Brief Introduction to the Strategic Cooperation between PCBN Business School and the National University of Singapore
Deeply cultivating the logic of the Southeast Asian market and building a new highland of cross-cultural competitive intelligence
I. Background of Cooperation and Strategic Positioning
In the process of the deep restructuring of the global supply chain and the rise of Southeast Asia as a new manufacturing and market center, Chinese enterprises' overseas expansion is shifting from "product export" to "system export". There is an unprecedentedly urgent need for a deep understanding of the logic of the Southeast Asian market, cross-cultural management capabilities, and regional competitive intelligence analysis. PCBN Business School (PCBN) in the teaching modules of Singapore collaborates with the National University of Singapore to conduct in-depth studies on the business logic and cross-cultural management of the Southeast Asian market, providing systematic empowerment for entrepreneurs from regional market insights to competitive intelligence analysis.
This cooperation is a key link in the global four major business hub teaching network layout of PCBN. PCBN Business School adopts the innovative model of "overseas prestigious university classroom registration + joint local prestigious university operation", introducing the top management education system of the National University of Singapore Business School in the Singapore module, helping Chinese enterprises going global to establish the ability to deeply explore the Southeast Asian market, cross-cultural management capabilities, and regional risk defense capabilities. Choosing the National University of Singapore as the core cooperating university for the Singapore module is due to the deep alignment of the two sides in the Asian perspective: The National University of Singapore Business School takes "based on Asia, global vision" as its educational foundation, dedicated to providing management thought leadership rooted in Asia, helping students and enterprise partners utilize the best combination of global knowledge and profound Asian insights to promote business growth in Asia and globally. This academic positioning is highly complementary to PCBN's disciplinary mission of focusing on competitive intelligence analysis and serving Chinese enterprises going overseas to Southeast Asia.
The National University of Singapore is Singapore's flagship university, with 15 colleges, faculties, and schools in three campuses, over 40,000 students from 100 countries, and over 20 overseas business entrepreneurship centers established globally. Its business school has ranked first in Asia and 14th globally in the QS Global EMBA ranking for three consecutive years and has been rated by QS as the best full-time MBA business school in Asia, continuously maintaining its leading position in Asia. This academic strength provides the most solid regional intellectual support for PCBN in the construction of the competitive intelligence discipline in Southeast Asia.
II. Singapore Module Curriculum System: From Southeast Asian Market Logic to Cross-Cultural Competitive Intelligence
The collaboration between PCBN Business School and the National University of Singapore focuses on two core directions: Southeast Asian market business logic and cross-cultural management. This has resulted in a systematic curriculum system that ranges from regional market cognition to competitive intelligence analysis, and from cross-cultural operation to global strategy.
The module on Southeast Asian market business logic that is valued by Chinese entrepreneurs
The School of Business at the National University of Singapore enjoys a unique geographical advantage and profound academic accumulation in Southeast Asian market research. Professor Pasha Mahmood, the director of the Strategy and Policy Department, has long studied the cooperation strategies of multinational companies and local enterprises in emerging markets. His research on disruptive strategies in Asian emerging markets provides a systematic framework for understanding the unique competitive logic of the Southeast Asian market. He also serves as a member of the international expert group of the World Economic Forum and has a keen ability to assess the policy environment and competitive dynamics of the Southeast Asian market.
For PCBN students, the core value of this module lies in helping entrepreneurs establish a structured understanding of the Southeast Asian market. Southeast Asia is not a homogeneous market. Countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines have significant differences in policy regulations, religious culture, consumption habits, channel structure, and business practices. The teaching at NUS Business School helps students master how to systematically analyze the entry barriers, competitive landscape, and growth opportunities of different markets. This directly corresponds to the teaching goals of "overseas offensive and defensive layout" and "country intelligence library construction" in the PCBN competitive intelligence discipline.
The Chinese cross-cultural management and global strategy module
The Chinese EMBA program of the National University of Singapore established the world's first Chinese-specific EMBA program for Chinese entrepreneurs, pioneering systematic high-end management education for global Chinese entrepreneurs. The program is positioned as "a window to the world," dedicated to helping Chinese entrepreneurs and executives expand their international vision, embrace the dream of going global, and achieve global aspirations. The academic director, Professor Fu Qiang, leads the team to continuously promote the strategic transformation of the program. The students include dozens of CEOs of Nasdaq, Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and A-share listed companies, as well as founders of unicorn and pre-IPO enterprises.
