‘STEMB’ Is The New Strategy: Why Tech-Linked MBAs Are Shaping The Future Of Business

Nanyang Business School

Established: 1956 (Nanyang Business School), 1955 (Nanyang University)

Location: Singapore

Graduate Courses In: Leading Digital and AI Powered Transformation, Advanced Data Analytics, Fundamentals of Machine Learning

Developing from the Bachelor of Commerce at Nanyang University in the mid-1950s, today Nanyang Business School operates the largest finance lab in Singapore.

The 165-square-meter Centre for Applied Financial Education is home to 60 Thomson Reuters Eikon terminals and 24 Bloomberg terminals, enabling business students to hone their skills in market analytics on a vast supply of real-time financial, economic, and business news.

The center offers a visual representation of how the School integrates technical and data-driven dimensions across its programs, a process supported by the relocation to the site of Nanyang Technological Institute, later Nanyang Technological University, in 1987.

This process of introducing a more STEM-oriented approach includes close collaborations with other schools under the NTU umbrella. The MSc in Business Analytics is one such example, built jointly with the School of Computing Science and Engineering and the School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

With a curriculum comprising topics like AI and Big Data in Business, the program is a response to growing demand in the international business community for graduates with the technical and business know-how to more effectively implement data in management, accounting, marketing, and communications.

Elements of analytics for decision making and an exploration of e-business also feature in the first trimester of the MBA program, with the aim of broadening students’ skills in areas for possible organizational transformation.

For Ashwin Charles, in the Nanyang MBA Class of ’25, The program’s curriculum, with its strong focus on emerging technologies like Digital Transformation and Technology & e-Business, aligns perfectly with his engineering background and my future ambitions.

“While Nanyang MBA does integrate technology into its curriculum—just like any top-tier business school would—it doesn’t place an overwhelming focus on tech, at the cost of other crucial business areas. It’s a well-rounded, holistic curriculum designed to provide a solid foundation in essential business principles like leadership, strategy, and decision-making.”

Nanyang’s combination of business strategy and technical content with a global outlook encourages graduates to explore new possibilities for innovation and impactful leadership, with around 96% of the school’s MBA graduates pivoting to a new industry, role, or geographical location from 2019 to 2024.

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