Student Experience – Page 6 – Asia School of Business

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.

The 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Brains at BRainS

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

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

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

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

Facing Challenges

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

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

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

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

Memorable Moments

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

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

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

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

Saying Goodbye

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

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

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

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

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

Immersed in Asian Culture

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

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

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

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

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

From Musician to the Malaysian Government

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

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

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

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

Asia-Ready MBAs

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

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

When Fiona O’Leary Sloan arrived in Lima, Peru at 2 AM, she realized that she didn’t have a bed to sleep in. “The only thing I had booked was my flight to Lima and my hostel,” Fiona says, laughing, “and I had booked the wrong days, so really I had planned nothing.” For Fiona, the visit to Peru was the beginning of a months-long, worldwide journey that would shape her outlook and influence her decision to apply to Asia School of Business.

But it was far from her first blush with travel and its transformative effects. “I’m thankful I had a mother who prioritized travel,” she says. “Because of that, I was exposed to a diverse group of people from a young age. It made me a better person, less judgmental.” After traveling with her family throughout her childhood, Fiona studied abroad for the first time at the age of 16, which helped her become more flexible and adaptable to unfamiliar territory.

Solo travel has never intimidated her. In many ways, she prefers it to travel with friends because it allows her to spend time with people from all walks of life. Having stayed at over 100 hostels, she has formed friendships everywhere she’s traveled. When she returned to the United States after months of traveling, Fiona knew her next step would involve living in another country, possibly in the developing world.

Having already traveled around Southeast Asia, she applied to ASB for the chance to gain an insider’s perspective of business dynamics in the region. “ASB is located in an important market that’s growing rapidly with a lot of entrepreneurial spirit,” she says. “Here, there’s the sense that you can go farther, faster.” For some, this could mean being promoted faster due to the rising demand for talent. For others, it means more market opportunities for starting and growing businesses.

For Fiona, it means that someone with her skills and interests has a lot more freedom to experiment with unconventional solutions to business, and societal, problems. Long interested in social impact, Fiona received her first Master’s degree in Public Service from the Clinton School of Public Service. Though the program had taught her to measure and report on the social impact of organizations, she knew she would not be able to incite widespread societal change without also having business acumen.

For her, business school was a natural next step. She developed this mindset during her most recent job at an urban planning consultancy in Detroit, a for-profit company working predominantly with for-profit partners. Through her work, she witnessed how coordinating big contracts for small businesses could singlehandedly keep them afloat. “I had been in the non-profit space before, and this made me realize that business often has a greater impact due to fewer restrictions,” she says.

To Fiona, business and travel aren’t separate interests, but go hand-in-hand when it comes to developing the skills necessary for success. She values solo travel as a way to practice making immediate decisions with little information or counsel to cultivate intuition. She says that the groundless and uncertain nature of traveling often feels similar to navigating a startup environment.

Much like business school, travel has a way of uncovering the hidden assumptions and biases that day-to-day decision-making ignores. When habitual ways of living and working are reexamined, there is a greater potential for unconventional-yet-effective solutions. Fiona argues that it’s all based on being in an unfamiliar environment. “Put me in a grocery store in the US and I’d buy the same things I buy every week, but put me in a grocery store in South America and I would walk out with some weird things,” she says.

And at ASB, business and travel have become even more closely intertwined, with Action Learning projects taking place throughout Southeast Asia. Every semester provides an opportunity for students to step out of their comfort zones and learn about a new country, industry, or function, and often all three at once. Students also work in different groups for each project with classmates from different backgrounds and nationalities, a unique aspect of the MBA program that Fiona says most shaped her outlook.

Being able to share differences in perspective and gain exposure to foreign concepts has been invaluable for her as well as her classmates. In Fiona’s free time, she continues to seek new experiences by traveling throughout Southeast Asia and beyond. She appreciates the stark differences in culture between each country in the region despite their close proximities to one another.