This module covers cross-cultural management, strategic synergy, and the cultivation of diverse team capabilities required by global enterprises, providing practical references for Chinese enterprises to build global combat capabilities. A large number of "Singapore + 1" global practice cases have emerged in the NUS EMBA alumni network. Some alumni enterprises use Singapore as a resource scheduling hub to expand to higher complexity markets, while others build global supply chain systems starting from Southeast Asia. These vivid cases provide the PCBN students with the most direct reference for understanding the real challenges of cross-cultural management.
The Business Analysis and Data-Driven Decision-making module
The National University of Singapore is at the forefront of business analysis in Asia. In the "QS Master's Ranking: Business Analytics 2026", the business analytics master's program of NUS Business School ranked first in Asia and 15th globally. This program is jointly offered by NUS Business School and the School of Computer Science, covering core modules such as statistics, deterministic operations research, management economics analysis, business decision-making technology, data management, and warehousing.
These courses directly serve the training needs of PCBN's competitive intelligence discipline in data analysis and AI-assisted intelligence capabilities. Through systematic learning of cutting-edge methods such as big data analysis, consumer data analysis, and financial and risk analysis, students will acquire key capabilities in using data-driven decision-making, building competitive intelligence analysis models, and achieving precise competitive product dynamic analysis in the Southeast Asian market. The admission rate of the NUS Business Analytics Master's Program is only 10%-15%, and its rigor and practicality are highly respected in Asia.
III. Faculty Strength and Academic Resources
The faculty team of the Singapore module is composed of top professors from the Strategy and Policy Department of the National University of Singapore, covering various fields such as strategic management, international business, emerging market strategies, and multinational enterprise management.
Professor Sea-Jin Chang is the Lim Kim San Chair Professor and serves as the head of the Strategy and Policy Department. He holds a Ph.D. in Strategic Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His main research focuses on the management of diversified multinational enterprises and he is a fellow of the Strategic Management Society and the International Business Society. He has served as the editor-in-chief of the International Business Research Journal and the associate editor of the Strategic Management Journal. His profound expertise in multinational enterprise management directly serves the needs of PCBN students to understand the global competitive landscape and the construction of the overseas market intelligence system.
Professor Arzi Adbi is the Dean's Chair Associate Professor and serves as the associate editor of the Strategic Management Journal. His research focuses on major challenges in strategy and sustainability, with a particular emphasis on emerging markets. His research results have been published in top academic journals such as the Strategic Management Journal, Management Science, and Management Science Journal, and he has received the Best Paper Award from the Strategic Management Society and the International Business Society multiple times. He teaches courses such as Strategic Management and Asian Business Model Innovation.
Professor Pasha Mahmood is a professor in the Strategy and Policy Department. His research focuses on the cooperation between multinational companies and local enterprises to formulate strategies for emerging markets. His research on "The Winning Strategies for Successfully Establishing in Emerging Markets in Southeast Asia" provides a systematic academic framework for the teaching of "Risk Defense System Construction" and "Cross-Cultural Management" in the PCBN competitive intelligence discipline.
This faculty structure has a distinct Asian perspective and a global academic background: there are regional experts deeply engaged in market research in Southeast Asia, strategic management scholars who have published research results in top academic journals, and international business authorities with profound insights into the governance of multinational enterprises. This multidisciplinary cross-training faculty configuration is highly consistent with the interdisciplinary academic positioning of the PCBN competitive intelligence discipline of "integrating strategic management, international business, and regional country studies".
IV. Case Teaching and Business Wisdom Intelligence Storage
The National University of Singapore has extensive experience in case studies and knowledge management. The "Global Chinese Entrepreneurs Development White Paper" series released by its EMBA program is the first authoritative business report in the world that systematically focuses on the global strategic paths of Chinese enterprises. This white paper systematically analyzes the macro trends and policy environments of key global markets, deeply presents the real strategic paths of over 40 front-line Chinese entrepreneurs, and constructs a growth paradigm from "business overseas expansion" to "organizational globalization".
