school, through its corporate partners and the Action Learning program, has strong links to over a hundred regional and global employers. Moreover, due to its affiliation with MIT Sloan School of Management, MBA graduates gain an Affiliate Alumni status, giving them access to MIT Sloan’s vast and influential network.

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.

“There is nothing so practical as a good theory”– Kurt Lewin

Asia School of Business and Action Learning have become synonymous, thanks to ASB’s snazzy marketing. But what is it supposed to mean? I believe the proposition of learning through action is a strong one. I’m from ASB’s inaugural Working Professionals class, which means I’m earning an MBA while maintaining a full-time job. For me, Action Learning is a little different.

Instead of completing five different projects at five host companies, my Action Learning is done in-house with my employer. However, the process is largely the same. We still need to get buy-in from management, oversee execution, and present the results to various stakeholders. I chose ASB because of Action Learning. It’s what the school stands for and it guides the rudder of the ASB ship.

How to become an expert

I have a childhood friend who works in Vietnam, and on occasion we catch up at one of the world’s best pizza parlors, which somehow is smack in the middle of Ho Chi Minh City. After dinner and a few drinks, we often wonder aloud what learning means. These discussions, stemming from epistemology, a classical branch of philosophy, become annoying and incendiary as the night progresses.

How is knowledge acquired? How can we know something? How do we know that we know? And then, when it comes to careers: What is an expert? How can I be an expert? In order to preserve a friendship that is as old as our existence, we have come to agree that a mastery of anything resembles mastering a sport.

You can have the best strategy at your fingertips, but without practice you may not know your left foot from your right in the field. On the other hand, you could spend hours and hours playing a sport, but without a winning strategy, you may not score points even if your life depended on it.

Balancing theory and practice

There is a lot of tacit knowledge in every field, knowledge that cannot be written down or verbalized but is gained through repetitive immersion in an activity. Now, how can you learn business in a classroom without being in the thick of doing business? This is something ASB has tried hard to answer. ASB puts you in a room with experienced peers and MIT professors and allows you to download the best theory out there while gleaning valuable lessons from the storytelling of others.

And then they send you straight into the wild. I did exactly that – galloped into the wild. Operations Management (OPS101) was taught by our dean, Professor Charles Fine. When he taught us about the Economic Order Quantity model, I wasted no time and attempted to use it to manage inventory in my company the very next week. My gallop quickly slowed to a trot and then a walk. The theory worked for one product and didn’t work for the rest – but this was a model companies have been using for decades!

Learning to change

Here was an instance of when tacit knowledge is gained, when classroom models are tweaked to fit real scenarios or abandoned altogether. There is a wealth of knowledge out there, but what works? How do you arrive at a relevant set of tools? Thus far, for me, it’s about understanding the scenario in front of you and discovering what works from the myriad tools given in class.

Also, the problem is that learning means change. Can you learn something and not change? In Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader, a book recommended by our dear Associate Dean Sean Ferguson, Herminia Ibarra’s research suggests that learning and change often come from the outside in and rarely from the inside out. We rarely think ourselves into real change, since our worldview is defined by everything we experience.

Therefore, we need an external trigger. Perhaps we must be put in situations that nudge us, albeit a little forcefully, to change. Action Learning is supposed to effectively facilitate that learning and change. I still remember when Dong-Wook Lee, ASB’s Deputy Director of Action Learning, came to my hometown to publicize the program.

He said, “I have two things in my office for when students come to see me: tissues, to dry their tears, and candy, to keep them from falling asleep on the spot from exhaustion.” Ah, I thought to myself, so that’s Action Learning.

I run a technology company, managing a team of 8 people. We focus on developing mobility technology solutions such as fleet management for commercial trucks and e-scooters for security guards. Before I joined ASB, I was concerned about how the time away would impact my business. Is it worth earning an MBA and spending 20 months away from the company?

I thought, If I hand off the company, how would employees react? Would they still believe in my vision and continue to work for me? On the other hand, if I continue to run the company the same way, would the company grow into what I dreamed for it? If I applied the knowledge and network I gained at ASB to my company, would it make a difference? Would I move toward my dream?

My company’s growth was facing a bottleneck. I was desperate for a breakthrough. So I chose to believe that ASB would be the right next step. The decision came with a cost and eventually a fruitful payoff for my business of at least RM 500K in the first year of my MBA. Needless to say, it was the right next step. I still remember the day when I first announced my decision to earn a 20-month MBA. My partners and employees were shocked. Some of them lost faith and left the company the next month.

