15 January, 2025 | Jonathan Lai, Shopify's APAC head of strategy and operations
With extensive startup experience in the US under his belt, Jonathan Lai found his niche at Shopify where he has forged a rewarding career with the e-commerce platform since returning to Australia four years ago.
As a strategy and operations leader in the Asia-Pacific region, his role is essentially to support and help businesses in the Shopify ecosystem to grow.
It’s territory that is not unfamiliar to the Brisbane-based QUT Bachelor of Business and MBA graduate, who tapped into his entrepreneurial spirit to start a property management company when he moved to New York City in 2010, creating a semi-passive income that would later fund the development of two tech startups.
“Building these companies and going through the startup experience really built my generalist skillset with early-stage companies, especially in e-commerce,” says Lai.
“When I moved back to Australian in 2020, I secured a job at Shopify knowing the company very well and knowing where I was heading.
“It’s certainly a big change going from startup to a public company with multiple layers, but while Shopify is a big company it is still small enough that you can get things done.”
However, in 2022 Lai was looking to lift his game further with a view to enhancing his opportunities at Shopify and to expand his “toolkit” both as a corporate professional and as an entrepreneur.
Having graduated with a Bachelor of Business at QUT in 2009, Lai chose his alma mater to undertake a Master of Business Administration (MBA).
“The personal reason for me undertaking an MBA was really about expanding my strategy toolkit,” says Lai.
“I am a generalist in terms of my career as I can undertake many roles and have done since joining Shopify.”
A desire to move into senior management roles within Shopify or potentially a new corporate opportunity was also a significant motivation for undertaking the challenging MBA journey.
“In many ways, completing the MBA really helped me wrap up all the entrepreneurial and startup experience that I gained while I was living in the US and relating that to how business is done today,” says Lai.
“I gained an incredible amount from a structured program like the MBA by applying my hustle and entrepreneurial skillset, working out how that fit in a larger corporation and then how I could use those skills within my existing career.
“My role has shifted a couple of times since I joined Shopify and the MBA has essentially helped me deliver greater impact in my current role and set me up to handle whatever may be ahead for me. It’s already helped broaden my thinking and skillset, allowing me to be more strategic in my work.”
Lai opted for the fast-track for his MBA at QUT that saw him start in 2022 and graduate in June this year.
“The QUT MBA program offers flexible delivery and you can choose how quickly or slowly you do it to suit your individual work and life commitments.
“It took me just over two years to complete it, which is a short time when working full time. It’s definitely a big commitment but with a disciplined approach it is quite achievable despite your existing career demands.”
The flexibility of the QUT MBA program was critical for Lai as he managed the demands of career, study and life in general.
“They make it super easy in terms of scheduling and how they structure their teaching periods,” he says.
“There are six sprints throughout the year where we do a seven-week sprint, have a week off and then go again. While that may not be what everyone chooses to do, I really enjoyed that structure. Being able to learn what I did in class, in parallel with work, was more rewarding because you can really link your experiences in your career with that study.
“It’s quite intensive but the beauty of the workshops is that it they are done in person where we meet up with all the students in our cohort. With two cohorts each year you get the opportunity meet so many different people on their own MBA journey with their own skillset.”
In January this year, Lai was selected along with two fellow QUT MBA students to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at Cambridge to develop a startup idea. It was one of two study trips he made during the MBA program, which Lai adds were among the highlights of his MBA.
“We were selected for MIT to work on a startup idea we had over a week-long intensive program, which came about because of a previous collaboration between QUT, MIT and the University of Auckland that we participated in,” says Lai.
“The study trip was aimed at helping us develop our idea further. The broader experience MIT was incredible with the calibre of speakers and the MIT alumni that we met making for an inspirational experience.”
A second study trip in May to WHU, the Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany, involved an intensive two-week program that provided an introduction into doing business in Europe.
“This was incredibly interesting as my current role involves strategy and operations looking across the Asia-Pacific region,” says Lai.
“I’ve been in a strategy role and definitely using what I have learned through my MBA in my role, especially working on international projects with our team in North America.
“In my role, I look at the broader picture that is coming through from our global teams to help our partners grow their businesses effectively, and the experiences I have taken from the MBA are invaluable in helping me achieve this.”
Reflecting on how a QUT MBA would have changed his startup journey, Lai says his “toolkit” would definitely have been better sharpened.
“With startups you are running a lot of the time at 110 per cent and perhaps the MBA may have helped with planning by giving me the tools to slow down and be more strategic,” he says.
“But if I am to start another company in the future it definitely has given me more grounding to take a broader view of business from the get-go.”
This article is republished from Business News Australia. Read the original article here.