Ellery Leung Wing-lap
BBA Accountancy and Management Information Systems’03
When I graduated in 2003, SARS was furious in Hong Kong. I decided I would develop my career in the I.T. (Information Technology) industry. My first pay cheque was HK$6,500, which was reasonable at that time. Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt and I lost the job.
And then I worked as a programmer in another company. As you may recall, the financial crisis came in 2008 and I lost my job, again.
At that moment, I realised one very important thing – Even you get a job, be punctual, work hard and deliver result, they are not sufficient to secure your lifestyle.
When I was about to quit my second job, I told myself, “Enough, no more, not again.” But the next question came right into my mind, “So what are you going to do?”
Then I discovered marketing. To me, in simple terms, marketing is the way of continuous communication with people about products and services that generate the needed value to customers.
That was the missing piece and the key to protection that I am searching in my life. In my opinion, if you are very good at I.T., you just know how to create a good product. Without marketing, it will be like fishing with a good fishing rod, but no bait.
Here I would like to share two things that I have learnt in I.T. and direct marketing, and hope that you will find them helpful:
While there are a lot of lessons to be shared, these two are by far impacting my life most. They have changed my approach to problem solving forever.
(Written by Ellery, July 2018)