One of the employees told me that the founder is the soul of the company, and that if the founder is not there, the team will not hold together. It was tough for me to see multiple team members leave the company. Despite the hardship caused by the departures, I could more easily identify who my most loyal partners and employees were. I knew I could entrust those left with the handover of my responsibilities while I was away. The shakeup was part of the cost of earning my MBA.

On the other hand, I have gained an important asset in the ASB network. During my first semester, I worked to raise a seed funding round for my company in my free time (not during class time). I asked for company evaluation help from one of my classmates, who was a finance analyst pre-MBA. With their help, I managed to close a seed funding round of RM 300K for 15% of the company’s shares.

It was exciting for me to achieve my first funding milestone for the company. During my second semester, I was referred by a classmate for a software project which was valued at about RM 200K, which I passed to my team to execute. ASB is full of potential business opportunities, both within its own community as well as its robust ecosystem of corporate partners and Action Learning hosts.

Further, ASB’s MBA equipped me with the SMART and SHARP skills that I needed. One of the most useful courses for me was in negotiation. I learned how to prepare for negotiations using a systematic approach, one I now use for negotiating share disputes and contract terms in my business. Another valuable skill I gained was financial modelling using Excel. It is useful for me to simulate the profit and loss of my company based on different product sales estimates.

Additionally, the Disciplined Entrepreneurship course gave me a better sense of direction for the company through utilizing Bill Aulet’s 24-step market validation framework. The list goes on and on.My MBA has been a life-changing experience for me. ASB is an extraordinary and unconventional school where we can design our own goals and  experiences. This is my MBA, and I believe this could be your MBA too.

Have questions about Michael’s story? You can connect with him on LinkedIn.

Singapore-based unicorn startup Grab recently announced a strategic collaboration with Microsoft. For tech giants like Microsoft, Southeast Asia’s rapid tech growth presents an exciting opportunity for expansion. Roughly 51% of the region’s population are active internet users. Southeast Asia boasts a tech economy currently worth $50 billion, which is expected to increase fourfold by 2025.

For Deepika Mahankali, a Microsoft APAC regional business growth manager, keeping an eye on Southeast Asia’s growth is her everyday job. But it was her MBA that drew her to the region in the first place and gave her the springboard into this thriving digital economy.

Switching from tech to business

Deepika’s fascination with tech started at school, when she decided to earn her bachelor’s in computer science. She jumped straight into a role at Cisco, a cutting-edge internet of things company, where she was working in network security in Bengaluru, India’s Silicon Valley. But her focus was too tech-niche, and she wanted to expand her knowledge.

“I was mainly focused on one part of the business and one solution—security—and I wanted to broaden my skillset to know what else would be required to run a business like this,” Deepika remembers. What she sought was an overview of business—a generalist approach that would complement her tech skills and allow her to progress further in a tech company. “At a certain point, I realized an MBA would be ideal for me because that would help me take my career to the next level and make a career switch,” she notes.

Building new businesses

The MBA program at Asia School of Business (ASB) in Kuala Lumpur offered the perfect balance of a general management degree with exposure to tech that you would rarely find in another top program. In particular, she raves about the opportunity to get hands-on experience working with technology. “I never thought I would be learning coding and app development during my MBA,” she says.

During one semester, MBA students get the chance to work on their own business ideas with access to the ASB resources on offer. Deepika was able to test and experiment with her own app idea and build a prototype. “The MBA helped us step into careers, not just in business, but in digital business,” she stresses.

Learning through projects

The tech specialization was also backed up by the rigorous experience that all MBA students get through the Action Learning Program—five real-world consulting projects over the course of the program. Primarily, the breadth of experience was incredibly beneficial to Deepika. Working in everything from telecommunications at Maxis to fast-moving consumer goods at Nestle, she accumulated a variety of experiences and situations that have helped build her business profile.

“In interviews [in situational judgment scenarios], I had so many examples from the Action Learning projects that I could relate back to and share, to show how I handled certain situations,” she mentions. In addition, she gained experience working in various countries around Southeast Asia, seeing how they do business and understanding cultural norms and niches.

This forms a big part of her job at Microsoft. “Now, when I’m working in different countries in APAC, I have a good understanding of their cultural emphasis on business, which really makes a difference. This is something you wouldn’t get by just sitting in class and listening to your lectures.”

