Attitude and belief put young man back on track
An accountant with an MBA, Adam Wong did not reach his current position as finance director with Prudential Assurance easily. In this interview, he shares the ups and downs of life and how an MBA helps him out.
Describing himself as 100 per cent local, Adam Wong Chik-wai might appear to be a typical accountant, but he is quick to counter that suggestion.
He did earn an accounting degree from the University of Hong Kong and then accept a first job at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), focusing on audit assignments for financial services companies, but he always saw the need to gain a wider perspective.
That is why, after completing his main professional qualifications, he decided to take a part-time MBA with Royal Holloway College at HKU Space.
“I was thinking about how to continue learning and to advance my career,” says Wong, who stepped away from finance for a while just before his MBA, working in electronic manufacturing services for Surface Mount Technology. “It gave me a chance to be really involved in a business itself, not just taking an independent view of it like I had before.”
Wong refers to Maslow’s Hammer - if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail – when explaining his reasons for taking the MBA. He believes that education is the key to better understanding and being able to respond to change.
Lost and found