MBA Tracks

Data, information, knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom continuum. Forms and sources of knowledge. Types of best practices. Knowledge market: the players, dynamics, and pathologies. Theories and principles of knowledge management. Perspectives of knowledge management. Steps in the knowledge management process: knowledge generation, knowledge codification, knowledge transfer. Organisational enablers for sharing and managing knowledge: management, information and technology.

Approaches to implementing knowledge management. Application examples with focus on people-process-technology issues: enterprise knowledge portals, communities of practice, after action reviews, knowledge café, benchmarking and best practices, organisational learning, and incentive programmes. Success stories and lessons learnt from industry. Roles, responsibilities and competencies of KM professionals.

This course introduces students’ issues on energy, natural resources, and environment, and focuses on how they are related to the international political economy and security. The topics we will discuss include (but are not limited to): What is energy security? What are the political and economic consequences of resource production? What are the economic and political factors that affect a country’s decision to develop nuclear energy and/or renewable energy? How does environmental change affect a country’s internal and external security? What efforts does the international society make to manage climate change and environment issues? We will be covering a wide range of issues on energy and environment, including energy resources, renewable resources, climate change, food, water, natural disasters, environmental quality, and nuclear issues, and will discuss how each issue is linked to the international/domestic politics, economy, or security.

This course is designed to help students understand government and politics in Southeast Asia in an era of globalization and uncertainty. It examines state-society relationships, the nature of government and how a government manages its plural society and deals with socio-political issues. The course also examines various theoretical approaches in political science which explain power relationships and causes of conflict and instability with special reference to Southeast Asia. It focuses on the means by which a government legitimizes itself and deals with the problems that it faces. “New” essential political forces such as civil society and major issues such as ethnic and religious tension/conflicts; corruption, and violent oppositions are also discussed.

Although the course covers 11 countries in Southeast Asia, specific examples are taken from the five original ASEAN states (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines) and two mainland Southeast Asian states (Myanmar and Vietnam). Nevertheless, other Southeast Asian countries will also be included in the discussion when relevant.

Since the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997-98, several similar but less severe crises have also erupted in some emerging economies like Brazil, Argentina, Russia, and so on. These events have spurred multilateral institutions (eg, Asian Development Bank, Bank for International Settlements, IMF, World Bank, etc), MNCs, international investment banks, and national governments to develop more rigorous early-warning systems to anticipate such economic crises in countries where they have invested in or lent to. Failing to monitor this kind of crises would entail extremely high cost for international investors and lenders. Recognizing this, country-risk monitoring and crisis-forecasting have become a more sophisticated and elevated management function in these international and national organisations, the importance of which is further underscored by the eruptions of the 2008-09 global economic crisis and the 2010-16 Euro-zone sovereign debt crisis, which ironically had originated from developed, mature economies.

This course aims to introduce students to the concepts, methods and practical applications of country risk assessment and crisis prediction. It takes an interdisciplinary approach to combine the tools of political, economic and financial risk analyses from both the qualitative and quantitative perspectives (while statistical proficiency is not a prerequisite for this course, the lectures, reading materials and case studies are heavily data-driven).

The course will also incorporate real-life, retrospective crises as case studies to help students gain an in-depth understanding of the ingredients that lead to the success or failure of country-risk monitoring and crisis-forecasting.

This course will discuss regional and global financial crisis regarding the causes, policy responses and their impacts, including the theories and approaches behind them. The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007-2009 surprised many regarding how it could happen and start from and originate in the most advanced economy. Also why it became contagious and why it caused devastating impacts to many economies as well as how these developments ultimately lead to the great recession with still further devastating impacts.

Meanwhile many studies have demonstrated that financial crisis has always been part and partial of the market economy. Financial crisis could occur in a single economy, but it could also develop into a contagion to become regional or even global as the world experiencing.

The students will be introduced to relevant concepts and theories as well as policies related to the crisis and crisis management. Practical cases of regional and multilateral cooperation to address crises and to mitigate the adverse impacts, as well as to avoid their repeat will be discussed. Regional and global crises from the Asian Financial Crisis 1997/98, the Global Financial Crisis 2007/08, the European Financial Crisis and its aftermath including the most recent development of the US-China trade and economics tensions and their implications will be discussed.