Eye toward the future

With her eye keenly set on tech, Deepika never had any doubts about staying in Southeast Asia. The ASB MBA, set in the heart of Malaysia, a fast-growing market in the region, showed her the endless possibilities in the region.

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.

Getting ahead of the curve as a central banker has become a complex challenge as economies face the headwind from trade tensions and the tailwind of monetary policy of the world’s largest economies. In this interview with #MarketEdge, Dr. Eli Remolona of Asia School of Business talks about the challenges facing central bankers. #ANCHighlights #ANCAlerts

Originally published by ANC, the ABS-CBN News Channel
To learn more about the Master of Central Banking program, please visit: Master in Central Banking

This summer, instead of choosing to be stuck in an office, I decided to develop a business plan for an eco-sustainable lodge for surfers on one of the islands in the Philippines. Asia School of Business (ASB) allows us to customize our Summer Associate Program experience. Depending on our career goals, we can choose to explore a company or industry of interest or complete an Entrepreneurship Track to research and pursue a business idea.

In the Entrepreneurship Track, we have access to faculty advisers and business coaches to guide us through our projects. I realized this was a perfect opportunity for me to focus on one of my career goals, which is to build my own eco-lodge on an island that provides opportunities for surfing and diving. The past three months has been both the most fun and the toughest time for me. Being your own boss is not an easy job.

No one will force you to work or give you deadlines, so a lot of self-determination and patience is needed to get things done. All in all, this experience taught me a lot about how I work and connect with my environment. My Entrepreneurship Track had two phases, both of which required me to stay on an island and immerse myself in island living. The goal of the first phase was to understand eco-resort operations and learn how a resort works from an owner’s perspective, so I worked in an eco-lodge similar to the one I want to build.

The second phase took place on another island where I plan to build the business. There, I spent several weeks understanding the market landscape and potential customers. For a month and a half, I stayed in Camiguin, the second smallest island in the Philippines and known as the “Island Born of Fire.” The island has seven volcanoes, two of which are  active.

It boasts amazing rivers and waterfalls, with at least 31 marine protected areas, making it one of the best islands for diving in the country. There, I worked with Kurma Eco-Lodge, a mid-size lodge popular for its freediving services as well as the Kurma Kitchen, which serves local, fresh and handmade food. The lodge employees strive to adopt sustainability practices, which is why I wanted to learn from them.

Learning the ropes

Before running my own eco-lodging business, I needed to know how each department worked. At Kurma, I worked in different departments every week, from booking and reception to guest services and resort management. I learned how to use their booking system, take orders from guests, cook (which, by the way, is one of my favorite tasks), clean rooms before guest arrivals, and build connections and good rapport with the staff and crew.

Through this immersion, I was able to discuss ideas and brainstorm with the owner to learn more about managing a business. In-between meetings, we went freediving and exploring hidden waterfalls and rivers.One of the most interesting conversations I had was during breakfast with the owner of Kurma. I discussed with him different ways to  maximize their profit. He replied, “While the ideas are good, I don’t want to just maximize profit.

I have a small business. I don’t want it to be a corporation. I built this so I can sustainably live on the island while contributing to the community and economy. I just need enough.” This got me thinking about the philosophy of eco-tourism. What if the notion of “just enough” is key to opening up alternative ways of doing business, especially in markets that depend so much on fragile marine ecosystems?

How do you maximize profit for businesses while making sure they are sustainable? Do we really need big corporations, hotels, and resorts on small islands? These thoughts are still brewing in my head. I’m still trying to find answers. My Summer Associate Program also taught me the difference between small and big businesses, and that some strategies will work in one but not in the other. For example, successful small businesses thrive on personal relationships and a strong sense of community.

Their sales largely depend on word of mouth and referrals. This was interesting because, though these are more traditional marketing channels, they still drive the lodge’s occupancy rate and restaurant revenue. In between Kurma work, I began research on my business concept. By doing preliminary interviews with selected surfers, I was able to gather information on who to talk to, where to go, and what to do when I reached my next island destination.

Adopting the customer’s perspective

After leaving Camiguin, I spent two weeks in Siargao, a tear-drop shaped island in Northern Mindanao, Philippines. It is known for its world-class waves and, in 2019, was named “the world’s best island” by Condé Nast Traveler. In this research phase, I adopted the perspective of an eco-resort customer to understand the pain points and trigger factors involved in choosing a lodging on an island.