Whether trekking through temples in Cambodia or sampling Vietnamese cuisine, Fiona enjoys the wide variety of experiences accessible to her, noting that from Kuala Lumpur, these experiences are much more accessible and affordable.

Even after she graduates from the MBA program in April, Fiona has vowed never to stop traveling, especially in the developing world. She hopes for her next role to have an international focus so that she can continue to gain exposure to new environments. As she says, “Travel in every way has been my most important teacher, because it’s taught me about myself.”

It seems everybody wants to work in a startup these days, and the same goes for business schools. Sean O Ferguson was working as the associate dean of MBA programs at a leading school in Hong Kong when he was offered the chance to join a new business school venture, a collaboration between the Central Bank of Malaysia and MIT Sloan School of Management.

Asia School of Business (ASB), located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, enrolled its first MBA class in September 2016. Sean joined the school as associate dean and director of the MBA program at the beginning of this year—before the first class had graduated. “It’s been great to go to a startup culture and a place where there’s a real blank canvas,” Sean says. “We can explore and test out new ideas for what the future’s going to look like in management education.”

Sean relished the opportunity to bring his business experience from the US—where he worked as an assistant dean for the MBA programs at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business—and apply it to the fresh environment of ASB. Indeed, Sean’s own background influenced his decision to move to Asia—and he says that ASB is looking for students who share the same adventurous attitude to learning and innovating.

“Being of immigrant heritage, my parents came to America seeking opportunity. So when the Hong Kong school reached out to me in 2012 I thought, well I’m going to seek opportunity in Asia,” Sean muses. “We need students at the Asia School of Business who want to be a part of the transformation of the Southeast Asia region,” he explains. Specifically, Sean says, ASB is looking for students who are ‘frontier-minded’.

“The students who come to ASB want to be where the commercial world is going, not where the world is,” he adds. “They want to be on the front line, where the action is really happening, not the ivory towers of Hong Kong or Singapore.” The MBA at Asia School of Business, dubbed ‘MBA 3.0’, has been developed with the help of faculty members from MIT and includes the same rigorous learning experience that Sloan School of Management is famous for.

“If MBA 1.0 was war stories, and MBA 2.0 was case studies, our MBA 3.0 is really built on action and applied learning,” Sean explains. Experiential learning forms the heart of the MBA 3.0 curriculum at Asia Business School, and students will have five opportunities to participate in real business projects across Southeast Asia during the 20-month program—”this is unrivalled in the industry!” Sean quips.

Malaysia’s GDP is expected to grow by up to 5% per year, PwC notes in their 2017 report on Kuala Lumpur’s business environment. Because of this rapid growth, Sean says that MBA grads within the ASEAN region (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) will have plenty of career opportunities once they graduate. In 2016, a report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development named Malaysia one of the top 10 economic destinations for multinational enterprises, and Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, GE, and GSK all have hubs in the country—making it an attractive location for Action Learning.

“The first Action Learning project is in Malaysia, but the remainder take place all over the region,” Sean explains. “At the moment, I have second-year MBA students in Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand. “We have a very cross-culturally sophisticated student at ASB, who has been in the region, experienced what’s going on here, and has a better sense of how to relate to the different markets,” he adds.

A business school with its own DNA

Though the school may be a collaboration with MIT, Sean is adamant that Asia School of Business offers its own value proposition for students and is an original interpretation of what is relevant for MBA candidates in Asia. “The best analogy for this might be that I have my father’s DNA, but I’m not my father. While our DNA is MIT, I would say who we are is uniquely ASB.” The MBA’s cohort also has a unique DNA makeup—70% of the class is from outside of Malaysia, including students from developing countries such as Turkmenistan, Botswana, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. But, though diverse, Sean says these students are linked by their desire to work in an emerging region.

“In Hong Kong and Singapore, it’s a relatively soft landing for international students. While they are Asian-inspired for sure, it’s not like Kuala Lumpur, where you’re on the frontier,” he says. “We talk about impacting the emerging world and the economic transformation of Asia, these are things that really resonate with our students. “What we’re looking for are people who see that the MBA at Asia School of Business is an investment in themselves—something that will make them unique and different for the rest of their career.”

