TOH THIAN SER (MBA, National University of Singapore)

“TS”, as he likes to be addressed, is semi-retired and teaches Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the MBA level. He frequently teaches strategy-related topics for the Office of Executive Education at SMU.

Formerly serving as Vice-Dean of the Nanyang Business School, TS also had experience in the Investment Committee managing the Endowment Fund of Nanyang Technological University.

Prior to joining academia, TS was chief executive officer of two Singapore-based stockbroking firms and also lead the investment banking arm of a leading Singapore bank, amongst other senior editorial positions in the newspaper industry.

He has served as a member of several government organisations such as the Trade Development Board, Securities Industry Council, Medifund Advisory Council and the National Productivity Board.

His experience encompassed project consultations, including policy-related ones, with several institutes which includes the Economic Development Board, the Trade Development Board, the Department of Statistics (Ministry of Trade and Industry), the Singapore Productivity and Standards Board, Tuas Power, National Computer Systems and the Singapore Confederation of Industries.

He has also taught in firms such as Roche Pharmaceuticals, RGM International, Government Savings Bank of Thailand, Sun Microsystems, Yum! Restaurants International, GE Asia, Philips Asia, Singapore Airlines and Singapore Power.

Liberalisation of global trade and investment flows has created vast business opportunities. Consumer preferences and market demands are changing constantly, resulting in more intense pressure for firms to reinvent and grow.

One of the key to successful growth is prudent financial management. Often firms fail not because it has no business. On the contrary, many firms failed because they grew too fast without adequate financial support. In this module, Mr. Adam Wong, a seasoned banker, entrepreneur and consultant, will share with participants key issues in financing and managing business growth. Participants will:

• Learn the key building blocks of Cash Management.
• Determine the level of financing required for your firm’s growth.
• Have an understanding of how much banking facilities your business requires.
• Know how to mitigate foreign exchange risks.

• Gain an insight on how to determine the pulse of your firm’s financial health.
• Know the limits of your firm’s debt capacity.
• Understand the key information available from the various financial statements.

• Understand the concept of sustainable growth rate.
• Spot the signs when a business overtrades.
• Use of models to predict corporate distress.

• Know the key fundamentals in successfully raising bank debts.
• Overview of the financing packages provided by various banks in Singapore.
• Explore alternate sources of financing beyond traditional bank debts.

ADAM WONG (Fellow CPA)

Adam Wong is the Executive Director of Mayvest Asia Pte Ltd, a financial consulting firm. He is also an adjudicator of the Financial Industry Disputes Resolution Centre in Singapore. Prior to his current appointment, he was a General Manager with Standard Chartered Bank in both Singapore and Hong Kong. He has also held key management positions with other major banks, with 22 years of successful track record in Cash Management, eCommerce, Corporate Banking and Trade Finance and Small & Medium Enterprises.

Having strong strategic orientation and regional exposure in South East Asia and Hong Kong, he is credited with significantly growing global banks' SME assets by 450% and net profit by 140% over a three-year period in Singapore. He also started a new cash management business for a leading bank in Asia and grew it to a USD35 billion business annually.

Adam is a Fellow Certified Public Accountant, Certified Credit Risk Management Professional and a Certified Professional Trainer, Adam has contributed actively to the development and training of professionals in the financial services sector for the past 20 years by sharing his expertise regularly through The Institute of Banking and Finance, SMU and various other organisations in Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Vietnam and Indonesia.

The challenges faced by project managers and their sponsors have increased over time. Projects are increasingly more complex, multi-sited and often span multiple time zones and countries.

This session is designed to offter practical and foundational understanding of successful project management and the business management of these projects.

With the tools, cases, examples and theories presented here, project managers and sponsors will be able to successfully face the challenges of first-of-a-kind, design and build, and other complex projects involving new technologies and people with diverse backgrounds.

