Looking forward to making inroads into one of the world’s top consulting companies? On the NUS MBA, students get the chance to work with PwC Singapore. Greg Unsworth, Digital Business and Risk Services Leader at PwC Singapore, gives us a breakdown of how students develop through its collaboration with NUS.
PwC Singapore is one of the biggest names in professional services and part of the Big Four accounting firms. Getting such global recognition doesn’t come easy, and innovation and collaboration are two areas in which PwC has excelled.
The collaboration between PwC Singapore and NUS Business School is multi-faceted. PwC Singapore representatives make frequent appearances at NUS career fairs, and the two organizations recently collaborated on the PwC and NUS Asia Pacific sustainability report. In this article, we’re going to focus on the NUS MBA consulting project – an opportunity for students to work alongside PwC Singapore as they tackle emerging issues for businesses.
Greg Unsworth, Digital Business and Risk Services Leader at PwC Singapore, adds, “I’ve been involved with the NUS MBA program for five years now and really working with the students on specific projects that are relevant and impactful for our business and our clients.” (00:30)
Students are paired up with real-world PwC customers and work to solve an issue they are facing. Greg explains, “Typically, what we would tend to do is agree on a number of topics that we think as a firm we’d like to take a look at and understand.” (00:40)
Examples of past topics include:
These topics are almost always from a forward-thinking perspective, dealing with current or future problems relevant to modern business.
Of course, students aren’t given a task and set to work with no guidance. PwC Singapore assigns project sponsors. “We need to be meeting regularly with the participants, we need to be supporting them,” as Greg puts it. (01:16)
The support includes helping students get over roadblocks that are so frequent in the early stages of a graduate’s career. One of the greatest advantages of the collaboration is getting actionable advice from one of the world’s leading consultancy firms. Furthermore, collaborating closely with PwC Singapore emulates the multinational’s working style, company culture, and expectations – all of which can be applied to a student’s future career.
It’s not just about putting new skills into practice. Students on the NUS MBA consulting project grow their networks and learn how to collaborate – essential skills throughout any career. Greg mentions that PwC Singapore can “introduce them to other individuals that can contribute, perhaps through an interview or other insights.” (01:28)
Similarly, it is a project that allows students to gain a better level of self-understanding. By working in a real-life environment that will throw up moments of stress and pressure, it allows students to understand what areas they need to work on personally as well as professionally.
Having collaborated with NUS Business School for five years, Greg shares, “We want…the experience to be a good experience for the participants. We want them to be recommending it to others.” (01:42)
While each student’s work will have an effect on the company assigned to them, the educational setting of the consulting project allows you to take risks, make mistakes, and explore new avenues.
As Greg says, “It really doesn’t matter if they don’t have deep expertise in a certain area. We’re looking for that enthusiasm [and] proactiveness.” (01:52) One of the most common pieces of advice for future MBA students is to throw yourself into every opportunity.
In working with the NUS MBA, PwC Singapore in return also receives concrete benefits from the students.
Greg says, “We sometimes get some interesting fresh insights, for one thing.” (00:07) When dealing with disruptive new phenomena, it’s always useful for large institutions such as PwC to get a glimpse into how ordinary people are responding.
But, what is perhaps most interesting to students in the collaboration is the potential for win-win career opportunities. Greg attests, “We’re looking to identify talents as well that potentially could work for us in the future.” (00:12)
By working shoulder-to-shoulder with PwC Singapore, students not only get the chance to meet industry leaders, but prove their potential post-graduation. It is often links forged through experiences like the NUS MBA Consulting Project that could be the springboard to a new career.
If you’d like to hear more from students who have lived the NUS experience, reach out to them via the MBAGRADSCHOOLS Ambassadors Page.
