ACI faculty, Associate Professor Ashish Lall and Professor Neo Boon Siong, teach an elective course on Clusters and Competitiveness in the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP). This is based on the Microeconomics of Competitiveness (MOC) course developed at Harvard Business School (HBS) by Professor Michael E. Porter and is now taught at over ninety universities around the world. In addition to analyzing competitiveness cases from around the world, students are required to conduct a team project on a cluster of their choice. Two years ago, Professor Porter’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness started a competition for students from all affiliated universities where each institution is eligible to submit one team project.
We are delighted to report that the LKYSPP team project on Ecotourism in Malaysia was awarded the first prize in the 2009 Best MOC Student.
Photo: Meghna Lall, Singapore American School
Paper Contest. The winning team comprised the following students:
- Marianne Marker, Non-graduating/ Exchange Student 2008/2009 Semester 1 (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
- Sriganesh Lokanathan, MPP Class of 2009 (Sri Lanka)
- Amit Verma, MPP Class of 2009 (India)
- Alejandro Gonzales, MPA Class of 2009 (Mexico)
Here are two of the team members’ reactions to winning the top prize in the contest.
“The class was a great experience without a doubt and I remember it as the most instructive for me personally. Partly based on my experience from the project on eco-tourism for the class, my organization is seriously considering studying the sector here in Sri Lanka specifically with respect to the SMEs involved in eco-tourism. It is appropriate that I am currently in the middle of one such resort in the middle of the jungles of Sri Lanka’s interior region..“
– Sriganesh Lokanathan
“I must say that our team winning the best paper (award) has given me a renewed interest in trying out the world of consulting…“
– Marianne Marker
Congratulations to the team on receiving the top prize and for doing the school proud.