My 18 Months at Nanyang Business School

Today, I received the Nanyang Business School email! I graduated on 30th April. My last course ended in Feb 2024! How do I feel? Well, so good.Lifelong learning. This Nanyang Business School's fellows MBA was truly transformative. It was not easy; part-time study, I figured out, was the most complicated. "On top of my list of takeaways are my friends." Nanyang Fellows MBA academic team, led by Prof Yougesh, did a great job selecting a diverse and amazing two cohorts. I mean mostly from Asia, many of them in Singapore, then from Japan, Korea, Thailand, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, and Vietnam. We have forged great, long-lasting friendship bonds! Shout out to all my classmates. You made it great

Friendship aside, the lecturers were amazing. It is not all about parties; it is very hectic and demanding but truly “Enjoyable.”

Starting with Prof Dr. Catherine Wu on Cultural Intelligence (CQ)…, Have you heard about that before? It was my first time! She made sure you understood how to succeed in a culturally diverse environment; I think this lays the ground for good teamwork in class. There is Prof Yougesh Khatri with Economics. One takeaway is having the capacity to produce “IMF's like Article 4 for any country in the world.” Then, there is the language of business, Corporate finance with Prof Beng Soon Chong? - Finance is typical numbers, and you don’t have a choice but to make all those successful; if it is a language of business, you can’t skip it. He tried to simplify it and make it practical.

The most remarkable for me are Prof Vijay Sethi, with “Knowledge and Technology Management”; Prof Francis Hutchinson, with Business and Policy; and Prof Sasha Chernyshenko, with “Talent Management. Prof Vijay leaves you with incredible tools to analyze innovation… go beyond the hype and analyze innovation and its impact on your organization. He gives you frameworks(spoiler: he doesn’t like the word framework) that can be applied to any innovative products out there. His teachings complement “the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business session that focuses on teaching ‘how to innovate”. Berkeley literally asks you to come up with an innovation and pitch it to venture capitalists at the end of the course— Cool, Right? Throughout the session, you also understand the “Cluster of Innovation” and how they are formed…. Oooh, Rwanda is Building an innovation ecosystem for Africa via @Kigali Innovation City, and I hope we will soon become pioneers in unleashing Africa’s tech power. Why not?

Prof Francis Hutchinson teaches the intersection of business and politics… Kind of political economy. He substantiates it with practical examples of Asian countries…. South Korea and Japan were very interesting to me. In the context of Rwanda with our vision to become an upper-middle-income economy in 2035, the two countries, in addition to Singapore, where I serve on the path for development, fascinate me. I now apply the lenses I got from this for ideas back home.

Then Prof Sasha Chernyshenko…with “Talent Management.” Who says “HR” is boring…. Wait until you attend Prof Sasha’s teaching approach. It’s fascinating. You complete his course convinced that ‘Identifying and managing talent’ is THE single most important job of “Business leaders.” And I am convinced more than ever that it applies to any organization.

And Finally, The most popular of all, “Prof Patrick Gibbons…. All the way from Dublin… with the ‘Developing Strategic capabilities" course. Very relevant to the work I particularly do here at the High Commission to attract investment in Rwanda. It is important to understand the thinking of a business owner and leaders before you pitch them about setting up in our beautiful Rwanda. What’s in it for them, and does it fit their strategy? I can count on Prof Patrick Gibbons… now that I understand it better, and it is very helpful….. …

Oooh, and Prof Sharon Ng 's marketing was incredibly well delivered, practical and with some music during the break(Great Music). There were many more engagements and lectures...

We also had specific “Doing Business in China” sessions with Tsinghua University !! It’s pretty complete.

Not all was Honey---Although I enjoyed most of my classes, I had some struggle with “Accounting.” It was the toughest and least enjoyable. My numbers' nerdy friends,? Is accounting supposed to be like that? The Prof in this case didn't help much! Thankfully i made it.

Hopefully, I gave you a good look in my 18th month back to school.

All in all, Good cohort, great professors, and great school leaders (Director Yougesh Khatri and Hemaladha Gopal(she is a star, supporting us all the time..You feel greatly cared with her). I didn’t want to end it, but yesterday, I graduated with another Master's, and? I’m happy about it! Let's have a party for that one day, OK? It is good to go back to school!?

Thanks, Nanyang Technological University Singapore team, for this.