Teaching

My regular teaching programs include:

Politics and international business (MBA: 2018-2024)

Where the business environment is predictable, and the rule of law is well established, companies are driven by market forces in the way they build their competitive advantages and occupy a given market position. Market forces, therefore, are dominant to understand strategic positioning and competitive advantage, particularly in mature markets. However, in much of the world, courts are not predictable, business opportunities are frequently determined by political connections, and investments are threatened by regulations designed to redistribute wealth towards political goals. Managing in a global economy requires knowledge of political institutions and incentives that affect business operations. This course will provide you with frameworks and examples to understand the interaction between politics and the economy, map political risks to investments, and devise strategies to react and reduce risks coming from political factors. In addition to covering frameworks of universal application, we will discuss cases from Southeast Asia (including Malaysia), Latin America and Africa.


Energy: markets, policies and sustainability (MBA: 2019-2024)

This course introduces business students to the main issues surrounding the energy industry and how public policies and geopolitical factors affect investment decisions and the rate of transition towards a low carbon, environmentally-friendly, energy production and consumption. It takes an energy systems approach which highlights the interconnected nature of energy production and consumption and the role played by technological, economic and social constraints. 

One of the humanities greatest challenges is to provide enough energy to support worldwide economic growth at affordable price. With growing concerns about climate change and greenhouse gas emissions from hydrocarbons, this challenge is compounded by the pressure towards replacing cheap and accessible fossil fuels to renewables sources of energy. Renewables, however, come with their own challenges (high upfront cost and intermittency). To deal with these challenges, the energy industry is facing an intense period of innovation – technological and financial. 


Action Learning

Action Learning, or experiential learning, are educational programs conducted in partnership with companies and social organizations, based on real-world problems identified by partner organizations together with the university’s faculty and staff. Students are immersed in practical challenges and develop, throughout a semester course, solutions which tackle a variety of problems, including operations, finance, marketing, human resource management, etc. I have advised over 50 experiential learning engagements at ASB in companies throughout ASEAN and beyond, from startups to leading corporations like Petronas, Big C, Asahi-Etika, Bangkok Bank, Volvo, Unilever, Citibank, Lazada, etc. 


Managing Political Risks (Executive Education)

In a 2017 World Bank survey involving more than 750 executives from multinational corporations, political stability and the regulatory environment came out top as a key factor that affects investment decisions in emerging markets. In a globalized world with cross-border trade and investments, companies have become increasingly more exposed to risks associated with changes in the rules, regulations and social pressures from the countries they operate in or trade with.

Managing in a global economy requires knowledge of political institutions and incentives that affect business operations such as regulatory changes and expropriations. Decision makers including directors of companies and senior management need to monitor political risks. In some cases, they may need to deploy social or “non-market” strategies as a form of business advocacy. This program will explore frameworks as well as examples to understand the interaction between politics and the economy. It will also explore mapping political risks to investments, and consider how to devise appropriate strategies to respond to and reduce risks coming from political factors.

The program will seek to answer the following questions: