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Asia School of Business

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Executive Education

Category: Student Experience

With a lifelong passion for travelling, Allenie Caccam pulled off every jobseeker’s dream of combining her job and her passion. Allenie landed a job four years ago with leading low-cost airline AirAsia, where, in her role as a senior manager in the Philippines’ international marketing development team, she helped expand AirAsia’s nine routes to 19 in the ASEAN and North Asia regions.

But travelling on the job, and enabling more people to travel for less, weren’t enough for Allenie. An MBA that came with the chance to explore the world beyond the Philippines was too enticing to turn down. With four years under her belt at AirAsia, Allenie began looking for opportunities to improve her business knowledge and skills. “I wanted to understand the business and operations side of the company, as my focus [until now] was on the product and marketing,” Allenie notes.

Allenie was also keen to try new opportunities, expanding her professional experience beyond tourism and aviation. AirAsia offers their employees a scholarship to earn an MBA at Asia School of Business (ASB) in Kuala Lumpur—an opportunity that jumped out at Allenie for several reasons. The program ticked many of her boxes—living in an international city, expanding her business knowledge at a top school, and getting hands-on experience through the Action Learning Program, where students undertake five real-world consulting projects over the course of the 20-month MBA.

One of the biggest draws, however, was travel-related. When researching ASB, Allenie discovered its connection to MIT Sloan School of Management, a link that “lent a lot of credibility to the program.” MIT’s cultural DNA is embedded in the curriculum and instruction at ASB, with MIT Sloan faculty teaching courses in Kuala Lumpur. “The level of excellence is the same, reflecting how the MIT culture is replicated at ASB,” Allenie enthuses.

As well as sharing faculty, one of the most exciting parts of the partnership between the schools is the MIT Spring Immersion Program, taking place over four weeks at the MIT campus in Cambridge, MA. Through the program, MBA students get the chance to live and breathe MIT, involving themselves in the school’s academic and extracurricular life. This level of immersion is rare for short-term student exchange programs.

“You feel like you’re actually in a community on campus,” Allenie raves. “The environment is conducive to learning, and makes you want to involve yourself in everything.” This also pays off on paper, as students receive an MIT certificate after completing the program, as well as affiliate alumni status and an MIT email for life. For Allenie, the chance to study at one of the world’s top business schools feels “aspirational.”

The experience has pushed her to think of ways that she can bring more MIT initiatives back to ASB and build the same environment for her MBA class and future students. The immersion at MIT Sloan revealed to Allenie a lot more about her own aspirations as an entrepreneur. “I’ve always worked in a corporate culture, but now I understand the culture, mindset, and personality you need to be an entrepreneur. It’s something everyone should learn,” Allenie professes.

One course in entrepreneurship reignited her passion to start a business in the future with her family in the Philippines. As part of the course, the MBA class attended entrepreneurship events where innovators pitched their business ideas, showing Allenie what it takes to build a startup from idea to execution. This was also helped by another course in system dynamics. “It teaches you how to think of processes in a strategic way—you can use it in almost every decision you make,” Allenie notes.

Now back in Kuala Lumpur, Allenie reflects on her experience at MIT Sloan. “One of my key takeaways was the importance of building a community and pursuing diversity to stimulate creativity and intelligent discourse. This can be applied in any kind of working or business environment,” she says. Allenie has a clearer idea about her future—and, unsurprisingly, it’s international.

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.

Uber has dominated the taxi market since its inception, delivering 5.2 billion rides globally in 2018. But in China, they do things differently. While Uber’s venture into China in 2013 flopped, losing around $2 billion in three years; its competitor, DiDi, acquired Uber’s China operations and is now considered one of the world’s most valuable startups. As DiDi looks to expand into new markets, as well as developing driverless car technology, it’s eyeing up top-caliber business professionals to bring into the company. But what does it take for MBAs to land a job at a tech giant like DiDi?

A renowned degree based in Asia

Career success in his home country of Brazil, with a top role at Anheuser Busch Inbev, wasn’t enough for Diego Benito, and he knew he wanted an international career. “I always had this feeling that I should work somewhere else,” Diego remembers, “And leverage the impact I can have through working in other communities and societies.” The MBA at Asia School of Business (ASB) in Kuala Lumpur offered exactly this—an international experience in a powerful growing economy, combined with the reputation of MIT Sloan with which the school is affiliated.

The school’s reputation attracted excitement and attention from employers like DiDi, who constantly searched for talent with experience in Asia. This reflects quite a shift, Diego notes, from previously US-centered recruitment. “Historically there has been an exodus to the West—to places such as Silicon Valley. This is changing, with schools like ASB preparing students to work in this [Asian] environment,” Diego says.

Practical, hands-on experience

Pursuing an MBA can mean taking one-to-two years out of work to focus on education, leaving a gap in students’ resumes. For MBA students like Diego, the Action Learning Program at Asia School of Business—five consulting projects over the course of the program—ensures that students have consistent hands-on experience throughout their MBA program. “It’s not like you take two years off your career—you are constantly accelerating and widening your career horizons,” Diego stresses.

Diego’s projects exposed him to the exciting Southeast Asia tech market, which is growing to meet the demands of an increasingly online population. Placements at Traveloka, a travel-booking startup based in Indonesia, and Zarla, an e-commerce platform in Myanmar, found Diego working on-site to create real solutions to the problems that these organizations faced in their expansion.

Part of this experience was dealing with the daily challenges that businesses face in this evolving market, and learning how to make decisions that address these challenges systematically. One course in system dynamics, during the four weeks that all MBA students spend at MIT Sloan, gave Diego an understanding of how to make decisions with a wider goal in mind, rather than tackling problems one-by-one. For an employer like DiDi, viewing the bigger picture in a problem-solving scenario is invaluable.

Understanding the complexities of an Asian market

The rate at which the Asian economy is growing and changing was one of the big draws for Diego to study at Asia School of Business. “Asia has the biggest opportunities right now, [with] millions of people emerging from poverty into the middle classes. These people want to consume, they want access to things they didn’t have before,” Diego points out. DiDi’s mass appeal comes from its multiple platforms, offering bike sharing and bus services, alongside ride hailing, all through one app.

A sophisticated understanding of the complexities of Asian economies is crucial to gaining market share. The American model, as Uber will attest to, doesn’t work. Working and consulting with regional businesses during the Action Learning Program gave Diego a practical understanding of how problems differ from country to country. “You have to learn how to adapt and localize the product,” Diego underlines.

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.

The Korean tech giant Samsung has a lot of meaning behind its name. The two syllables, sam meaning “three” and sung meaning “stars,” were chosen to inspire a vision of a company that would become as powerful and eternal as the stars in the sky. In my second Action Learning project, I got to experience this meaning for myself. I had experience with Samsung products before the project as a result of my sales background.

My family’s retail business sold Samsung electronics, which were often fast-moving products with high inventory turnover regardless of the salesperson’s expertise. It all comes down to the brand image. There are some brands to which the question of how you learn about them doesn’t apply, because you have always known about them. Samsung is one of these brands, and I have been impressed by the company for this reason.

I was glad to have the opportunity to complete an Action Learning project with Samsung. Because I was familiar with the brand, especially its Samsung Electronics business segment, I gave the project a high rating on my list of preferences.

I have always found it important to learn about a wide range of different industries and business areas. I enjoy gaining in-depth knowledge about new and vibrant industries and developing solutions that make a significant impact. For this reason, the growing smartphone industry in Malaysia seemed more than appealing to me. Furthermore, the Samsung project itself was even more attractive because it focused on high-level marketing strategy, one of my areas of interest.

I hoped that the diverse perceptions, skills and experiences within my group would help Samsung better plan and implement its marketing strategy. The smartphone industry in Malaysia is saturated and competitive. It is a constant challenge to remain a top player in the market. My team observed the fierce competition and continuous sophisticated upgrades in Samsung models, as well as those of its rivals, during our Action Learning project.

I learned that Samsung Malaysia Electronics was the leading player in Malaysia’s smartphone industry in 2018. It didn’t come as a surprise to me. The company owes its success to its well-established brand and comprehensive portfolio of products in different pricing categories. But success comes with other challenges. As the dominant industry player, the company has a greater need to meet customers’ expectations and even outperform them.

In particular, consumer preference is important for marketers to understand to ensure a brand’s continued dominance. This issue became the focus of our Action Learning project, which I enjoy for its challenging yet compelling nature. There were many directions in which my team and I could have taken the project. We had to think of creative and unconventional ways to find out consumers’ preferences in Malaysia. From there, we determined the consumer buying path and identified the reasons that trigger the decision to upgrade to a new phone.

We had to think of the most efficient ways to collect data to conserve time and resources. We went outside the office to different locations around Kuala Lumpur, talking with people and “stalking” them to find out which have Samsung phones. I learned the design, look and size of a Samsung phone to the extent that I became able to recognize it from a distance. 

I was even able to identify Samsung users themselves, regardless of whether they were holding their phones. Yes, that person in a suit drinking his afternoon Americano must be a Note user! We approached people in cafes, restaurants (some girlfriends weren’t happy), in the street, in train stations, you name it. We conducted interviews in taxis and in the queue of a pretzel shop. 

I broke the record for the number of times a team member was approached by security guards in shopping malls because of the impermissible interviews I conducted. We had fun along the way, managing to gather a lot of important information for our analysis and observations regarding which factors influence consumers’ buying decisions. I am excited to see the final outcome of our project based on the unconventional approach and findings we derived from it. 