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

Last year marked 50 years since the creation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a group composed of ten countries in Southeast Asia—since the formation of this organization in 1967, the region has grown to become the sixth-largest economy globally.

At the heart of the ASEAN region is Malaysia, a thriving country which saw $2.8billion of foreign investment in 2016. Its capital, Kuala Lumpur, is expected to account for 40% of Malaysia’s Gross National Income by 2020. Asia School of Business (ASB), located in Kuala Lumpur, is actively preparing graduates to take advantage of this growth by working in emerging markets in the ASEAN region and around the world.

Here are five reasons why you should do your MBA at Asia School of Business in Southeast Asia:

1. Location

“Kuala Lumpur is really awesome because it’s centrally located,” explains Natalie Ho, a recent MBA graduate at Asia School of Business. “It’s a hub for airlines so it’s super easy to go from country to country both in Southeast Asia and also in Asia generally.” Asia School of Business boasts a central location in the city of Kuala Lumpur, only a half-hour train journey from Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

As well as offering students the chance to explore the region in their free-time, MBAs at ASB will visit several Asian cities during their MBA on Action Learning projects—and Natalie says that those experiences only enriched her MBA. “Most of my projects were in Malaysia, but I also had one in Manila in the Philippines,” adds Natalie. “I had other classmates go to Bangkok, Jakarta, Vietnam, Myanmar. “Because it’s so easy to get from place to place, we could just leave, explore somewhere else, and come back to class on Monday. It was awesome.”

2. Cost

While MBA programs in the US can often be difficult for students from developing countries to afford, pursuing an MBA in Malaysia means you’ll get the same experience and theoretical knowledge without breaking the bank. Tuition fees for the MBA at Asia School of Business total $91,000 for international students for the 20-month program, which includes expenses for Action Learning travel, as well as industry treks to the United States and China and a four-week MIT Sloan immersion program in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

As Natalie explains, this made all the difference when deciding where she wanted to do her MBA. “I actually applied to five programs in the US,” Natalie remarks. “Current students and alumni at US schools would tell me, ‘The biggest thing you’re going to have to do when prepping for your MBA in the US is figuring out how to save’.” “An American graduate education, it’s really cost prohibitive. For the MBA at Asia School of Business, the tuition is still lower than a lot of Western business schools, and as part of it we get to go abroad.”

3. Diversity

Professor Loredana Padurean, associate dean of ASB and faculty director of Action Learning, says that ASB reflects the global vision of Malaysia and Asia as a whole. “Asia is not just for Asians—Asia is an opportunity for a global population,” she says. “Asia is the fastest growing region in the world and Malaysia as a country has a strong role in the region—we see the need for a more sophisticated leadership role.”

Of the 47 students who started the MBA in September 2018, 64% came from outside Malaysia, including Mexico, South Africa, Morocco, and Kenya. “I was actually surprised by the amount of diversity, even in the first class,” recalls Natalie. “To have the opportunity to interact with my peers and learn what their lives are like and also the chance to explore the diversity of Southeast Asia was amazing—seeing the blending of different cultures was really cool.”

4. Job opportunities

“Malaysia is a very dynamic market,” says Loredana. “There’s a lot of growth happening, both on an entrepreneurship level and in very large corporations.” The growth of business in emerging industries such as tech in the country is unparalleled. Research conducted by The Fletcher School at Tufts University, shows Malaysia’s rate of digital evolution to be one of the fastest in the world, second only to China.

“If MBAs are trying to be more forward-looking, and thinking about where the next big thing is happening, I would argue Asia, especially Southeast Asia,” Natalie says. During ASB’s 20-month MBA program, students will have the chance to complete five Action Learning Projects in Asia, putting them in contact with companies across the region and honing their business skills to prepare for their future careers.

