Rutgers Business School Asia Pacific (RBSAP), a provider of Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) degrees, is relocating to coworking space The Working Capitol on Keong Saik Road in Singapore.
The decision is motivated by the need to keep in pace with the evolving demands of the business world. Both traditional and executive education are looking beyond lectures, readings, case studies and team activities to ensure relevancy to current business needs while keeping an eye to the horizon in terms of innovation and competitiveness. The new location will serve as home to a unique 14.5-month long Executive MBA as well as RBS’ week-long Mini-MBAs.
Stephanie Krishnan, the Executive Director of Rutgers Business School Asia Pacific, said, “There is impetus in industry for both leaders and personnel to break through barriers in siloed thinking. This function-focused thinking starts with the way people are educated, in terms of their majors or specialisation. There have been some inroads in changing this, however exposure to a more entrepreneurial, collaborative way of thinking and working is required at the top of organisations. This is what we are aiming to show to our Executive MBA students through being part of a coworking space and being able to benefit from built-in networking opportunities and a professional atmosphere.”
“Today’s digital economy is driving tremendous change within organisations. It is easier to enter and disrupt other industries than to change your own. Any value chain with significant inefficiency offers an opportunity for new players to enter and disrupt. Companies need to be extremely agile and prepared for any disruption. This requires real-time collaboration that cuts across organisation hierarchies and rigid processes. (The) Rutgers Executive MBA programme will prepare executives to handle challenges in this digital economy, and I believe that this new environment within a coworking space will motivate them to think differently and drive digital transformation within their organisations,” said Saj Kumar, VP - Digital Transformation and IoT, SAP, and a RBS alumus.
With this in mind, Rutgers Business School Asia Pacific aims to drive a learning experience through exposure to collaboration, creativity and innovation in its new location. "We chose The Working Capitol because there are a number of ways we think alike - we believe in the intersection of tech, creative and service industries, we believe that a variety of ages and experience are needed to contribute to a meaningful enterprise – whether technical, managerial, creative, business or any other myriad of valid skills and perspectives that are required to make organizations thrive in today's uber-competitive environment," said Krishnan.
A proud RBS Alumnus and Chief Technology Officer, Asia Pacific & Japan Cisco Systems, Mathew Varghese, lauds the RBS decision. “This initiative from RBSAP to conduct future Business Programs in a 'coworking space' is an excellent one that will accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship. Coworking spaces in education provide a platform to interact and collaborate between educators, students and entrepreneurs leading to the development of a local ecosystem which to-date is unheard of in education space, “said Varghese.
“As I see it, the platform can be further enhanced to serve as a meeting space, community forum, networking venue, mentor and investor destination, co-founder dating place, incubator, accelerator, co-working venue, and educational resource for programmes and content ranging from how to develop a business plan, to say how to use a Facebook API in building a business to consumer marketplace among many other topics of interest. RBSAP alumni can play an active role in this community by being 'mentors, influencers, or connectors'."
Interested?
Read the WorkSmart Asia blog post about The Working Capitol's expansion into Singapore's central business district