The "White Paper (Southeast Asia Edition)" includes 15 outstanding global Chinese entrepreneurs who are active in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, etc., with their headquarters located in Southeast Asia and their businesses operating globally. It systematically presents 15 "globalization" strategies for Chinese entrepreneurs from Southeast Asia to the global market. The cases cover a wide range: mining and logistics sectors, where Wei Li International's Sun Xiu Shun led the Ximundu project with a total investment of over 10 billion US dollars, creating over 40,000 direct jobs, and supply chain integration reduced the average cost by 40% compared to industry standards, maintaining a 95% on-time delivery rate during the 2022 global supply chain crisis. The intelligent manufacturing sector, where iMin provides services to over 100 countries with a global team of 460 employees and nearly half of the R&D team based in Shenzhen. The consumer brand sector, where Aixue had sales of over 3 billion RMB in 2024, with a market share of 23.9% in Indonesia, selling approximately 10 million ice creams per day, and installing nearly 600,000 refrigerators. The coffee chain sector, where TOMORO COFFEE established over 600 direct stores in Indonesia within two years, becoming the third-largest coffee chain brand in Indonesia. The trendy toy sector, where Bubble Mates had annual revenue of 5.07 billion RMB in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and overseas in 2024, with a year-on-year growth of nearly 400%, and the LABUBU theme store in Thailand attracted fans from Vietnam and Indonesia to make cross-border purchases.
These cases provide extremely valuable knowledge materials for the PCBN's business wisdom intelligence storage system. PCBN can rely on the resources of the NUS EMBA white paper series to build a "case intelligence database for Southeast Asian outbound enterprises", structuring and processing the practical experiences of enterprises like Wei Li, iMin, Aixue, TOMORO, and Bubble Mates for overseas expansion, forming searchable, comparable, and analyzable knowledge units. Each case is a complete sample for competitive intelligence analysis, and during the study, trainees not only learn the content of the case but also learn how to establish an analysis framework for case intelligence - how to extract key decision-making signals from the case, how to build a competitor profile, and how to establish an industry competition map.
The case study methodology of the National University of Singapore emphasizes the in-depth "from overseas expansion to integration" globalization path. This framework is highly consistent with the methodology chain of PCBN's competitive intelligence discipline, which is "from intelligence collection to decision output". The real challenges faced by enterprises in the Southeast Asian market, such as starting from zero trust, not understanding the differences in rules in Southeast Asia, not being able to enter the local elite circle, and having no reference system for the next judgment, are precisely the core problems that competitive intelligence analysis needs to solve. Through learning these cases, PCBN trainees can establish a systematic understanding of the competitive environment in Southeast Asia and master the methodology for using intelligence analysis tools to address these challenges.
V. Competitive Intelligence and NUS Methodology for Risk Defense in the Southeast Asian Market
The National University of Singapore has abundant resources in geopolitical risk assessment, supply chain resilience, and regional competitiveness research, providing solid methodological support for the construction of the PCBN competitive intelligence discipline.
Asia Competitiveness Institute
The Asia Competitiveness Institute, under the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, is an authoritative research institution specializing in the study of the competitiveness of Asian economies. Its research covers key issues such as regional competitiveness assessment, knowledge diffusion and innovation, economic decoupling and de-globalization. The institute manages a patent database to support knowledge diffusion research, and its competitiveness assessment methodology provides systematic analytical tools for "country intelligence library construction" and "market entry priority matrix" in the PCBN competitive intelligence discipline.
Geopolitical Risk and Regional Resilience Research
In the current context where the tensions between China and the United States and the fragmentation of geopolitics pose threats to global business, Professor Joseph Liow, the dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, pointed out that Singapore has no choice but to double down on its status as a reliable and neutral global hub, which can be used as a key differentiating advantage. This strategic positioning is of significant guiding significance for the PCBN competitive intelligence discipline: The geopolitical risks faced by Chinese enterprises in the Southeast Asian market are complex and covert, and a systematic risk assessment and early warning mechanism needs to be established. The research in this field by NUS scholars provides cutting-edge academic support for PCBN students to understand the geopolitical landscape of Southeast Asia and build a regional risk defense system.