In one of the earliest known treatises devoted to the conduct of war, Sun Tzu argued that strategists should “deeply  ponder” the effects of military leaders’ temperament and emotions on military effectiveness (The Art of War, pp. 114-115). Almost everything that happens in war, Carl von Clausewitz maintains, is “through the hidden process of intuitive judgment.” (On War, VI/8, 389 italics in original) At its best, this ability allows war leaders to achieve stunning successes. At its worst, it is a source of misperceptions and catastrophic defeats. How do war leaders really make decisions? Why do they make sensible choices that help achieve military effectiveness in some cases, yet misjudge the odds and make the wrong decisions in others? The goal of this class is to examine the influence of war leaders’ cognition on military effectiveness. We examine how research on the psychology of judgment and choice can shed light on generalship; and, in turn, how the study of human cognition is enriched by asking questions that are unique to the political and strategic experience of war.

This course has three distinct segments. The first segment provides an introduction to climate science. The second segment provides tools and financial models for assessing and incorporating climate risks in financial investment decisions. The final segment covers sustainable finance. This segment introduces green bonds and green finance as well as provides tools and methodologies for sustainable investing. The focus of this segment is on both bonds/loans and equity instruments that meet the guidelines developed by various agencies to address climate change challenges. This segment of the course will take perspectives of the issuer of the instrument, the investor, as well as the regulators.

Corporate sustainability involves business strategies to create long-term financial value through measurable societal impact. The focus of this course will be on both preparing and interpreting sustainability and integrated reports. This course covers some of the key existing standards used for environmental, social and governance (ESG) such as Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI), Integrated Reporting (IR) and Sustainability Reporting Standards Board (SASB).

This course addresses energy challenges and scenarios, we are well advised to be aware of, as we look for sustainable development perspectives.

Through a series of six seminars, experienced energy experts of ERI@N explain major changes, energy transition scenarios and advancing key technologies:

• climate emergency, decarbonization, shift to low-carbon electricity,
• renewable energies, distributed energy resources, smart grids,
• transformations in energy market and business models,
• digitalization and AI to support intelligent energy management.

This course aims to help students understand frameworks and tools that can help them to innovate and design solutions with sustainability considerations. Sustainable design refers to designing solutions that consider its impacts on the environment and society. In this course, we will discuss design thinking, systems thinking, and concepts related to frugal innovation, which helps organisations to develop creative and user-relevant ideas that enable them to meet user needs, while considering constraints and environmental & social impacts. The class pedagogy will be interactive, using case studies, videos, hands-on exercises, small group and class-wide discussions.

With greater focus and attention on grand societal and environmental challenges among all stakeholders and customers, there is greater opportunity for companies to develop and market products that are more environmentally friendly and manufactured & distributed in a socially responsible manner. At the same time, companies run the risk of being accused of greenwashing if the green manufacturing and sourcing strategies are not implemented properly. How should companies use the challenge as an opportunity and develop their marketing and communications strategy accordingly? This course will address these issues.

Sustainability is becoming critical with increasing awareness among stakeholders, and it is essential to integrate it in the business to improve all-round performance and growth of organisations. However, sustainability is piecemeal without supply chain and poses supply chain disruption and reputational risks with emerging sustainability challenges. While organisations primarily focus on sustainability of manufacturing operations, minimising environmental and social impacts of supply chain is equally important for ensuring business continuity and protecting the brand. The key objective of the course is to integrate sustainability in procurement & supply chain functions for building the socially responsible supply chain. The course provides insights on diverse aspects of sustainability like governance, legal compliance, management systems, energy, climate change, environment, occupational health & safety, human rights, labour practices and community engagement initiatives.

The course is beneficial for professionals from strategy, operations and procurement & supply chain area for holistically driving sustainability in supply chain and will offer them an edge to lead the strategy, operations as well as procurement & supply chain functions.

