"If I had to use one word to describe what I've gained from the program, it would be 'confidence'," noted Ngai. "The program is particularly useful for me in making business decisions confidently."

Decision-making is a critical process for all senior executives. As a program for executives across all business functions, regardless of marketing, finance, IT or operations, the EMBA program provides a framework to make this process a science rather than art. As a science, decisions are made after considering all the available options and after analyzing pros and con from various perspectives. "A majority of the program is about applying this framework to make efficient decisions in different scenarios," added Ngai.

Ngai found theories and frameworks from the EMBA program were particularly helpful when HKJC's IT group was going through a transformation. By applying organizational behavior and structure theory, he was able to assist the consolidation of two departments, IT infrastructure services and operation services, efficiently.

"Deciding to merge them either by functions or by technical expertise was one of the major decisions I had to make," he said.