Great Lakes: Students visit Malaysia and Singapore on International Study Tour

The students attended a lecture on Asian Marketing Strategies by Prof Hooi Den Huan of Nanyang Technological University (Nanyang Business School), Singapore. This presented an opportunity for Great Lakes to strengthen ties with NTU. Later on, the delegation was addressed by the Dean of NTU, Dr Jitendra Singh. He spoke about the need for business schools to become more relevant and to redefine their roles as contributors to society and in the process foster innovation, new thinking which has been woefully lacking even with the top B Schools of the world. He also talked about how India was regaining its rightful place in the world with its rapid growth, something which it had lost since the 1700s. The session ended with a proposal to have student exchange programs in the coming years between the two institutes and to work more closely in offering new and more relevant Business programs.

The students also visited companies belonging to different domains. At ASCO Numatics (Manufacturers of pneumatic valves) a an Emerson Group Company, Singapore, the students learnt about the inventory management techniques followed and the processes followed right from procuring raw materials to distribution in the supply chain. At Temasek Holdings, Singapore, an investment banking firm, Great Lakers learnt about the investment diversification portfolio of Temasek, the geographies it operates from and the entry and exit strategies followed in the short term as well as the long term. The students got a feel of the marketing strategies at the Singapore office of P&G.; This was followed by a visit to Redpill Solutions, a market research company. Later on, Great Lakers visited the Singapore Economic Development Board and attended a lecture on the Singapore Economy by Mr Engkeat Lee (Regional Director, South Asia). They also visited the PSA Port in Singapore and learnt about the techniques of efficient port management.

At the ministry of higher education in Malaysia, Mr Mohammed Nasser Mohammed Noor, director of higher education addressed the students about the higher education scene in Malaysia. He talked about the problems facing higher education in Malaysia and the plan of action to improve higher education in the next 20 years.

After this, the students visited Graduate School of Management, Malaysia. This presented an opportunity to explore areas of common interest such as student exchange programs etc. Great Lakes students interacted with the GSM students and learnt more about the MBA program offered by GSM and life in general as an MBA student in Malaysia. This was followed by a visit to UNITAR (University of Tun Abdul Razak), Malaysia. A lecture on the Malaysian economy by Prof Cheah Kooi Guan was organized for the visiting students. This was a learning experience for the students and they gained insights on how the Malaysian economy is different from the Indian economy and how it has evolved over the years and how it is handling the current worldwide economic crisis. The students also visited Bank Rakyat, Malaysiaas largest bank and learnt about Islamic Banking fundamentals and the differences between conventional banking and Islamic banking.