Felicia Shaw decided to get an MBA at LKCSB to hone her leadership skills and expand her horizons beyond science.
Most people get a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) after completing an undergraduate degree and after getting a few years of working experience under their belt.
Felicia Shaw, however, has taken a different path. Dr Shaw, 39, has a doctorate in Geophysics from the University of Oxford and has held positions at the Ministry of the Environment & Water Resources and the Meteorological Service Singapore. She embarked on her journey to get a MBA in July 2017 and will complete it at the end of this year.
People do not often think of the civil service as ‘entrepreneurial’ but Dr Shaw wanted to get a MBA because she wanted to be better rounded and more plugged-in to the mindset of business leaders. Formulating policies requires forward-thinking and an understanding of the entire landscape. I think I do a better job when I'm better informed."
She considered a few programmes but eventually set her sights on the part-time MBA run by the Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB).
She liked fact that it is based in Asia, and it has an Asian outlook. Getting a MBA from an Asian university was important because Asia is a great driver of global growth, she said.
The reputation of the school was another factor. "SMU had reputation about the faculty that they recruit. The faculty had business careers and some adjuncts even run their own start-ups. They bring in the practitioners eye, and I really wanted this to not be an academic exercise."
She was also impressed that the university appeared to be a hive of activity. "Something was always happening at SMU. The students were always doing something interesting. SMU had a buzz. The university wasn't just standing still."
Its youth was a factor in its favour. "SMU is relatively young. There's something to be said for that. It's a young, hungry, school that is obsessed with improvement."
More than a year in, she has found that the course has lived up to expectations. One module she found eye-opening was Organisational Behaviour and Leadership. "If you're trying to become a better leader, sometimes you can see people as an input, a resource. This course opened our minds to issues like diversity, people's feelings, and understanding people's motivations and our motivations."
Accounting was the other course that she enjoyed. "The way it was taught in SMU, we were given this understanding that accounting is like you're a doctor examining a patient. You can get a deep understanding of the health of the company."
Apart from the coursework, she has also been involved in competitions as well, which saw her going overseas twice. In April this year, Dr Shaw, together with two other classmates won the 8th Kellogg – Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge, which was held in London.
The team, Koponan Haiyan, came up with the idea of an “ASEAN Storm Resilience Fund”. The fund aims to help farming communities withstand extreme weather events. It combines grassroots-led microfinancing with a development impact bond enhancement feature, and facilitates investment in storm-resistant housing.
As part of their prize, the team travelled to Los Angeles to present their ideas at the prestigious Milken Institute Global Conference.
Working on the competition was important to Dr Shaw because sustainable development is a topic close to her heart. "It blew my mind that there were people running competitions to deploy private capital to social causes."
Her involvement with the competition meant that she was busier than most. Doing a part-time MBA is no easy task and Dr Shaw, as the other part-time students did, had to juggle work, studies and family. Tradeoffs had to be made. "I'm very glad for the support from my family, husband and elderly parents."
Her advice to people considering a MBA course is to pick the Lee Kong Chian School of Business. "If they want to change the world for the better, if they want that nurturing supportive environment, SMU is the school.
"SMU has all these tools to give you the confidence to do things. If you see everyone else doing things, you are inspired to do it too."
