One requires more than constant adaptation and acquisition of new skills to excel in today’s dynamic and fast-paced business environment. In order to equip our alumni with new knowledge and to refresh their networks, the Faculty of Business and Economics offers the taught post-graduate alumni the chance to come back to class and top-up their learning to stay relevant and competitive.

Last autumn, HKU MBA alumni were invited to join the pilot alumni auditing programme. Beyond our expectation, we received encouraging response and nearly all forty seats were filled in a short period of time. The programme was then expanded to include alumni from taught-postgraduate master programmes last December, including Master of Accounting, Masters of Economics and Master of Finance. Once again, we were impressed by the overwhelming feedback with all seats taken quickly by alumni who are eager to learn.

“It was refreshing to learn for myself,” one alumni participated in the programme last semester noted. Others reported much satisfaction growing their network and meeting current students.  “My experience was fantastic, loved the teacher and content and found the lectures very engaging and relevant,” raved a student who joined the newly added Private Equity/Venture Capital course taught by a VC expert and new adjunct professor, Marvin Lai. Another student in Mr. Lai’s class mentioned that he was interested in learning more about investing, as he was investing private funds himself.

This audit programme also benefits faculty members, who enjoy having experienced participants in the classroom with current students, who then can have the opportunity to meet with alumni from different backgrounds and age. Students are delighted to sit with alumni who have lived through the programme and are now working in a large variety of industries in Hong Kong.

In view of growing demand for lifelong learning, the Faculty will be offering another round of audit classes the coming summer, and explore opportunities to expand the programme to a broader alumni community.

Please stay tuned.

What you need to know about alumni auditing:

• FBE postgraduate alumni are eligible to audit one elective per academic year
• The cost is HKD500, payable via bank transfer
• Seats are allocated on the basis of availability and only with the permission of the teaching faculty members
• No credit or certificate of completion will be granted to alumni
• The teaching faculty member(s) reserves the rights to decide alumni’s in-class engagement

     

Crossing the river by feeling the stones

Like many undergraduates, Dr. Zhang was uncertain about his future. In order to provide himself with more options, Dr. Zhang had decided to take a PhD after graduation. The consultation with his PhD advisor was very impactful to his future development. Encouraged by his mentor, Dr. Zhang had taken an additional master in financial mathematics and ventured into the financial world.

Equipped with financial knowledge and superb numerical reasoning skills, Dr. Zhang secured an internship with a prestigious financial institution in the US. Although Dr. Zhang had received a return offer after he had completed his PhD, after careful contemplation, Dr. Zhang had decided to turn down the offer. Compare academic research with asset pricing, Dr. Zhang is more attracted to the thrill of being intellectually challenged. Even though financial institutions also have research teams, Dr. Zhang believes that pegging research results with profit generation will only hamper his exploration on knowledge. As academics received a relatively higher degree of discretion in research, Dr. Zhang has eventually decided to become a scholar.

While Dr. Zhang was original researching on credit risk, the global financial crisis in 2008 had plunged the market demand for high risk financial products and brought down the demand and budget for research on new risk calculation methodologies. But when one door closes, another door opens. During the same period, the academia’s interests on machine learning and AI has started to grow. As Dr. Zhang is always interested in knowledge with high application value in real life, researching on machine learning and information technologies have since then become his bread and butter.

Reviewing his academic journey, Dr. Zhang believes that being passionate is more important than being smart. Skills involved in research are very different from those in studying. While undergraduate courses require students to execute orders instructed by teachers, postgraduate research on the other hand requires students to take more initiatives in research and problem solving. In addition, exploring unknown topics is very difficult and time consuming. Without passion, one will not be able to muster up the motivation and patience to put through.

Machine learning and telephone call centers

During the interview, Dr. Zhang has shared with us his recent research on how machine learning could improve the productivity of call centers, or in other words enhance operation management. Dr. Zhang observes that the labor supply of call centers is unstable. Turnover is high and most staff are part-timers. In addition, as the demand for call center services is hard to predict, to effectively allocate manpower has become the key to survive.

Through developing an AI to analyze all historical data available, managers would know on what days, what times, and what periods the demand for services will be particularly strong, allowing them to be better informed when planning the roster. The AI would also run different contingency simulations in order to advice managers on different extreme scenarios.

The machines are not taking over yet

Dr. Zhang observes that business AI is still very primitive. In the context of a call center, while the AI’s superior analytical skills enables it to design smooth operational plans, their inability to process incoherent, contradictory, and wrong instructions accidentally made by customer and respond to orders beyond their programming has prevented them from replacing human workers.

