Never Stop Learning

CityU alumni Ben Lam did not emerge from the traditional academic business stream. Instead, Lam studied East and Southeast Asian Studies (currently the Asian and International Studies programme under CityU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, CLASS), pursuing a longstanding interest in the region. Learning Korean and Japanese, however, proved advantageous when it came to business.

Lam helped Japanese casual wear retail giant Uniqlo open its first office in the city. In fact, he was the company’s first Hong Kong employee on the ground, and he headed Uniqlo’s brand awareness campaign as store manager. From there on, his career was set. In 2008, he went on to expand the business for Uniqlo in the rest of Southeast Asia and Taiwan with a focus on training staff and implementing best practice guidelines. Eventually, Lam was given the responsibility to look after Uniqlo’s entire operations in Hong Kong. When he was first appointed, Lam became the first non-Japanese store manager of one of Uniqlo’s 10 flagship stores around the world. As the sole member at Uniqlo to have in-depth understanding of Japanese culture while speaking the language, Lam became the bridge between Japanese management and the local team he led. He perfected the language during his undergraduate years when went on exchange programmes between CityU and a university located in Beppu, Japan. It gave Lam a unique deep dive into Japanese culture, an experience that gave him an edge over his peers. After several years, Lam was tasked to launch the brand’s sister company in the city, GU, another extremely popular brand in Japan.

Coming Home
Despite his success, the young operations manager decided to elevate his professional track further, he would need to upskill. Lam returned to CityU to pursue an EMBA degree to sharpen his business acumen.

He was subsequently brought on board at Pricerite as their new Head of Operations. It only took three months for the company to acknowledge Lam’s value before they promoted him to Chief Operating Officer in Hong Kong, and another six months before, at the start of 2021, Lam also became the Executive Director.

However, nothing gets done without having self-belief in the first place. The story of his proactive approach to Uniqlo has made the rounds as a testament to his tenacity, though to Lam it was not anything special.

Seize Opportunities
“When you are young, you need to try everything,” Lam says. “I graduated in the year SARS was ravaging the city – not unlike what COVID-19 is doing now. So I understand the sentiment of graduates in recent times very well. You start questioning what your future holds.”

In his days, Lam asked many of his seniors at university for advice and perspective. “Many of them went into the media or became a copywriter, and these were the areas I wanted to go into but eventually didn’t. One of their advice was to put yourself out there even if they aren’t hiring. Send your CV or put a presentation together. Stand out.”

Having worked the market for almost two decades, Lam says fresh graduates who show enthusiasm and a proactive attitude in job hunting are rare. “Graduates often lack confidence because of their inexperience. In a job market where everyone is shy, try to show initiative – whether the hiring manager chooses you or not. There will always be people out there who appreciate that kind of passion.”

“When I graduated, the hiring manager at Uniqlo hadn’t even started his recruitment but I was there first. I stepped up. He didn’t even know he needed someone but there was someone who was saying ‘hey, I’m ready’. And for him it was a ‘why not?’ moment, and he gave me a chance.”

The Value of New Experiences
The COO also recounted his two cultural exchanges during his university years at CLASS, which turned out to be a great booster. He was leading one of the exchanges to the Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Beppu, Oita, Japan, with over a dozen students and two lecturers.

“These days, it takes a student four years to graduate whereas in my time it took three. In my opinion, it is best for them to try other experiences other than just to go to school,” Lam advises. “Every academic year, try something – be it work experience, student exchanges, traineeship – that you think could be significant or a part of your future career. Try out different companies.”

For himself, before joining Uniqlo, Lam worked in an e-commerce company fulltime for a year. This was a part-time job he obtained during his university years.

“It is important to try out different work environments and company cultures,” Lam concludes. “If you do it right, there are several things to be gained. First, you will cultivate your own network of contacts. Second, it helps you acquire social skills, which a lot of fresh graduates lack. Third, there is the potential experience of failure. These experiences garnered in your youth can definitely help you succeed in the future.”