Mr Anthony Lam Sai-ho
CEO, Golden Resources Development International Ltd.
Deputy Chairman, CityU Eminence Society
Steering Committee Member, CityU Industrial and Business Leaders Circle
Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA), CityU
“Be bold to explore and innovate” is the key to success
Born into a family that has been running a rice business for many years, Mr Anthony Lam Sai-ho has a special affection for rice since childhood. His grandfather Mr Lam Butt-chung is the founder of Golden Resources Development International Limited, and his father Mr David Lam Kwing-chan has been highly regarded as the “King of Rice” in the field. Although he is the third generation of leader for the family business, he started to work as a junior staff, learning about different types of rice, managing warehouses, assisting in processing and packaging, and taking care of wholesale distribution. As a walking dictionary of rice, he has endless stories to tell about it.
Mr Lam shared that the biggest challenge to run a family business is how to maintain the product quality and keep the prestigious reputation of Golden Resources. In addition to maintaining the traditional business, he actively develops new growth points. The number of convenience stores that he invested in Vietnam has currently expanded to 400.
Mr Lam runs both traditional and new businesses successfully. His key to success is “Be bold to explore and innovate.” With this as his motto, he has striven to explore new opportunities beyond rice business and successfully made his family business more diversified. He said that many of his business ideas were derived from interactions with his professors and fellow classmates when he studied the Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) programme at CityU. “During my EMBA studies, I learned a lot of new business concepts and theories. The knowledge that I acquired not only broadened my vision, but also enabled me to put into practice my business decisions,” he said. He liked to analyse business cases in real life and exchange ideas on business management with his fellow classmates.
After completing the EMBA degree, Mr Lam accepted a new challenge – pursuing a doctoral degree in business management. He said that it was a challenging task to write a research paper, but CityU has provided a lot of support. As CityU has attained excellent research achievements in many disciplines, he felt that collaboration between the University and industries will be a win-win situation, which not only benefits the industries but also further enhances the University’s research capability. As a CityU alumnus, Mr Lam often serves as guest speaker to share his success stories with younger students. He hoped to take part in more of these activities in future to inspire students with his personal experience.