Sustainability is becoming critical with increasing awareness among stakeholders, and it is essential to integrate it in the business to improve all-round performance and growth of organisations. However, sustainability is piecemeal without supply chain and poses supply chain disruption and reputational risks with emerging sustainability challenges. While organisations primarily focus on sustainability of manufacturing operations, minimising environmental and social impacts of supply chain is equally important for ensuring business continuity and protecting the brand. The key objective of the course is to integrate sustainability in procurement & supply chain functions for building the socially responsible supply chain. The course provides insights on diverse aspects of sustainability like governance, legal compliance, management systems, energy, climate change, environment, occupational health & safety, human rights, labour practices and community engagement initiatives.

The course is beneficial for professionals from strategy, operations and procurement & supply chain area for holistically driving sustainability in supply chain and will offer them an edge to lead the strategy, operations as well as procurement & supply chain functions.

In an era where digital and AI technologies are rapidly reshaping industries, organisations of all sizes are grappling with the fusion of innovation and entrenched practices. Navigating this landscape requires more than just technological adoption—it demands a strategic reimagination of the future. This course aims to deepen your understanding of digital and AI-powered transformation. We will explore the historical waves of technological disruptions, analysing their profound impact on business strategies and organisational evolution. Through case studies, cutting-edge practices, and practical exercises, participants will master strategies for driving organisational change, harnessing AI’s potential, and scaling Generative AI solutions responsibly. The program emphasizes ethical governance, innovation, and preparing for emerging AI technologies like humanoids and AI agents. At its core, this course adopts a leadership perspective, focusing on leading and driving digital and AI-powered transformation. Participants will gain insights into the practices employed by leaders to unlock the full potential of digital and AI technologies in navigating the complexities of the new competitive landscape.

Entrepreneurship is at the heart of value creation in the economy.  While there is a growing emphasis on idea creation, there is little formal understanding offered in management programs about how to evaluate, invest in, nurture, and manage new start-ups.  Moreover, there is also a lack of understanding of holistic tools to evaluate new ventures not just from a financial perspective but more strategically through concepts and frameworks learnt in the entire management program.

The Competitive Strategy module deals with the challenges managers face in seeking to achieve their organisation’s mission in the face of changing, uncertain and ambiguous environmental and competitive conditions, while aligning and deploying their internal assets, capabilities and people to optimal effect. This complex task requires a sophisticated blend of analytical, synthetic and behavioural insights, which are developed in this module.

This course follows from the course B8021 Analytics for Decision Making and looks at more advanced techniques of analytics. This course will examine in greater depths machine-learning based tools that can be applied to the modern organisation for business planning and market research opportunities.

Similar to B8021, this course equips participants with the knowledge and skills, to investigate existing business operational data to continually develop innovative business insights and new solutions for managerial decisions. Participants will be exposed to various data modeling techniques using real-life business data that will allow them to provide useful predictions such as supply and demand forecast, pricing and profitability forecast, consumer trend analysis and the likes.

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 data-mining opportunities in organisations, and also follow up on ideas or opportunities that present themselves.

Why are some emerging markets more successful than the others? What factors drive the potential risks and rewards in these markets? Are the goals of the government different from that of private investors?

We will begin by studying the GDP components. Students will see that a country that is trade driven needs to adjust its currency policy to the changes in the global economy. We will also study what makes consumption as a sustainable engine of growth and under what conditions can investment bring more harm than good to a country.

With a good understanding of key economic indicators, we will move on to various frameworks to understand government policies: their motivation (in theory), transmission and limitations (in reality). Students will learn how a country's investment opportunities and potential GDP are driven by its labor force and productivity. In turn, the level of productivity can be affected by a confluence of monetary, fiscal, currency and regulatory policies. In contrast to developed countries, we need to treat emerging economies differently because they are at the phase where their political goals and legal structures are still in transition, where their financial and government institutions are not yet fully formed, and where consumer spending behavior as well as markets availability are evolving rapidly. Such events create increased risks and possibly higher returns.

