About Me

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Ottawa, Canada
Dr. Charles Lam has since 1971 received training in West Germany (telecom) and university education in U.K. (management) and acquired working experiences in Hong Kong and Canada, in a utility company, Hong Kong Government, a multinational organization and a SME. In his career path, he has acquired qualifications from UK institutions including DBA (1990), MBA (1980) and Chartered Engineer (1978). Since 1986, he has left pure engineering to teaching various subjects of business management in Hong Kong for famous universities of Hong Kong, England and United States. He also has served the society as a member of an advisory committee of the Hong Kong Government for eight years, and as the Hon. Chairman of its Consumer Education Group. Later, he set up his own company to offer services as a consultant, writer and speaker. In his 'Second Half Time', he has been working passionately on integrating Christian values with management knowledge, in the marketplace/workplace ministry, serving hospitals, churches and organizations, as a speaker, consultant, life coach, and the leader of a REST Group based on a life story approach. Charles is currently living with his wife in Canada.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Charles writing his life story, RESTly (6)

My second big life transition took place in 1979-- studying MBA Full-time in UK and subsequent career changes.  Leaving Hong Kong for taking a full-time course could be accomplished, but only after overcoming a lot of internal and external barriers. It was a difficult decision--although I was taking a no-paid leave, I had to hand back the company quarters to the company, answer a lot of tough questions by people who did not understand me.

Knowledge-wise, the MBA course was a most enriching journey –-information management, reading and writing skills (especially applying critical, multidimensional, soft systems thinking) were the most valuable rewards. On top of them, there were more traveling experiences to other European countries, and opportunities of making friends with people from different parts of the world. The student pass also enabled me to travel on and off the Greyhound bus for thirty days in U.S., visiting many famous cities there. Such 'wide' travelling took place between the last examination and graduation ceremony.  


The MBA course itself was a very tough one, so tough that I had experienced a long period of poor health due to overworking. For one subject that I had chosen by mistake, I had to take a second examination to get a pass mark. After going through so much new and tough experiences within a period of one-and-half years, my vision had further widened and thoughts enriched. 

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Charles writing his life story, RESTly (5)

My first big life transition took place in 1978—five months living in Germany.

Thanks to a new HKTel boss, in my late 20s, I was recommended by him to be sent to West Germany to receive training on a telecom system. During my five months in Germany, I had the opportunity of visiting several European countries and after completion, of visiting many more cities and countries via flying round the World. I can remember for a few times, I had the experience of getting lost and missing flights. My worldview and vision had significantly enlarged after such experiences.

After returning from the training, it was unfortunate that the company had decided to adopt a telecom system different from that I received training for. The hope of getting promoted vanished again. Another bitterness and despair was that my girlfriend left me.


I wanted to make some change and started to study some management courses to equip myself and to get out from the narrow scope of pure engineering. Through an coincident inspiration by a friend, I made another big decision--to study full-time again; this time overseas!