SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business and Association of Asia-Pacific Business Schools (AAPBS) co-host 8 th annual academic conference in Singapore
(Singapore, 28 June 2012, Thursday) – On 28 and 29 June 2012, the Association of Asia-Pacific Business Schools (AAPBS) and Singapore Management University (SMU) are co-hosting the AAPBS Academic Conference 2012 in Singapore. Themed, ‘Asian Business Leaders with a Global Mindset', this eighth annual conference of AAPBS focuses on leadership in Asia, both in terms of challenging the status quo and discussing the future outlook. The conference aims to create a forum for both academics and business leaders to gain a deeper understanding of how business schools can respond to talent and leadership development in the Asia-Pacific region.
The academic conference was attended by a mix of deans, professors and school administrators drawn from international universities and institutions in 19 countries across the Asia-Pacific and Europe, as well as representatives from the business sector. The one-and-a-half-day conference will see distinguished Asian thought leaders offer their insights on Asian leadership, which will encourage business schools to respond to the unique management ways and leadership styles inherent to this region.
“AAPBS's primary purpose is to provide leadership and representation in order to advance the quality of business and management education in the Asia-Pacific Region. Through the annual AAPBS conference, we hope to help our members develop a solid paradigm for an Asian management education model within a global context. With better understanding of the Asian leadership and its current trends, Asia's business schools will be better equipped to tackle challenges and seize opportunities to enhance the value proposition to their students,” said Professor Hirokazu Kono, Dean of Keio Business School and AAPBS President.
“Being a relatively young business school and one that continuously innovates and reinvents itself, SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business is extremely proud to partner the AAPBS in organising this eighth gathering of representatives from the region and beyond. This dialogue provides a unique opportunity to model, develop and foster thought partnership between academia and industry. Such a collaborative approach is an absolute necessity to bridge and understand the growth and distinctiveness of management education in the Asia-Pacific region. I encourage all participants to engage in active discourse to shape the future directions and business models of management education in this region,” said Professor Howard Thomas, Dean of the SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business.
Speakers will address key topics pertinent to Asian leadership, including:
• ‘Asian business leaders with a global mindset' – by Mr Ho Kwon Ping, Executive Chairman, Banyan Tree Holdings Limited, and Chairman, SMU;
• ‘Inventing the University of the Future' – by Professor Arnoud De Meyer, President, SMU;
• ‘Can Asia Produce Global Leaders' – by Professor Kishore Mahbubani, Dean, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS;
• ‘Asia mega trends and implications to management education in Asia' – by Mr Hsieh Tsun-yan, Chairman, LinHart Group, Member of the Management Advisory Board and Provost Chair Professor of Management, NUS Business School;
• ‘Asia 2.0: Leading the next wave of growth in Asia' – by Mr Pushp Deep Gupta, Managing Principal, Leadership and Talent Consulting
For the first time, the conference will also feature a Thought Partnership Roundtable Discussion that will involve all participants at the forum. The discussion will be moderated by academics from universities in China (Fudan University), India (Indian Institute of Management – Bangalore), Korea (KAIST Business School), New Zealand (University of Otago), Thailand (Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration) and the Philippines (Asian Institute of Management).
“Instead of the usual conference format that is typically one-sided in terms of information flow, we introduced the Roundtable Discussion format so that there will be a genuine two-way sharing and exchange of views and ideas. The Roundtable Discussion will challenge participants to examine the uniqueness of Asian business leadership and consider the implications it has on industry and academic collaborations, programme and curriculum development, as well as directions and plans for the future,” added Professor Howard Thomas.
About the Association of Asia-Pacific Business Schools (AAPBS)
AAPBS was initially organised by eleven business schools in 2003. It has now grown to over 140 memberships covering 24 countries/regions. The purpose of AAPBS is to provide leadership and representation in order to advance the quality of business and management education in the Asia-Pacific region.
AAPBS offers a number of benefits and opportunities to its members including two annual conferences. This year, the AAPBS Academic Conference will be hosted by Singapore Management University on June 28-29. The AAPBS Academic Conference aims at investigating pedagogy and research issues in the region, with participants from academia and business societies. The Conference this year features the format of “roundtable discussions” ― first time in the history of AAPBS events.
The purpose of adopting roundtable discussions is to encourage enthusiastic participation of attendees in exchanging views, ideas and formulation of action plans. The Conference will focus on leadership issues in this region, both in terms of status quo and future perspectives. The business world is said to be under accelerated globalization. In order to provide firm and fundamental value of this region in such business environment, we have to explore management ways and leadership style inherent to the region. So as to achieve this goal, one-sided communication is insufficient; we need to collect various and different voices from the participants. Thus we decided to include in the Conference roundtables, in addition to a keynote speech and panel discussion by frontrunners of academia and business society in this region.
he target participants are not limited to deans, directors of business schools and executives, but are widely open to faculty members and corporate people who have keen interest in the topic. AAPBS would like to invite you to contribute and gain insights into best practices on business education quality and efficacy from leading institutions in the region. For further information, visit the conference website: http://www.aapbs.org/ .
About SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB)
SMU commenced its curriculum in 2000 with the School of Business, which welcomed its pioneer cohort of students in August 2000. In 2004, the Lee Foundation contributed S$50 million to SMU in honour of the late Dr Lee Kong Chian, a well-known Southeast Asian businessman, philanthropist and community leader. In recognition of the Lee Foundation's generosity, SMU named in perpetuity the School of Business, the building and the university-wide scholars programme after Dr Lee Kong Chian.
Today, LKCSB is a dynamic Asian business school with more than 2,500 students and over a hundred full-time faculty members with postgraduate degrees from renowned universities such as Cornell, Harvard, INSEAD, Oxford, Stanford and Yale. The school offers undergraduate, master's (including MBA and EMBA) and doctoral programmes and is affiliated with a number of research centres such as the Institute of Service Excellence and the Centre for Marketing Excellence.
In 2011, LKCSB received both the AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) accreditation and a five-year EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System) accreditation. For both accreditations, the School has the distinction of being one of the youngest schools in the world to be accredited. In June 2012, LKCSB also gained admission into the EMBA Council to join the ranks of other internationally-renowned business schools.