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

“Getting an education from MIT is like drinking from a firehose.” When I heard this quote during my first week at ASB, it sounded amusing at first. After two semesters, though, I’ve learned that it was no joke — and it has become my way of life. At MIT Sloan, the learning process was upgraded to drinking directly from a hydrant: we spent only four weeks on campus and had to take in as much as we could.

After an amazing two-week industry trek across Silicon Valley, New York City and Washington D.C., I arrived in Cambridge feeling sick and physically exhausted but determined not to let illness get in the way of this long-awaited experience. Of all the courses we took, I most enjoyed Entrepreneurship, System Dynamics and Negotiation. (This is not making light of the tremendous knowledge I gained from the other courses as well, which were superbly delivered by the MIT faculty.) Prior to taking the Entrepreneurship module, I was not convinced that I could be an entrepreneur.

However, after going through the 24 steps of entrepreneurship with Bill Aulet, my mindset shifted into understanding that is more than one way to be an entrepreneur. It was my first time taking a course in System Dynamics, and I was amazed at how the modelling tools could be applied to real life situations. Several scenarios were applicable to my previous job experience and I found myself wondering how past mistakes could have been avoided if this knowledge was available. I loved the Negotiation classes because of the simulated negotiations. I found myself negotiating from different positions and understanding the powers available to me at different times.

I also received constructive feedback from my classmates, which helped me improve my skills. I won’t forget the United Nations world climate simulation with Professor John Sterman. Before this class, I knew a little about climate change but not the extent to which the entire world was at risk. I was part of the U.S. delegation and was assigned to play the role of President Donald Trump — a part I hopefully played well. Neither will I forget the brilliant Professor Paul Asquith who taught us corporate finance whilst lying down on a bed (due to a back injury). He said, “The best form of learning is by repetition”, and he was right. I am better at corporate finance now than when I first arrived at ASB.

The cherry on top of the cake was the lecture given to us by the former UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon who, in an awesome stroke of fate, was residing in the same hotel as we were and graciously agreed to give a talk to our class. Words are not enough to convey the transformation I underwent in that one month. What I do know is that I left MIT a better person, more knowledgeable and more determined to make an impact in my world.

Rinjani is an active volcano also known as ‘Child of the Sea’, with a caldera on top which is partially filled by Segara Anak crater. Standing at 3726 metres above sea level, it is also Indonesia’s second highest peak. Those who have hiked up this peak will know the unspeakable joy of seeing this beauty up where it belongs. I can now say that I’ve scaled up and down this notoriously difficult mountain, and made it back to tell you my experience. To sum up the entire trekking experience in one sentence: It is not for the faint-hearted.

Here are some lessons learnt about this hike which will hopefully prepare me for my upcoming 20-month journey with Asia School of Business for an MBA:

Do something which will scare you every now and then.

Adapted from Eleanor Roosevelt’s quote, “Do one thing every day that scares you,” I’m a firm believer of challenging myself to do something every now and then which will terrify and scare the living daylights out of me. This hike did exactly that. While it was my own decision to hike this mountain, reading one hiking blog after another only made me ‘fear’ it even more. Every blog I read described it as the ‘most physically and mentally challenging hike’ you will ever do.

Like they say: if it scares you, it might be a good thing to try. Coming from a background in law, pursuing an MBA is a terrifying thing to do. It means saying goodbye (for now) to everything I know and am familiar with in litigation, legal jargon and court rooms. Saying yes to an MBA means opening myself up to the unknown, where I would have to familiarise myself with subjects like Math, Finance, Economics and Business Administration.

Don’t look too far ahead, concentrate on what is before you.

Runners and hikers know this best: it is imperative to look at your own two feet and watch your every step, instead of focusing too far ahead of you. This was especially true during the 2 a.m. hike up from Pelawangan II to the summit of Mount Rinjani. My heart would quicken when I looked too far ahead and saw the summit, which looked like it was close but never close enough.

