Happy Deepavali! - Nanyang Technological University

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The NANYANG MBA 2012-2013
Issue #3: November 30, 2012
Feature Article by Bodi Yuhico Happy Deepavali!
A Taste of India Dance Masters Manish Saini and Shilpa Vaswani burn up the dance floor In my previous class, I was told to refrain from “bombastic metaphors” and “out-­‐of-­‐this-­‐world hyperboles” for a professional essay to be written. But I can’t for this article. Quite honestly, the celebration was magical. It was an accomplishment through the efforts of the Cultural Arts Club in conjunction with the Indians of the cohort. Though Diwali was actually on November 13, a Tuesday, we celebrated on November 17, a Saturday, so that more people in the cohort could celebrate with us. Now, a caveat: generally I’ve had a good experience amongst Indians in the cohort. I’ve gotten to love their language, their food, and their love of music, fun, and Bollywood. However, this was the very first time that I celebrated one of their holidays. Continued in p. 3 CSR Nature Walk An early morning walk through
Nature’s Lap
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Issue #3: November 30, 2012
What’s in the
Newsletter?
Article by Yash Khandelwal An Early Morning Walk
Through Nature’s Lap
Birthdays for the Month of Nov p.03
Have you greeted them happy birthday yet? Check who’s celebrating their birthdays this m onth! Recap of the Trimester Beeeeeeeeep!! As my hands involuntarily hit the snooze button again, it suddenly dawned upon me... Darn! I'm late again and this time, for the NATURE WALK! The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Club had organized the nature's walk through the mesmerizing Southern Ridges in Singapore. An avid lover of trails and walks in natural surroundings as I was, waking up early morning during the recess week was a challenge, but was definitely not going to deter me from signing up for this event. Up and about, a bunch of eagerly enthusiastic fellow MBA batch mates finally headed towards Harbourfront, shaking off the after-­‐effects of the ‘End of T1 party’ the previous evening. After a scrumptious early morning breakfast at McDonald's, we were all set to hit the 9 km long trail! p.06
Did you miss anything this trimester? We’ve got a basic recap of Club Activities and Social Events for you! Continued in p. 3 2 2
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Issue #3: November 30, 2012
A fresh waft of the early morning natural air hit us as soon as we reached the Marang Trail, the first leg of our walk. Such a beautiful natural reserve amidst the hustle and bustle of Singapore was completely unbelievable! It was instantly rejuvenating and got us all the more excited towards what lay ahead. Walking ahead though the Faber Walk, constantly cracking jokes while momentarily soaking in the tranquility of the surroundings, we came across breathtaking views of the Singapore Harbour and the cable cars to the happening Sentosa Island. The artistic ‘Henderson Waves’ was our next stop. The wavy bridge offered a scenic backdrop of the Singapore skyline with its green surroundings. We took a short break in one of the alcoves of the bridge. Watching the crowd, both, young and old, jogging along the trek, made me remember my unfulfilled New Year resolution – early morning jogs every day without fail! And so we continued with the trek. After passing through the Hilltop walk, running all the way up the Terrace Garden to soak in the 360 degrees skyline of Singapore, and enjoying the rich biodiversity of the Forest Walk, we came across the unique Alexandra Arch and Floral Park, in which gorgeous flowers and lush greenery abound as far as we could see. Finally, as they say, always save the best for the last. The final leg of the trail, the Canopy Walk was indeed the icing on the cake. A wooden walkway through the fascinating man-­‐made jungle canopies with the sounds of birds and insects breaking the otherwise seemingly quiet surrounds was an experience in itself. We rounded off the journey with a delicious Malay lunch at a quaint little restaurant near Kent Ridge. A fitting end to a totally awe-­‐inspiring experience! On my way back, I could not stop reflecting on the fact that however urbanized our lives may become; nothing can truly beat the peace and solace that we attain in nature’s lap. It is indeed one of the b est ways to rejuvenate our mind and soul. I thank the CSR Club of the Nanyang MBA and my fellow batch mates for making this one of my favorite experiences in Singapore. Birthday Celebrants for November!
