Today, we will explore the top 500 companies in the world with Tableau! (Inspired by touching Tableau at work non-stop and assisting with lots of queries for the past two weeks! Yes, I keep getting inspired from work.)
Recently, I had the chance to use AnalyticsSoftware, Tableau at work, which reminded me that I have a student license which has recently been renewed during my digital marketing class. While I could, it’s time to demonstrate the capability of Tableau to be showcased on my blog. One of the reasons why I would use Tableau is the ease of use. Of course since that comes with a hefty price tag, we could always use PowerBI (too bad I’m a Mac User here though so no PowerBI for me!)
Where are Fortune Global 500 Companies Located?
The countries where each Fortune Global 500 Company is Located
Fortune Global 500 Companies are Located in a total of 35 countries. The countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, USA.
Which Countries Have the Most Fortune Global 500 Companies?
China and USA are tied at having the most Fortune Global 500 Companies
Well a surprising answer to the question! We managed to get a tie between the USA and China, with 121 Companies in the Fortune Global 500 in 2020 each!
Which Country has the Most Total Revenue Earned by Fortune Global 500 Companies (In USD Millions)?
USA Companies Earned the Most Revenue in 2020.
Despite having the same number of Global 500 Companies in USA and China, the companies in the USA has generated above 20% more revenue than in China in 2020. The third largest revenue is generated by Japan, followed by Germany, France, UK, etc.
Which Fortune Global 500 Companies Hire the Most Employees?
Walmart Hired the Most employees, followed by China Natural Petroleum and China Post.
In 2020, the company which hired the most employees is Walmart, at 2.2 Million, that is about 1/3 of Singapore’s (My Home Country) Population!
Dashboarding and Filtering
A look into Japan on the Fortune Global 500
Since we have talked enough about China and USA, I decided to take a look further into a third country on the list, Japan. I clicked on Japan on the world map to filter the revenue earned, as well as seeing the largest Japanese companies in terms of Employment. The largest Fortune Global 500 employer in Japan is Toyota, with 360k employees, followed by Nippon with 319k employees.
If you had been following our Innovation posts where we use the business model canvas to breakdown businesses, you might have always wondered how the business model canvas for a lean business scales up to that of a full business. We also had that question so we decided to explore linking the business model canvas to various business functions, in order for us to fully comprehend what it means.
The value proposition is considered the most top level summary of what the business is. Therefore, this should be under the Chief Executive Officer, or the Business Strategy Department. While the Marketing team also would have a say in this, the value proposition is the heart of the business just like how the Chief Executive and Business Strategy brings everything together.
Customer Segments
In a corporate business, segmentation should be jointly owned by the Marketing Department, Consumer Insights Department, as well as Business Strategy Department, as there is a high level view of the customer and certain decisions would have to be made on the specific customer segments to target.
Customer Relationships
For customer relationships, the high level view would be driven by the Marketing Communications Department, as it would maintain the general relationship with the customer.
To target specific customers, the Sales Department would be the primary team developing these personal relationships.
Channels
Channel selection should be done by the marketing department, in order to achieve the broad go-to-market objectives of the company.
The execution of channels would usually be done by the Supply Chain Department and Operations Department, depending on the mix of channels chosen.
However, in this age, there is also online channels available. This is when the Digital Marketing Department arises to manage these channels.
Key Partners
Away from the external facing functions, key partners would usually be managed by the Corporate Communications Team, who consistently keep partners engaged. In businesses without a dedicated Corporate Communications Team, the Business Strategy Team should own this function.
The Sales/Procurement department might also be the right team to engage these key partners depending on whichever side the company is on.
Key Resources
For key resources, there is a variety of functions which govern this.
For human capital and labour, the Human Resources Department is definitely the one in charge.
For resources related to technology and infrastructure, we have the Information Technology Department in charge.
For financial-related resources, we have the Finance Department in charge and if there is no Real Estate department, the Finance Department also owns the aspect of leasing and ownership of commercial space.
