Hard work helped reap 'formidable rewards'

Cammy Yiu needed management skills to help her run two diverse businesses HONG KONG-BORN Cammy Yiu is quite emphatic about the decision she made in 1998. 'Deciding to take an MBA was one of the best decisions I have ever made. It enabled me to gain the management education that I need today to manage all aspects of my businesses.' As managing director of Asia Brand and executive editor of Culture Hong Kong magazine, Ms Yiu's businesses are marketing and publishing. Asia Brand's office is in Queen's Road, Central. The magazine is distributed in Hong Kong, Macau and Beijing, with subscribers as far afield as France, Russia and the United States. Even by Hong Kong's frenetic standards, Ms Yiu has her work cut out. The Canadian-Chinese has enjoyed a remarkable career trajectory since she completed her Kellogg-HKUST MBA programme in 2000. 'At the University of Alberta, Canada, where I graduated [with a bachelor's degree] in 1987, I focused on graphic design and thought that this would be the way I would make a living. I took art history, graphic design, photography, drawing, print-making and sculpture, primarily to prepare me for a future in commercial arts.' After graduating, Ms Yiu remained in her chosen realm. 'My first job out of university was in an art gallery. During the first few years I was blissfully engaged in dealing with the art and the artists who supplied the gallery. My first degree prepared me well for this kind of work.' A few years later, Ms Yiu was promoted to manager of the gallery and duly took on more responsibilities, notably in the business side of the operation. 'I was now in charge of the accounts and the hiring and, sadly, the firing of staff. I had to develop new business and promote the gallery. This I was not prepared or trained for.' Ms Yiu's career progressed into more business-related areas on the management side of the arts and art processes. But she was increasingly mindful of her limitations. 'I was confident of managing the creative side of things, as I had the training and the background. But with regards to the business side, I knew I needed to engage in some serious professional development.' Time, she felt, to get an MBA. 'I wanted a programme specifically for someone like me; someone who was working in management but had never taken a business degree.' After considering all her options, Ms Yiu applied to the Kellogg-HKUST MBA programme. This is a joint degree programme offered in Hong Kong and taught by faculty members of the School of Business and Management of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University of Chicago. 'I chose this programme because it was designed for executives. It allowed me to keep working full-time while I took the programme part-time over 16 months. One of the features of the programme that I enjoyed the most was that it was a live-in programme. For two weekends each month I lived on campus and stayed in the dormitories. Taking myself away from my home and office environment allowed me to concentrate fully on my studies.' Dedication was certainly a requirement. 'I had some very challenging courses because they were wholly new to me such as: operations management, negotiations, market research, managerial economics and organizational behaviour. The theories and the practical information that I gained from learning about these areas opened a whole new world of managing possibilities.' Courses such as strategic marketing, entrepreneurial finance, ethics and leadership, and analysis of uncertainty in management empowered Ms Yiu with the knowledge to lead an organisation and the courage to start a business. Fired-up by her hard-won MBA, Ms Yiu started the marketing consultancy Asia Brand. And with the confidence that she gained from that experience, she launched into publishing with the monthly magazine Culture Hong Kong, which has earned high marks from its steadily growing readership for its lifestyle and arts-based content. 'Working with my new company and the new magazine, I have had to use all that I learned from my MBA to keep the business moving and growing. At any time and often at the same time, I need to be the marketing manager, the business manager, the human resources director, the financial manager and the negotiator. My MBA prepared me well to wear all these hats and keep them on.' An MBA course is no small undertaking, especially for a mother with two children. 'When my husband and I decided I would take the MBA programme, the family knew we'd be making some sacrifices. It would take a huge commitment of time and a huge commitment of money.' However, Ms Yiu felt these sacrifices were certainly worth making. 'The programme provided a world-class faculty for our lectures. I learned from the best marketing professors from Kellogg, who are renowned for their teaching of marketing theories and practices. All of this cost money, of course. But, as a business person, I understand the importance of investment. 'And I am very happy to be reaping now what I sowed back then.' The executive editor of Culture Hong Kong picks up the latest issue of her acclaimed community magazine and leafs through its 84 colourful pages. Then she puts her MBA experience into eight words. 'The rewards of my MBA have been formidable.'