Robin Speculand

I was a graduate of the class of 2000, the fourth year of the NUS EMBA. At the time, the world was just emerging from the Asian financial crisis and there were only nine people enrolled in our cohort. This made us very tight-knit as a batch, and I was pleased to meet so many like-minded professionals.

We were all senior executives and so the experience of suddenly finding oneself back at school was quite a shock to the system. I fondly remember our first gathering we had at the British Club that very quickly descended into commiserations and self-pity as we dealt with the reality of being back in school after at least 20 years! None of us could quite believe what we had signed ourselves up for!

There were plenty of different options, as there is today, but my main reason for picking NUS was the design of the EMBA programme, and the chance to tap the knowledge and expertise of other senior leaders. I did not want to spend my weekends attending courses, and the way the course was structured allowed you to take two-week blocks of full-time study. This really helps you focus on the task at hand and commit the required time.

The most obvious change in the last 20 years is the topics. We had no modules on customer journeys or design thinking, no classes on understanding platforms and ecosystems. The University does a great job of keeping up to date with new business trends and knowledge. It goes to show how business needs are constantly evolving, and how important it is to constantly keep oneself up to date.

Not many people know this, but the idea for the very first company I founded grew out of a concept paper that I wrote for my EMBA. At the time, I already had a passion for starting my own business and had seen so many organisations struggle with implementing their global strategies. The EMBA programme came along at just the right time, and it allowed me to test out my ideas with my professors as well as several organisations.  One of our first contracts was with Singapore Airlines, supporting the roll out their global strategy.

You never know where the programme is going to take you. You may be sitting in a chair somewhere doing your coursework and wondering why you’re doing this programme and how all this knowledge is going to help you. Then suddenly an opportunity will present itself that allows you to leverage something you learnt or someone you met, and that is going to be your springboard to future success.

Also, don’t underestimate the commitment you’re going to need. You have to have the desire, and the willingness to create the mental and physical space to study for an MBA. Something will have to give, whether it be professionally, socially or the time you spend with your family. Embrace it. It’s a wonderful learning opportunity, and for most of us, probably the last degree we will ever do.

The world is buzzing again and it’s an exciting time to be in business. We’ve all been compressed like a spring for the past two years, and the next couple of years are going to be driven by this wonderful energy as we move to an endemic. Since the start of the year I have received numerous invitations as a speaker and keynote presenter, and I  have just returned from speaking in Barcelona at the world mobile Congress and presenting in Dubai my public workshop digital transformation.

A few months ago, I published my new book, World’s Best Bank: A Strategic Guide to Digital Transformation. It was written in collaboration with Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS and a former colleague of mine at Citigroup. With the rapid pace of technological change, we know many companies are struggling to implement their digital transformations. This is an exciting opportunity for us and an area I am personally very passionate about.