Leading sustainability and transformation in the public sector
Since 1998, experienced public sector professionals have built their strategic capabilities with a unique MBA programme blending public policy, business, tech and global perspectives.
Several months into his Nanyang Fellows Master of Business Administration programme, Dr Chai Young Jun has already gained more confidence in his business and leadership abilities. Photos: Nanyang Business School
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Throughout his career, Dr Chai Young Jun has held numerous roles in healthcare, ranging from endocrine surgeon and consultant to researcher and professor at the renowned Seoul National University.
While working at a biomedical start-up company in 2020, he realised he needed to transform his skillset. “It was difficult running a company without sufficient finance and business knowledge, which is something doctors may lack. I decided to commit to learning more about topics I was not well-versed in and expand my perspective.”
In August 2022, Dr Chai traded the surgical theatre for the lecture theatre as he embarked on a full-time Nanyang Fellows Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme offered by Nanyang Business School (NBS), part of Nanyang Technological University.
ELEVATING AND TRANSFORMING THE PUBLIC SECTOR
In a global business environment facing pressure from disruptive forces ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to rapid technological growth and environmental concerns, Dr Chai’s decision to transform his skillset was a timely one.
Dedicating a full year to achieving this goal, Dr Chai decided on an MBA programme in Singapore to explore opportunities to expand the biomedical start-up industry in Southeast Asia. He chose the Nanyang Fellows MBA for its reputation, networking, learning opportunities and compact duration.
The Nanyang Fellows MBA is a one-year full-time or two-year part-time programme for mid-to-senior leaders in the public, people and private sectors. Launched in 1998 by Dr Tony Tan, then Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, the programme was designed to elevate and rejuvenate the public sector.
Twenty-five years on, NBS and the Nanyang Fellows MBA continue to nurture leaders with an innovative edge. Among them is Ms Clare Chow, a senior civil servant working on climate and sustainability policies at the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment.
Sustainability is one of the most important aspects of Singapore’s future, as evidenced by the Singapore Green Plan 2030, a set of environmental targets that defines the country’s sustainable development agenda. In the coming years, the sustainability sector is expected to expand further as Singapore continues to shape and implement its nation-wide climate mitigation strategy.
Ms Chow, who received her Bachelor of Business degree from NBS in 2009, returned to her alma mater in 2022 to enrol in the Nanyang Fellows MBA. She was seeking a programme that could provide new perspectives on how the government could partner with businesses and external stakeholders in driving the sustainability agenda, to better position Singapore for green growth and sustainable development.
Ms Chow chose the Nanyang Fellows MBA for three reasons: The programme’s emphasis on technology and innovation; opportunities to interact with and gain insights from a diverse cohort of senior participants from the public, people and private sectors; as well as access to international perspectives, particularly through the customised overseas modules at Tsinghua University and the University of California, Berkeley.
“All these will help me better understand how the economic-sustainability nexus can be tightened to position Singapore for green growth,” she said.
BROADENING THEIR HORIZONS
The Nanyang Fellows MBA learning experience comprises lectures, senior guest speaker sessions, case studies, and team and individual projects, as well as engagements with the public and private sectors. For Dr Chai, going into the MBA programme from a purely medical background was a transformative eye-opener.
“All the modules were new to me, and I found them very exciting,” he said. “For example, accounting was interesting and valuable because it introduced me to the realities of the business sector.”
He cited the business and public policy module as particularly insightful, which Ms Chow seconded. Said Ms Chow: “We explored how governments, businesses and non-profit organisations influence one another in several countries across Asia. This provides policymakers with much-needed knowledge on state-business relations in countries we often interact with in our line of work.”
Dr Chai and Ms Chow have both completed the Tsinghua University component of the programme. Professors from the university and industry experts offered perspectives on topics ranging from financial entrepreneurship and innovation to carbon neutrality and sustainable development in China.
THE BEST OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS
Another highlight for Dr Chai and Ms Chow was the Tsinghua-Nanyang Networking Evening 2022 – an event that was attended not just by Nanyang Fellows MBA students, but also students from the Nanyang Executive MBA programme and Tsinghua alumni working in Singapore.
“Many Tsinghua alumni are senior executives at financial institutions and technology companies,” said Ms Chow.
She added: “The networking sessions and engagement series in the Nanyang Fellows MBA programme – such as a seminar by the Asian Development Bank and an International Monetary Fund talk – provide an opportunity for students to engage with international and local leaders from both the private and public sectors.”
Several months into his MBA, Dr Chai has already gained more confidence in his business and leadership abilities. “I feel that I can take on a leadership role on any stage, having developed the skills needed to communicate and collaborate with people from all over the world,” he said. “Any MBA candidate who wants to challenge themselves and is open to working with people from different backgrounds will find professional growth from the programme.”
Ms Chow said the Nanyang Fellows programme is a “unique combination of a Master’s in Public Administration and an MBA”. She said: “It has given me insights into how private sector businesses are run and how the strategies apply to public policy. Such exposure will be extremely helpful in formulating sustainability-related policies, which often require a delicate balance of trade-offs between achieving our environmental objectives and minimising the regulatory impact on businesses.”
Make an impact in the public, private and people sectors with the Nanyang Fellows MBA.
