Analytics | Process | Strategy | Innovation | by Tan Wei Xiang

Category: Management

  • Review: Nanyang Business School Mini Masters in Marketing Management

    Review: Nanyang Business School Mini Masters in Marketing Management

    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.

    Besides this, I also managed to apply my knowledge in real life, do check my post on quantitative survey fielding here!

    CET018 Branding

    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!

    If you liked this page, do bookmark this site, or follow us on our LinkedIn page.

    If you are interested in finding out more on my reflections on working and studying at the same time, do read this post!

    If you are an undergraduate or graduate student deciding between marketing and analytics, do read my comparison of these two specialisations.

    Photo Credits: Original Artwork by Tan Wei Xiang

  • University Choice Analytics: GES 2020 Summarised for You

    University Choice Analytics: GES 2020 Summarised for You

    University Choice Analytics: Recently, the Ministry of Education of Singapore released the results of Joint Autonomous University Graduate Employment Survey in Singapore. I remembered a few years back where I would also be one of those prospective university students who would consistently be looking at these results. While I believe that your choice of university and course should not be solely on the salary that you receive, here are some analysis of the Graduate Employment Survey 2020 of 138 Courses on which University and Course you should go to: (i.e. National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Management University, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore Institute of Technology, Singapore University of Social Sciences)

    Top 10 Courses in University (Median Salary)

    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.

    UniversityVerticalDegreeMedian Salary
    NTUBusinessDouble Degree in Business and Computer Engineering/Computing $5,400 
    NUSScienceBachelor of Science with Honours$5,350 
    NTUMedicineMedicine$5,250 
    NUSMedicineBachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery$5,250 
    NUSComputingBachelor of Computing (Computer Science) $5,243 
    SMUComputingInformation Systems Cum Laude and above $5,000 
    SMULawLaw Cum Laude and above $5,000 
    NUSLawBachelor of Laws$5,000 
    NUSComputingBachelor of Computing (Information Security) $5,000 
    NUSBusinessBachelor of Science (Business Analytics) $5,000 
    NUSComputingBachelor 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.

    UniversityVerticalDegreeMedian Salary
    SUSSEducationBachelor of Early Childhood Education$3,000 
    SUSSBusinessBachelor of Accountancy $3,000 
    NTUBusinessAccountancy $3,000 
    NTUMedicineBiomedical Sciences and Chinese Medicine$3,000 
    SITBusinessBachelor of Hospitality Business with Honours $3,000 
    SITScienceBachelor of Food Technology with Honours $2,975 
    SUSSBusinessBachelor of Human Resource Management $2,950 
    SUSSBusinessBachelor of Science in Marketing $2,900 
    NTUHumanities and Social ScienceArt, Design and Media $2,800 
    SITHumanities and Social ScienceBachelor of Arts with Honours in Communication Design $2,800 
    SITHumanities and Social ScienceBachelor of Arts with Honours in Interior Design $2,700 
    SITBusinessBachelor 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!

    If you ended up deciding on Business School, do read our post on how to make the most of your business school experience!

    If you liked this page, do bookmark this site, or follow us on our LinkedIn page.

    Original Cover Photo by Tan Wei Xiang (University Logos from Google Images)
    Datasets obtained from Singapore Ministry of Education: https://www.moe.gov.sg/post-secondary/overview/autonomous-universities/

  • Time Management while Working and Studying

    Time Management while Working and Studying

    Time Management, a crucial topic that is ever so elusive. Recently, I wrote a post about juggling between work and studies. Coincidentally, January had also been my busiest month since starting work. Therefore, I will be sharing a bit of my experience in time management in January.

    What happened this month?

    This month (or rather since late December), I received a special assignment direct from the company CEO, to work on a Branding Strategy Project. This was a rare opportunity for me as a newly minted graduate in the workforce, so I definitely had to say yes!

    In the meantime, I had myself enrolled into a Branding Class at NTU as part of my MiniMasters programme, and had to commit to classes in order to attain the certification. Furthermore, I did not want to disappoint on the blog, which I have committed to posting once a week.