Key Activities
The key activities will likely vary based on the business which is in question. While key activities should be carried out by the Operations Department, organisations are becoming more decentralised and constantly spreads out the key activities across various departments.
Cost Structure
The cost structure of the organisation should be helmed by the Finance Department, but as a partner to the various departments. Everyone plays a part in the cost structure but the owner of the costs should be finance.
Revenue Streams
The revenue streams usually stems from the pricing strategy as well as opportunity identification and the Business Strategy Department should clearly be in charge. The Finance Department can track the revenue streams to manage the profit and loss of the company, however the onus is on the Business Strategy Department to consistently look for new opportunities to increase the revenue streams.
How Many Teams Should There Be?
While you first start a business, you may find yourself doing everything, you might eventually want to scale up and see which functions are required by the business. As a general guide as covered, these are the functions in a business:
Chief Executive Office + Business Strategy (To plan for the business.)
Marketing + Consumer Insights + Sales (To manage customer-facing aspects of the business.)
Supply Chain + Operations + Procurement (To run the external operations of the business.)
Finance + Human Resources + Information Technology (To enable the internal operations of the business.)
While the functions can be combined in other ways too, the key is to understand your evolving business needs, as well as the skills of your team to ensure that your business runs smoothly.
Now that you have read the breakdown of how each department comes together in the business model canvas, are you more intrigued to run your own business in the future? Let us know in the comments below!
It’s been a while since I last written about course reviews. If you had been following the story, for various reasons, I had decided to enrol back into Nanyang Business School to pursue a Mini Masters in Marketing Management. 5 months of hard work since November last year has finally come to a close! Here’s my course review of each of the modules:
CET016 Marketing Principles & Strategies
This module provides the basics to Marketing Strategy, and also adds a deeper level of understanding. For the students who did Business at Nanyang Technological University, this is the equivalent of AB1501 Marketing, with some elements of BE2502 Innovation Marketing. Content-wise, it is considered rather heavy, however those with basic marketing knowledge should be able to keep up, and also get excited by new concepts introduced.
In general, I enjoyed the classes taught by Dr Lim Boon Chong and Prof Hooi Den Huan. The professors were really helpful in answering queries as well as facilitating the class.
In terms of course load, this is a 4au course. For those unfamiliar with the academic unit system at NTU, 1au is the equivalent of 13 classroom hours, which means 52 classroom hours is used. There was a mix of self-paced learning (22h) and in-class learning (30h), some of which was done through zoom due to the safe distancing measures in Singapore. However, I felt that the actual time and effort put into the course is heavier than expected.
The method of assessment is a 30% MCQ Quiz, a 30% Marketing Written Report, and a 40% Final Written Test.
CET017 Marketing Research
This module provides knowledge for conducting quantitative and qualitative research, I believe there was also some elements on consumer behaviour involved as well. For the students who did Marketing at Nanyang Business School, I believe it corresponds to BM2502 Market Research,with some knowledge from BM2501 Market Behaviour. The content was straightforward to understand, and a marketing manager from Irvin’s salted egg was invited to the session to share about his experience with marketing for Irvin’s.
The profs were very knowledgeable in their lines of teaching. Prof Julien Cayla is an ethnographer by training and he is really good at teaching semiotics, one of the way to carry out qualitative research. Prof Thomas allard was very knowledgeable on the quantitative research aspect, and also invited a speaker to share about quantitative research techniques.
In terms of course load, this is also a 4au course. There was a mix of self-paced learning (22h) and in-class learning (30h), all of which some learning was done through zoom due to the safe distancing measures in Singapore. I felt that it was the right workload for a 4au module.
The method of assessment is 10% Participation, 25% Reflection on Qualitative Research, 25% Reflection on Quantitative Research, 40% Group Brand Audit.
This module provides knowledge on branding done by a company, topics of which include brand identity, brand transgressions. The course also looks into different types of context of branding, for instance, luxury branding and international branding. I believe that this would correspond to the undergraduate course of BM3506 Strategic Brand Management.