I am also grateful that I had the opportunity to work on a project with a prominent brand that has always been at the forefront of technological advancement and innovation. Through this project, I learned not to turn a blind eye to marketing. In today’s globalized world, everyone is competing for the same market, and each company must place great emphasis on its brand, reputation, communication, competition and values to stand out. The market leaders are those who understand what consumers value most, and often all they need to do is ask.

Grab, the Malaysian-born ride-hailing app, was recently dubbed Southeast Asia’s first ‘decacorn’—the rare marvel of a start-up worth over $10 billion. In the six years since it launched in 2012, Grab has expanded into 168 cities in eight countries. Having bought out Uber’s regional operations, it currently occupies a 97% market share in Southeast Asia. In the last two years, the app has grown rapidly, doubling its number of users, with daily rides increasing from two and a half million to six million.

Grab’s achievement is part of a wider Southeast Asian tech revolution. Since 2015, over  90 million new internet users have come online, a number that is increasing exponentially and at unheard-of speed. Frontier-minded MBA students need little encouragement to relocate to Southeast Asia. At its epicenter is Kuala Lumpur, where  Asia School of Business (ASB) is offering students the lucrative opportunity to access the fastest growing tech market in the world.

Using tech to solve problems

One student who took the leap into Southeast Asia’s tech market is Jack Farrell. From selling lemonade to buy baseball cards, to reselling second-hand college textbooks at Duke University, Jack has always been entrepreneurial in his attitude. “I look for problems that I can build businesses around,” Jack says. Applying to ASB was an easy decision for Jack. Southeast Asia’s rapid growth, ASB’s link to MIT Sloan, and a long-term desire to earn an MBA made the opportunity attractive to him.

With experience in tech startups in the US, including co-founding pet services platform PawedIn, Jack benefitted most from the immersion in Asian industry as part of the school’s Action Learning curriculum. Throughout the program, students undertake five extended consultancy projects with leading organizations in up to five countries, working closely with their employees to deliver impactful change.

“It was a chance to go into different countries and see how different they are—their stages of development, their habits, the ways people buy,” Jack recalls. At Hotel Equatorial, a hospitality group, Jack created a digital marketing strategy to increase on-site conversion for bookings. At Ananda Development, Thailand’s largest condominium developer, he advised on how to increase the price per square foot by developing internal and external technology.

While the problems were different, both projects played to Jack’s interest and skill in using technology and entrepreneurship as problem-solving tools. Jack, a self-proclaimed ‘Southeast Asia Evangelist’, has used his time at  Asia School of Business to produce his own video series—‘Jack SEAs Tech’—on regional digital trends and innovations.

After graduation, Jack is deciding between the equally enticing opportunities of venture capital and starting his own enterprise—perhaps to be a part of the next decacorn like Grab. Either way, his gaze is firmly fixed on Southeast Asia. “Everywhere I look, there is so much opportunity to build business, because of how quickly everything is growing,” Jack enthuses.

“Everyone wants to enhance digitally”

Saloni Saraogi’s (pictured) path to Southeast Asia’s tech revolution was slightly different—born in India, and raised in the Middle East, a bachelor’s in finance and accounting at the University of Nottingham paved the way for a career in finance. Choosing to earn an MBA was a way of advancing her own business competency, at the time based at BNP Paribas in Mumbai. “As I started to get more leadership roles in the bank, I started to think, ‘I need to expand my toolkit.’”

The Action Learning program at ASB, as Saloni remembers, gave her the opportunity to get actively involved in industry, and to get her hands dirty. It also exposed her to developments in the finance industry—in particular, the growing role that fintech plays in modern financial institutions, even in long-standing establishments such as Bangkok Bank. Last year, she completed an Action Learning project with the firm that involved leveraging existing technology platforms to help it attract more customers.

“[In finance], there is an understanding that everyone wants to enhance digitally,” Saloni remembers. As someone with digital literacy, Saloni found Southeast Asia to have abundant opportunities to work in technological developments. A summer placement at the consultancy Frost & Sullivan found her working alongside the APAC head of fintech, building an index that measured the digital readiness of insurance companies in Malaysia.

In the meantime, Saloni produces her own newsletter, ‘Exploring Digital’, which details digital and technological trends and thought-pieces. It is currently distributed to all ASB students monthly.

The transformative power of tech

While the digital boom is good news for tech companies, Jack and Saloni both recognize the transformative implications for the region. Jack believes that initial public offerings (IPOs) for successful start-ups like Grab could start in the next few years, using that wealth generation to reinvest in and grow the Southeast Asia tech economy.

Saloni, meanwhile, sees the ability of technology as a development tool, closing the vast gap between countries like Malaysia and developing countries like Indonesia and the Philippines, where around 90% of the region’s impoverished population is based. It is worth considering that, while only 27% of Southeast Asia’s population has bank accounts, there are roughly 1.4 mobile phones per person.

