The world is rapidly urbanizing. More and more cities around the world are becoming increasingly popular as economic powerhouses and magnets for migrants from the countryside, suburban areas and other parts of the world. All big cities in both First and Third World countries as well as emerging markets such as New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Dehli, Jakarta etc. have to cope with high population density and serious challenges such as air pollution or traffic congestion.
How do we pack more people into big cities and yet continue to achieve a high quality of life? How do we create and manage ‘good cities’ which are safe, spacious, green, connected, fair and resilient? How can cities create economic wealth while still fulfilling the CSR responsibilities of sustaining a “Green Planet”? What are the best practice designs and technical smart city solutions which could be leveraged to tackle these challenges and how can they be successfully commercialised? This course will provide answers to these questions with special emphasis on the managerial and commercial aspects of smart city concepts.
The key lies in creating and effectively managing innovative and sustainable, smart cities able to leverage on new technologies such as smart grids or sensor networks to create a place where people can live, play and work well. Starting from the stakeholder requirements of citizens and planners of innovative cities, the course will introduce students to urban design concepts as well as commercialization, management challenges and implementation issues of the smart city model. There will also be a focus on how good governance and enabling technologies such as sensor networks can facilitate the creation, management and sustainability of ‘good’ cities.
With the help of case studies and resource persons such as industry leaders, innovative city designers, tech experts and business development experts from local and int. companies such as ST Electronics, JTC, Jurong Consultants, Frost & Sullivan, IDA International, Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) etc., students will be familiarized with the opportunities and challenges of the ‘smart city business’ which represents a key element in the value creation and extraction strategy of the Singapore Government and related businesses.
The overall objective of this module is to equip students with core knowledge of appreciating what it takes to plan, design, build and sustain (mega) cities that are innovative and sustainable and to know the challenges of successfully 'selling' new smart city concepts amidst increasing competition in this field.
By the end of this course, students will be able to appreciate the following 4 areas:
Taxonomy of Innovative & Sustainable Cities
- Describe the core characteristics of a Smart City and respective concepts
- Explain the unique characteristics of each component and how it adds value to innovative and sustainable (smart) cities
Design of Innovative & Sustainable Cities
- Understand the planning and design principles of Innovative & Sustainable Cities
- Explain the workings of each component of Innovative & Sustainable Cities
In-depth study of selected (Mega) Cities
- Be familiar with the challenges of selected mega cities around the globe and understand how the smart city concept can add value in terms of livability
Commercialisation of the Smart City Concept
- Appreciate the challenges in successfully commercializing smart city concepts and applications
- Know some of the key players in the Singapore context which are involved in this service sector and establish network contacts
Note: Central to this course is a SMU-X group project that takes the form of an action-based and experiential assignment, where student groups work with a partner organization with the aim of achieving innovative solutions for the organization. Based on this experiential learning, students will gain acquire practical Smart City-related competencies.
Smartphones, social media and generative artificial intelligence have made easy work of information production, dissemination and consumption. They have also, correspondingly, facilitated the proliferation of misinformation. Widespread false, inaccurate and misleading information can have profound consequences on the well-being of individuals, organisations, and societies; threatening public health and safety, inciting socialunrest, and disrupting livelihoods.
Its effects have been especially pronounced in recent years, hindering vaccination drives, compelling irrational behaviours, threatening political processes, and causing significant financial losses. What drives some to believe in, and act on misinformation? What can individuals, organisationsand societies do to manage misinformation? Can we believe anything that we see anymore? In exploring concepts, conditions and consequences of misinformation, this course invites students to question the truths, tales and lies that may be guiding human behaviours, social relations, and global affairs.
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge
- Explain misinformation, and how it differs from other types of false information.
- Understand misinformation from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, from psychology to sociology, management to international relations.
Intellectual and Creative Skills
- Apply critical thinking and media literacy skills to evaluate the credibility of sources, the evidence presented, and the methodologies used in information gathering.
- Understand misinformation spread and apply evidence-based and creative means to manage misinformation.
Global Citizenship
- Understand the impact of misinformation on global communities; its influence on public opinions, organisational and political outcomes worldwide.
- Propose solutions to contribute positively to a culture of information integrity at local and global levels.
The overall objective of this module is to build and develop students’ competency in leadership and teamwork skills. The course employs both a theoretical and an experiential learning approach with the aim of fulfilling the objectives as outlined below. Students will gain knowledge and skills about leadership development and team-building skills based on theories, principles, concepts, application, exercises/class activities, self-assessments/instruments, and experiential learning.
Central to the course is a group project that takes the form of an action-based and experiential assignment, where student groups work with an industry partner with the aim of achieving innovative solutions for the company or organization. Based on this experiential learning, students will gain the practical aspects of the process of teamwork and team leadership.
The ultimate aims and objectives revolve around learning from the process of the group project lessons on both leadership and teamwork. More is elaborated under Section B of this course outline. The outcomes of the group project for students are outlined as follows:
(i) Students will learn about leadership from the leaders they are connecting with. For example, they will learn how and why today’s leaders are engaged in community-based or social initiatives in Singapore and beyond.
(ii) Students will also learn from the leaders lessons on leadership and/or teamwork based on the leaders’ experiences.
(iii) By undertaking a hands-on group project, students will also learn practical lessons as well as the complexities of teamwork based on their OWN experience and process of working internally, with their group mates and externally, with organizations outside of school.
(iv) Each student will also reflect on his/her own learning throughout the project from start to end as outlined below (see ‘Reflection Essay’ for details).
