Programme Structure

Course Description

The aim of this course is to introduce the design and use of management accounting information for planning, control and decision making within business organisations. The organisational architecture will be used as the organizing framework. The major topics covered in this course include product costing, activity-based costing and management, transfer pricing issues, tools for decision making such as cost-volume-profit (CVP) analysis, and performance evaluation and measurement. The course also includes a discussion on sustainability issues and possible measurement of these objectives.

Learning Objectives

• Understand managerial accounting concepts and terminology and learn about cost behaviour and cost classifications
• Understand the methods of product/service costing and why they are important
• Be able to apply the quantitative tools to various decisions faced by managers and for strategic planning
• Understand the various financial and non-financial performance measures and how they are used to establish effective control

Course Description

The global economy presents many opportunities and challenges for businesses and their leaders. Senior executives need to develop a repertoire of strategic leadership capabilities to remain effective. One of the most important capabilities needed is cultural intelligence (CQ) – the ability to function effectively across a variety of cultural contexts. This course will equip participants with a working understanding of Cultural intelligence (CQ) and its relevance to their industry and organisation.

Learning Objectives

• To understand the cultural intelligence framework and its implications for executives working in global industries
• To enhance their awareness of their strengths and weaknesses in managing cross-cultural situations
• To enhance their repertoire of strategic leadership capabilities
• To develop a plan for enhancing cultural intelligence personally and throughout their organisation
• To discern the different dimensions of national culture and the underlying assumptions of one’s own cultural perspective
• To understand what culture is and the different spheres of culture (national, regional, industry, company, etc.)

Course Description

This course will focus on strategies for acquiring, managing, and retaining talent. Students will learn about different ways to think about “talent” and how to find, engage, and retain it to fulfil organisations’ strategic objectives.  Some selected talent management theories and models will be complemented by “best practice” case studies and discussions of your own managerial experiences.

Course Description

Global supply chains play a vital role in today’s economy because efficient and responsive supply chains not only help companies improve profitability but also allow customers to receive better products at lower prices and better service levels. In this course, participants will learn the key techniques and strategies in managing global supply chains; namely, network design, inventory, and replenishment processes, designing efficient versus responsive supply chains, contracting and strategic procurement, and implications of emerging technologies. This knowledge will help participants to enhance supply chain efficiencies, manage economic risks, optimize network performance, and apply best practices and new technologies to create superior supply chain value.

Global supply chains are critical building blocks in value creation for any organisation or industry. Managing them is a complex endeavour which would benefit from attention to detail in finding opportunities for performance improvement. This means that participants must first understand the nature, structure, challenges as well as drivers of supply chain performance. Thereafter, they will need to be exposed to best practices like modularization, postponement, among others, as well as to learn optimization tools such as network design and inventory control.

Learning Objectives

• Provide an understanding and appreciation of key challenges and drivers in managing global supply chains
• Expose participants to techniques and strategies used to optimize supply chain decisions and to anticipate or explain supply chain phenomena

Course Description

The pervasiveness and impact of IT, in all its forms, is ubiquitous. Technological change and the speed, manifested in new devices and gadgets and software, is clear to all. What is more of a challenge is our ability to comprehend their subtle impacts and then of course to cope with them. What should businesses do and how can they prepare for this disruptive landscape? In an era where new traditional industries are being challenges by new technology competitors, where rules of the game are being changed so dramatically that incumbents who were monopolies are going bankrupt, it is imperative to step back and take a fundamental look at the new economics of the digital world.

This course is about understanding such issues and to ultimately surface patterns of IT-driven change and strategies. Through case studies of multiple companies in varied industries, we will try and understand how IT is reshaping the economic landscape by offering new ways to gather information, compete based on value-added knowledge, and providing new ways to coordinate and connect.

Since the Internet has motivated much of this disruption, our class discussions pertain to the context of online companies who in a short period of time have become giants in their own rights. And that is also because participants’ experience in traditional industries then offers a rich context to contrast the old vs. the new, and that is the contribution expected of everyone in the class.

Learning Objectives

• Understanding important IT management issues and developments
• Examination of key technologies and their strategic value and disruptive potential
• Examine how companies are becoming more knowledge – driven and using innovation and intellectual property as strategic resources
• The viability of technology-driven business opportunities – how value is created, what are the critical costs associated with creating this value, and to what extent a sustainable competitive advantage can be maintained that is based on IT

Course Description

The objective is to inculcate an understanding of the various functions of the financial manager and how these functions relate to the overall business of the firm. The major topics covered include risk and return, cost of capital, capital budgeting, capital structure determination, and the dividend policy.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the various aspects of financial management to maximize the value of the organisation
• Evaluate strategic choices involved in capital budgeting, including estimation of project cash flows, measurement of cost of capital and appropriate mix of various sources of funds

Course Description

This course is designed to help participants develop strong conceptual foundations for understanding design thinking and identifying opportunities in the latest technologies such as Blockchain and AI. It is important to recognize the different types of technology innovations and the role that they play in organisations and society.

