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

Tag: Lifelong Learning

  • I’m back! Update on the past 3 years.

    Hi there! It’s me, Wei Xiang again. It’s been a while since I last added a post here and many supporters have mentioned to me how much they missed my content.

    A Look Back on Past Favourites

    So much had happened over the past 4 years, including Google Analytics updating to GA4. Lost some old data back then, but thanks for the continued support especially on our top 3 posts below:

    The Past 3 Years

    After all that radio silence, you may have been curious what I’ve been up to for the past few years. Just some quick highlights, there’s lot’s to catch up over in future.

    In 2021, and into the first half of 2022, I took on a new portfolio at DFI retail group. Besides supplier partnerships, my analytics and program management initiatives extended to promotions and pricing, as well as managing the margin improvement programmes in the business.

    2022 I took a big leap, two big leaps in fact!

    I moved to a new job at William Grant & Sons as Sales Operations Manager, exposing me beyond analytics and program management to process improvement and operations management. It was so eye-opening to learn about the end to end workings of a beverage business.

    At the same time, I also embarked on my MSc in Management of Technology and Innovation specialising in digital strategy at National University of Singapore (NUS). It was refreshing to interact with both fresh graduates and adult learners, adding more perspectives to how I view my skillsets and career. There’s way too much to share but I’ll get an education review up again for my masters in future!

    Fast forward till today, I’ve left my job in William Grant & Sons and also completed my masters degree.

    A Brand New Journey

    While I embark on my journey to find my next big opportunity to impact through my various offerings like scale self-service analytics, process improvement and innovative business development, I’ll take this chance to revitalise this blog to keep the quality content flowing again.

    If you liked our post, do follow us on our LinkedIn, or our writer’s personal LinkedIn Account for more tips. 🙂

  • Why I decided to return to University while Working Full Time

    Why I decided to return to University while Working Full Time

    I found myself back on campus again, not as a full-time student, but an adult learner. Just last month, I made the decision to enrol in the MiniMasters in Marketing Management at Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University. For those who may be contemplating whether you should return to campus for lessons while working, here is 3 of my reasons.

    Awareness of Knowledge Gap

    First of my reasons for returning to school was that I felt that I did not have enough knowledge in my current industry and interest in management. While in the retail and FMCG industry, the conversations tended to be along the lines of consumer behaviour, marketing strategies and trends. While I had taken some marketing modules before, as well as did two marketing internships, I did not have a deep enough understanding of the full picture of marketing. I decided to sign up to improve my understanding of marketing strategy, marketing research, branding and digital marketing.

    Networking Opportunities

    Going back to campus also gives me the chance to interact with people from various backgrounds and settled into different professions. This provides even more opportunity for an early career professional like me to understand the perspectives of both early career and experienced professionals and in my field and other fields. Honestly, in retrospect, I also found out after the first lesson there is so many different cultures which students from different schools in my university had both in class and outside of class! This meant even more room for intellectual growth and understanding of the whole business environment!

    Application of Theory into Practice

    One benefit which I realised as a working professional back in school is also the application of theory into practice. Having the context to think of (despite being just four months at work) is a really good chance to really look at my experience at work through a theoretical lens and understanding why certain decisions are being made at work.

    Contrary to popular belief, I believe that both my MiniMasters experience so far and undergraduate experience is highly applicable to the working environment!

    I’m sure that it would be a pleasant experience for me to immerse in the marketing space.

    Let’s all continue prospecting forward in our journey of lifelong learning!

    Looking forward to sharing more about my MiniMasters in Marketing Management journey! Here are some takeaways from my experience!

    If you are interested in taking the Mini Masters in Marketing Management too, do read our course reviews here.

    While I have this opportunity to do both business analytics and marketing, if you are faced with a choice between either, do read this post!

    Which Major to Pick? Business Analytics vs Marketing (Ex-NBS Student)

    Don’t think you can commit to part time courses in university? Self-paced learning might be for you:

    Reflections from 3 Months of Distance Learning on Coursera

    Image Credits: Photo by Wengang Zhai on Unsplash

  • Reflections from 3 Months of Distance Learning on Coursera

    Reflections from 3 Months of Distance Learning on Coursera

    It has been a few months since graduation. Due to the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, I was unable to have my graduation trip. With my job offer just recently attained back then, I needed to find some time for productivity. It was also during this period where NTU had a new collaboration with Coursera and I decided to give it a try. Here are some of my insights and reflections. This post is not going to be so much on the content which I learned, but my general views on online learning.

    Opportunity to Learn Interesting New Content

    Less the Chinese course which I took as a quick refresher, I took a total of 9 courses on Coursera from 4 Universities (HEC Paris, IE Business School, John Hopkins University and Yonsei University), spanning topics in creativity, innovative management, marketing, retail management, data science and Korean.

    Some of these topics were not readily available in my home university at NTU, or just really hard to get a spot in as I have already exceeded the unrestricted electives requirements by a lot and I would be last to get the spots.

    By signing up for courses through distance learning, I gained exposure in more areas than I would have done in university.

    Time Management in the Absence of Formalised Assessments

    Being online courses which were paid for by the NTU or Coursera, there was not really a lot on the line for me. I had the opportunity to learn about various topics in my own time. While that was a really nice incentive, it was also a double-edged sword in the sense that there was no push to complete as many courses as I could. I had initially signed up for 16 courses, which was a really ambitious attempt.

    It was not too hard to keep pace at first when I was still at home, waiting to commence working life. However, as work commitments started to pour in, the absence of an actual space to learn and formalised assessments gave rise to procrastination and ultimately the completion of less courses. (Completed 3 courses while in the working world!)

    One way to manage was to ensure that I set aside 5-6 hours per week on the courses, which I managed to set into my weekly calendar and this taught me about time management, especially in the working world, where we no longer have the luxury of just taking courses and acing our examinations.

    Distance Learning as a Possible Format to Learn in Future

    Learning online also let me think about distance learning as a potential format to learn in future. If there is one thing the pandemic this year has done, it brought the world closer together. In the short span of 9 months, I had the chance to experience the teaching format of 4 Universities in 3 Continents. This gave rise to the potential exchange of cultural views through various peer reviewed projects, and we had heated debates through our different world views.

    Ultimately, distance learning has made me realise the importance of lifelong learning. There is so much knowledge in the world which I do not actually know. With this, let’s all prospect on as lifelong learners!

    If you liked this post, do read the follwing post on the skills required for the digitally transformed economy:

    3 Key Skills for the Digitally Transformed Economy