30 — Ahead of the Curve
Impact — 31
MBA STUDENTS
WIN THIRD PRIZE
IN BUSINESS CASE
COMPETITION
Representing Singapore Management University
(SMU), a team of Master of Business Adminis-
tration (MBA) students clinched third prize in
the NC State Grand Business Challenge held in
November 2016 at North Carolina (NC) State
University. The case competition was focused
on IT security and sponsored by global health-
care company Merck.
SMU Team InnoVantage MBA postgraduate
students Aravind Gopinath, Issac Tan, Lin Kuoyi,
and Rohit Dewan walked away with US$4,000
after three days of rigorous competition. Rutgers
Business School and Duke University’s Fuqua
School of Business took the first two places.
SMU was the only Asian business school among
the 10 participating business schools.
Their winning proposal targeted “people”
to plan a cyber-attack and then later identified
various methods to defend against the attacks.
The panel of judges from the healthcare,
technology, security and government sectors
observed and judged the student teams to gain
a new outlook on how the company should think
about challenges and innovation management.
The judges hailed from Merck, the National
Security Agency (NSA), Cisco, Intel, Ernst &
Young and Exsostar.
The teams were judged on creativity,
methods, impact, their performance during the
Q&A and overall delivery.
The NSA judge commented that SMU’s
Team InnoVantage was highly polished and
ready for any C-Level meeting, while the Cisco
judge said the slides were so well done that he
wanted to hire the team right away. Merck’s
judge noted that the presentation was very
logical and easy to follow, and that the slides
were very well designed and showed in-depth
knowledge of the subject.
As a precursor to the NC Grand Challenge,
another SMU postgraduate team had clinched
third prize in the inaugural Singapore Grand
Challenge focused on digital health and held by
Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) Global Innovation
Hub on 14-16 April 2016. The SMU multi-disci-
plinary team did well enough for the University
to be invited to participate in the NC State
Grand Business Challenge.
RISING UP THE
GLOBAL RANKING
While a relatively young institution, the Lee
Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB) has
started to figure significantly in global rankings
of business schools, especially for its post-
graduate programmes. The Master of Science
in Wealth Management programme has been
ranked third in the world and first in Asia in the
Financial Times (FT) Global Masters in Finance
Post-experience Ranking 2016.
Another programme, the Master of Science
in Applied Finance was ranked fourth among
Asian business schools in the FT Global Masters
in Finance Pre-experience Ranking 2016. LKCSB
was the only Singaporean institution to be ranked.
It was the first school to be featured in both the
Pre-experience and Post-experience rankings,
and was also the highest-positioned new entrant.
In the FT Executive Master of Business
Administration (EMBA) Ranking 2016, the
school’s EMBA programme was ranked 32
nd
in the world, up four places from 36
th
position
the year before. The school rose to ninth place
among Asian business schools ranked, up one
place from 2015. This is the second time that
the school has made the top 100, in only the
second year of qualifying for the ranking, since
the EMBA programme was set up five years ago.
It will come as no surprise then that the
school’s EMBA graduates are among the best
paid in the world, according to the Financial
Times. LKCSB’s EMBA graduates earn around
US$311,500 a year, which is the sixth highest in
the world. They are also better paid than graduates
from other local institutions. On top of this, the
school’s EMBA graduates are ranked fifth place
globally for pre-EMBA work experience.
TOP 50 IN RANKINGS
The finance group at Singapore Management Uni-
versity is ranked the 43
rd
worldwide, 2
nd
in Asia,
and 1
st
in Singapore according to the Arizona
State University Finance research rankings.
This ranking looks at journal articles
published in four journals —
Journal of Finance,
Journal of Financial Economics
,
Review of
Financial Studies
and the
Journal of Financial
and Quantitative Analysis
— over the period
2004 and 2015.
AN EXCEPTIONAL
UNDERGRADUATE
EDUCATION
Attracting top students and ensuring they are
able to find good jobs is critical for any university.
For the Academic Year 2017/18, the Bachelor
of Business Management (BBM) programme
plans to increase the intake enrolment to 763
students, from 750 the year before.
The school’s BBM graduates have also fared
well in the job market despite the weak market
conditions in Singapore. The average salary of a
BBM graduate is now around $3,722 and about
54 per cent of the school’s graduates received
full-time job offers before graduation, compared
to 50 per cent the previous year.
About 94 per cent of graduates received
full-time job offers within six months of gradua-
tion. Graduates found employment with leading
companies such as Ernst & Young, DBS Bank,
Goldman Sachs, Bloomberg and many other
world-renowned global multi-national corporations.
Apart from paid employment, BBM
graduates are also starting their own businesses
and embarking on entrepreneurial ventures. One
such graduate, Pauline Ng, started Porcelain,
The Face Spa and was featured in the Straits
Times in January 2017.
IMPACT/ SCHOOL
PAULINE NG (LEFT) AND HER
MOTHER JENNY TENG ARE
BEHIND HOME-GROWN BRAND
PORCELAIN, THE FACE SPA.
TEAM HOME RUN COMPRISING
MYO YU, GRACE CHUA,
LOUIS REINALDO, JERMAINE
LIM; TEAM SKUNKWORKS
COMPRISING QUEK YEE LER,
CHELSEA KWAN, DARRYL
WANG, DAVID TAN, ARE SEEN
HERE WITH SMU LECTURER
PAUL LIM, WHO WAS A JUDGE
AT THE PRELIMINARY ROUNDS
OF THE NATIONAL HR CASE
COMPETITION.
HR COMPETITION
SEES FIRST AND
THIRD PLACE
GOING TO SMU
UNDERGRADUATES
Two teams from Singapore Management
University (SMU) took the first and third place
in the 2017 National Human Resources (HR)
Case Competition which was organised by the
Human Resource Consulting Club of Nanyang
Technological University and sponsored by the
Singapore Ministry of Manpower.
Team Skunkworks comprising undergrad-
uates Chelsea Kwan, David Tan, Quek Yee Ler
and Darryl Wang came in first place while The
Home Run Team, comprising Chua Chui Ling,
Grace Yu, Louis Reinaldo and Jermaine Lim took
the third spot. A total of six teams took part.
This year’s competition required teams to
make recommendations to enhance Changi
General Hospital’s work-life programmes, given
its current challenges, including the highly
competitive healthcare sector, rising patient
expectations, the tight labour market and an
ageing population. The teams were also asked
how the Hospital could future-proof its Human
Resources for continued success.