“Tech can be used to promote financial inclusion,” Saloni notes, an ambition which is driving her own career, and which she plans to explore further through a research project with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), which she landed through Asia School of Business.

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 no better way to learn than to do. Since embarking on my MBA journey at Asia School of Business, I have completed two out of five required Action Learning projects. Every project presents an opportunity to apply the toolkits learned in the classroom to real-world environments. The learning curve is steep from the get-go, with immersive and intense projects that require navigating new industries, functions, and cultures.

During the 4 weeks we spent onsite throughout the semester, we developed a full understanding of our host company’s business challenges and delivered tangible recommendations. This semester, I had the opportunity to learn In-Flight Operations via an Action Learning project with Thai AirAsia in Bangkok. The goal of the project was to assess the effectiveness of RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) technology for In-Flight Services (IFS).

Our task was to identify opportunities to improve the efficiency of IFS by automating the manual stock counting process of merchandise through implementation of RFID. My team was not only culturally diverse, but also professionally diverse. What we had in common, though, was the fact that this was our first foray into the aviation industry.

Go & See

It was important for us to understand the entire process of moving goods from the warehouse to the flight before brainstorming solutions. During this stage, we observed, identified and analysed the issues to be addressed. This involved us camping out one night at the IFS warehouse from 10 pm onwards to see how carts are unloaded at the end of the day and replenished with new merchandise before being loaded on the flight the following day.

Given the focus of the project, we got comfortable with the warehouse in no time. One of the highlights of the project was the airside visit, where we went behind the scenes to observe the turnaround process. We observed how carts were lifted and loaded into the plane by the inflight crew and marvelled at how the cabin crew swiftly powered through a series of tasks from stock-counting and onboarding passengers to cleaning the aircraft cabin, all with smiles on their faces.

We learned that it was crucial for cabin crew and the inflight team to work together seamlessly to achieve AirAsia’s goal of minimising turnaround time to achieve high aircraft utilization.

Plan Before Action

Once we were able to understand the situation at hand, we utilised the theories and frameworks taught in class to develop a feasible Plan of Action. Over the course of the project, we mapped out multiple process flows, carried out time studies and conducted surveys and interviews with the IFS team and cabin crews. This helped us identify gaps and areas of opportunity before coming up with recommendations.

As part of our goal to reduce the manual labor required for stock-counting, we also got a chance to test out our recommendation by carrying out an RFID (radio frequency identification) simulation, enabling the counting of goods to take a matter of seconds rather than minutes.

Throughout the process, we made sure to consistently follow up and check in with our host to ensure the project’s success. During our final visit, we delivered an RFID implementation strategy where parts of IFS’ process would be automated using RFID, leading to time savings of 75% and man-hour reduction in manual stock-counting.

Reflection and Takeaways

There are two main takeaways from my Action Learning experience with Thai AirAsia. First, there is strength in diversity. Each team member’s unique experiences inspire myriad ideas and allow us to look at the issues at hand through multiple lenses.

Second, don’t embrace the status quo. As a company, AirAsia is agile and constantly pushing its boundaries, and it is important that we did the same. Throughout the course of the project, we learned to be curious, adaptable and challenge convention.

Thank you for the immense learning, Thai AirAsia. Onwards and upwards!

To the class of 2019: I know today is a super super exciting day for you: Today I am going to give you a speech.

Why ASB?

This question was asked many times before I came here. It was asked many times while I was here and I’m sure it will continue to be asked many more times after today. Having now gone through the entire experience as a student, today I would like to do one thing and one thing only – to answer this question: Why ASB? But first, I’d like to begin with a delightful story about a man who is known to be right about a thing or two, Albert Einstein…

In 1951, Einstein was teaching physics at Princeton University. One day he gave an exam to his senior class. After the exam, the teaching assistant, looking very puzzled, came up to Einstein and said “Dr Einstein, something is not right. The exam that you just gave, isn’t it exactly the same exam that you gave to exactly the same class a year ago?” “Yea yea” said Albert Einstein “it’s exactly the same”.

The assistant was baffled. He said “But how could you possibly do that?” Einstein smiled and said “Well the answers have changed” … The answers have changed. In other words, what was true in 1951 is even more true today, and even more true in this part of the world where the answers are changing not by the years or months but sometimes every day. This became evident to us through Action Learning.

Having collectively done almost 200 projects across all sectors, industries and countries, we could clearly see that organisations today, big or small, government or private are all struggling with to find new answers to the same old questions in this era of globalization, of the internet of things, of digitalization. What has got us here will no longer get us there. What works in Europe or US might not work in South East Asia.

