Empowered to lead with SUSS

SUSS' Doctor of Business Administration takes CEO Janet Liu to the next frontier of her career

By Rachel Tan

July 7, 2019

Nine in 100 businesses in Singapore have a female chief executive officer (CEO), according to a recent Women in Business report by Grant Thornton International. One of those who shattered the glass ceiling is 36-year-old Janet Liu, CEO of financial technology (fintech) start-up Linked Global Wealth.

She started Linked Global Wealth with her ex-colleagues after a 13-year stint in various financial institutions. The fintech start-up seeks to offer wealth management solutions to individuals who are underutilising bank services or are neglected by the banking system. It also aims to serve individuals who either have very little investment or do not invest at all. Most of these individuals that Linked Global Wealth targets are women.

“Technology radically improves geographical reach, efficiency, product access, decision-making and customer experience, empowering more women to invest with lower entry barriers, cost and risk,” she says. “Not only can they get access to greater investment opportunities through crowd-funding and sustainability bonds, women can also get access to advisory services that help them to better manage wealth, cash flow and business.”

Ms Liu started her company at around the same time she began her postgraduate studies at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) last year. She shares more about the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) programme.

What attracted you to the programme?

The programme attracted me for the very same reason that a fintech start-up excites me. They both force me to re-examine the most urgent problems without fitting them into a conventional theoretical framework.

While most DBA programmes iteratively add the newest trends into existing modules of contemporary themes, SUSS has chosen to prioritise the most impactful drivers of change: Cryptocurrency, Internet of Things, fintech and artificial intelligence. When textbooks and journal articles become increasingly outdated by the time of publishing, SUSS brings in industry practitioners as guest speakers who live and breathe the challenges and
opportunities.

What are some unforgettable learning experiences?

One of the most unique methodologies of the DBA is that the lessons are conducted using a bilingual format, with live translations so that the students can improve their communication in business English and Mandarin.

The applied research methodology in business and management is also a stand-out module: We went to public spaces to conduct non-intrusive observations as part of qualitative research. It was a first-hand learning experience which taught us that observations are highly subjective.

How will your postgraduate study help you in your career as a business leader?

With the trained critical mind of an academic and the business intuition of a corporate practitioner, the DBA programme will enable me to take my management and professional development to new heights. Cross-disciplinary work and mixed methods of problem-solving also strengthen existing competencies for my own practice and future development as a business leader.

Crucially, the DBA connects me with experts in the finance industry, which is increasingly essential as financial institutions move towards collaborations to better prepare for future disruption.