I was able to develop a well thought out strategy

My original intention was to join the FP classes to help me crystalize my thoughts around my post industry career. Specifically, to enhance a scholarship program in the name of my late nephew into a successful foundation in his name.

The Future Proof course lived up to the promise of helping me frame my thoughts, explore my personal motivations and connect me with a supportive and knowledgeable tribe of people that gave me information and guidance far beyond my expectations. As a result I was able to develop a well thought out strategy to accomplish the objective of creating a foundation in conjunction with my financial planning institution that could do good in the name of my nephew.

But as with many things in life - personal family perspectives dictated a change in the original strategy. And while the original intent to enact a foundation in the name of my nephew may be delayed- the objective, and positive outcome of developing a program that gives back to communities that are underserved and at risk is still alive and made possible through the help of FP discussions that helped me understand the mechanics of setting up such a complex initiative.

But beyond the structural components, the deeper value may have been to also help me pinpoint the real purpose and reason for why I wanted to enhance my nephew's scholarship program in the first place. And I have some confidence that when the time is right his name may yet be attached to this initiative in the future.

The other unintended consequence of the program was that, I was able to apply several of the seminars to my current professional challenges. As you know, I have oversight responsibility for the development and launch of Singapore's first mixed use executive leadership and innovation institute - Catapult. One of the FP seminars that I found both interesting and insightful was the one regarding strategies to leverage and enhance your brand via Linked-In. As with many of the seminars it encouraged participants to think about their purpose and how that manifests in what you do and how you navigate your objectives.

While these points may be self-evident to some, as a new executive education facility, launching in a very crowded space, it was an important reminder for me and our team to help us clarify not only our point of differentiation but the value that we intend to bring - and why it's important to us. This seminar in particular was very useful in planning how best to utilize Linked-In to introduce Catapult.

The strategies in how you message, type of content and how to ensure that you reach target audience(s) was very informative - as was the discussion that came out of this seminar given the diversity of the participants.

By: James Andrade (Senior Vice President at CapitaLand)