Emily Chan , is the author of "Harvard Business School Confidential: Secrets to Success", and she graduated top of her engineering class at Stanford University and has an MBa from Harvard Business School.

She was a consultant with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for over eight years, and also worked as a corporate strategist and an independent consultant in Greater China.

Based in Hong Kong, she is now Director of Pacific Merit Ltd. (PML), a family-owned direct investment company that invests in distressed assets in the US, Europe, and Asia. PML’s portfolio includes assets in biotechnology, media, and real estate.

For more information, please visit her Facebook site at http://www.facebook.com/hbsconfidential.

Emily, what are some of the most important lessons that you’ve learnt from your studies at Harvard Business School, particularly in regards to career planning and career management?

To me, HBS is really about developing three core skills:

(1) ability to think analytically while seeing the big picture;

(2) ability to communicate; and

(3) ability to network.

All three skills are important in running a business as well as in personal career planning and management.

On the latter:

you need to be able to analyze your career status and the company power structure vs your own long term goal

you need to be able to communicate to all parties within and outside of the organization; and

you need to know the right people in the right place.

These skills are not easy. While HBS teaches some tools in each area, a big part of this is an art and comes from observing and emulating people who are outstanding in these areas and from practicing.

In your book, Harvard Business School Confidential: Secrets to Success, you mention that investing wisely can help people to achieve better financial security as opposed to just being employed. Why is this so, and what is some valuable investment advice that you would like to share?

If financial security is your ultimate goal, then just being employed may be risky. You can lose your job, even when you are performing very well. Poor economy, strong competition, office politics, and a dozen other factors can make you lose your job. Even if you are employed, you are often not learning things that are in your own best economic interest for you to become successful in terms of becoming wealthy. You are merely doing what is in the best interest of an employer.

Four things I have learnt at HBS that I have found useful in investment:

(1) See each dollar as your employee.

This idea is well captured in the best seller Rich Dad, Poor Dad: "The poor and the middle class work for money. The rich have money work for them." Once you see cash as employees, you should make sure you have as much cash as possible to invest. You can do so by clearly differentiating between investments (like real estate or stocks) and expenses (like LV bags or fancy clothes). Maximize the cash you have for investment by minimizing expenses.

(2) Save before you spend.

In the book The Richest Man in Babylon, George S. Clayton highlighted one of the key success secrets of the ancients: "A part of all you earn is yours to keep." But many people only save what is "left over." Prosperous people often save first and then live on what is left over.

(3) Differentiate between speculation and investment.

Speculation is when you hope to get a return. Results are subject to chance and are out of your control. Buying real estate assuming any properties will go up in value over time is speculation. Investment is when you earn a return. You have a strategy and a plan. You do your research and analysis. You manage your investment accordingly to increase your chance of a return. HBS focuses on investing, not on speculating.

(4) Manage risk.

No one has a crystal ball. Even with all the research, analysis, and planning you can do, when you invest, you always risk losing money. As the saying goes, "no risk, no return." HBS does not teach you to minimize risk. This is because risk is often proportional to potential return. The key is not to minimize risk but to manage risk. Managing risk means you understand the risk involved and have determined that you can afford it, and the potential reward is worth the risk you are taking.

What are some tips that you would recommend to jobseekers to land a job in the current challenging economic conditions?

In a study conducted in 1974, a sociologist Mark Granovetter (a Harvard Ph.D.) interviewed several hundred professional and technical workers in the United States about how they found their jobs. 56 percent of those he talked to found their jobs through a personal connection. Granovetter also found that of those who used a contact to find a job, less than 17% would describe that contact as a close friend. The remaining 83% would describe the contact more as an acquaintance.

Why is this? Granovetter believes that it is because when it comes to finding out about new opportunities and information such as jobs, acquaintances are actually more important than close friends. This is because your close friends usually occupy pretty much the same "world" as you do. They most likely have a family and education background, social circle, networks, etc. similar to yours. Therefore, you probably already know most of what they know. Your acquaintances, on the other hand, occupy different worlds. They are more likely to know something that you do not.

The result of this study is critical, especially in current challenging (though seemingly improving) economic conditions. My personal experience has been consistent with this study. It is important to be resourceful and explore all possible channels. Formal channels like JobsDB are very useful and direct. A broad network of many acquaintances could also sometimes help you land a job. Therefore, I would recommend a jobseeker to cast a wide net: use formal channels but also spend time on their network, which includes calling up old acquaintances and going out to make new friends through professional associations, interest groups, etc. Have your feelers out.

What are some strategies that you would recommend for companies to get and stay ahead in the current challenging economic conditions?

Every industry and every company is different. Also, economic conditions are constantly changing. Hence, general advice on strategies would probably be of limited value. Instead of recommending specific strategies, I would suggest companies to engage in an effective planning process to help them manage uncertainties. The importance of a planning process is succinctly explained by Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, when he talked about war:

Plans are nothing;

planning is everything.

Because of the uncertainty involved in war (and business), although it may be a bit extreme to say "plans are nothing," there is much truth in President Eisenhower’s statement. This does not mean you do not need a strategy. You need a strategy — but you must also recognize that any strategy can easily and quickly become suboptimal or even ineffective due to the uncertainties involved.

As a result, it is critical to know that the process of thinking through and developing the strategy is as important as the plan itself, if not more important. An effective process should ensure that the factors considered, any assumptions made about them, and the deductive logic behind the strategy, are clearly and explicitly articulated and documented. Then when these factors and assumptions change, the strategy can be updated quickly and effectively to address the changes.

*This article is a conversation between Emily Chan and JobsDB Singapore. Secrets to Success from Harvard Business School