Prof Caleb Tse and Prof Sharon Ng were very knowledgeable and understanding. Knowing that many of us are studying part-time while having full time work, they condensed the workload to a lot of the assessments being done in class, which really helped as I was very busy with a Branding project at work that month. Also, managed to get some brand strategy tips from Prof Caleb, who was really willing to help when I reached out to him via email.
In terms of course load, this is also a 4au course. There was a mix of self-paced learning (22h) and in-class learning (30h), all of which some learning was done through zoom due to the safe distancing measures in Singapore. I felt that the workload itself was more of a 3au course, but the complexities of the course certainly required a deeper understanding of marketing in order to fully appreciate.
The method of assessment was 40% through 4 online quizzes, 30% through two in-class group cases and 30% for a final short essay exam.
CET019 Digital Marketing
This module introduces us to the concept of digitisation, and how the marketing environment has changed in the world of digitisation. We were given the opportunity to also take on some certifications as part of the course assessment, and were taught of the various digital tools available for a digital marketer to work with. I believe that this would correspond to BM2506 Digital Marketing, with a lessened assessment load.
Dr Boey Yew Tung and Dr Wong King Yin managed to share a lot and let us understand more about digital marketing through various cases, where we can assess metrics like conversion rate, as well as measuring marketing effectiveness. I managed to also get some tips about how to improve my blog content and SEO techniques, which I hope to see results coming in and looking forward to doing a new sharing if it works out! (Yes! I changed the colour scheme of my blog because of something I found out during class.)
In terms of course load, this is a 3au course. There was a mix of self-paced learning (9h) and in-class learning (30h), some of which was done through zoom due to the safe distancing measures in Singapore. I felt that the workload matches that of a 3au course, however, the content does get a bit technical at times and it might be tough for people from a non-technical background to follow with the class.
The method of assessment is 15% Google Analytics Certification, 15% Hubspot Inbound Marketing Certification, 30% Reflection Report and 40% Final MCQ Quiz.
Final Words
Overall, I am thankful that I have embarked on this opportunity to further understand marketing, and believe that the knowledge will be useful for me in my career in the long run! I hope that this article is useful to you just like it has been a great reflective journey for me.
Thank you to NTU for the free Alumni Credits for 2020 graduates. I hope to put the knowledge attained to good use in future!
Last Wednesday, I attended my physical convocation at Nanyang Technological University. It was a unique experience as it was the first time any graduate from NTU attended a graduation ceremony with a mask on to receive his certificate, or rather just the folder. (the certificate was already at home!) Over the weekend, I was reflecting on my experience at university being the best time to challenge my comfort zone. Here is 7 ways where I challenged my comfort zone while in university:
1. Joining Countless Co-curricular Activities at University
During my first two years of university, I engaged in more Co-curricular activities than I ever did for my other schooling years. I saw myself challenging my comfort zone, taking up leadership positions for the first time in NTU Students’ Union and NTU Entrepreneurship Society, to contribute to the broader student community. It was through these experiences that I learned to be a better leader.
NTU Students’ Union Information and Research Committee 18/19
I also joined multiple other activities as a committee member, putting myself out there to interact with new people, and honing my communications skills through activities like Toastmasters, as well as volunteering for the main committee of a camp for underprivileged children.
While being from an A Level background, while it was uncomfortable to let my studies take the back seat, I am satisfied with the holistic development in university!
I was doing a bit of research online about university and one of the conclusions which I had was university was the best time to give it a go at running my own business! I decided to sign up for the Minor in Entrepreneurship programme at NTU, where I had the chance to run my own business with a passionate group. The business we ran, EcoTumble, was a business which sells collapsible cups, and reusable straws, with the purpose of reducing the environmental footprint from takeaway drinks and food! I remembered that back then, reusable straws were starting to be popular, and instead of just saving the straw, why not save the whole cup too!
Showcase Night with my Minor in Entrepreneurship Team with our Business: EcoTumble
While the business was not the most profitable, we did manage to make a 40% profit off our initial investment, which was an incredible feat!
Running the end-to-end of the business also gave me the opportunity to understand how various business functions come together, and how to continually pivot from the various challenges faced.
