MMU Business School Conducts Design Thinking Training for MCMC

The Faculty of Management (FOM) started in April 1997 in the Melaka campus with ten academics. Initially, four degree courses were offered, Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) Management (Hons.), BBA Marketing (Hons.), BBA Finance (Hons.), and Bachelor of Accounting; together with the first distance education programme, Bachelor of Management.

In 1999, FOM moved to the newly-built Cyberjaya campus. To support the exponential growth of the students and courses, the faculty has now grown to more than 110 academics comprising of six Professors, eight Associate Professors and more than two thirds are doctorate degree holders.

Now the faculty offers a foundation programme, eight undergraduate programmes and four postgraduate programmes with two of the programmes offered using the online and distance learning mode.

FOM marked various important transformations in embracing the millennium. In 2000, FOM became the market setter of the country when introducing niche degree programmes that were highly demanded by the industries by introducing Bachelor of Financial Engineering (Hons).

The Faculty’s flagship programe is the professional degree Bachelor of Accounting received accreditation and recognitions from various local and international professional bodies such as from LAN (now known as MQA); JPA; MACPA; CIMA(UK); ACCA(UK); CPA(AUSTRALIA), ICAEW and MICPA. These recognitions profoundly have placed Bachelor of Accounting graduates in a highly in demand by international and local firms which is a unique achievement record for MMU as well.

The acceleration growth of FOM was also geared up with the introduction of other postgraduate programs such as  Master of Business Administration (MBA), Online MBA, Masters of Philosophy, Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).

In 2012 and 2013, the university management restructuring took place. In order to be in line with the direction of MMU aspiration to be among the top universities in Asian, management reshuffling had resulted a few important events.

Postgraduate programs was further strengthened by the establishment of Graduate School of Management (GSM) in 2012 which leads to the offering of highly in demand program of Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) program in the subsequent year.

Foundation in Management was transferred from LIFE – Learning Institute for Empowerment to the Faculty. While, distance education program was extended to include Bachelor of Management (Hons.), Human Resource Management, and Bachelor of Management (Hons.) Marketing Management.

In meeting the current demand of the industry, FOM had revised their undergraduate programs to incorporate up to date syllabuses inline with the current scenarios and needs. At present, FOM offers seven undergraduate programs namely Bachelor of Accounting (Hons), Bachelor of Financial Engineering (Hons), Bachelor of Finance (Hons), Bachelor of Business Management (Hons), Bachelor of Marketing, Bachelor of Analytical Economics (Hons) and Bachelor of Enterprise Management System. (Hons).

The Bachelor of Enterprise Management System (Hons) (BEMS) is a new program which was first offered starting from April 2018.

This program seeks to develop students a foundation in the key functional areas of business (Finance, Management, and Marketing), while simultaneously developing an understanding of IT fundamentals (Software Development, Databases) and to finally build on top of this core knowledge, a hands-on understanding of industrial-standard Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP).

In short, BEMS equips students to be both business and IT-savvy in order to meet the critical skill shortage for a business and IT-savvy workforce.

Faculty of Management not only takes the lead in the teaching and learning atmosphere, we also place heavy emphasis on research activities. Three research centers have been set up to support the research in vertical areas such as marketing, finance, management, accounting and economics.

Center of Knowledge Innovation and Management (CEKIM) focus on niche areas of Innovative Human Resource practices and innovative technology management practices. Center of Consumer Research and Education (CECORE) are actively pursuing research in the areas of Consumer Behaviour and Behavioural Economics.

Last but not least is the Center of Business Excellence which drives the research agenda in accounting, finance, governance, business process engineering and business performance.

The research capacity is enhanced by the availability of Department of Statistics data and various other statistical databases such as Bloomberg, EuroMoney Investor and IMF eLibrary.

Apart from academic achievements, FOM added another feather in its cap by successfully organizing regional and international scientific conferences. In September 2002, the faculty organised an International Conference on Internet Economy and Business  in Kuala Lumpur.  

In conjunction with the conference, FOM organized a professional development seminar on e-procurement. In February 2007, FOM together with Graduate School of International Management (GSIM), Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan, and School of Information Systemt (SIS), Singapore Management University, Singapore co-organised International Conference on Internet-Business : Business Trends, Systems, and Education ( iBiZ2007 ) in Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan.

In the following year, FOM hosted the Regional Development International Conference and Exhibition (REDICE’08) in Cyberjaya, Selangor. In July 2012, a Regional Entrepreneurship Development Symposium 2012 (REDS 2012) which carried the theme“Towards an East Asia Regional Entrepreneurship Development Framework” was organized by the Faculty of Management and together  with the Higher Education Leadership Academy (AKEPT) through one of its young leaders’ initiatives, AKEPT Young Researchers Circle (AYRC).

This symposium brought together leading academics from the Majlis Profesor Negara (MPN), research students, academicians and industry practitioners from across the nation to discuss the conception of an East Asia regional entrepreneurship development framework.

In 2017, the Entrepreneur Development Centre (EDP) and Centre of Business Performance (CeBP), a Research Center in FOM, co-hosted the Fifth International Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ICIE). A post-grad research exhibition was held in conjunction with the conference.

The exhibition was a medium for the presentation of theoretical framework and empirical evidences in the fields of Accounting, Finance, Management, Economics, Marketing, IT Management, and Law. It aimed to become an avenue for FOM post-grad students to present and share their research progress.

Besides that it offered an opportunity to meet with experienced researchers and peers to discuss their work progress with a view to get constructive feedback that will enhance their research.

In March 2018, MMU in collaboration with Telekom Malaysia Berhad and Innermetrix International UK organised the MMU International Forum 2018 which carried the theme “A New Era of Workforce Management”.

The MMU International Forum 2018 is an initiative by Faculty of Management, Multimedia University to address issues faced by organisations in managing multigenerational workforce; each of whom have different preference of work-culture, reward expectations, recognition of individual talents and attitude towards work-life balance.

FOM will continue to host scientific conferences as a platform to actively engage and collaborate with stakeholders from relevant communities such as the academia, industry, government and public at large. The next conference will be in January 2019 collaborating with Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics.

Looking back from the past, FOM’s capability and number has increased exponentially in terms of size and quality of teaching staff with more PhD holders contributing to the pillar of FOM’s strength.

The achievements above were largely made possible with the strong team spirit and camaraderie of the FOM family under the esteemed leadership of the faculty deans. The faculty has the opportunity to serve under seven deans who are all respected senior members of the faculty.

The the founding dean was Prof Dr Stanley Richardson, a professor in ergonomics who served FOM as a dean from 1997 until 1999, Prof Dr Ismail Ahmad gearing up FOM to the next level when he was the second dean from 1999 until 2006,  Associate Prof Dr A. Seetharaman from Accounting Unit who led FOM for two years from year 2006 until 2008.

He was succeeded by Prof Dr Wan Fadzillah Wan Yusoff, also from an accounting background. She served for three years until 2011. She was succeeded by Prof Dr Mazlina Mat Zain, also a professor in accounting.  Associate Prof Dr Yeap Peik Foong  from the Management Unit held the position for a year in 2014. Prior to the current dean, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nahariah Binti Jaffar, Prof Dr Murali Raman, helmed the faculty from 2015 to July 2017.