Taking CHANCES

FUNG LAM WENT FROM BEING A UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SELLING MARKED-UP PRODUCTS ON EBAY TO DIRECTOR AND CO-FOUNDER OF ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S LARGEST E-RETAILERS, NEW AIM.

- ASHTON KOBLER

Although his company has found great success, the Director and Co-Founder of New Aim, Fung Lam, is a humble leader. When asked what makes a good leader, he reluctantly answers, “It’s difficult to say because no-one is perfect and I’m not good enough, I still have many things to improve. Good is hard to define because I believe if a company is big and has a large overall turnover, the leader must be good.”

Fung says his pursuit as a leader is happiness; that his staff will respect him and have good lives. “I want to help everyone get better and to continue to improve,” he explains. “I’m good at placing people in the right job and hiring people who are better than me to manage a large team. Since the company is large, it can be difficult to manage people but I want everyone to be happy.”

Going from being an IT graduate to leading a company, Fung had to learn how to manage people. “Data doesn’t have emotion; it doesn’t change what it says. Understanding human behaviour is difficult. You need to understand why people think the way they do. We must be on top of our customers’ thinking, and I must be able to manage our staff.”