Key topics addressed in this module will include:

• Managing projects across different countries
• Managing cross cultural challenges
• Maximising resource management/allocation
• Logistics management for projects in different regions
• Managing a cluster of project
• Managing internal and external customers/clients
• Strategic management of interface between clients & projects
• Business & strategic management of projects
• Prioritization of projects
• Future trends & best practices in project management

CHUNG CHOON SAN (DIRECTOR PROGRAMS, PM LINK PTE LTD)

A professional engineer since 1991 and member of the Society of Project Managers since 1998 Choon San received his formal education in civil engineering earning a Bachelor of Engineering (1 st Class Honors) via a Colombo Plan scholarship at Adelaide University and a Masters in Civil Engineering from NUS.

He is presently the Director (Programs) in PM Link Pte Ltd – a subsidiary company of CPG Corporation that specializes in providing project management services. Over a span of 27 years, he has managed a wide range of building types. The projects undertaken include hospitals, healthcare centres, airport and airbases, museums, offices, polytechnics, schools and junior colleges.

Choon San has been involved in the development of health care projects since 1989. The award-winning K K Women's & Children's Hospital was completed in 1997 and the 1,049-bed Tan Tock Seng Hospital in 1999. In addition, he was also involved in the Woodbridge Hospital , NUH Kent Ridge Wing, Kunming 2 nd Hospital and Nanjing Women's Hospital. Besides hospitals, Choon San also has extensive experience in other building types such as the Changi Airport 2 nd Passenger Terminal Building , Republic Polytechnic and the National Museum of Singapore.

Currently he is the Chief Project Manager for the development of the Gardens at Marina South and Marina East and Project Director for the development of the Pathology Building at SGH, the Jurong General Hospital and the Science Centre Singapore .

Choon San is also active in areas such as quality assurance in construction. He is the Management Representative of the company for ISO 9000 and 14000 and was also responsible for producing the QA Manual for Development Services in PWD and CPG Consultants, and the QA and QAP Manuals for PM Link.

He was also a Value Awareness Program Trainer for CPG Corporation and regularly conducted a 2-day program for staff that joined the corporation.

For his contributions to the public service while in Public Works Department, he was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Bronze) in 1998.

ADEL F DIMIAN (PhD, University of Minnesota)

Adel is a Practice Associate Professor of Management in the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University. He joined SMU after serving nearly 19 years with 3M in varied and increasing responsibilities in technical and business management for worldwide. Adel was awarded nine patents for novel chemistry solutions.

Having spent three years based in Singapore, he was appointed regional business development manager, and was responsible for 3M's Asia electronics portfolio.

Prior to moving back to Singapore and joining SMU, Adel was appointed vice president and general manager for 3M's healthcare IT compliance business unit in New York City. He has worked in a spectrum of industries which included the healthcare, memory technology, commercial brand identity and graphic design, IT, and electronic market segments.

He received his formal education in the sciences, liberal arts, and business administration earning a BS and PhD degrees in chemistry, and an MBA with honours from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. His expertise is strategy, innovation, process improvement and general management.

Projects are increasingly becoming complex, multi-sited and often distributed across multiple time zones and countries. This distributed nature of projects requires the convocation of people with different cultural and technical backgrounds, and to work as a team.

Leading people can be a tremendous challenge. Working across individual differences, persuading, getting the buy-in of your best employees, and moving the team towards a common goal can often be more demanding than the technical aspects of work.

Good leadership, however, is something that no organisation can do without. Getting the work done and meeting deadlines mean we must communicate effectively, persuade, retain the confidence of our best employees, and develop people who can then lead their team.

Additionally, leaders must possess the foresight to see issues coming down the pipeline, the confidence to speak up and be proactive, and an ability to act productively toward both employees and the project. These are not small demands within the context of tight deadlines, changing requirements, and a highly mobile employment market.

In this module you will learn about your current leadership capacities, how effective communication helps you get buy-in from your team, methods to develop your most talented employees, and also best leadership practices from a variety of industries.