I foresee the days as an MBA student, where all I may be asking myself is if I’m there yet, in reference to the finishing line at the end of the 20-month program. Having spoken to some of my seniors, I’ve been told that it will be a challenging and uphill climb just like Mount Rinjani — but thankfully, not utterly impossible. A line from the hike that I hope will keep me going through the tough times ahead will be, “Sarah, keep going – just one foot after the other.”

Trust your guide.

Jus Fardy, the guide, has hiked Mount Rinjani more than 100 times over the course of his “career” as a mountain guide. I trusted him completely for direction, safety, good meals, hiking tips and motivation. Similarly, as my future classmates and I will be the second class to ever graduate from ASB, we have learnt (and are continuing to learn) how to trust our school and its faculty and staff. Although ASB is a start-up business school, we are in very good hands because, as our Dean Charles Fine has stated: “[ASB is a very well-endowed start-up… We have two very successful and mature parents [Bank Negara and MIT Sloan].”

Since receiving our acceptance letters we have been in constant contact with ASB staff and faculty. They have worked very hard to ensure a smooth transition for us and we have been assured that our Dean and Professors are always readily available and are personally invested in our growth. The students in ASB’s inaugural Class of 2018 have also been an immense help to us, creating a buddy system between their class and ours to assist us with any of our queries or for advice.

You are stronger than you think.

This hike brought many challenges along the way. But there was no time to dwell on my muscles that were aching, lungs that were constantly gasping for air and legs that were screaming for rest. Every part of my body hurt, and yet I felt amazing. The hike made me go on a deep (albeit short) journey of reflection and self-discovery. There truly was something magical about scaling a mountain: it helped me redefine my purpose, realign my compass and set myself a clearer goal for the coming months ahead.

Hiking is largely a mind-over-matter battle. I just had to keep telling myself that something amazing is just around the corner and that it’s going to be worth it. And with that, I found that I was stronger than I thought. Hiking brings out the perseverance in me because I want to come out of it stronger and better, a value that I wish to carry with me into business school.

It doesn’t matter how slow you go, as long as you don’t stop.

Prior to putting in an application for the MBA program, I raised quite a few queries and concerns to both my seniors and the staff, feeling unsure if I was cut out for business school. Now that I’ve made the commitment to pursue it, this will be my solid reminder: “You. Just. Don’t. Quit.” Having met some of my incredibly talented and wildly passionate classmates, there is a certain level of intimidation from seeing how extraordinary they are.

Despite my fear of being unable to catch up, I just have to remind myself to follow my own pace and not to quit because, slowly but surely, I will get to where I want to be. When I finally reached the summit of Mount Rinjani the first thing I thought to myself was that this was physically and mentally the most challenging thing I’ve done thus far in my life. Immediately after that came, “What’s next?”

ASB, I’m ready for you.

Last November, fifteen students from the class of MBA 2019 made a trip to Kolkata, India, to celebrate the union of our classmate Mounika Myudukur with Rahul Kanoi, her sweetheart of 11 years. It was the first time an ASB student was getting married during the program, so of course we had to make a big deal out of it! The stars truly aligned as everyone— students, professors and faculty—worked together to make this trip happen during our Thanksgiving break.

We traveled four and a half hours from Kuala Lumpur to the artistic and cultural city of Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal. There was something undeniably magical and heart-warming about witnessing the wedding ceremony of these two lovebirds, as they gathered in front of family and friends to perform their marriage rituals and vows. This trip was especially memorable because Mounika gave us the opportunity to perform a dance on stage during the Sangeet ceremony.

Imagine the crowd going wild when fifteen international students took over the stage and danced to Nachne De Saare and Kaala Chasma! Diversity was truly at its best, with each of us donning beautiful and brightly colored saris and sherwanis. It was a stunning affair which we wouldn’t have traded for anything else in the world!

Congratulations again, Mr and Mrs Kanoi, with love from your ASB family.