    Effective Calendar Planning

    My first steps to tackle the month was to have a calendar planned out. I started with planning out blocks which I know have a fixed time, for instance my zoom live lectures. These are the times which I cannot schedule any meeting, work through the weekends, or schedule my self-paced online learning.

    Next, I came up with a list of the number of hours I needed on each of my tasks, and did a tentative block on my calendar, to demarcate the time for those tasks, while still keeping the schedule open for meetings.

    It seemed all too straightforward, but things can still go wrong, first check-in, second check-in, third check-in, and so forth… In the end, I ended up losing entire weekends working on the project.

    To tackle effective calendar planning, I figured that moving forward, having gaps is necessary to be able to react to any potential situation which happens.

    Not so much Time Management, but Energy Management

    Halfway through the month, after my schedule was nice and packed effectively, I realised that I experienced a decrease in productivity on some days. Then, I recalled about the article on Harvard Business Review, to manage my energy and not my time. Right then, I realised I was spending too much time just working and neglecting the importance of leisure.

    To react to the situation, I ensured that I ran minimally once a week. After the change, I felt a lot more refreshed and able to concentrate on what I was doing more effectively.

    Moving forward, I intend to add a mix to my exercise routine, maybe the gym or a swim, to allow me to recharge after a fine day at work. How about you? How do you intend to manage your energy? Do leave your comments down below!

    Next Month: Proper Planning and Pacing

    In the month of February, I intend to plan for proper breaks within and outside my work day, as well as control the pace I complete what I intend to complete. After all, life is a marathon and not a race. A sprint at the start may result in massive burnout and damaging health, which decreases productivity and quality of life.

    Either way, I’m glad that January has ended! I have successfully completed my branding course, and would be embarking on my digital marketing course next month. With our pre-read submitted, we are left with preparing for a presentation, before welcoming my next assignment at work!

    As a plus, I managed to post for 5 weeks consecutive this year. If time permits, I intend to do a massive rebranding of the site over the next few months, to put my branding class knowledge to the test.

    Hope you liked our story today. Do bookmark this site, leave a comment in the section below, and follow us on our LinkedIn page as we look forward to curating new content for you every week. Next, do read about our tips to succeed in management internships and jobs. If you are currently looking for a job or internship, we have also put together a guide for you.

    Base Image credits: Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
    Original Design by: Tan Wei Xiang

  • Working while Studying, Studying while Working (NBS Graduate)

    Working while Studying, Studying while Working (NBS Graduate)

    Welcome to our second post of 2021! As promised in the last post of last year to be more regular in posting the various topics in this blog, we are catering to our management enthusiasts who may be on campus, or learning in other ways. As analysed in our previous post, we have quite a sizeable portion of student readers, we also wanted to create a post more catered to professionals who may want to go back to school to increase knowledge too! I previously shared about why I decided to return to school, but this post will be more targetted at my thoughts on schooling while working, and also while I was working while schooling while on my internship at KavoKerr. Here are some of my thoughts:

    Improving Time Management Skills

    I have received various questions on how I manage to work and study at the same time for last year, while also running an active blog. How do I find all the time? One of the techniques which I used was to have more time management. Part and parcel of my learning journey was to create pockets of time reserved for various activities. This meant scheduling time on my calendar to complete my coursework, as well as internship or work activities without cannibalising either activities. It helped that there was a timetable at school and I planned my internship around my remaining modules. The true challenge for me this month is that now I’m entrusted with a major work project, and how I’m going to continue to deliver with excellence, I believe that time management will be key. Do read more about time management in this post.

    Learning to Prioritise

    Knowing that we have limited time, knowing how to set our priorities is crucial in ensuring that we get the most.

    For my current priorities, I ranked them as work first, classes and preparation next, blog post third (but rest assured you’ll see the posts you expect to see!), exercise, hanging out with friends, catching more sleep if possible (please don’t reduce sleep priority for too long, usually I’m an advocate that you sleep for minimally 8 hours a day, but please do not go less than 6 hours, I tried it before and do not recommend it!

    Knowing this is only a 4 months long arrangement with 1 month having to work weekends too, it is something which I could manage. But that being said, I strongly urge you to know when and what you should prioritise, to prevent burnout. (It’s not the best feeling to have, felt it when doing 7 CCAs in Year 1 at school but that’s a story for another day!)