To be honest, I started my internships at university quite late. I only had my first internship in the winter break of my penultimate year! When I was at Schaeffler, I decided to take up an internship in Talent Management, which was a field very different from what I intended to do. For me, any internship experience was important to know more about the corporate environment and I was glad to have been with the APAC Human Resource Team.
Schaeffler Dinner and Dance 2019
Following that, I went for two internships with the marketing department, understanding about research, CRM, Digital Marketing and Product Marketing.
In my last internship in Kavo Kerr, managing the internship part time while juggling my final semester of studies challenged me to keep my timetable and priorities in order. I managed to find ways to work more efficiently, as well as keep my calendar properly documented so that I could do an internship, while study at the same time!
In my final year of studies, despite having only 6 modules left for the final year, I decided to go for an exchange programme at ESSEC Business School in France, where I could only do 3 of my university courses. Despite that, I decided to overload some modules in marketing, where ESSEC is famous for, and also met international friends along the way.
Outside ESSEC Business School with my product innovation classmates!
While on the exchange programme, I also had the opportunity to travel to several countries and experience different cultures. For instance, I went to Munich, Germany to attend the Oktoberfest; I shopped at the various Passages (iconic shopping places) in Paris, France; I embarked on a solo trip to Belgium during one of the weekends! This gave me a more complete view of the world and if you are considering to go on exchange (once COVID ends), I strongly urge you to go for once as it is a transformative experience of a lifetime!
5. Taking Part in Case Competitions and Hackathons
While I did take part in some case competitions, time is limited and I did not take part in as many case competitions as many others in university. Of the various case competitions I took part in, I am happy to have made one podium finish for the NTU-AXS Video Case Challenge, where I challenged my comfort zone by putting together multiple clips of videos taken by my team!
NTU-AXS Video Case Competition
In my final semester, I also took on the most difficult capstone business analytics course in business analytics consulting, where we did a business analytics consulting project for the course partner, Aon, an insurance brokerage firm. Months of hard work came to fruition when we claimed the best team title for the course.
6. Overloading in University to do Interesting Electives
Yes! That’s right! I overloaded by 5 electives while in university.
Electives are courses which are seemingly unrelated to the major of study, which for me is business analytics. As I took up a minor in entrepreneurship, I had no more electives left after my first year. However, I started sending in my first overload request for my 4th semester in school. The overload was wonderful, as I saw myself doing a few modules in Marketing, Innovation, Web Design and UI/UX Design. Being trained in the Analytics space, the exposure to marketing and design helped me further hone my interest that Analytics is a cross-functional field which integrates knowledge from various fields!
Snippet from my group video for AB0502 Managing Sustainability
I also did video content creation while doing one of the electives from a compulsory basket of sustainability electives, AB0502 Managing Sustainability. In this course, we explored the sustainability of culture, while making a long term sustainable business concept out of it!
Why did I say this was out of the comfort zone? Well for one, two-thirds of my cohort in Business Analytics took a double degree, which meant that I would be pitted against the best of the best in the cohort. However, embracing the challenge, I decided to go into my course with both eyes wide open and put in my best effort into it. I ended up doing surprisingly better than I expected! The moral of this story is to stay true to your passion and try your best at whatever choice you decide on.
With my first degree done and dusted, I feel ready to tackle the challenges in my next phase of life!
Well that was a really long reflection, and if you read till this point, hope that this experience may inspire you to challenge your comfort zone in university!
For the top 10 (well actually 11 due to a tie) courses this year, the Median Salary (50th percentile) received by a Fresh Graduate is S$5,000 and above, with the highest Median Salary being from Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Business School Double Degree in Business (Business Analytics) and Computer Engineering/Computing. Two other Analytics related courses from SMU and NUS also made the top 10! Do read up more on why I picked Business Analytics as a specialisation here!
The top universities of choice seem to be Nanyang Technological University, National University of Singapore and Singapore Management University! The top course verticals (based on my own classification) are Business, Science, Medicine, Computing and Law.