Some highlights of the course include:

• Leadership self-assessment: what are your current leadership strengths?
• Communication skills: how can you plan your communication most effectively so that it has the desired impact?
• Talent retention: what are the most important factors that cause an employee to leave an organisation?
• Talent development: how can you develop your best employees and give them sufficient opportunity to learn the new skills and feel challenged?
• Taking action: why is inaction not an option for leaders?
• Dynamic learning: through discussion and debate, we will weigh competing leadership ideas and look for your personalised learning points.

MICHAEL NETZLEY (PhD, University of Minnesota)

Michael serves on the faculty of Singapore Management University where he teaches corporate communication, social media and executive leadership programmes. Previously, he served as the founding director of the Centre for Communication and Teaching Excellence.

Michael has also taught at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management and held faculty appointments in Slovenia, Finland, Japan, Germany and Argentina.

Michael’s research and teaching focus on the corporate communication function and leadership in an Asian context. He is active with consulting and executive education. He has worked with clients such as OCBC, 3M, Intercontinental Hotel Group, IBM, Microsoft, SUN, UEM Group (Malaysia), Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Central Provident Fund, GIC (Singapore), Keppel Offshore and Marine, Neptune Orient Lines, Mettler Toledo, and CARE.org.

Currently Michael is authoring his fourth book which examines best practices in corporate communication and reputation management in South East Asia. Michael is an experienced case writer who has authored or served as managing editor of more than forty corporate communication teaching cases.

Consumers, whether in a B2C or B2B situation, love brands. They give quality reassurance, make choices easier and allow them to express who they are or make them look good in front of their boss. Manufacturers love brands too - it allows them not to compete on price but to charge a premium.

But how to build a brand? How to decide which idea you want to own in your target's mind? This module will give leaders and managers in the construction industry the tools to build strong brands - from the initial audit to the final positioning and communication to the business targets. Some highlights from the module include:

• What is a brand? The art and science of brand positioning
• Determining your Brand DNA
• Managing your touchpoints
• Global trends and trends in Asia - how can your business profit from them?
• Social responsibility and green building
• Internal branding - how to make your staff into Brand Ambassadors
• Brand Communication - what to say and how/where to say it

JORG DIETZEL (Masters, University of Bonn, Germany)

Having worked in Branding, Marketing and Communication for 20 years, the past ten in Asia, Jorg has run agencies and multinational accounts in London, Berlin, Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore and worked with brands like FedEx, Visa, American Airlines, Pepsi, BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Sony, Drypers.

Since opening his own brand consultancy in Singapore, he has worked with several SMEs on branding and communication, namely OPRC, Coffee Grounds, Raoul, Pageone, Binter.

He is an Adjunct Faculty at SMU where he teaches classes in Strategic Brand Management and Advertising.

This module comprises of two segments: Enterprise Risk Management and Crisis Management

Enterprise Risk Management

Enterprise Risk Management provides participants with an overview of the various risk drivers. Through exercises, the session aims to enhance the effectiveness of participants’ risk management awareness.

Crisis Management

In the last component, we aim to build participants’ skills in crisis management through highly interactive simulated exercises and case examples.

Participants will be able to:

• Develop strategies to anticipate and prevent crises from occurring
• Deal effectively with crises as and when they do occur
• Implement contingency plans to cope
• Institute recovery measures to re-build image, reputation and regain the confidence of key stakeholders

ANNIE KOH (PhD, New York University)

Annie is Dean, Office of Executive and Professional Education and Associate Dean of Finance at SMU. Prior to joining the academia, Annie was a treasury manager at DBS Bank. As a Fulbright scholar, she received her PhD in International Finance from New York University (Stern School of Business) in 1988.