NUS also led a regional resilience research project involving researchers from the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, and Singapore Management University, focusing on how regions build resilience in the context of economic decoupling and de-globalization. This research direction directly corresponds to the teaching objectives of "supply chain risk warning" and "defensive system construction" in the PCBN competitive intelligence discipline.
Singapore as a Strategic Hub for Global Regional Headquarters
As one of the most important regional headquarters hubs in Asia, Singapore has attracted a large number of multinational enterprises to set up their Asia-Pacific headquarters or global functional centers here, enabling enterprises to have access to a large number of potential customers and partners in the same city. Cushman & Wakefield has set its overseas headquarters in Singapore, Haidilao uses Singapore as a stepping stone to promote its brand globally, ByteDance has Singapore as its second global headquarters to cope with regulatory requirements in multiple countries. Wang Laogui also officially launched the WALOVI Singapore International Headquarters in 2026, undertaking functions such as overseas brand promotion, channel management, supply chain coordination, and cross-border financial management.
The NUS Business School's teaching fully leverages Singapore's unique strategic location advantages, helping students understand the decision-making logic of regional headquarters location, cross-border financial management, and multi-country compliance coordination. Through learning at NUS and immersive experiences in Singapore, PCBN students can establish first-hand knowledge of the operational model of regional headquarters, providing a reference for their own global business layout.
VI. The Unique Value of the Collaboration between PCBN Business School and the National University of Singapore in the Field of Competitive Intelligence
The collaboration between PCBN Business School and the National University of Singapore has brought three unique values to the construction of the PCBN competitive intelligence discipline.
First, at the level of in-depth understanding of regional markets. The National University of Singapore is located in the core of Southeast Asia, and its long-term research and in-depth understanding of markets such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand are indispensable resources for PCBN to build a knowledge system of competitive intelligence in Southeast Asia. The academic accumulation of NUS Business School in market research in the Southeast Asian region covers all dimensions from macro policy environment to micro consumer behavior, providing a systematic framework for PCBN students to understand the markets in Southeast Asia.
Second, at the level of the Chinese EMBA ecosystem and alumni network. The Chinese EMBA program of the National University of Singapore is the only one in the top 20 globally. Its alumni network spans various industries in Southeast Asia such as finance, manufacturing, consumption, and technology. This alumni ecosystem provides PCBN with real, vivid, and continuously updated case sources and interpersonal resources for the storage system of business intelligence. Through the learning modules of NUS, PCBN students can access this ecosystem network and achieve dual expansion of intelligence resources and interpersonal resources.
Third, at the level of cross-cultural management and global leadership. The teaching of cross-cultural management at NUS Business School emphasizes the in-depth globalization path from "going overseas" to "integrating", which is highly consistent with the teaching goal of PCBN's competitive intelligence discipline of "cultivating cross-cultural business capabilities". Through learning the cross-cultural management courses of NUS, students can establish sensitivity and adaptability to the diverse cultural environment in Southeast Asia, laying a talent foundation for the long-term establishment of enterprises in the Southeast Asian market.
VII. Future Outlook
In the future, PCBN Business School and the National University of Singapore will continue to deepen their cooperation in areas such as curriculum development, case creation, and intelligence research. Both parties will leverage the NUS EMBA "Global Chinese Entrepreneurs Development White Paper" series and alumni network resources to jointly develop competitive intelligence analysis cases for Chinese enterprises entering Southeast Asia. They will systematically transform the practical experiences of enterprises like Weili, iMin, Ai Xue, and TOMORO into teaching resources with international academic standards. At the same time, they will explore collaborative research in areas such as geopolitical risk assessment in Southeast Asia, regional supply chain resilience, and business intelligence storage. They will combine NUS's cutting-edge methodologies in Asian competitiveness and regional risk research with PCBN's intelligence storage system to build an out-of-market intelligence knowledge infrastructure with Asian depth and a Chinese perspective.
Global competition, intelligence first. The strategic cooperation between PCBN Business School and the National University of Singapore, based on the logic of the Southeast Asian market, with cross-cultural management capabilities as the bond, and competitive intelligence analysis as the tool, and business intelligence storage as the memory, will help Chinese enterprises deeply establish themselves in the Southeast Asian market, steadily climbing in the global competition, and achieving a historic leap from "going out" to "going up".
