Executives use work experience to push further
Insurance industry players who studied and work in Canada returned to Hong Kong but felt their jobs were taking them nowhere, so they decided to improve on their qualifications.
Business schools routinely convey how furthering one's education through an MBA programme is the quickest route up the corporate ladder. The skills and experience gained from an MBA course can equip a graduate with the means to develop his or her career to the next level, and help an organization grow. Such courses also offer the opportunity to make contracts and to network, the importance of which cannot be underestimated in the business world.

For two executives working in the insurance industry, an Executive MBA has provided the skills to approach problems and strategies from a fresh perspective and deliver results in the workplace, which has led to professional gain and rewards.

Terry Li, vice-president and head of insurance product for Citibank Hong Kong's Global Consumer Group, received a bachelor of business administration, with a major in finance, from the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada in 1992. He worked in Canada from 1992to 2001.

“I started my career at London Life's Saskatchewan office as a sales representative for all personal and group financial products,” Mr Li said. “Then I joined mutual fund company Investors Group in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1995. Eventually, I was posted as the insurance marketing manager for the Greater Vancouver region, moving from Prairie to Vancouver at the end of that year.”

In 1998, Mr Li joined the Bank of Nova Scotia as regional manager for British Columbia and the Yukon region for retail and commercial insurance business.

“I got married in 2001 in Vancouver and moved to Hong Kong with my wife,” he said. After that, he worked as a manager of bancassurance from 2001 to 2002, a manager of insurance and mandatory provident fund development from 2002 to 2004, and head of insurance products from 2004 to the present. He had 10 years of work experience when he decided to pursue an Executive MBA.

“I felt that I had reached the glass ceiling. The first couple of jobs I had in Hong Kong were more of less junior to the last job I had in Canada. [I thought] MBA training on my resume would be a plus. I also needed to brush up on the fundamentals. Most of my roles had been in sales and marketing since I graduated with my first degree, and I needed to brush up and enhance other critical management skills.”

One of the reasons that Mr Li chose Richard Ivey was its Canadian connection. “As a Canadian, Canadian business schools are my preferred choice,” he said. “The Ivey [EMBA programme in Hong Kong] is the same as the EMBA programme Ivey offers in Canada- the same professors, the same materials and the same schedule.”

Mr Li believed that he benefited from the programme in a variety of ways.

“The programme is comprehensive. In my job, making decisions with time constraints and limited data is a challenge I face almost every day,” he said.

“I have benefited a lot from the case study learning style, as it stimulates real life challenges. Most important is the feedback from classmates and professors, which I usually wouldn’t get as they are not from the [same] industry.”

Mr Li has now been promoted to a more senior position. “The programme equipped me with better management skills, which really helped me deliver the results, and the company has rewarded me accordingly,” he said.

“Among [the many benefits that I have achieved], what I really appreciate the most is the recognition from the supervisory level. At the end of the day, everyone needs to be motivated to keep pushing for new heights.”

Alice Cheung, an assistant vice-president and actuary at American International Assurance, received her first degree at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, where she majored in actuarial science and computer science. After graduation, she worked for one of Canada's largest insurance companies. She returned to Hong Kong in 1995 to continue her professional path.

Ms Cheung thought about doing an MBA immediately following graduation, but decided to wait until she had more professional experience under her belt.

After seven years on the job she decided the time was right.

“My career had reached a stable stage. I believed I could manage study and work demands at the same time and that I was prepared to taken an extra challenge in my life.”

Ms Cheung decided on an EMBA rather than an MBA, despite the higher cost. “After seven years of work I thought it was a bit late to start a standard MBA,” she said.

“In addition, it would be difficult to sacrifice the earned income, family, friends and career to go to America to do an MBA. However, it was feasible to do an EMBA in Hong Kong because there were two schools here that I could choose from at the same time which were well-ranked in the MBA world.”

Ms Cheung decided on Richard Ivey for several reasons. One of the most important was its commitment to the case study method. Other considerations included scheduling, the courses covered, the quality of the professors and the working experience of her potential classmates.

Ms Cheung believed that she had benefited in several ways. There was the knowledge that she gained of how things were done in different industries; the chance to network with people working in different fields and of different nationalities; and the chance to assess issues and problems from different angles, gaining a wider viewpoint, and learning how to think more strategically.

South China Morning Post
Tuesday, January 9, 2007