After spending 25 years living and working in North America, Sean wishes to establish a network with like-minded business professionals in Asia after his relocation. The CUHK EMBA programme offers a perfect blend of “East Meets West” which Sean sees as ideal for his purpose.
According to Sean, the six pillars of the EMBA programme, building synergies between theories and practices while leveraging internal and external networks, form the basis for strategic perspectives in all major business decisions he makes. Integrating an element of social contribution makes the whole process more “real” towards building a better world.
“Can’t see the forest for the trees” is often the pitfall of the daily grind as one tends not to step back and look at the big picture. As Sean recalls, “About halfway through the EMBA programme I was asked by a Silicon Valley headquartered company, Pivotal Software (now part of VMWare), to be part of its Asia leadership team to explore new networks and establish a strategic operating model. US companies traditionally treat Asian countries individually while employing different business practices. However, with globalisation and rapid maturing of technical know-how in Asia, I thought it best to find synergies between the markets. Taking a step back with the ‘forest centric’ approach, combining it with the ‘East Meets West’ mentality, brought great efficiency to our operations and the needed agility for our campaigns across the region.”
Equipping with technical appreciation and understanding is a prerequisite for running business today. This means learning technology applicability within the company should sit with the leadership team, not the specific responsibility of the IT people. This is the insight Sean shared having long been a seasoned professional in the technology sector. Having worked in both startups and large corporations, Sean is now on the lookout for the next wave of technological advancements. He believes blockchain and digital currencies will be part of that next wave. “Our focus will be on expanding an ecosystem of participants, creating a fair and borderless economic model for all, and embracing social impact projects with open arms,” Sean tells of his current work at the Algorand Foundation.