This class will make use of case studies of key emerging economies to apply the frameworks and discuss the critical but often overlooked nuances. Emerging Market countries include South Africa, India, China, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. We will connect their recent history to contemporary issues as we discuss the appropriate investment vehicles.

Finally, we will have a concluding lecture for students to continue their education with the ability to download data from the Federal Reserve and to use a data visualization software for data mining.

Private equity (PE) has transitioned from being an alternative asset to becoming a key component of all large investment portfolios.  This course is meant to provide a broad overview of the asset class.

Students with an interest in businesses and in investments will find this course a useful introduction to private equity.  The course aims to provide a wide-ranging introduction to the various parts of the industry through lectures, readings, case discussions and case analyses.  Participants will learn about the entire PE ecosystem and understand the opportunities available in the sector across the spectrum, and the background and skills needed to be successful in the various areas of the industry.  They will get a flavor for the life of a PE professional that could help them assess whether they have the aptitude and the inclination for a career in private equity and how they could prepare for it.

The objective of this course is to study corporate M&As and restructurings and the strategic, valuation, financial, governance and other issues related to these activities. The course is case-study based. The cases to be discussed in the course include those involving mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts/management buyouts, divestitures, spin offs and privatizations.

This course provides fundamental tools for credit risk modelling and evaluation by data analytic techniques. This includes stochastic modelling techniques and statistical approaches to data mining based on decision trees, logistic regression and neural networks.

Course concepts are illustrated by R and Python codes applied to credit rating and scoring. 

This course follows from the course B8021 Analytics for Decision Making and looks at more advanced techniques of analytics. This course will examine in greater depths machine-learning based tools that can be applied to the modern organisation for business planning and market research opportunities.

Similar to B8021, this course equips participants with the knowledge and skills, to investigate existing business operational data to continually develop innovative business insights and new solutions for managerial decisions. Participants will be exposed to various data modeling techniques using real-life business data that will allow them to provide useful predictions such as supply and demand forecast, pricing and profitability forecast, consumer trend analysis and the likes.

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 data-mining opportunities in organisations, and also follow up on ideas or opportunities that present themselves.

This course aims to equip you with a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic intersection of technology and marketing in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. You will explore the intersection between technology and marketing from two perspectives: First, you will examine how emerging technologies are reshaping marketing strategies and customer experiences. Second, you will learn how to effectively market technological products. Through a combination of case discussion, workshop, guest speaker, individual and group project, you will gain insights into the practical applications of different emerging technologies such as AI, robotics, metaverse and blockchain in marketing, and the ethical considerations when deploying the tech.

This course is designed for those who want to stay ahead in the digital marketing era and is ideal for those who aspire to be a marketing consultant or to take leadership roles for marketing departments and tech companies. By the end of this course, you will be more prepared to leverage technological advancements in your marketing career and make informed decisions about implementing and marketing emerging technologies in various business contexts.

In today's dynamic market landscape, achieving market leadership hinges on sustainability—a holistic concept embracing environmental preservation and social responsibility. Embracing the triple bottom line—people, planet, and profit—positions businesses to not only fortify their competitive edge but also generate enhanced shareholder value. Throughout this course, you'll delve into the macro-industry forces shaping our current context, recognize businesses' pivotal role in sustainability management, and grasp that sustainability constitutes a fundamental marketing challenge. You'll gain practical skills and strategic frameworks to effectively promote sustainability to a diverse array of stakeholders, both internal (such as management and employees) and external (including consumers, customers, and suppliers). This course is indispensable for aspiring entrepreneurs, managers, or advocates aiming to champion sustainable initiatives and drive transformative change within their organisations.

