By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Explain the key principles of storytelling for brands and organizations.
- Create authentic, engaging stories for various audiences and media.
- Unearth the consumer, brand and cultural insights that form the basis of good stories.
- Develop their creativity.
Students created story frameworks and storyboard ideas for the organisations' brands and their product offerings.
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.
Students researched and suggested ideas to improve disadvantaged communities through sustainable engineering solutions.
Students suggested ideas on how to approach taboo issues relating to funerals and death, and how Solace is able to change such perspectives into doing good for the community at large.
Students proposed ideas and strategies on how Iron Nori can increase awareness regarding employing individuals with special needs, a cause the company has been advocating. Correspondingly, students evaluated and suggested ways on how the company can find ways to attract customers to their restaurants.
Singapore Fashion Runway (SFR) is a social enterprise that nurtures people with special needs/ disadvantaged groups through its Fashion for a Social Cause movement. Through our enterprise, the disadvantaged communities learn about Creative arts (design, art, crafts-making and photography), Performing arts (modelling, dance, singing and public speaking) and/ or Entrepreneurship (retail management, events management and online business), so that their talents are presented in our Singapore Fashion Runway shows. Students proposed ideas and strategies to optimise the SFR centre to different stakeholders, promote the 'Fashion for a Social Cause' movement, and to train/prepare persons with disabilities in managing the SFR convenience store and suggested ways to keep the store sustainable.
Students provided perspectives and developed outreach plans to education institutions on Air Amber's Responcity programme -- an innovative social emotional learning programme that develops, measures, and assesses critical thinking skills in youths.
In collaboration with an industry partner, this course seeks to
(a) provide an understanding of the theoretical and empirical work on studies of older adults and relevant areas (e.g., global ageing phenomenon, major theories of aging, ageism, retirement, concept of social connectedness, active and successful aging, social policies, economics of ageing, ethical issues in ageing) conducted to date by scholars in gerontology;
(b) address issues (e.g., interdisciplinary collaboration to address societal impact of an aging population) at the individual, organizational and national level that might enhance or hamper social connectedness.
(c) engage SMU students in collaborative project proposals to solve client-centered problems related to designing community space to help older adults stay socially connected and enjoy a meaningful and enriching life.
Working with Lien's Foundation partners (Alzheimer's Disease Association, Touch Community Services, Blossom Seeds, Montfort Care), students researched into the concerns in the ageing space (active ageing and dementia patients and their caregivers), and proposed ideas to promote social connectedness amongst seniors and caregivers.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Analyze the power and impact of global and local challenges related to the nexus of 'digital disruption, demographic change and age diversity' on business and society in general;
- Explain the importance of collaborative transformative leadership in developing and implementing practical solutions which address some of these complex issues head on in an integrated, interdisciplinary and novel manner;
- Appreciate what it takes in terms of design thinking, business model development and innovation strategies to propose practical solutions that create real value for relevant stakeholders of participating client organizations;
- Articulate how selected leadership concepts such as transformational, collaborative leadership approaches can propel innovative problem solutions;
- Reflect effectively about their own leadership outlook and the way forward in terms of good self-leadership on the basis of an enhanced self-awareness enabled through the deployment of a relevant assessment instrument (with a focus on personal leadership development through feedback and coaching) as well as the (playful and project-based) acquisition of 21th century skills such as collaborative intelligence through impactful and innovative SMU-X projects.
Students proposed ideas and solutions to help address the various social needs faced by various social organisations.
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:
a. 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
b. 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
c. 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
d. 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
Identifying the various digital trends and developments of smart cities, students explored best practices and suggested innovative digital ideas and strategies for organisations across various industries. Students also looked into the commercialisation of such solutions and the management of various stakeholder groups in the long run.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Apply design methodologies to designs "things".
- Develop an understanding of how businesses can be "designed" using the same design methodologies in order to implement the designed "things".
- Develop an appreciation of how to create designs for broader and varying contexts, that is, to be sensitive to human, societal needs and the physical environment.
Students investigated on whether *SCAPE was engaging youths in the right way and if their curated programmes and events resonate with the youths, including finding ways to attract youths to better utilise the space
Students proposed strategies to redesign community club spaces, programmes and courses to ensure that they are relevant and effective to their various target audience (young working adults, students, residents and families). In addition, students investigated and proposed ideas on how to redesign the estate's hawker centre to be clean, sustainable and environmentally friendly for residents with the aim to strengthen familial and communal bonds around traditional and healthy food.