And even within this region, what works in Singapore might not work in Malaysia or Vietnam. And there are simply too many variables to solve for. So, if you ask me Why ASB, the first part of my response is “because the answers have changed”. And it is ASB that equips us with not the answers but the thinking, the methodologies, the moral and ethical principles, the cultural and social awareness, the patience and determination, the sharp and smart skills to figure out these new and constantly changing answers, particularly for this region and to really make major footprint in the rapid development of South East Asia.

For that, I want to thank everyone at ASB for affording us this invaluable learning opportunity. Special thank you to Tan Sri Dr. Zeti, to our Board of Governors, to Bank Negara and MIT for your incredible support and to Charlie for your great leadership. My second part of the answer is because ASB is in Malaysia. Malaysia might not be the obvious choice for many when thinking about getting an international MBA or just getting business and management education in general.

But having been here for 20 months, I know that it has to change. There is no better place to be if you are serious about learning and making an impact in this part of the world. It is not just because of the geographical location, the diversity or the openness of the country, it is also because of the wonderful people that you have here in Malaysia. Malaysia welcomed us with open arms.

Your kindness, your extraordinary hospitality, your irreverent sense of humour, your brilliantly unique way of using English – everything has become so familiar and I’ve truly fallen in love with this country. At least I know my love is real when I was on an overseas trip recently and suddenly had a craving for Nasi Lemak …They say home is where the heart is. And if that’s the case, I will be very happy to call Malaysia and KL home. So, thank you Malaysia. Terima Kasih!

And lastly and also most importantly, it is because ASB is the place where I get to meet people like you, class of 2019. It has been an absolutely incredible ride and to be honest I would not have it any other way. I’ll admit that I’m feeling a bit sad that today is our last day at ASB. But hey you know what they say. “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened”.

And if I think about the memories that we’ve shared and the waves that we’ve ridden over the past 2 years, I know that I should be smiling non-stop for the next few months (Maybe even longer if I don’t have to get a job…) When I left Vietnam 10 years ago, my mom told me this only one thing. She said, “wherever you go, the most important thing is that you leave those with whom you cross paths with a little more happiness and a little more hope”.

Today I’m leaving ASB feeling more hopeful and happier than ever and I think that’s all because of you. I hope that you feel the same too and I hope that I have contributed to that in some way. And if you think that I did, please tell my mom – she’s seating over there – so that she can be proud of me… It is truly amazing how 36 people from 12 different countries in 5 continents with different backgrounds, cultures, religions became so close.

We’ve seen each other in our best moments and not surprisingly our weakest moments too. We pushed each other to the limits and beyond. We argued, we fought and we learned from one another. And at the end of the day, we supported each other through thick and thin no matter what. You are among the smartest, funniest and bravest people that I have the privilege to call friends and I cannot be more grateful to be a part of this incredible family. I will miss all of you so dearly.

“There are good ships, and there are wooden ships. There are ships that sail the sea. But the best ships, are friendships. And may they always be!”

Congratulations class of 2019 and from the bottom of my heart I wish you the very very best.

As soon as you meet Calvin Woo, it’s easy to tell where his interests lie. As part of ASB’s MBA Class of 2019, Calvin’s unconventional background centers around entrepreneurship and social impact, two of his long-term passions. He formed his entrepreneurial mindset at age 11, when he asked his parents to buy him a gift and they told him he had to work for it instead. “Nothing comes free,” he jokes.

Still, he is grateful that, as the firstborn son in a Chinese Malaysian family, his parents allowed him to pursue a career in social enterprise, though he credits this in part to his adolescent negotiation skills. “I didn’t have that pressure of being an engineer, doctor, or whatever,” he says. “They let me do what I wanted to do.”

Over his school breaks and during the summer months, Calvin took odd jobs at a family-friend’s logistics company, using his relative invisibility as a young kid within the firm to learn as much as he could about how the business worked. He talked to everyone who would listen, including interviewing truck drivers about their routes and driving strategies.

Through these inquiries, Calvin was employing the principles of Action Learning years before he would enroll at ASB. In this case, it was his way of learning how to build a company. He started his first business as an undergraduate, printing t-shirts for clubs and organizations at his school. Through this experience, he learned invaluable skills such as negotiation and stakeholder management. Most importantly, he learned how to overcome the anxiety that comes with building something on his own.

“It’s about finding the right opportunities and jumping on them,” he advises. “Act now and fear later.” After this first taste of running a business, Calvin knew he could never work for anyone else. He was only unsure of what kind of business to start until he discovered the world of social enterprise. An English Education major, Calvin was concerned about the educational landscape in Malaysia and wanted to improve it.

In the library, he flitted between the education and business sections, unsure how to connect the two disciplines. A conference at MaGIC first inspired him to explore the bridge between social impact and business. There, he learned about the organization’s programs, eventually enrolling in its 2015 bootcamp where he met several like-minded individuals leveraging business to solve social issues. Not only did he learn a lot, but he gained access to a valuable community.