This course will introduce students to the field of neuromarketing and consumer neuroscience. Neuromarketing involves capturing consumers’ subconscious responses to brands, products and marketing materials in order to predict their purchasing behaviour more accurately than traditional market research methods (e.g. focus groups and surveys which are confounded by the fact that many times people either don’t tell the truth about what they think or don’t know how they feel). The approach is now widely used by companies to develop superior products that will also succeed in a global marketplace. The course will delve into the range of different neuromarketing techniques that are currently available (e.g. eye-tracking while people use websites to see what they are attending to, monitoring brain activity while they are viewing adverts or new product ideas to measure their emotions etc.) and discuss the pros and cons of the different methods. Case studies will be used to demonstrate how the different approaches are being used by companies to tackle a very wide range of marketing questions. Students will also learn how insights from the fields of cognitive psychology and neuroscience can be applied to make marketing messages and communications more attention grabbing, more memorable and emotionally engaging. Also covered will be emerging research showing how digital technology is re-wiring the human brain and changing our behaviour in subtle ways but which marketers need to understand in order to create campaigns and messages that will be effective in today’s digital environment. This course is vital for anyone who wants to understand consumers or customers at a deep, emotional level and to be able to market messages to consumers with greater precision.

Digital marketing will dominate the way companies communicate with and sell to consumers (and other businesses). The course covers the principles and practices of digital marketing and how digital channels are used to build brands in conjunction with an effective content marketing strategy. The course examines how digital marketing can build or break influence, be used as a research and customer service tool, and hence equips students with tools and strategies to design and evaluate digital marketing campaigns for brands, to explore changing customer needs and gain consumer insights.

The module will look beyond the traditional campaign model to longer-term relationships, growth hacking strategies and omni-channel approaches and explore how these are being built around deep customer data and insights. Participants will be encouraged to build and try things for themselves as well as learn to use tools to explore existing campaigns, trends and competitor activities. They will explore and propose a digital strategy for a company, product or brand of their choice based on these insights.

This is a week-long intensive class held in Singapore. This class is a joint-class for Waseda Business School students and NTU-Waseda Double MBA Program students. In this course, students will learn by their own eyes and ears, strategic and organisational challenges of Japanese companies operated in Asia. In addition to the learning in the classroom, students will visit Japanese companies in Singapore to learn actual management issues of these companies through interacting with their executives.

Entrepreneurship is at the heart of value creation in the economy.  While there is a growing emphasis on idea creation, there is little formal understanding offered in management programs about how to evaluate, invest in, nurture, and manage new start-ups.  Moreover, there is also a lack of understanding of holistic tools to evaluate new ventures not just from a financial perspective but more strategically through concepts and frameworks learnt in the entire management program.

The goals of the course are (i) to provide an understanding and appreciation of key challenges in supply chain analytics and key drivers of supply chain performance, and (ii) to expose students to techniques and strategies used to optimize supply chain decisions and to anticipate or explain supply chain phenomena. This course will cover both strategic as well as operational issues in supply chain and logistics management. Topics covered include strategic principles in supply chain management,  supply chain coordination,  supply chain and logistics systems design, forecasting and inventory management,  transportation,  and warehousing management. Contemporary trends and practices in supply chain management will be highlighted.

This course follows from the course B8021 Analytics for Decision Making and looks at more advanced techniques of analytics. This course will examine in greater depths machine-learning based tools that can be applied to the modern organisation for business planning and market research opportunities.

Similar to B8021, this course equips participants with the knowledge and skills, to investigate existing business operational data to continually develop innovative business insights and new solutions for managerial decisions. Participants will be exposed to various data modeling techniques using real-life business data that will allow them to provide useful predictions such as supply and demand forecast, pricing and profitability forecast, consumer trend analysis and the likes.

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 data-mining opportunities in organisations, and also follow up on ideas or opportunities that present themselves.

Private equity (PE) has transitioned from being an alternative asset to becoming a key component of all large investment portfolios.  This course is meant to provide a broad overview of the asset class.

Students with an interest in businesses and in investments will find this course a useful introduction to private equity.  The course aims to provide a wide-ranging introduction to the various parts of the industry through lectures, readings, case discussions and case analyses.  Participants will learn about the entire PE ecosystem and understand the opportunities available in the sector across the spectrum, and the background and skills needed to be successful in the various areas of the industry.  They will get a flavor for the life of a PE professional that could help them assess whether they have the aptitude and the inclination for a career in private equity and how they could prepare for it.