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Michael Taylor

Doing an EMBA is a life-changing but  challenging experience. It requires  commitment  from the participant as well as his or her family and employer.

Participants in the Kellogg-HKUST Executive MBA programme  must juggle conflicting demands: they have to attend classes and do homework  -  while keeping up with demanding careers and home lives.

How do they do it? The key is self-discipline, hard work and careful time management.

Take EMBA graduate Charles Brian-Boys, managing director of Mediaedge:cia.

Mr Brian-Boys works long hours, getting home at 8pm or 9pm every night. He has dinner and then works another  four hours.

He   says it is necessary to strike a  balance  to pursue an advanced degree.

'It has certainly been a challenge, but the busier you are, the more you can do,' he says. 'You get into  stride and rise to the occasion.'

Agnes Chan Ching-mei, vice-president, corporate marketing and investor relations,  Pacific Century Insurance,  says discipline and focus are key to  getting the most from  the programme.

'I've got a lot of people under me, and they are used to taking orders from me,' she says. 'In this programme, you have to accept that people have different views and look at things from different perspectives. It teaches you to be open-minded. This is key if you want to move up in an organisation.'

Thirty-five per cent of this year's graduates were based outside Hong Kong, mostly  in  China, Taiwan , Singapore, Indonesia and  South Korea. One even flew in from the United States.

Even locally based students tend to be busy executives who spend a lot of time on the road.

For  Philip Hsin, director of business development at Barclays Global Investors, time management was more than a good idea.   One of four students flying in from Singapore to attend classes,  it was necessary to make the programme his focus while  being mindful of his other commitments.

'It is critical to set priorities and  assign a certain priority to this programme,' Mr Hsin says, adding that being active helped.

'I have emerged physically stronger than I was before I went into it.  The danger for many people is that they commit too much to their career.

'Being away like this has allowed us to do more than study. It has  allowed us to reflect and get a grip on things.'

Mr Hsin advises participants to be 'mentally prepared for basically very hard work, and for making sacrifices at the personal level'.

But he says  it is worth the trouble.

'It has been an incredible experience,' he says. 'It is not every day that someone like myself gets an opportunity to be in a classroom setting with some of the best professors and students in the world.'



Course demands much of students and family