Through ASB’s Action Learning Program, I learned the importance of immersing myself in my work, in this case with my target market. Being a participant instead of an observer allowed me to empathize with potential customers and island business owners. For two weeks, I did what the other surfers did. I woke up at 5:00 AM to catch the sunrise and surf, then ate breakfast. I was able to discover less well-known surf spots with good waves by making friends with the local guides.

Before I knew it, I ended up talking to other popular local and guest surfers, as well as business owners of hostels and restaurants on the island. For me, this was the best way to network, to identify the right places and times to have organic conversations. The interviews and immersions allowed me to put myself in situations that gave me deep insights about the market. By the end of my stay, I was able to get the first-hand data I needed to complete half of my business plan.

Pulling it all together

At ASB, I took courses in Entrepreneurial Strategy and Disciplined Entrepreneurship. The latter course included a workbook detailing the 24 steps to build a successful start-up. I decided to use this approach for my business plan, as each step encouraged me to make difficult choices that ultimately helped make the business idea clearer and stronger. It’s also an unconventional way of building a conventional business.

I must admit, at the start of my summer, I was overwhelmed with all of the questions the workbook was asking. After my 2-month journey, I found myself excited to complete each step. By the end of the summer, I fell in love with the idea of living on an island. It has its pros and cons, but having constant access to beautiful beaches and mountains is  that most of us can only dream of.

I also felt a protective urge toward these islands, and understood why locals are wary of the growth of tourism and development. The island is their home. I was a visitor. As a business owner, I want to remind myself of this experience, to see the island as a home and to never forget to treat it as my own.

Meiyume, a global beauty solutions company headquartered in Hong Kong, was the host of my Summer Associate Program (SAP) project. The China plant where I was based manufactures beauty products such as blush, eye shadow, lipstick, lotion, shampoo, and shower gel.

Over the years, the sales team have worked to create “sticky” relationships with their customers with the goal of converting simple OEM accounts into turnkey ones, so that clients come to us for end-to-end solutions (ideation, formulation, production, filling and final packaging) instead of just manufacturing to order.

During my SAP, I worked on a commercialisation plan for a new machine that the factory was installing, gained exposure to the makeup sales cycle by working on an account with a multinational cosmetics company, and pitched a range of 30+ innovation products to a UK-based client. During my first plant tour, I learned that many brands do not wish to have their luxury fragrances and cosmetics labelled with the ‘Made in China’ stickers mandated for products that are finally packaged here.

As a result, these brands perform incredible logistical acrobatics to make products more palatable. A product might be made in China, but its retail price is justified because it was “formulated” in the UK. In Zhangmutou, where I am based, this sentiment that China-made products are synonymous with poor (or pirated) quality is echoed among locals. I am told people make the 1.5 hour trek to neighbouring Hong Kong when they wish to purchase bona fide baby milk formula and fine gold jewelry.

I learned during ASB’s US Industry Trek, via a talk on the global luxury goods industry, that the Chinese are afraid of purchasing “Made in China” products – authenticity concerns are one of the factors driving them to make 85% of their luxury good purchases abroad. However, the “Made in China” slogan is slowly being reclaimed by haute couture domestic luxury Chinese brands like Shang Xia and Shiatzy Chen.

And in Meiyume, the R&D team channels its focus more on proactive research (formulating innovative new beauty products) rather than reactive research (replicating existing formulas to serve customer requests). This would allow its China plant to become a bigger player in the global beauty innovation space. But while China struggles to be recognized as an innovator in manufacturing, other sectors have seen rapid, noticeable innovations.

Digital payment methods such as AliPay and WeChat Pay have become ubiquitous. E-commerce platforms TMall, JDMall, Pinduoduo and Suning sell everything from 100% original international brands to fresh fruit. As a foreigner without access to a Chinese bank account, I’m precluded from enjoying many of these services. My first week here, the shopkeeper of a hole-in-the-wall neighbourhood beef noodle stall declined my offer to pay in cash for my meal and insisted on virtual payment instead.

The pervasiveness of technology through all levels of society in China is also illustrated by this anecdote from a colleague – she once saw a homeless man displaying his WeChat QR code for passers-by to make donations. Even in the workplace, parcels for delivery to customers are sent via WeChat apps. My colleagues simply print out QR codes and slap them on the boxes, no need for writing addresses.

