Academics

The JUMPSTART Programme, conducted in Week 0, serves as a foundation programme. It aims to prepare students with the necessary soft skills and business tools for management, innovation and strategy development. At the same time, the programme aims to raise awareness of current business world issues. Topics include business communication, negotiation and persuasion, team culture and organisational excellence, and intellectual capital management.

This course aims to explore how microeconomic analytical tools can be applied to business practices from both theoretical and application perspectives. The course focuses on optimal managerial decision makings under various market structures and their implications through a selected set of topics motivated by real-world observations of business operations. Topics to be covered include: fundamental market forces, consumer behaviour, firm behaviour in various market structures, uncertainty and behavioural economics, pricing strategies with market power, game theory and strategic decisions with business applications, information economics and market failure issues.

This course is designed to introduce students to the academic research as well as firms’ best practices related to innovation management. Some key topics include how managers and organisations should adapt to technological change, the process of new product development, business model innovation, digital transformation, the role of intellectual property rights (IPRs) and entrepreneurship.

This course will equip students with the frameworks and tools that a manager needs to convert intended strategy into performance outcomes. The tools and frameworks will cover aspects such as governance structure and resource allocation, organisational structure and control, top management team and strategic leadership, contingencies in the environment performance measurement, risk management and mitigation. Students will also develop sensitivity to the common challenges that hamper strategy implementation in organisation and learn about organisations as a system and the role culture plays in overcoming the implementation hurdles.

Strategic sustainability has clearly emerged as a core concern for companies and organisations worldwide. This course examines the key concepts and applications of sustainability, particularly along its integration with strategic analysis and innovation. Anchored on the economic as well as Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) dimensions, it develops the business case of sustainability especially with consumers and investors. The course also addresses institutional issues such as jurisdictional regulations and international agreements. The course further covers the strategic information aspects of standards and reporting. Evolving current topics such as climate change, carbon management, green finance and entrepreneurial sustainability will be highlighted.

Over the past several decades, barriers to trade and investment have fallen dramatically, as even economies such as India and Vietnam that had been historically insulated opened up. In the new environment, global strategy is often not a strategic choice, but a competitive necessity.

This course aims to sanitise students to the imperative for globalisation. It will help students understand the challenges in international business and equip them with tools to craft and implement effective global strategies.

Major technological innovations and inventions like Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, 3D printing and Robotics are maturing to the point where the way we work and the way we live will be changed forever, just like businesses today cannot function effectively without the internet, email and the mobile phone.

It is imperative that business leaders keep pace with these waves of change in order to survive and prosper in this new business environment. This course will focus on addressing the strategic challenges faced by digital firms.

Asia is on track to be in the top 50 percent of global GDP by 2040, according to a McKinsey report in 2019. From China to Southeast Asia and India, the most exciting changes of our time are driven by new business models, including in fintech, social networks, the sharing economy, and sustainability-driven consumer transitions. The objective of this course is to provide students with a rigorous foundation for understanding the design and implementation of innovative business models. By evaluating relevant cases, the course will cover business model innovation in both new and established companies, with a focus on market-creating innovations in Asia.

The objective for the course is to increase the practical relevance of the Master’s programme and to allow students to apply concepts and theories they have learnt in working on the Business Project. The project is akin to a consulting assignment and should have practical relevance for an organisation. It is an integrative course that draws on the cumulated experiences of other courses. Students are expected to take responsibility for the business project, structure it and execute the project professionally in consultation with their academic supervisor while meeting their business clients’ needs.

(The Business Project can be completed by Special Term 2 (July), instead of Semester 2 (April).)