The first social enterprise he worked with as the Head of Programs was an afterschool program targeting high-need Malaysian students between ages 15 and 17. The organization partnered with universities and training providers to give students better-quality ways to spend their time after school, as well address gaps in their learning not covered in a normal school day.

“We saw how education can be done differently,” Calvin says, reflecting on the experience. “We saw that there were limitations to what the government could provide, especially in quantitative and analytics skills, which was one reason why I came to ASB.” And when Calvin started a social enterprise on his own, he encountered another issue that affected every double-bottom-line organization: he was unsure whether to register as a for-profit or non-profit entity.

This binary classification system didn’t make sense for his organization, causing him to wrestle with an identity crisis and eventually shutter the business. To Calvin, social enterprise means much more than providing earned income for otherwise traditional non-profit organizations. It’s a holistic way of thinking about business that takes a larger set of stakeholders into account, with the primary social mission fitting neatly together with a secondary financial mission.

However, he recognizes that balancing the two goals is an art, and a tricky one at that. The solution? “There should be systems in place that support the growth of these types of organizations,” Calvin says. “Social enterprises face a lack of clarity arising from their legal classification. The current policy doesn’t favor them at all.” After earning his MBA, Calvin hopes to help create a legal structure that will support social enterprises, enabling them to pursue these dual purposes.

He believes the ASB curriculum will prepare him for this work by teaching him to navigate between big-picture thinking and addressing everyday business challenges. “A few classes helped shape my mental model, such as Joe Santos’s global management course and Loredana Padurean’s entrepreneurship framework,” he notes. “I can now look at the same issues from multiple perspectives.”

Calvin also sees ASB’s diversity as a unique learning opportunity. For him, interacting with people from different countries was a way to learn more about himself. “I now feel more Malaysian than I had before,” he notes with a touch of humor. He has learned to embrace differences of opinion among his classmates, claiming that unique perspectives provide a more comprehensive view of a problem and result in more interesting and productive discussions.

His favorite example of this is from working in a team with classmates from different backgrounds and nationalities on an Action Learning project for Bangkok Bank. He credits the success of the project to the fact that some of the team members had banking or financial modeling experience, while others had a more entrepreneurial background. At the project’s conclusion, the bank’s president considered implementing several of the team’s recommendations.

“ASB is unique because the school forces a diverse group of individuals into a common working and living space, so we are able to engage more closely,” Calvin says. “Building these deep relationships is invaluable in itself, because it got me to where I am today.”

Trust plays an instrumental role in Asian business. Business relationships cannot be built instantly; they require effort and commitment. The Chinese even have a word for it — guanxi — a personal trust on which relationships are built, often based on a sense of moral obligation. “Asia is relationship-driven”, muses Benjamin Archangeli. “If people are going to trust you, you have to show that you are willing to eat their food, to learn their language, and to put in the time, otherwise they won’t take you seriously.”

Building business relationships in Southeast Asia has been a journey for Ben. It began when he opted to study his MBA at the Asia School of Business (ASB) in Kuala Lumpur. After graduating, he joined Esquel Group in Vietnam, a leading cotton garment manufacturer supplying global brands, including Hugo Boss and Ralph Lauren.

He attributes his success with Esquel to the immersive ASB program, where he learned to adapt to new environments and build those all-important relationships focused on trust and communication.

Why Asia School of Business?

For a long time, Ben was keen to follow the path less traveled. As a mechanical engineer, graduating from Kettering University in Michigan, he moved to Houston, where he worked for an oil and gas service company in varying manufacturing roles. Despite his engineering background, he was drawn to the business side of these roles. All the while, he looked-up to his older sister who had successfully built an international career across Europe and Asia.

He was inspired by his sister but, even more so, he was restless in Houston. “I didn’t want to be doing something that everyone else was,” Ben recalls. His career needed a new direction. Earning an MBA had always been at the back of Ben’s mind, and to do so at the Asia School of Business seemed like the perfect opportunity to jump-start his own international career.

Southeast Asia has a booming manufacturing industry, in which Ben was eager to be involved to maintain and strengthen his engineering roots. “It was important to me not to completely abandon engineering and manufacturing,” Benjamin emphasizes, “But to build on that skill set.”

What did the MBA provide?

As a starting point, Kuala Lumpur was a “great gateway to the region,” with a balance of Asian and international cultures which made it easy for a Westerner like Ben to integrate. Importantly, the MBA program at Asia School of Business laid the foundation for him to begin building the business relationships that ultimately led to his career with Esquel.

An impactful part of the program was the Lean practicum, which gave students direct exposure to Asian manufacturing operations. Ben and his classmates spent one intense week at Aerospace Composites Malaysia, a supplier of Boeing and Hexcel, implementing improvement projects with local engineers and managers. This involved hands-on work in the factory, as well as time spent evaluating the problems the factory was facing and coming up with tangible solutions.