And the newest wave of Meiyume’s Chinese customers are themselves digital disruptors, indie companies with rapid product development cycles that are comfortable selling on e-commerce platforms. These companies, which boast attractive packaging designs and rich marketing materials such as immersive mini apps, are winning out among the next generation of consumers. And, like the rest of the world, key opinion leaders (KOLs) in China have dramatic influence on which make-up brands are “in.”

One man named Austin Li, also known as the Lipstick Master, has made a career out of it, trying on and reviewing lipsticks so that his viewers don’t have to. My short glimpse into the world of manufacturing in China has been rich in contrasts. While China still has to fight for better perception among its global customers, there’s no doubt that quality, speed and innovation are alive and well here.

Retraining and switching careers, once seen as impractical or even unthinkable, has become common practice for millennials. A study by LinkedIn showed that those who graduated between 2006 and 2010 had, on average, 2.85 jobs in the five years after college. For many applicants, an MBA is an opportunity to discover a new path on their professional journey.

There’s a name for these candidates—career revitalizers. For Sherilyn Ooi, an MBA was her ticket to career revitalization, helping her navigate the switch between law and business while gaining the practical experience and network to transition from one profession to the other.

An opportunity to switch

Sherilyn was always drawn toward business. Working on mergers and acquisitions with international organizations, government agencies, and large multinationals, she saw the global scale of business, as well as the many facets of the transactions they facilitated. The problem was, as a corporate lawyer, her opportunities to delve into business were limited.

“I never saw the end-to-end process, or what drove the process and the transaction,” Sherilyn remembers. She knew she wanted a change and a chance to experience new industries. Staying in the legal profession wasn’t going to offer this. So just three years after graduating, she snapped up the opportunity to study at Asia School of Business (ASB) in Kuala Lumpur.

Grasping the fundamentals

Through her MBA, Sherilyn learned to change her way of thinking about problems from a legal context into a business context, and, more importantly, to fill the gaps in her knowledge. “When you work in a technical field like law, it’s easy to think that’s the most important part of a business transaction,” Sherilyn notes.

The core curriculum at ASB took Sherilyn through the fundamentals of business, demonstrating the varying considerations at every level, and ultimately how to balance multiple priorities as an operations manager. “I gained technical knowledge about how to understand a business and how to analyze information in terms of the decision I am making,” Sherilyn stresses.

While all aspects of business appealed to her, it was only after a core module on the MBA in operations management that her interest was piqued by operations and supply chains. As the hub of many Southeast Asian operations facilities, Malaysia turned out to be the perfect location for her to expand her experience and network.

Understanding nuances through experience

Fundamentally, her ability to switch careers was boosted by the opportunity to get hands-on industry experience. ASB’s Action Learning program requires students to complete five consulting projects over the course of their 20-month MBA, working in teams with companies to address real-world problems. This allowed Sherilyn to expand her interest in operations and see how theory can be practically applied by large corporations.

Through a project at Esquel Group, based in Penang, she discovered how one of the world’s largest clothing manufacturers runs its operations across the world. Here, she worked to improve operational efficiency, as well as develop leadership skills. Another project, this time in strategy, took her to one of Thailand’s biggest hypermarkets, helping them develop their e-commerce platform to take on global competitors like Amazon.

Having experienced operations across Southeast Asia’s major economies, Sherilyn learned the way business varies from country to country and region to region. “It made me understand the nuances of cultural context and background,” she underlines. “We forget how much variety there is in how you collect information and how you communicate, and that’s as crucial as objective data.”

“Come with an open mind”

Having completed her MBA, Sherilyn’s career revitalization is successfully on track. She is now contracting with Google Malaysia as a key account specialist, managing clients in the FMCG industry. For those looking to make the same successful switch as her, she emphasizes the importance of exposing yourself to every kind of expertise and discipline to get a aerial view of business. And most importantly, she says, “Come with an open mind.”

ASB students have many choices when it comes to how we spend the summer between our first and second years. Our Summer Associate Program is a lot like a regular MBA internship, but also includes an Action Learning project component and can take place anywhere in the world. And for those who don’t want to go the traditional route, ASB offers an “unconventional” option in the form of the summer Entrepreneurship Track.