The latest technologies bring about many opportunities for firms. A sound understanding of the latest technologies, coupled with the design thinking framework that helps business leaders to understand how to spot business opportunities amidst the cry for using such latest technologies, is critical for today’s leaders.

Learning Objectives

• Understand fundamental concepts and principles of design thinking and how it is applied to various organisations
• Learn to apply different design research techniques for opportunity identification
• Examine how firms may utilize the latest technologies to leverage on business opportunities
• Understand the basics of blockchain and challenges with using and implementing the technology
• Understand the basics of AI, ethics of AI and the latest industry trends related to AI

Course Description

The brands that a firm has invested in and developed over time are typically their most valuable assets. Product designs, manufacturing processes and other business processes may be easily copied, but a strong brand is something that cannot be easily reproduced.

Many Asian companies are coming to terms with the importance of branding and are putting more resources into building a strong brand. This is evident from the number of branding awards (e.g., Singapore Promising Brand Award, Readers’ Digest Most Trusted Brand Award etc) being handed out in recent years. Companies are also paying top dollars for branding managers.

This course aims to inform students about the current theories and findings on how firms manage brands and how consumers (in particular Asian consumers) view brands.

Learning Objectives

This course aims to help participants acquire a good understanding of the branding strategies and factors affecting consumers’ reactions to these strategies. We will discuss how cultures may affect the effectiveness of different strategies and how Asian consumers view brands in general.

Course Description

This course aims to develop your understanding of the main analytical techniques and conceptual frameworks to understand the drivers of profitability and change in industries and competitive markets.

You will also reflect and create a capability development roadmap to enhance your professional contribution and leadership to transform your organisations.

Learning Objectives

• Introduce participants to the concepts of strategy, value, and advantage
• Develop an understanding of the main analytical techniques to assess firms’ competitive positions and apply them to specific situations
• Develop an appreciation of the economic theory underlying strategic choices across the business and corporate strategies
• Differentiate between business models and business strategy
• To consider and discuss how strategic capabilities may be developed and deepened in your organisation so that you may achieve strategic outcomes for the organisation

Course Description

This course introduces to the participants the key concepts of analytics, which are of growing importance within the modern organisation. Participants will be introduced to the process and tools relating to business analytics. Using real-life case studies, participants will be given the opportunity to have hands-on experience on building analytical models that will guide decision marking for common business problems such as profit and revenue forecast, customer segmentation, and consumer trend analysis.

This course systematically introduces the process of developing a strong business analytic case starting from the exploration of the data context to finally obtaining the explanatory or predictive results. The students will learn how to ask the right questions and how to draw inferences from the data by using the appropriate statistical and data mining tools.

Overall, the course will enable students to approach business problems data-analytically, envision business analytics opportunities in organisations, and also follow up on ideas or opportunities that present themselves.

Learning Objectives

• Problem formulation in business analytics
• Introduce various statistical applications, tools and analytical applications which are applied in various business contexts
• Discuss the various concepts and cases of statistical applications
• Examine supervised learning methods, such as classification and prediction
• Examine unsupervised learning methods, such as association rules and clustering

Course Description

The course aims to provide the participants an in-depth understanding of economic principles and the interactions between the macroeconomic policies and the private sector in the areas that are applicable to managers. The course covers economic principles and content with 3 main focuses that are essential to the decision-making of business managers. Firstly, the course explains economic elements facing any business i.e. consumer behaviors of their clients and the business cost structure.  Secondly, the course explains different market structures that firms are in with the aim of providing participants an ability to plan strategic response to successfully navigate the business. And lastly, the course explains interactions between some major government macroeconomic policies that their impact on the business and the society at large.

The course is designed with the audience who are business practitioners in mind. The focus will be on economic topics that business managers will need to incorporate into their analyses of the markets, industry structure, business-government interactions and business strategies suitable for competing under various market environments.

Learning Objectives

• Understand how a rational individual makes economic decisions
• Explain important economic issues that enable students to understand the economic behaviours of their customers, and the plan competitive strategies suitable for their business environments
• Enable students to understand daily economic events they see in the media

Course Description

With the growing threats of technological disruption, the race for digital transformation has begun. However, many organisations are struggling to develop an effective approach to realize the value of their digital transformation efforts. Executives have diverse perspectives as to what “going digital” really means. 74% of respondents in a Forrester survey also feel that their companies do not fully understand the potential of digital to change value creation. How do you reimagine the future to craft the digital business strategy? How do you drive digital transformation to get there? 

