Kang Yam’s professional career revolves around building the capabilities and capacities of individuals to fulfill organizational goals. He sees potential in others. In his view no individual is fully formed. On the contrary, each individual is a work in progress, alive with possibilities. For this very reason, he is drawn towards people; interacting with others and helping them experience success.
Learning interests him. His mentor has described him as being in a perpetual learning mood. When he was in Taiwan delivering a consulting workshop, a phrase written on a wall of the training building struck him. These were the wise words by Confucius – “Learning without thought is labor lost, thought without learning is perilous.” To Kang Yam, the transfer of learning from theory to practice and reflecting on what we have learned is of paramount importance. He continues to integrate this concept into his work and life.
Kang Yam has designed many challenging and impactful training and development experiences for organizations such as Prudential (Singapore), Michelin, Aviva, Intraco Inc, Civil Service College, Port of Singapore Authority and Singapore Police Force Training Command. As a trainer and consultant, he has travelled around Asia Pacific and conducted training workshops for companies such as Ariba Inc (India), Corning International and Corning Computer Display Technologies (Taiwan), Hewlett Packard (China, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia) and Exxon Mobil (China). He has also served as assessor in Leadership Assessment Centres in China.
Kang Yam’s expertise has led him on consulting projects and workshops in the Asia Pacific region and the Middle East. One particular place that stood out for him was Abu Dhabi. He was engaged for a Training Needs Analysis project for the Abu Dhabi Government. What struck him most was when he asked the focus group participants who reminded them most of when the word “learning” is mentioned, half of the group mentioned “the Prophet” while the other half mentioned “my father”. This has inspired him to be a better father and “teacher” to his children.