This Track, designed for students interested in starting companies, gives us the freedom to explore and develop our own business concepts. Equipped with a research grant and assigned experienced entrepreneurs as our project advisors, we have the freedom to fully devote ourselves to a potential business without the inherent risks of actually starting a company.

As a part of this Entrepreneurship Track, I am completing an ASB-sponsored research project on the coliving industry in the United States and Southeast Asia. But what is coliving? If I asked ten different people this question, I would probably receive ten different answers. At its core, coliving isn’t a new idea. It describes a living concept that is specifically designed to increase human connection and create a sense of community.

Often, coliving units reduce the size of individual living spaces such as bedrooms and increase that of communal living areas such as living rooms and shared patios. This arrangement facilitates more face-to-face interactions between residents. Imagine that, instead of living in a large apartment building and not even knowing your neighbors, you lived in a building designed to create a close-knit community amongst all of its residents.

In the past six weeks, I have visited coliving locations in New York City, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco, and will be flying to Indonesia later this month to explore coliving companies in Bali. On June 7, I had the opportunity to attend Common’s Coliving Capital Markets Summit in New York City. The Summit was a fantastic way to begin my primary market research on the US coliving industry.

Here are a few of my main takeaways from the conference, as well as other lessons learned from my Entrepreneurship Track experience.

The Opportunity

The opportunity for coliving in the United States arose due to the interplay of several major trends that you have already heard about: urbanization, rising student loan debt, valuing experiences over things, and rent spikes in major US housing markets such as New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Common’s Coliving Capital Markets Summit told a story of why these trends are now coming together in the perfect storm of a housing affordability crisis.

It also showed why all arrows are pointing toward coliving as the best solution. One of the panelists at the Summit, Susan Tjarksen from Cushman & Wakefield, recently published an extensive research report that sheds more light on the situation. Let’s take a look at some of the staggering numbers found in the report:


Source: Cushman & Wakefield’s Survey of the Coliving Landscape, May 2019

Individually, each of these statistics is not troubling. Taken together, they paint a scary picture. More people are living in cities and they’re living there for longer. Rents are rising, wages aren’t keeping pace, and student loan debt has financially burdened many potential homeowners. Due to this financial instability, millennials are not buying homes at the same rate as their parents and they seem fine with it. Most would rather go on an annual trip to Europe than own a bunch of furniture in a nice suburban home.

As seen in 2008, when the housing market stumbles, it doesn’t typically bode well for the American economy. Given this, what can we do to solve the housing affordability problem? How can we house more people in cities, at lower price points, and provide them with the experiences they’re looking for? The answer is coliving.

The Solution

Coliving can provide urban populations with an affordable place to live AND the community lifestyle they are searching for. Coliving locations typically trade bedroom square footage for more shared living space, which allows them to house more residents than a typical apartment building of the same size.

Are residents willing to make this trade-off? During the conference, I learned that Common received over 20,000 applications last month to fill the roughly 1,000 rooms they currently have on the market. Residents are certainly willing to make the trade-off and it appears the supply of coliving units is nowhere close to keeping up with demand.


Example of a 4 Bedroom Common Coliving unit

When compared to traditional urban apartments, coliving stacks up favorably. Considering coliving’s slightly higher development and building costs, higher operating expenses (weekly events, fully furnished rooms), and additional gross revenue from rent (more beds, higher occupancy rates), Common estimates that coliving drives a 10%-30% increase in net operating income.

This increase in net operating income creates a favorable investment for lenders as well as a stronger value proposition for real estate developers. The coliving operator will benefit from the extra revenue generated and the tenants will pay a lower rent price and benefit from the community lifestyle. So who wins in coliving? Well, everybody involved.

The Future

Due to this “win-for-all” approach, many of the nearly 300 people at Common’s Summit are bullish on coliving and expect an explosion in the number of coliving developments in upcoming years. In fact, Cushman & Wakefield’s survey reports that global investments in coliving have skyrocketed from around $0.2 Billion in 2017 to $2.2 Billion in 2018.

For the remaining two months of the Summer Associate Program, I plan to visit many more coliving spaces in the US and Southeast Asia to understand industry best practices and outline the different coliving practices across the globe.

Without the Entrepreneurship Track opportunity at ASB, I would not have had the chance to attend the Summit or network with some of the biggest names in the industry. More MBA programs should develop similar summer tracks to give their students a risk-free way to explore business ideas and encourage more graduates to become entrepreneurs.