Learning about the “real world” challenges that businesses face equipped Benjamin well for his future career. But it was the Action Learning program from which Ben benefitted the most. Each semester student teams are paired with companies across the region to work on real-world projects. For Ben, this involved projects with AirAsia in Kuala Lumpur, and his current employer Esquel, in Vietnam.

“Other MBAs maybe have summer programs where you can travel, but usually it’s only for a couple of weeks. You don’t really have that same immersive experience,” he says. Ben met his current boss during an Action Learning site visit at the Esquel factory in Vietnam, “At the time I was just excited to be meeting the engineering director, but I didn’t realize it was actually my first interview.”

How did the MBA fast-track his career?

For Ben, Asia became not just a place to study, but a place where he could build an international career. While he considered employment elsewhere, he viewed working in Asia as a “long-term gain”—a place where he could build relationships and challenge himself. This relationship-building had been helped by the diversity of his MBA class. As one of 13 represented nationalities, he had quickly learned to adapt his communication skills to fit an international context.

“If someone doesn’t understand you, that’s not their problem; that’s your problem,” Ben advises. He applies this communication mindset to problem-solving in his current role as Technical Engineering Manager.

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

Sitting in a leather armchair in the St. Regis hotel, Raghav Narayan had just come back from a visit to a factory in a far-off Malaysian town. He had heaved a sigh when he arrived, explaining that these days his entire life was a whirlwind. This week was the rule, far from the exception. Hailing from India, Raghav has had anything but the standard career trajectory.

He has trained and worked as a lawyer, as well as starting his own businesses and even doing a stint at Google. Earning his MBA at ASB was a way to realign his career path with his growing interest in the financial sector. “I was very clear that this was what I wanted to do,” he says between sips of his drink, reflecting back on the experience.

Southeast Asia turned out to be the perfect place for Raghav to make this career switch, as he was hired straight from ASB into the Kuala Lumpur office of a Dutch private equity firm. He reasons that finding a job in the industry here was easier than it would have been in other regions. “In Asia, you don’t have to follow the traditional path because it’s flexible,” he says. “It’s easier to take higher-level positions.

Elsewhere, I would have to work in investment banking for a few years before going into private equity.” During the course of our catch-up, another of his colleagues walked in and introduced himself. As it turns out, this was a common after-work destination for the whole company, located within walking distance the office. Raghav doesn’t mind this, and in fact loves spending time with his co-workers both in and outside of the office.

“For me,” he says, “they’re the people I’m closest to in Malaysia, so I will usually hang out with them before anyone else.” To him, his close relationship with his colleagues is a by-product of the intensity of the industry. More than just a job, he considers finance a “lifestyle,” and warns to anyone considering investment banking or private equity that they should expect and enjoy this intensity. Those who hope for standard 40-hour workweeks should look elsewhere.

“You need to love what you do,” Raghav explains. “I go to the office at 8:30 AM and leave at 10 PM because I love my work. Everything is tied to outcomes, so It doesn’t matter whether the partners are around, things need to get done. Because the job is self-managed, you cannot do it without hard work and discipline.” Raghav spends much of that time in the office doing two things: learning and meeting people.

The former entails acquiring an unfathomable amount of knowledge about an industry in a short period of time. For example, he was recently approached by a local pharmaceutical company aiming at national expansion. He knew nothing about the industry but made sure that before he met with its directors, he had learned everything he needed to speak about it intelligently.

This ability to absorb knowledge quickly was strengthened through the MBA program at ASB. Termed “drinking from the firehose,” much of the curriculum comprises of intensified versions of courses where a lot of material is packed into a short timeframe. This is especially the case when visiting MIT professors teach at the Kuala Lumpur campus.

When he’s not gathering intelligence on various industries, Raghav is meeting a wide variety of business owners across the region, often exploring multiple opportunities within a week. “It’s great, because everyone wants to sell to you,” he says. Recently, he has looked into acquiring a packaging company as well as a family business. He claims the process of determining what offers to take is one of the most exciting parts of the job.

But he doesn’t spend all of his time in the office. Often, he travels on-site to recent acquisitions to monitor and manage the firm’s portfolio companies. The factory he just returned from is one such visit. There, the firm hired a new general manager, so Raghav plans to visit often to help ease his transition into the role. Though at first Raghav knew nothing about manufacturing, now he feels comfortable giving direction about everything from strategy to purchasing.

The biggest issue, he claims, is convincing the employees to accept change. He admits, “They’re used to doing things in a particular way, and are sometimes opposed to change.” This sort of advisory work isn’t new, as he has gained experience through completing five Action Learning projects at ASB, often dealing with proposing change to large organizations. Notably, he completed his Summer Action Learning Project at OCBC Bank, giving him an insider’s look at the banking industry.