Learning Objectives

This course thus aims to deepen the understanding on digital transformation and unpack its variation under different contexts of technological disruption. Investing in more digital initiatives does not necessarily lead to a stronger digital transformation strategy. Executives should develop a good appreciation that digital transformation requires much more than the pursuit of the latest technological innovation, and also gain new insights on HOW they can embark on the digital transformation journey to begin building a more agile enterprise to be future-ready.

Course Description

Negotiation is essential not only in a professional or business context, but also in social and personal settings. Strong negotiation skills are therefore an important prerequisite for professional and personal success. You are a good negotiator if you can get what you want from your negotiating counterparts; you are an excellent negotiator if those negotiating counterparts are happy to deal with you again. Good negotiation skills can be innate; excellent negotiation skills require careful thought and attention to the process.

This module is designed to allow you to have a deeper understanding of your own negotiation strengths and weaknesses, to equip you with the tools and framework for analysing and preparing for negotiations, and to help you hone the negotiation skills so crucial for success in leadership roles and in dealings with internal as well as external parties. This module adopts a variety of instructional methods, from lectures, videos and discussions to experiential learning through role-playing and simulation exercises.

Learning Objectives

• Understand basic principles of negotiation
• Utilise a framework for negotiation
• Prepare for, and conduct, negotiations in a structured manner
• Establish and maintain relationships in a negotiation
• Adapt negotiation strategies and tactics in different contexts and settings

Course Description

The rapid expansion of the Asian consumer market has prompted global multinationals to concentrate their efforts on building brands that have both global and local appeal.  In a region characterised by considerable cross-cultural differences, the need for accurate Asian market research (MR) has become a priority.  But with new products failing at a staggering 80% each year, companies are now turning to psychology and neuroscience to help them predict more accurately how consumers will behave.

Over the last few decades, neuroscientists have made remarkable progress in understanding how our brains shape and determine our behaviour. The introduction of brain scanners in the latter part of the last century allowed scientists to peer inside the human brain during normal behavior and uncover the mechanisms by which we feel, think and act. We now know that some 90% of our behavior is driven by subconscious brain processes and that our emotions, not our conscious thoughts, that are largely responsible for the decisions we make.

In this module, students will learn how the new tools in the field of neuromarketing are being applied across a wide range of industry sectors and at all stages of the brand journey, to capture consumers’ implicit or subconscious feelings, biases and beliefs about products, brands and marketing messages. They will learn how memories are formed and influenced, how perception can be influenced by subtle environmental cues and how to measure and extract these powerful subconscious responses that can predict subsequent purchasing behavior with greater accuracy than spoken feedback.

Attendees will also learn about the pros and cons of the different neuromarketing tools, the questions that each method is typically best placed to address as well as how to commission research from practitioners in this field.

Learning Objectives

The course is designed to provide students with a practical understanding of how psychological and neuroscientific (often referred to as “neuromarketing”) techniques can be applied at all stages of the brand journey to gain greater insight into consumer behaviour and produce products and brands that have a much higher chance of succeeding in the marketplace.  This knowledge will be gained through lectures, group participation, demonstrations and exposure to actual marketing briefs and guest speakers using these approaches across different industry sectors.

Course Description

Corporate Sustainability deals with strategies, activities, processes and structures that can help organizations sustain themselves as well as their people, natural resources and communities for the long run.

The negative impact created on the society and environment by industrial operations has resulted in increasing pressures from NGOs, civil society, and other stakeholders on corporations to adopt more sustainable and socially responsible practices in all their activities - right from sourcing to distribution, and to how the products and packaging is handled at the end of a use cycle. Corporate sustainability and responsibility have therefore become a key concern for the board members, shareholders as well as market regulators. Sustainability reporting is now a requirement in many countries, including Singapore.

A firm can mitigate the negative impact of its operations on the environment and the community through innovation and by adoption of appropriate technologies and methodologies.

Learning Objectives

• Have an appreciation of the key issues in corporate sustainability
• Understand how to read sustainability reports and evaluate sustainability challenges in specific industries
• Have a good understanding of the specific issues in corporate sustainability that is covered in the class

Course Description

This course will explore the reasons and motivations for mergers and acquisitions and will examine the strategic considerations in planning and implementing a merger or acquisition, in either a friendly or hostile environment. The tools and techniques of valuation, including leverage buyout transactions will be reviewed. The acquisition process will be discussed in detail, including the confidentiality agreement, bid process, due diligence, closing and implementation. The aim is to provide an understanding of the strategic, cost, valuation, structure, financial, legal, accounting, negotiation and implementation issues associated with mergers and acquisitions. 