Students proposed innovative ideas on how to increase spend and footfall of airside retail at Changi Airport Terminal 4.
Students suggested ideas to improve the hotel's customer journey touchpoints and experience, with a focus on the pre-arrival, arrival, departure and post-departure touchpoints.
With the aim to increase tourist arrivals from Singapore to a particular Asian city, students designed innovative approaches and strategies on how to improve the appeal of that city as a tourist destination for Singaporeans.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Describe the foundations of sustainability, including the Sustainable Development Goals
- Explain the drivers of, and barriers to, sustainability for corporations, both in Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Business-to-Business (B2B) industries
- Describe sustainability attributes of different Asian markets, and make targeted market-entry recommendations for a specific product
- Explain a real-world supply chain and specific sustainability opportunities within
- Conduct thorough research on customers to understand their needs and pain points
- Segment customers according to needs, pain-points, and sustainability journeys
- Develop a value proposition, based on a platform of sustainability, for a selected customer segment
- Develop a marketing tool kit to help customers increase their onward sales
To increase the demand of Vitamin D enriched eggs, students proposed a communication toolkit for egg producers in various markets in Asia to illustrate to their suppliers and customers the goodness of such fortified produce, the sustainable impact and financial savings.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Assess a business problem and/or opportunity from the current business environment, including new and untapped markets
- Design interdisciplinary solutions to address the business challenge or future opportunities by considering strategy, marketing, operations, organization, finance, and communication
- Reason critically through the solution process with appropriate modes of analysis
- Describe the solution's implementation plans and processes with regard to the firm's existing strategy, market, and organization
- Apply a variety of approaches to engage with busy business executives to obtain guidance and information, as well as, secure their buy-in to your ideas
With the aim to grow the business in Singapore, students investigated the landscape and target customer segments that Timperio was working in, and proposed various holistic and comprehensive business plans (branding, marketing, financial, channels etc) that the business could adopt in the short and long term.
Facing challenges to engage and attract customers, students proposed offline and online business strategies on how Zenxin can expand their business and capture new untapped markets.
Students proposed ideas and proposals to increase DMK's brand awareness locally among the younger generation, as well as to improve on the value offered to DMK shoppers using smarter technology on their e-commerce site.
Being new to the market, students proposed various outreach and marketing efforts to their targeted audience, including suggesting a short and long term marketing and business plans of their edible cutlery.
Students researched into the beauty services industries in the neighbouring countries, and provided an analysis on which countries presents the greatest opportunities and lowest risks for the beauty company's overseas expansion efforts.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Develop mock prototypes of their products or services
- Understand who are "lead users" or "early-evangelist" consumers
- Develop networking strategy to reach "lead users" or "early-evangelist" consumers
- Develop simultaneous trials to get feedback from "lead users" or "early-evangelist" consumers
- Understand the drivers of roles and incentives for a new business team
- Know when to pivot a new business idea
- Understand how to outline a business and revenue model for an early stage idea
- Present their market-validated new business idea to external audience on social funding platforms like Kickstarter as well as present their business idea to investors and industry experts
Students developed entrepreneurial solutions to business problems that are customer-centric and commercially viable, which include producing mock prototypes of the product or service, to the start-up.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Reach strategic decisions via research, analysis, thought and informed judgment.
- Create, analyse, and apply basic forms of consumer research.
- Demonstrate basic market segmentation, target audience profiling, and brand positioning skills.
- Create a basic advertising strategy statement, creative brief and positioning statement.
- Analyse and discuss the communication strengths and weaknesses of major media and the concept of a "media neutral" approach.
- Evaluate, present, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of various advertising strategies and plans in a professional manner.
Students proposed innovative ways and ideas to increase Scene Shang's brand awareness and market share in Singapore, including suggesting proposals on their current marketing and outreach initiatives that can better resonate with the target audience in Singapore.
Students proposed ideas to redefine SMU's value propositions, brand position, to convince prospects and their parents to apply and readily accept SMU as the university of choice.
Students evaluated the company's current brand strategies and current customers' perceptions, and suggested ideas on how to refresh the brand in order to appeal to more affluent Singaporeans, as well as people in Southeast Asia and Australia.