Now, after working in finance full-time for several months, Raghav has come a long way from where he started. Tasks that used to take him three hours now take only one hour, but he laments that his bosses are still much more efficient as a result of their many years of experience. However, Raghav believes that he’s only at the beginning of his learning process, and looks forward to continuing to grow in the industry. “Eventually,” he says with a smile, “I want to get better to the point where I can create a massive amount of value for the company.”

When it comes to running an airline, it doesn’t get much more impressive than AirAsia. Originating in Malaysia, AirAsia was voted the world’s best low-cost airline for the 10th consecutive year in 2018. This may have to do with the fact that it has the world’s lowest available seat cost per kilometer at $0.023—a universally recognized measure of airline efficiency. Or that it now services 25 countries in and beyond Asia. Or that in ten years of new ownership, sold with $11 million of debt, AirAsia now turns a yearly net profit of $354 million.

As the firm gears up for large-scale expansion—aiming to grow to 500 aircraft by 2027—AirAsia demands employees with impressive business acumen and the necessary skills to help it on its way. Its proximity and access to MBA students at Asia School of Business (ASB) in Kuala Lumpur offers just this.

More than just an engineer

Ash Kachwala (pictured), originally from Mumbai, India, works for AirAsia as a data scientist, where he applies his dual academic background in computer science and business. Ash studied industrial and systems engineering at Georgia Tech University, but was keen not to get “pigeonholed” too early on in his career. “I got bored of looking at firewalls, backend systems and being that IT guy,” Ash recalls.

Ash was drawn first and foremost to the Action Learning program on offer at ASB. MBA students get the opportunity to work on five different projects— significantly more than most other business schools.

The program involves real-world consultancy projects at large and exciting companies in the region like Motorola and Johnson & Johnson. Ash found the latter to be the most exciting, in particular the market research element.

“The beauty of it was that it gave us the chance to venture out of the city more,” Ash enthuses. “I visited 10 to 15 different hospitals around Kuala Lumpur for Johnson & Johnson to get a feel for what the doctors were saying about their products.”

This practical experience was combined with top-level instruction, involving faculty from Sloan School of Management at MIT with whom Asia School of Business is partnered. This included a month spent studying at MIT Sloan, which Ash remembers as one of the highlights of the course.

Rapid career progress

It was the Action Learning projects, and the interpersonal skills he took from them, that Ash attributes to his current employment at AirAsia. In his initial interview at AirAsia, his energy and understanding of project-based work distinguished him from the crowd, things he learned during his practical experience at ASB.

work, he reveals, is project-based, giving him the opportunity to move between different departments and help them communicate more efficiently. His work now is significantly different from his previous employment pre-MBA—his focus is now much more on the business side of things.

Ash didn’t necessarily see himself based entirely in Asia—but he now sees first-hand the opportunities of working in this exciting region. “Asia is the fastest growing region in the world,” Ash muses, “but what does it actually mean to the individual?” For Ash, it’s the possibility of rapid career advancement. Ash says he sees people moving much more quickly up levels of seniority in Asian companies like AirAsia.

Ash is not fixated on salary, and insists that other Asia-based MBA students have a similar attitude. “It’s a very fluid area and things do tend to change. You really can shape and mold what you want to do.”

An opportunity for change

Sylvia Lian’s (pictured) background is a little different. Originally from Kuala Lumpur, Sylvia trained as a lawyer and found her way to AirAsia before her MBA—first in the legal department, then as an insurance manager in risk management. Her desire to move away from law was met when the opportunity at ASB sprung up through her job. She was offered a scholarship as a ‘talent’ within the company to earn a two-year MBA at Asia School of Business before returning to AirAsia.

“In this part of the world, it’s difficult to break away [from your profession] unless you get another professional qualification,” Sylvia warns. Her MBA was the perfect opportunity for her to become acquainted with business skills to add to the soft skills she had gained from a legal profession.

Specifically helpful to her role were courses in global management, which looked at how to deal with global issues surrounding companies which are expanding beyond their region of origin. Given AirAsia’s recent global expansion, this was invaluable.

Like Ash, Sylvia also found the Action Learning program to be an incredible and diverse experience. She worked on a variety of projects, including a project for Del Monte, helping to monetize some of the partners working on their platform, and SmartStudy, the digital education company responsible for 2019 viral video sensation ‘Baby Shark’.

The benefits of an open mind

Having grown up in Kuala Lumpur, it was Sylvia’s exposure to students and ideas from around the world which grew her understanding of global perspectives on specific business issues. She points out the diversity of the class, with students hailing from around the world including Mexico, South Africa, Russia, and the Philippines. This exposed her to different ways of thinking and approaching a problem.

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