(v) Students will also fulfill other learning objectives that include cognitive and academic development as outlined below in the section, ‘Learning Objectives'
By the end of this course, students will be able to do the following:
Leadership:
- Appreciate the value of experience and action-based learning that integrates understanding of major leadership paradigms and leadership theories from an inter-disciplinary perspective
- Engage analytical, problem-solving & reasoning skills to critically appraise various theories and perspectives of leadership
- Apply the various leadership traits and behavior as well as different leadership style such as charismatic & transformational leadership, principles of stewardship & servant leadership, collaborative, authentic leadership and other such recent leadership approaches in a VUCA world
- Appreciate being open-minded & sensitive to individual differences and embrace uncertainties
- Understand how leaders can set or influence the ethical tone by applying Kohlberg's model of moral development
- Learn more about leadership through their group project work, class activities, readings, etc.
Teams and Groups:
- Understand major theories and perspectives of group dynamics and group leadership
- Learn more about teamwork processes through working on a real-life group project with an industry or community partner
- Throughout the group project students will learn to collaborate and employ innovative skills in using their expertise, knowledge to contribute to the needs of the partnering industry or community based organization
- Understand different methods of communication and appreciate how to effectively communicate and manage conflict, if any, and learn to overcome challenges within their respective group as well as with their respective external stakeholders
- Develop a detailed work schedule and strategies among teams, and understand how to form, lead and manage work teams
- Acquire some level of resilience through self-directed and group-directed learning that includes embracing uncertainties, overcoming challenges, etc.
Academic and Professional Capabilities:
- Understand and gain qualitative fieldwork skills such as how to conduct interviews and carry out a needs analysis or survey in an ethical manner
- Formalizing report writing with integrity and honesty
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Demonstrate a deep understanding of the key concepts in Strategic Management in Digital Media and Entertainment E-Commerce Ecosystem (DMEEE).
- Identify key learning and experiences from the real-life strategic business challenge proposed by Mediacorp and JUMBOGroup.
- Explain how changes in the DMEEE could lead to new high-growth opportunities for Singapore.
- Explain how the differences in the consumer consumption of digital media, entertainment, and e-commerce for Asians and non-Asians will impact the digital strategy in DMEEE
- Identify and analyze potential strategic business opportunities in Asia.
- Develop an innovative digital strategy to compete in DMEEE in Asia.
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge
- Explain misinformation, and how it differs from other types of false information.
- Understand misinformation from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, from psychology to sociology, management to international relations.
Intellectual and Creative Skills
- Apply critical thinking and media literacy skills to evaluate the credibility of sources, the evidence presented, and the methodologies used in information gathering.
- Understand misinformation spread and apply evidence-based and creative means to manage misinformation.
Global Citizenship
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Understand the political social and cultural factors that influence corporate communication in different countries in Asia
- Apply the principles and theories of intercultural communication when examining the industry practices
- Analyze the effectiveness of different strategies when engaging with multicultural, multi-ethnic stakeholders in today's technologically driven business environments
- Gain valuable insights from guest speakers who manage communication in Asia-Pacific Integrate many communication modules and apply knowledge to align business objectives and communication strategies for effective engagement with the highly diverse Asian audience.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
1. Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge
a. Articulate how the science of storytelling can be harnessed together with generative AI to change perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors
2. Intellectual and Creative Skills
a. Conceptualize and create narrative films/storyboards using the latest Generative AI tools.
b. Demonstrate competence in using AI prompts to achieve desired creative outputs from Large Language Models and Diffusion Models
3. Personal Mastery
a. Develop empathy through understanding the perspectives and experiences of stakeholders
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Describe the paradox in the relationship between strategy and strategic change.
- Analyze challenges related to the strategic interaction with competitors, complementors or other players, especially in the digital transformation process.
- Explain the strategic change issues related to disruptive innovation threats, in particular, new digital technologies and digital business models.
- Explain the management issues in turnaround, transformation and continuous renewal process, and apply managerial knowledge and tools to the digital transformation process.
- Propose logical and feasible action plans for successful strategic change and digital transformation.
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Understand the implications of the Internet, mobile and information technological advances on the traditional dynamics of business, commerce and marketing and their impact on product, pricing, distribution channels and on advertising
- Understand the differences and similarities in online consumer behaviour with respect to traditional offline consumer behaviour and how increasing consumer control is changing the marketing landscape
- Analyse and assess technological advances in digital media and how they affect our decisions as Marketing Managers
- Formulate and persuasively communicate rigorous and practical solutions to commonly faced online marketing problems across industries
- Understand how to integrate online marketing into an overall marketing strategy
- Understand commonly used quantitative techniques to evaluate digital marketing Return on Investment (ROI) for various online customer acquisition tools (e.g. paid search and SEO) and engagement channels (e.g. social media) to best engage with target audiences and achieve your marketing objectives
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Appreciate the significance of investing in initiatives that not only provide financial returns but also create positive social and environmental impacts;
- Understand the core principles of sustainable and impact investing and how they differ from traditional venture capital / private equity investment approaches;
- Develop proficiency in evaluating investments using ESG criteria and impact measurement tools;
- Solve a real-world investment challenge faced by the sustainable and impact investment space;
- Understand and conduct research on their given industries and develop insights in the regional and global landscape;
- Ideate on actionable solutions that can address key funding, operational or business model challenges;
- Develop a sustainable and/or impact-driven strategy that can improve the financial and impact performance of the company.