NUS Business School is the top Business School in Singapore (but is outranked by Insead and the University of Chicago Business Schools) and NUS is Singapore’s top research institution. Amazingly enough, the NUS Business School does not have a business journal to its name like the Harvard Business Review of Harvard Business School.
Why does a business school need a business journal to its name you may ask? It is through the Harvard Business Review that Harvard Business School allows itself to have thought leadership in the world of business in the USA and the world. Perusing the NUS Business School website under research leads one to draw the conclusion that the goal of any NUS academic is to get published in an internationally renown publication overseas[1]. This attests to either a lack of confidence in our own journals or in this case the total lack of such a journal or a lack of a prestigious journal that makes academics proud to be published in such a journal.
One way to become a thought leader in Asia, may be for NUS Business School to start publishing a NUS Business Review which is both theoretical and intensely practical like the Harvard Business Review. We need articles on the best business practices of Asian companies (Fortune 500 Companies) in Asia published and professors at NUS branded as experts in best business practices in Asia. Does NUS Business School want to maintain its reputation as the top Singapore business school only? The answer is no as NUS Business School has been trying to rise up the ranking table in the financial times and the school wants to be one of the best business schools in the world.
Some reasons for a NUS Business School Journal that should have a mixture of cutting edge research on the best business practices of "Real Business" in Asia:
1. HBS Review started out with an aim to set out the best business practices of US Companies in an organized fashion but they had access to a large market. To overcome this, NUS Business School needs to focus on not just the Singapore Market but on the whole of Asia. This should not be lip service to pay homage to the “ but articles and case studies on best practices of all the large Fortune 500 companies in Asia should be published.
2. Pair up an academic and one MBA student to work on writing articles and case studies and publish these findings on “best practices” in Asia in the journal. This pairing has great networking value for the MBA student as it brings the MBA student into close contact with the CEO’s of companies. The remuneration policy of NUS Business School should be augmented to make case studies and articles on best practices part of the key performance indicators.
3. Publishing a journal like this would enable NUS to establish thought leadership in the world with regards to Asia. If Michael Hammer can come up with industry famous methodologies, why are our professors not having such repute in Asia. It is because, the remuneration for the professors at NUS currently causes the Professors to focus on “theoretical research topics”. But the ethos of a top Business School is to train the top managers and entrepreneurs of tomorrow right? Something has to be done to address this like what Harvard has done.
4. Harvard Business Review now boasts a Chinese version and I am sure that they are writing case studies on top Chinese Companies and publishing articles and also carrying out executive education to further drum up publicity for the Harvard brand.
However, execution of a business journal that I am envisaging (which is not purely theoretical) is not an easy task, for a journal to be well regarded the magazine should be read by both academics and other industry practitioners. The Harvard Business Review today states on its website that it has a subscription of 250,000 readers. Perhaps NUS can start with smaller numbers but focus on a global audience and work with an industry player like the Financial Times to co-produce a magazine and work with them to distribute our journal worldwide.
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