She has extensive experience in consulting and executive teaching. The organisations that she has consulted and taught for includes ABN AMRO, Allianz, Bank Dagang Negara, Bank EXIM, Bank of Indonesia, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Cultor (Finland), Citibank, Credit Suisse, DBS, EDB, Firefly, IE Singapore, Intercontinental Hotels Group, IBM, ING, Johnson & Johnson, KBC, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Maybank, Morgan-Stanley, National Healthcare Group, Nokia, Singapore Airlines, Singapore Government Investment Corporation, SMRT, ST Group, Sun International(Mauritius), Swiss Re, The Association of Private Hospitals (Malaysia), UBS, World Gold Council.

Annie serves as a member on the board of the Social Services Training Institute, Financial Industry Competency Standards Committee, Asian Bond Fund 2 Supervisory Committee, iN2015 Enterprise Development Sub-Committee as well as Singapore International 100 Ranking Steering Committee. She has articles appearing in periodicals such as The Review of Future Markets, SIMEX Papers, Pulses, IE Singapore’s book on Financing Internationalisation - Growth Strategies for Successful Companies.

Annie’s current research interests are in alternate investments and corporate risk management. She sits on the board of the SGX Journal (Pulses) and she is also an independent director of a number of companies.

ELIZA QUEK (MA, Birkbeck College, University of London)

Earning her M.A in Manpower Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London, Eliza has an extensive training experience in enhancing leadership competencies in the areas of strategic management, performance management, coaching and mentoring staff for both the public and private sectors. Eliza is currently an Adjunct Faculty at SMU, where she teaches business management courses.

This module encompasses Managing Professional Work Relationships and Managing in a Cross-Cultural environment.

Managing Professional Work Relationships
Workplace relationships are complex. And in this changing economy, working with and alongside colleagues of vastly different needs and background means that the traditional styles of management and leadership are no longer effective. The human touch takes an added importance as this engagement of colleagues becomes the main leverage in how work gets done.

The first step to more effectively manage relationships and leverage engagement from others, involves understanding and managing oneself. In doing so, one would be able to adjust one’s behaviour in relation to others (such as supervisors, peers and subordinates), leading to effective management of others as well.

A. Managing Oneself – Self awareness and self regulation

• The nature of perception, and how perception affects behaviour, human relations and performance
• Attribution processes and biases
• Personality profiles: How personality affects behaviour as well as perception and attitudes
• Emotional intelligence and human relations

B. Managing Others

• Emotional intelligence revisited: Showing empathy and gaining trust
• Persuasion – creating loyalty, improving outcomes and building strong relationships
• Bosses, peers and subordinates – different strokes for different folks

Cross Cultural Management
We will examine issues related to working in a cross-cultural environment, and in particular, managing in a cross-cultural context. Working in a cross border environment has become a norm in most organisations. Therefore what should one do to enhance one’s cross-cultural management sensitivity and to work harmoniously with co-workers and stakeholders from different cultures and nationalities?

Through experiential exercises, we will work with participants on what it is like being in a different culture and having to interact with people from a culture that one is not familiar with. In doing so, we will highlight the need to adopt sophisticated stereotyping to enable us to better work with others. Further, we will introduce skills and competencies required to function in a cross-cultural environment. A case study will be used to explore management issues such as leadership, motivation in a cross cultural environment.

TAN HWEE HOON (PhD, Purdue University)

Having earned her PhD in Management from the Krannert School, Purdue University in December 1996, Hwee Hoon taught at the School of Business at the National University of Singapore from December 1996 to November 2005 and has been with the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, SMU since December 2005.

Her research interests are in the areas of interpersonal trust, cross cultural awareness and emotional management at the workplace. Hwee Hoon was also the Asia-Pacific Editor of the Journal of World Business from 2000-2004, having articles published in many international journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Human Relations.

Hwee Hoon is actively involved in Executive Teaching, both in English and Chinese; and has trained for major organizations in Singapore and China - such as the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Motorola University, IMC Corp Limited, SingTel, Kerry Oils and Alcatel Asia Pacific. She also consults for organizations such as the Singapore Tourism Board, IE Singapore and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.