Describe your personal brand.

Throughout my working career, I've had love and affection for purpose-driven marketing. Through Dr. Love's module, I fell in love again, and this time I wanted to bring back these ideas and learnings from the case study discussions to ask tough questions about my own organization's purpose-led brand. Dr. Love first covered this during 'Customer Centricity and Brand Alignment' elective and when he announced that he is looking to create another elective solely focused on 'Social Purpose Marketing'; I immediately signed up. This module created a paradigm shift for me in the way I thought about purpose-driven branding in large organizations. To my surprise, there are large organizations out there that do not execute purpose-led branding optimally, causing them to lose price leadership and weaken their brand equity. Through this module, I critiqued my organization (perhaps a bit too strongly), and I took these learnings and reflections back to my management. I presented a case that our expenditure on social purpose initiatives has done little to improve our brand equity. I asked tough questions in that internal presentation which allowed me to address deficiencies in my firm’s purpose-led branding. What were those questions? I am sure you are wondering. All I can say is; you need to sign up for this module to find out. As a wise man said to me once ‘learning is not about the end result; it is about the journey you go through’.

What were you doing before The NUS MBA?

Prior to the MBA (till now) I've been working in the Banking Industry specifically within the Payments division. I cover corporate customer relationships as part of my work and I am responsible for growing customer wallet through various marketing campaigns specific to the Payments business. Payments have seen unprecedented evolution and growth with the rise of real-time settlement methods, mobile payment options, and e-Wallets. Given most banks can offer these services; banking products have become highly commoditised. To stand out amongst the competitors; a purpose-led brand vision becomes imperative and highly relevant during this day-age.

Please share your key achievements and leadership roles on the programme.

Before embarking this module, I had just completed Dr. Love’s Customer Centricity elective in the prior semester. While Customer Centricity module is not a pre-requisite, it gave me strong foundations to build upon as I started my journey on Social Purpose branding. The tools that Dr. Love taught us during module allowed me to clearly spot ‘social-washing’ tactics vs. genuine social purpose-led branding. The biggest transformation for me was not to shy away from asking tough questions when a company claims their brand is purpose-led. Throughout the module, we discussed various brands as part of group exercises and case studies. These reflections, in addition to Dr. Love’s integrative framework for Social Purpose Marketing gave me the confidence to comfortably call out ‘green-washing’ or even ‘social-washing’ claims that some companies make to showcase their brands as purpose-led.

What has been the single most stand-out experience of your MBA?

Never be afraid to ask questions! My most memorable learning moments during my MBA journey have been a result of asking questions (many questions!).

What advice would you give to other MBA aspirants?

Never be afraid to ask questions, and never shy away from letting others know your opinion! If you only attend classes and take notes, you won’t get much out of your MBA journey. As experienced professionals, the real value of an MBA comes from sharing our experiences and letting others comment/discuss/critique them. MBA is a practice ground for real-life work life. If you are too shy, reluctant, and tentative during classes, then you likely will not be able to speak up at your workplace. MBA is about sparking transformation, and transformation starts from within.