    Maximising Value and Efficiency

    Something I learned about studying while working is that we can’t be too perfect at everything, as we have limited time. Gone are the days where we could do multiple revisions of the coursework that we want to submit, in order to try to get the perfect score at school.

    This is one of the times when we can apply Pareto’s Principle where we use 20% of the time to complete 80% of the work. While completing my coursework to a deliverable standard, I can gain 80% of the knowledge with just 20% of the time, this meant that I would be able to learn enough about what I am learning at school, without compromising on my work responsibilities.

    Well that’s all for today’s reflection. If you’re considering to work while studying to gain more experience or study while working to gain more knowledge, I would urge you to consider your time, priorities and how you can maximise your efficiency, in order to achieve the best of both worlds!

    If you liked our post, do bookmark this site, or follow us on our LinkedIn page as we look forward to creating new content for you every week.

    Image Credits: Original Image created by Tan Wei Xiang, using image by Wengang Zhai on Unsplash

    If you’re still in school, here’s a post for you to make the most out of your business school experience.

    If you are interested in pursuing the Mini Masters in Marketing Management, do check this post out on course reviews.

  • My Reflections on 2020

    My Reflections on 2020

    2020 might be remembered in history as a year of widespread epidemic and economic recession by many, but to me, it was a really interesting year. It was a year which challenged me to do the best I could.

    1st Half of 2020

    Kick started my first half of 2020 with my final semester at Nanyang Technological University, taking 3 modules, inclusive of the legendary killer Capstone Business Analytics Module in NBS, Business Analytics Consulting. I had the chance to interact with the brightest minds from business, as well as computing, to deliver viable business recommendations in health insurance strategy to our client company, Aon. Click here you’re interested to know more about why I chose business analytics.

    As if dealing with one company was not enough, I took on a Regional Digital & Product Marketing internship with dental company KavoKerr, which recently spun off from Danaher Group. Through the internship, I had the chance to conduct market research, create marketing collaterals, do customer analytics, as well as social media marketing on Facebook. Halfway during my internship, it became a work-from-home arrangement, do read this if you’re interested to know how it is to experience both work in office and at home.

    Right after finishing my final class in business school, I managed to secure a job and it was in semi-lockdown in Singapore. Instead of just wasting the time away, I decided to upskill myself through distance learning on Coursera, here are some of my reflections.

    2nd Half of 2020

    Kick Started the second half of 2020 with my first job on a Graduate Programme with Dairy Farm Group, a multinational company in the retail and fast moving consumer goods scene. Managed to get a chance to learn a lot at work through rotations in Commercial, Operations and Supply Chain. I am really fortunate to have had the chance to interact with many senior business leaders as well as mentors to guide me along the way, and looking forward to more growth in my career. If you’re interested to find out more do reach out to my LinkedIn, where I have documented many posts on the experience too!

    For the last few months of the year, I made the choice to return to campus in NTU, to further my understanding of the business sector by taking on a MiniMasters in Marketing Management. While it has been tiring to juggle work with studies, it has been really fulfilling to tackle marketing problems with the brightest minds. (Some have even been in the industry for years!) If you’re considering going back to school while working, do click here!

    Last but definitely not the least, I am happy to have consistently posted blog posts this half of the year despite never quite getting myself started previously. Thank you all for the readership this year and we look forward to your continued support over 2021 where we will bring you more posts about analytics, management and innovation.

    My thoughts for 2021

    Moving forward to 2021, it will be a year of accelerated learning at work, while also completing my MiniMasters programme by the end of March! (Hopefully graduation too, but I am not too sure if it will ever happen now.)

    Most importantly, I realised I have not been the most consistent in posting this year, sometimes disappearing occasionally when busy. A resolution for this blog is to consistently generate at least one post for each topic in analytics, innovation and management on a monthly basis, while also not forgetting some of my readers who are still in school as well. Do look forward to more about my past university experience as well as a fresh employee at work perspectives.

    2020 has been great, 2021 will be even better!

    Tan Wei Xiang

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    Image Credits: Photo by Ray Hennessy on Unsplash