While it is the dream for machine learning scholars to develop an AI capable of producing and manage tailor-made services for the thousands in tandem, it is beyond the technology level in the present day AI. Dr. Zhang believes that the development of AI will remain focusing on streamlining operation procedures and bosting labor efficiency. Therefore, AI will not cause massive shocks on the labor market in the coming decade.

Way forward

Dr. Zhang commented that it is a pleasure to serve HKU as students are smart and very innovative. Dr. Zhang is particularly impressed by a student who had applied text analytics into analyzing the meeting minutes of the US Federal Reserves to investigate whether there is a correlation between the use of specific words and the fluctuations of the stock market. In addition, he is very grateful for the recognition and feedback given by his students. It has become new fuel for Dr. Zhang to improve his teaching quality. Moreover, as HKU has an amazing culture focusing on the development of multidisciplinary knowledge, cross-faculty and inter-faculty research collaborations are very common. As an enthusiast in knowledge creation, he feels that he has found his second home.

Motivated by interest

Interested in applied mathematics and social science, Dr. Luo had majored in economics with the aspiration of understanding the world with quantitative methodologies. Influenced by the rich academic culture of his alma mater, Dr. Luo had taken the academic path after graduation.

While scholars enjoy a great amount of freedom in research, Dr. Luo states that the process could be very arduous. Developing new knowledge is like searching in the dark. Failure is common and great patience is required. Dr. Luo believes that having faith in the importance of your research is the key to prevent yourself from giving up. Having a good adviser will be a huge bonus, as he can support you both technically and emotionally when facing setbacks.

Painstaking it may be, the joy of successfully creating knowledge conducive to the world is very satisfying. To Dr. Luo, being a researcher is a privilege as it is an honor to contribute to the development of mankind. Therefore, he strongly encourages students aspiring to change the world to become scholars.

The global market trend

Accumulating rich consultation experiences over the years have Dr. Luo believed that possessing work experiences is conducive to research and teaching. R&D on fintech requires a large amount of raw data such as those related to financial activities and behaviors of social media users. Only through collaborating with mega firms and public organizations could researchers gain access to them. In addition, experiencing firsthand on how technologies are deployed in business operations and understanding their limitations could enable teachers to deliver quality content in class.

Work experiences also have Dr. Luo realized that the market demand for specialists in the joint fields of data science and finance are growing exponentially. In mainland China, the US, and the EU, financial institutions are hiring data scientists in the thousands to develop business AI. In the global financial market, there are millions of job vacancies in this field. As financial services are increasingly digitalized, Dr. Luo believes that the back office will be increasingly dominant. The world is changing and HKU Business School will continue to equip their students with multidisciplinary skills in order to make them as versatile and competitive as possible. 

To become a regional fintech center

While Hong Kong is lagging behind in innovation and technology, Dr. Luo sees great potential in Hong Kong in developing fintech. After all, fintech needs to follow the logic of finance and meet all the regulations to maintain stability in the financial market. Hong Kong as an IFC has the financial resources and a sound legal framework to support the R&D on fintech. Coupled with local universities’ internationally renowned research capabilities and their supply in talents with multidisciplinary skills, Dr. Luo is confident that Hong Kong possesses both the “fin” and the “tech” to become a regional fintech center.

Dr. Luo thinks that Hong Kong is lucky as her status as an IFC enables her to be embedded in the entire Asia-Pacific financial markets. Their ever-growing demand on financial products would be a powerful external boost to stimulate the growth of Hong Kong’s local fintech industry.

Fintech opens up new markets

Dr. Luo observes that the development of AI has enabled niche markets, such as micro-loans, to open up. While the demand for micro-loans on daily consumption, such as borrowing money for phone purchasing, has always been around the corner, heavy administration costs have dissuaded large financial agencies to explore them. However, as business AI can greatly reduce the costs in service delivery by automating the lending process, large financial agencies are now capable of competing with small financial institutions in supplying micro-loans.

Big data technology is another game changer. As the development of cloud technology has made record management increasingly accurate and comprehensive, platform companies like Alibaba and Tencent have applied data science on their rich customer database to conduct risk assessment and deliver online banking services. As their default rates are significantly lower than traditional banks, their debut as mobile banks will instigate more competition in the banking sector.

Way forward

Joining HKU, Dr. Luo aspires to produce in-depth knowledge in machine learning and AI. He is ready to offer his expertise to aid the university’s crusade on becoming the leading business AI research institution in Asia. Surprised by local students’ fascination towards technologies, Dr. Luo greatly enjoys his pedagogic role in HKU.

