hi! I'm niz

"Where are you from?"  is a question I often find hard to answer. But long story short: Brunei-born, Australia-raised (education-wise), Switzerland-shaped (career-wise), US-based (where I live now). So I consider myself a global citizen. 

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I'm also an ex-social scientist / academic, and to-date, a seasoned orchestrator of business innovation & transformation. I am fascinated with all things related to transformations, specifically with:

• People – building a culture of innovation & empowerment

• Processes – improving inefficiencies by understanding human needs

• Products – co-creating thoughtful & viable solutions by design

• Places – curating intentional experiences in physical spaces

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Career

Since graduating from my PhD in Business Transformation Management, I've spent 10 years as a strategic advisor with Fortune 500 companies across Europe, Middle East, Asia, North America and Latin America. I've also worked across various industries and public sectors, ranging from retail and consumer products (e.g. Nestlé, Unilever, Mondelēz), higher education (e.g. MIT, University of Toronto), automotive (e.g. Daimler / Mercedes Benz Group), as well as non-profit organizations (e.g. United Nations Environmental Programme, Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Impact Hub New York), to name a few.

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Thought Leadership

I live to create. My publication journey started in my early days as a researcher, where my thesis on 'How Novices Design Business Processes' won a Best Paper Award at the 2010 Business Process Management Conference in USA. Other notable works include producing a book entitled 'Shaping the Digital Enterprise – Trends and Use Cases in Digital Innovation & Transformation', where I was not only the Project Manager, but also a co-author on case studies with Samsung, Tommy Hilfiger, and Biogen on the topic of Virtual Reality, in collaboration with an Amsterdam-based Startup, WeMakeVR. I also co-authored a whitepaper 'The Next WoW' (Way of Work), that provides guidance for innovation teams to collaborate during and post-pandemic.

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Public Speaking

Other than writing, I especially enjoy sharing my knowledge & experiences through public speaking. During the pandemic, I was invited as a podcast speaker on Retail Revolution with Parsons School of Design, where we discussed the intersection of physical & digital space, and the real challenges of 'omni-channel' retailing. Conferences also energize me. Some notable ones include Advertising Week in New York City on AI as a Creative Collaborator, as well as SAP Business Transformation Summit in Budapest, SAP Forum Basel in Switzerland, and Samsung Mobility Conference in Germany, where I spoke about how to navigate the challenges and opportunities that emerging technologies bring for business innovation & transformation.

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It's not all about work

Other things I live for:

• ​Experiential design

• Live music, performing arts

• Travel, food, culture

• Friends, family, cats

• Social innovation

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