We would like to greet the November birthday celebrants of our NANYANG MBA Cohort of 2012-­‐2013! FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Ada, Anise, Harini, Kawtar, Minti, and Souma If we missed your birthday, please just contact us! And make sure to fill out the Database Google Document so that we can make sure we don’t miss any others! Cheers! 3 2
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Issue #3: November 30, 2012
Rangoli The night started out with Rangoli, a game played in teams to design beautiful and colorful drawings. We used colored rice (though traditionally, colored powders were used) and had guides from our handy iPads. In our team made up of Aikta, Kawtar, Martin, and myself only Aikta was an Indian, and so I didn’t expect a lot from our Rangoli. However, when all was done, I was amazed by how much we were able to do. The same could be said with the other group, with only Harini having had experience with Rangoli before. In their team were Jennifer, Verena, Florence, Alex, and Rita. Bhangra To kick-­‐off the official start of the Nanyang MBA Cohort of 2012-­‐2013’s first Diwali together, a performance was prepared by the beautiful Shilpa Vaswani and Aikta Kumar. Everyone was dressed in elegant Indian attire, most of which was supplied by Shilpa Vaswani. It ended with all the guests dancing spontaneously to songs we couldn’t understand. Truly, music is a great equalizer, moving both those who understood the songs and those who didn’t. Continued in p. 5 4 4
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The Food We were then told that traditionally, no meat was consumed during Diwali. This was certainly new to a lot of the cohort. However, meat-­‐eaters were in for a surprise. No less than the great meat-­‐eater John Rae Cortes declared, “I never knew vegetarian food could be so filling!” We had our fill of rice, roti, beans, and all sorts of Indian food. Tattoos (Non-­‐Permanent!) While we were eating, several tattoo artists (Manish, Jennifer, and Charu) were using henna to give some non-­‐permanent tattoos to a number of our classmates . And the night continued with more laughter, more dancing, and more food. We learned more about the culture and customs of our Indian colleagues. We experienced their music, food, and games. We were one with them, as one Nanyang MBA community, as they celebrated their Festival of Lights. Happy Deepavali to everyone! The Origin and Meaning of DEEPAVALI
Deepavali, or Diwali, is popularly known as the “Festival of Lights”, and literally means, “row of lights.” It is celebrated all over the world by Hindus, Jains, and Sikhs, and is one of their most important religious holidays. Diwali is celebrated on the darkest night of the year, homes are decorated with lights and lit lamps (called diyas), to banish the dark and welcome in the light and good fortune. There are many stories on the origin of Diwali, but the most common story is of the Lord Ram, who was banished into the forest by his stepmother the Queen, whose evil handmaid poisoned her mind against him. With him came his wife Sita. During their banishment, the demon king Ravan kidnapped Sita. This led to a long war where Lord Ram emerged victorious. As it was the darkest night of the year, as Lord Ram returned to the city, the people lit up diyas to help him return home. 5 Issue #3: November 30, 2012
What happened
in November?
Article by Jad Abou Ibrahim Experiencing a Lebanese
Night
In the words of Chris de Burgh “It was late in a Lebanese restaurant in the heat of a Lebanese n ight, there was dancing, p eople were singing…” Well that didn’t literally happen at our Lebanese Dinner gathering on November 11, 2012 as ten of us went to experience, enjoy and/or reminisce, the Lebanese cuisine at Al-­‐Qasr in Holland Village. The restaurant offered a variety of authentic Lebanese appetizers, dinner meals, and desserts at a great value to enhance the experience while learning the names, meaning behind the names and the pronunciation of each food item; it sometimes took longer to remember them than it took to prepare the food! However, with the restaurant’s generosity, the whole group was able to try an array of mouth-­‐watering dishes whether they were appetizers that included but were not limited to: “Labneh m3 Zeit Zeitoun” (Labneh [kind of yoghurt] with Olive Oil), “Fatayer m3 Jibneh/Sbenikh” (Pies with cheese/spinach), “Hummus” (Paste made from chick-­‐peas), or stomach-­‐
pleasing main courses that included but were not limited to “Falafel” (fried chick-­‐peas paste); “Shish-­‐Tawouk m3 toom” (Grilled Chicken with Garlic Paste); “Msaka Batinjen” (Eggplants and vegetables) and finally the ever sweet desserts such as Baklava. We hope this experience was good enough to give a “taste” (no pun intended here!) of some Lebanese culture and as a result of this good turnout we are planning to make this a monthly event so stay tuned everyone! Continued in p. 7 6 1
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Issue #3: November 30, 2012
Women in Business
Article by Shilpa Vaswani CLUB NEWS: Women in Business Mixer