University
Vertical
Degree
Median Salary
NTU
Business
Double Degree in Business and Computer Engineering/Computing
$5,400
NUS
Science
Bachelor of Science with Honours
$5,350
NTU
Medicine
Medicine
$5,250
NUS
Medicine
Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery
$5,250
NUS
Computing
Bachelor of Computing (Computer Science)
$5,243
SMU
Computing
Information Systems Cum Laude and above
$5,000
SMU
Law
Law Cum Laude and above
$5,000
NUS
Law
Bachelor of Laws
$5,000
NUS
Computing
Bachelor of Computing (Information Security)
$5,000
NUS
Business
Bachelor of Science (Business Analytics)
$5,000
NUS
Computing
Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Engineering)
$5,000
Top 10 Singapore University Courses in terms of Median Salary.
Bottom 10 Courses in University (Median Salary)
For the bottom 10 (12, due to tie) courses this year, the Median Salary received by a Fresh Graduate was S$3,000 and below. The Universities in this list is a good mix of technological and newer universities, with a combination of verticals from Business, Education, Science, Medicine and Humanities and Social Sciences.
University
Vertical
Degree
Median Salary
SUSS
Education
Bachelor of Early Childhood Education
$3,000
SUSS
Business
Bachelor of Accountancy
$3,000
NTU
Business
Accountancy
$3,000
NTU
Medicine
Biomedical Sciences and Chinese Medicine
$3,000
SIT
Business
Bachelor of Hospitality Business with Honours
$3,000
SIT
Science
Bachelor of Food Technology with Honours
$2,975
SUSS
Business
Bachelor of Human Resource Management
$2,950
SUSS
Business
Bachelor of Science in Marketing
$2,900
NTU
Humanities and Social Science
Art, Design and Media
$2,800
SIT
Humanities and Social Science
Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Communication Design
$2,800
SIT
Humanities and Social Science
Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Interior Design
$2,700
SIT
Business
Bachelor of Business Administration in Food Business Management
$2,625
Bottom 10 Singapore University Courses in terms of Median Salary.
Analysing by the Verticals
With so many options, it might be difficult to narrow down your options. Therefore, we are making it simpler for you through summaries of which course vertical you might want to select! We have done the analysis using Excel Pivot Tables and Charts to Visualise the results for you! On average, you will expect to receive the highest salary in Law and the lowest from Humanities and Social Sciences.
Visualising and Ranking the Average Salary for a Fresh Graduate based on course vertical.
Law
$ 4,863
Computing
$ 4,455
Medicine
$ 4,425
Architecture
$ 3,950
Engineering
$ 3,754
Science
$ 3,651
Business
$ 3,574
Education
$ 3,475
Humanities and Social Science
$ 3,462
Some numbers if you are interested in the specific numbers derived through excel pivot tables.
Analysing by the Universities
With 6 Universities, you may also want to know which university would give you the largest return in terms of salary! Here’s another analysis with Excel Pivot Tables and Charts for Visualisation! From the Data, we can see that Singapore University of Technology and Design has the highest starting salary and Singapore University of Social Sciences having the lowest.
Visualising and Ranking the Universities by Salary.
SUTD
$ 4,075
SMU
$ 4,053
NUS
$ 3,995
NTU
$ 3,731
SIT
$ 3,494
SUSS
$ 3,100
Another set of specific numbers if you are into the details.
Best Course Vertical in terms of Median Salary in Each University
In this part, we wanted to know verticals had the highest salary for each of the universities. Here are the answers!
Nanyang Technological University: Business, Computing, Medicine
National University of Singapore: Law, Computing, Medicine
Singapore Institute of Technology: Computing
Singapore Management University: Law, Computing
Singapore University of Social Sciences: Humanities and Social Sciences
Singapore University of Technology and Design: Engineering
Analysing the best course in terms of average salary in each university.
Conclusion
Having said all these, do note that this report is only informative in nature. While the starting salary may be an important factor, remember that that is only one of the considerations. Some other factors include passion, interest and more!
Hope that this article is helpful in making an informed choice for the next phase of your education!