Learning Objectives

• Understand the underlying dynamics of M&A, including various motivating factors, the role of various participants, analysis of various merger waves and benefits to target and acquiring firms
• Understand various methods of valuations, including leverage buyouts
• Develop understanding of strategic choices involved in acquisitions, including development of acquisition plans, payment methods, takeover defences and achieving value enhancing growth

Course Description

This course moves beyond the “myth” of the lone genius inventor/entrepreneur to highlight the reality of what Dr. Kurt Beyer calls Systems of Innovation.  Though individual inventors and entrepreneurs can be important agents of change, they are embedded in and dependent on a matrix of individuals, organisations, technologies, and institutions.

Learning Objectives

• Silicon Valley Eco-system: The San Francisco Bay Area has been the technological innovation leader for over a half-century. We will explore the pillars of this unique geographic region
• Technical Systems: We are surrounded by mature technical systems (gas-powered transportation), more recent technical systems (the internet), and emerging technical systems (digital currency).  We will learn the framework for how these systems commence, grow, and mature
• Entrepreneurs: Bay Area entrepreneurs are playing a role in the unfolding of the 4th Industrial Revolution. We will learn how entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities, create strategies, manage risks, and reduce resource requirements through lean experimentation, staged investing, and the use of related tactics
• Corporate Innovation: As companies grow and mature, they tend to lose the ability to innovate. We will explore the causes of this rigidness and consider ways for management to overcome it

Course Description

This course is all about maximizing human potential – your own, your team’s, and your organisation's. You will learn innovative leadership tools for establishing and managing prosperous firms while simultaneously creating a thriving career for yourself. Leadership is about coordinating the skills, talents, and resources of individuals and groups in those combinations that best realize the organisation’s opportunities. You must make things happen, and often under conditions or schedules that are not of your own choosing.

Innovative leadership requires managers to be able to diagnose problems, make effective decisions, influence, and motivate others, manage their personal contacts, bring out the best in their colleagues, optimize cross-functional teams, and drive organisational change.

This course prepares you to achieve these objectives. It provides fundamental tools from the behavioural and social sciences that will improve your ability to analyse organisational dynamics, innovate, and lead effectively, while at the same time maintaining your own ethical compass.

Course Description

China Today: Policy Environment and Future Trends
This module covers the current situation and future development trend of China's macro-economy, develops insights into the functions and decision-making mechanism of government institutions in China's public management system, analyses the development trend of China's economy and the impact of China's economic policies on business expansion; and helps participants to define future development strategies in the Chinese market.

Digital Transformation: The Chinese Perspective
This module explores international enterprise global deployment of the origin and development of the digital transformation, upgrades the digitized thinking and develops future-oriented thinking suitable for the digital transformation of corporate strategy under the new technology and business environment; explores the Social Media and Mobile Internet Era of China's e-commerce market; helps participants to construct innovation ability, and gain lasting competitive advantage.

Eco System of China’s Open Innovation
China's biggest strength for development lies in its rich human resources. The 1.3 billion Chinese people, of which over 900 million are in the labour force and over 170 million have received higher education or acquired specialized skills, represent an infinite source of entrepreneurship and innovation. China’s continued growth over the last 40 years depends on the country’s capacity on Imitation to Innovation. China has experienced a substantial transformation in the innovation landscape since the economic reforms and opening up in 1978.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) - Past, Present and Future
Artificial Intelligence is changing the world in many ways. Technological innovation is the most fundamental driving force for economic growth. Scientific and technological innovation has developed rapidly in modern society. It is very important to understand the frontier of science and technology for seizing the business opportunities.

Course Description

How do Enterprises Seek Sustainable Development in the Digital Era?
Environmental sustainability is no longer just a corporate social responsibility (CSR) issue. Nor is it important only for compliance and reporting purposes. Opportunities and risks related to the environment now challenge the strategies and operating models of organizations across all sectors and functions. Digital technologies will play a key role in enabling pricing mechanisms to function effectively, transparently, and in an integrated way. Digital transformation will help make the difference.

How to Succeed in China Market Lessons from Multi-National Enterprises?
China presents many opportunities for Multinationals (MNCs); and MNCs play a key role in the development of China’s economy. However, conducting successful business in China is increasingly challenging. Competition, from both international and domestic players, remains fierce; the rise of e-commerce and the sophisticated Chinese consumer are challenging established business models; attracting, developing and retaining talent is more critical than ever. Added to these is tougher enforcement and a higher emphasis on compliance in an already complex regulatory environment. Through interaction with MNC executive, this course is designed for participants to develop acumen and insight in the way to succeed in China market.

Red Swan: Doing Business in China Deciphered
China’s rapid economic take-off has been one of the most significant economic event in the world in the past four decades. Most studies have focused on pointing out what China has done right in terms of economic policy and institutional reform—rather than on investigating the fundamental causes of China adopting good economic policies and implementing institutional reforms. The quest for these causes is the major undertaking of this course.