On Wednesday, 21st November, the Women in Business Club organized a mixer with the International Women’s Federation of Commerce and Industry (IWFCI), members of which included some of the elite and self-­‐established Women entrepreneurs of Singapore, who work to sustain and develop businesses with a social urge. It was a fun and informational networking session held at ‘True Beauty spa’ in downtown Singapore. It was refreshing to feed on a unique and healthy diet, cheese and fruits. We met some very interesting affiliates from across various industries including entertainment, information technology, hospitality, fragrances, social welfare, beauty, and workforce optimization. The members were extremely amiable and welcoming; they were excited to see aspiring MBA students considering the possibility of future entrepreneurial stints. They were passionate to share about their careers, industries and overall experiences in their respective ventures. Ann Phua, the IWFCI Chairman, who has established numerous enterprises and currently heads four international businesses, was an inspirational role model. She spoke about the IWFCI Incubation Programme for Women, which helps entrepreneurs succeed in their start up ventures by providing them with the necessary financial, management, technological, marketing and legal advisory, as a free service to foster the organization’s role in community service geared towards young women entrepreneurs. Sharfah Fazzaleen, the Communications industry attested to the fact that the IWFCIS board members have all risen through hardships in their lives and aim to promote and encourage women entrepreneurs. There were abundant elements of fun, knowledge sharing and networking during the event, but most importantly, an element of inspiration that triggered our minds to go beyond the ordinary, to realize the possibility of a healthy consortium between business and social welfare, propagated by women business leaders. The event was a gratifying experience and the perseverant women entrepreneurs definitely sparked a desire to follow our entrepreneurial streaks. 7 1
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Issue #3: November 30, 2012
Article by Luke Norris CLUB NEWS: Run for Hope (CSR)
The Run For Hope (RFH) is an annual charity event organized by Four Seasons Hotel Singapore, Regent Singapore and the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) to raise much-­‐needed funds for cancer research. Mr. Isadore Sharp, CEO and founder of the Canadian-­‐based Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, lost his fourth son Christopher to melanoma cancer in 1978. In memory of his son, Mr. Sharp spearheaded a worldwide program that established annual runs raising funds for cancer research in cities where their hotels and resorts are located. This year’s annual event took place on Sunday, November 18th, with a lovely 3.5 km course leading around Marina Bay, and a 10 km course that extended out along the Marina Channel as well. NTU’s 2013 MBA cohort gathered together and raised money for the charity so that 22 members of the cohort could participate in the event. Thousands of people from all over Singapore joined in support of this great cause with the MBA cohort showing not only solidarity with those inflicted with cancer, but also some school spirit by wearing the MBA blue-­‐and-­‐
white sports t-­‐shirt. No matter the distance, be it 3.5 km or 10 km, everyone contributed by donating money, and with the hot and humid Singaporean weather, everyone donated a kilo of “sweat equity” too. 8 Issue #3: November 30, 2012
Article by Sapan Sharma CLUB NEWS: Bandai Namco
(Technology Consulting Club)
The Bandai Namco Group is a Japanese holding company with business interests in toys, video games and arcades, anime, and amusement parks. The brand is popular in almost all of the Asian kids for characters such as Power Rangers and Tamagotchi. The management team from Bandai Namco and Globis Singapore visited the NTU campus to share the details of the Business plan competition, which will be held on January’13. Some of Singapore’s top MBA colleges including NBS, NUS and SMU will be participating in this competition. The opening remarks and formal introduction were made by club co chairs – Sapan Sharma and Manish Saini followed by the description of the company products and expansion strategy by Bandai Namco executives. The participants raised queries on the competition’s deliverables and general scheme of events. Participating executives, in addition to responding to the general queries, presented the procedures and guidelines to be followed by participating teams. A networking session with the Bandai Namco’s executives followed the information sharing session, and the overall event was concluded with a note of thanks by the club co-­‐chairs. Model Gundam figurine
Source: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/gundam-wing-zero
Power Rangers figurines
Source: http://www.megazord.net/page58.htm
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Article by Alex Ong CLUB NEWS: Bloomberg Workshop
(Banking & Finance Club)
On Nov 16 Friday, a group of 32 Nanyang MBA students participated in a Bloomberg workshop organized by the Banking & Finance club. The workshop was held in Bloomberg L.P. office at Capital Square tower in the Central Business District. Due to great responses from the Nanyang MBA cohort, the workshop was split into two different sessions (AM & PM) to accommodate more people. The workshop started with an office tour by our host Mr. Aniket Dighe, during which we toured around the broadcasting studio, the research floor, and the “five-­‐
star” office pantry. After enjoying a short snack-­‐
session, we were directed to Bloomberg’s professional training room by our trainer, Mr. Fu Yu. The two-­‐hour workshop covered basic functions of the Bloomberg terminal and several advanced features in equity research – it was a very informative learning experience. The event was a success and was given a 4.67/5.00 overall rating by the participants. The B&F club looks forward to the upcoming advanced modules workshops, which is tentatively scheduled to be held in January. Stay tuned! 10 1
