KDU Alumni Shares Working Experience With World Renowned PR Agency

Around 75 KDU Diploma in Business Administration students attended to hear Mr Andrew Ooi Yoong Ching, a KDU alumni who graduated in 2005, and about his experience working for a world renowned public relations agency, in conjunction with the lecture topic of Services Marketing: Managing People for Service Advantage.

Organized and presented by the School of Business (SoB) common lectures on ‘Services Marketing’, Ooi’s sharing was in the hopes of reinforcing content with the students. With public relations being one of the service products, Ooi’s possession of being in the working world naturally communicated his insights from the ‘real world’, which in turn fulfils KDU’s commitment to its students in providing for them first-hand experiences while studying on campus.

Ooi, a manager of Edelman Worldwide Public Relations Sdn. Bhd., had started his training process in KDU College, Damansara Jaya campus back in 2005 by pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications, a twinning programme with Murdoch University Australia. He subsequently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, Film and Media Studies in 2008, before furthering his studies at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, where his earned his master’s degree in Mass Communication in year 2010.

Upon graduation, Ooi got his first job at Naza Italia Sdn. Bhd., as a Marketing Executive. By 2012, he joined Edelman Worldwide Public Relations, a leading global communications marketing firm that partners with many of the world’s largest and emerging businesses and organisations. Working for Edelman, Ooi shared that one of the clients he services includes a renowned international telecommunication company, which just recently engaged him to launch their series of new products to the Malaysian market.

“Speaking on the aspect of public relations consultancy, as much as it sounds that we are servicing people, we do so by the fact of being in the business of managing people. And by so doing, we are directly and indirectly helping businesses and organisations to evolve, promote and protect their brand and reputation,” opined Ooi.

During his talk, Ooi strongly encouraged his juniors to really master theoretical basis of their studies, “It is really important for you to know the theoretical before you can start thinking about a solution.” Moving from the subject of public relations, Ooi went on to speak about services marketing.

As a manager of public relations consultancy, Ooi specifically went on to speak about his daily task ranging from product launching, writing press releases, meeting clients, public relations execution to crisis management. He also shared how Edelman is a company that treasures its employees by its viewing of its staff as assets, their firm intention of improving employee related matters, and its maintenance of producing and keeping the quality of its people.

Wrapping up, Ooi commented on the future of service businesses, which actually serve as some kind of a wake-up call to those attending by reminding them to be really good at what they are doing, as “the artificial intelligence (AI) is taking the human challenges out of service businesses. AI is very real. And it’s made so much progress to the point that it is currently being trained to interact with humans,” Ooi enlightened. “I think a time may come when and where AI could actually arrive to a point where it can be used to solve creative problems or problems creatively, such as writing press releases and even creating art!” stressed Ooi.

As a gesture gratitude to the guest speaker, senior lecturer of SoB - Dr. Ooi Chin Lye, handed Mr Ooi a token of appreciation on behalf of the School for availing himself to speak the students.