Building beyond the brief: Tiziana Tan on purpose, judgment, and the long game
Before Brain Juice Collective even had its name, founder Tiziana Tan (BBM 2017) was already drawn to a certain kind of environment that she found at SMU.
An alumna of SMU’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Tiziana began building what would become Brain Juice Collective before she had even graduated. Today, she is a multi-hyphenate entrepreneur, educator and community builder, recognised with awards such as the inaugural EDGE 35 under 35 by the youth wing of the Action Community for Entrepreneurship.
“In SMU’s early years, there was a strong sense of being the ‘underdog’ and needing to work hard to build credibility,” she says. “At the same time, it was leading in many ways with its unique pedagogy… That fighting spirit and drive to be ‘A Different U’ really resonated with me.”
“You felt surrounded by people who weren’t afraid to challenge the status quo and have fun in the process,” she continues, reflecting on those early days.
At SMU, Tiziana grew comfortable with questioning what was placed in front of her. That instinct to challenge assumptions rather than simply accept them would later shape how she built Brain Juice Collective, a social innovation, communications, and work transformation agency.
Beyond solving problems for organisations, the agency also aims to create social impact. It has incubated initiatives such as Street Stories, a participatory storytelling experience that turns place-based reflection into actionable insights; Impact@Work, a learning event for designing high-performing, people-centric impact organisations; and On Our RADAr, its framework and card game designed to get teams started in responsible innovation.
Since its founding, it has evolved into an ecosystem that works across sectors, partnering with organisations such as the Ministry of Manpower Singapore, Singapore International Foundation and FairPrice Group. In — all, it has worked with more than 60 partners on over 140 projects that have made a difference to more than 70,000 individuals.
A decade on, the lessons Tiziana learned at SMU remain central to her work. The agency is often brought in before a problem is fully defined — sometimes even before clients are certain what they are asking for.
From underdog instincts to unconventional advantage
At a recent event marking 10 years of Brain Juice Collective, Tiziana found herself stepping back, observing rather than directing.
“People were introducing each other without us facilitating it. Clients were helping to connect other clients. Partners were recommending each other,” she says.
At that moment, the network she had built no longer depended on her to function. It had taken on a life of its own.
“At some point, you realise it’s no longer your network. It has become its own ecosystem,” she shares, recounting her thoughts at the moment.
“People didn’t come and go quickly. The formal programme ended, but people continued to engage and move around,” she continues.
“That’s usually a good sign that real [connections] have been built, when people don’t linger out of obligation. It felt less like a company anniversary and more like a gathering of people who, in different ways, had built something together. That was pretty awesome.”
Redefining success beyond transactions
That longer-term perspective on impact was not always possible.
In the early days, success was immediate and practical. “It was about whether we could land the next project and pay ourselves,” Tiziana says.
“If a client came back, that was a bonus. If they referred someone else, that felt like a miracle.”
Over time, that definition expanded — and, in some ways, inverted. Today, she focuses less on outputs and more on the nature of the problems the firm is trusted with.
As she puts it: “Are we being brought in to execute, or are we being invited to shape thinking before the brief even exists? That distinction matters a lot.”
“It’s not just a campaign, but a shift in how a team works, how a community engages, or how a decision is made,” she explains.
"Revenue still matters, of course. I'm not idealistic about that. But it has moved from being the north star to more of a health indicator. If we are doing the right kind of work well, it tends to follow. When [revenue] becomes the only thing you optimise for, you usually feel the misalignment quite quickly.”
Purpose, pressure, and the realities of growth
As a student, Tiziana had a clear intention: to avoid what she called the “corporate hamster wheel”.
“I did manage to avoid a very linear, predefined path,” she says.
But the alternative came with its own realities.
“What I was slightly naïve about was assuming that entrepreneurship is the opposite of a hamster wheel. It isn’t. You can build your own wheel quite efficiently, and sometimes at a much higher speed.”
The distinction, she has come to understand, lies in what sustains that pace.
“It’s no longer about escaping the wheel entirely. It’s about building something meaningful enough that the running feels purposeful.”
That sense of purpose was tested during a period of rapid growth.
“There was a period where we had grown quickly, taken on larger projects, and suddenly found ourselves stretched in ways we hadn’t fully anticipated, and we were trying to keep multiple moving parts from falling apart,” she says.
What followed was not a single reset, but a series of deliberate decisions — tightening focus, declining misaligned work, and investing in how the organisation operates.
“It wasn’t a single breakthrough moment. It was more like a series of small, uncomfortable decisions that, over time, restored a sense of control,” she shares.
“Investing in my team, listening to our community and calling myself out when I knew I was not staying true to our values really helped.”
Judgment as the new differentiator
Much of Tiziana’s approach can be traced back to her learning experience at SMU.
The University’s discussion-led, participatory environment trained her to engage actively with ideas — an approach she now applies in client work. Rather than treating briefs as fixed instructions, she interrogates them, often reframing the problem before moving toward solutions.
This instinct has become more relevant as technology reshapes how work is done.
“If a tool can generate a first draft in seconds, then the question becomes what of the work still requires human judgment, context, and taste?” she says.
For Tiziana, the real value lies even further upstream — in asking whether the problem itself has been correctly framed. “AI can respond to a prompt, but it cannot yet interrogate whether the prompt is the right one,” she explains. Most of the briefs she sees, she adds, are actually symptoms of deeper challenges.
Another area where human professionals add value is in connecting across contexts. “We often work across business, community, policy, and behaviour. That kind of synthesis still requires a human lens,” she shares. A further area is discernment — knowing what AI may miss or cannot judge.
“Not just producing content, but knowing what should exist, what should be said, and what should be left unsaid,” she says.
“If anything, the bar has gone up. It’s no longer enough to be good at producing. You have to be good at deciding.”
Coming full circle
Beyond running Brain Juice Collective, Tiziana has returned to SMU as a faculty member, mentor, and collaborator — bringing industry realities back into the classroom.
She has contributed to SMU Academy’s programmes, including teaching content creation in the age of GenAI. She has also taught post-graduate students project management and stakeholder engagement through the PGPD workshop module, while mentoring students and young professionals navigating an increasingly uncertain career landscape.
“The SMU culture continues to draw me in to engage and contribute where I can,” she says.
“I apply the same spirit in all that I am involved in. I hope we can keep that spirit and positioning even as the university matures.”
In her teaching, she focuses on areas often left implicit — how to navigate uncertainty, manage relationships, and build resilience beyond technical skills: “How to build a sense of self that is not entirely tied to work,” she says.
It is advice she believes has become even more important as technology reshapes work. Technical skills will continue to evolve, she says, but curiosity, judgment and a strong sense of self remain enduring advantages.
“Most students don’t think they need this yet. Until they do.”
The SMU Edge
1. A Culture of Active Learning
SMU’s seminar-style pedagogy places students at the centre of discussion, encouraging them to question assumptions and engage deeply with ideas. In Tiziana’s case, this translated into a professional instinct to interrogate briefs rather than take them at face value.
2. Real-World Orientation
With an emphasis on applied learning, internships and community engagement, SMU prepares students to operate in complex, real-world environments. This grounding is reflected in how Tiziana approaches ambiguous, evolving client challenges across sectors.
3. A Mindset of Purpose and Impact
SMU’s focus on developing responsible leaders aligns with Tiziana’s work in building purpose-led organisations. Her shift from transactional success to long-term impact mirrors the university’s broader emphasis on creating meaningful, sustainable change.