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Article by Oliver Parschat CLUB NEWS: RGF Recruitment Talk
(Technology and Consulting Club)
The RGF meeting on the 21st of November was by far the most fruitful and interesting recruitment meet during my time at the Nanyang Business School. RGF is not representing a particular company, but gives access to a lot of different companies, especially in Japan. The RGF staff was extremely amiable and more than willing to answer any questions regarding their company or regarding their clients. Further information was also given off the record, for instance, concerns such as alternative options for those not interested in the ‘Work in Japan program’ were addressed. Another distinctly positive characteristic of the RGF staff was, that they were not reluctant to give out their business cards, a seldom occurrence even in a , company presentation focused towards a small group of individuals in NBS. The participants were given two tests, which took us all by surprise. One of the tests was arithmetic in nature, more like the GMAT and was rather challenging. None of us were prepared for the test, so the results might not truly reflect our best performance. After the math test, we had a short coffee break and resumed with a personality test. Some of the questions were pretty funny, such as if you have a fighting spirit ( where we asked ourselves the question, when drunk or sober?) There were a couple of other questions that led to a similar confusion. We were told that the test results will be used later to match the candidates with the respective Japanese companies, wherein according to RGF, the math test is rather a hygiene factor, but the important part is the personality test. I can attest on behalf of the participants that this was indeed a fruitful afternoon. Therefore, a big thank you to the two co-­‐chairs of the technology consultancy club for organizing this event and to all those who participated. 11 1
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Article by Piyush Goel Peter Woon, an NBS alumnus, and now VP, Procurement and Supply Chain at M arina Bay Sands Pte Ltd shared some valuable insights at the guest speaker series today. “What do Apple chief executive Tim Cook, Rio Tinto director Sam Walsh and former Boral chief executive Mark Selway have in common? They all share backgrounds in procurement.” These were the initial lines by the speaker, which clearly show, the growing importance of procurement as a profession and how today’s CPO’s (Chief Procurement Officers) are rising to become the CEOs of the future. During the session, Peter explained to us the significance of the Procurement department in Cost Savings, Risk Management and as a gate-­‐keeping tool for innovation strategies on the Supply side. There was also a good discussion on the growing importance of sustainability in the supply chain with an emphasis on risk mitigation and supplier relationship management. Marina Bay Sands (MBS) is an integrated resort which consists of more than 2,500-­‐rooms, a 1,300,000-­‐square-­‐
foot convention-­‐exhibition centre and a casino with 500 tables and 1,600 slot machines. The complexity in procurement of Food & Beverages, Services & building material is indeed tremendous! As such, the complexity is demanding to the extent that the procurement team of MBS churns out more than 600 p urchase orders in a day. An illustrative example for simplifying this complexity in layman terms, consider this -­‐ the total consumption of wine bottles alone is about 225,000 a year, to add to that, the wine is procured from more than 16 countries! Moreover, MBS orders 7,000 eggs per day! He went on to elaborate how there are 15,000 stock keeping units (SKU’s) for food and beverage items alone and joked about how the perishable products such as milk and cheese are converted into delectable tiramisus for the staff to minimise disposals. As a procurement officer in the automobile industry in the past, I could relate to the degree of intricacies involved in any procurement division, but what impressed me, the most about the talk was how category management helps MBS tackle the enormous complexity in expenditure planning . It was also an eye-­‐opener to see a chessboard model presented b y Peter for using different transformation levers for procurement. Peter concluded his talk by giving us a snapshot of the future initiatives the team plans to undertake at MBS in terms of procurement. He happily answered all the queries the audience posed ranging from career opportunities in procurement to the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of his managers. Truly, we were enlightened today towards procurement as a profession and as a means of increasing profitability for the organization. 12 Issue #2: October 27, 2012
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A Big Thank You to the Writers and Photographers who
contributed in making this newsletter happen!
Bodi Yuhico
Shilpa Vaswani
VP Communications Editor-­‐in-­‐Chief WRITERS
Yash Khandelwal
Sapan Sharma
Alex Nickolova
“An Early Morning Walk through Nature’s Lap” “Bandai Namco Talk” “Diwali” Alex Ong
Eric Liang-Shu Huang
Jad Abou Ibrahim
“Bloomberg Workshop” “Run for Hope” Oliver Parschat
Priya Kashyap
“Lebanese Dinner” Luke Norris
“Run for Hope” PHOTOGRAPHERS
“RGF Talk” Piyush Goel
“Marina Bay Sands Talk” “An Early Morning Walk through Nature’s Lap” , “ExCo”