A meandering footpath

Professor Tang was an engineering major who is uninterested in his discipline. However, after realizing that he is keen on researching social issues with quantitative methodologies, Professor Tang had moved on to study economics instead. Graduating with flying colours, Professor Tang’s grad job was an IT consultant in a prestigious company in the United States (US). While his grad job is similar to his aspiration in conducting economics analysis, he felt that as a small employee in a big company, it will take years of build-up to become impactful. To make his voice heard and to create actual impact, Professor Tang had eventually taken the academic path.

However, Professor Tang still encourages students to accumulate some work experience before considering the academic path. Rich work experience not only can empower lecturers’ credibility in teaching, it also provides researchers with more relevant topics. Therefore, when a student sought his advice on whether she should develop an IT career in Africa, Professor Tang strongly encourages her as long as there isn't any safety concerns.

The observations from one hailed from peaceful times

Studying and working in an ethnical melting pot like the US for most of his life, Professor Tang has interacted with people from all walks of life. He observes that people raised in peaceful environments lack purpose. For example, in the academic circle, they would research on technical methodologies such as econometrics. But on the contrary, people raised in unstable societies would have a very specific topic to research on. For instance, Indians are keen on solving poverty and South Americans are keen on halting perpetual financial crisis. Therefore, students should participate in overseas exchange to gain more international exposure and develop a more mature worldview.

What makes a successful research?

In the early 2000s, after the Chinese market was opened up to the global trade, the World Bank was eager in studying China’s evolution in the global supply chain. They were particularly baffled by the positive relationship shared between the domestic content of China’s exports and its market openness, which it is contrary to international trade theories.

Partnering with the World Bank, Professor Tang had succeeded to solve this conundrum. Through analyzing firm level data, Professor Tang discovered that because importing foreign raw materials has upgraded the productivity of Chinese firms, raw materials supplied by the Chinese has also become more competitive. This has eventually encouraged Chinese exporters to purchase raw materials from local sources.

Other than producing groundbreaking results, this research has also developed new methodologies to translate firm-level data to the national level. Professor Tang is particularly proud of his success in incorporating existing knowledge, such as the market liberalization theory, into the analysis. He believes such act could intellectually stimulate readers, which is conducive to knowledge creation and makes his paper ticks.

The resources curse of Hong Kong

Professor Tang is also an expert in developmental economics. He points out that a lot of third-world countries are suffering from the resource curse, which refers to the situation when the national economy is entirely supported by a single industry. This is a curse as the rent provided by the dominant industry will be too lucrative, leaving few talents and resources for other industries to prosper. In case the dominant industry collapses, there won’t be another industry to support the national economy. Hong Kong is also facing the same problem as its economy is over-reliant on the real-estate market and the financial sector.

In order to break the curse, Professor Tang believes that it is very important to send a message that people working in non-dominant industries are also living a decent life. The government could work hard on resources allocation, while universities could contribute by grooming talents with diversified skills. Then, there may be a chance for a new and energetic industry to emerge, giving the economy new impetus to grow.

Way forward

The China-US trade war is at a critical moment to the world. Many scholars are eager to bring up solutions to solve this global crisis. Hong Kong, as the middle-man between the US and China and the hometown to Professor Tang, has a special meaning and position. As such, Professor Tang returned with the aim of producing research capable of inspiring city-wide or even region-wide discussions, and influencing decision-makers here. In the long run, he is dedicated to exerting positive impacts to the world.

The Faculty Teaching Award Scheme recognises and rewards teachers with outstanding achievements and significant contributions in teaching and student learning in the Faculty. The award-winners for the academic year 2018-19 are:

Faculty Outstanding Teacher Award (Undergraduate Teaching)

Dr. Alex CHAN
Principal Lecturer

“My passion in teaching drives me to explore different teaching practices to establish an effective learning environment for my students.  Excellent course preparation and course design is one of essential elements. Furthermore, as I believe that every student in my class is a distinctive individual learner, I do my best to recognize every student and understand the student’s learning progress. Through developing a mutual respect relationship, a teacher can provide a personalized learning experience to individual students. I believe that this personalization practice can effectively enhance students’ learning interests and their commitment to learning process and also let a teacher provide personalized learning guidance to individual students.”

Faculty Special Contribution Teaching Award

The HKU 202^nd Congregation – Faculty of Business and Economics Graduation Ceremony was held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on November 11, 2019. Professor Norman Tien, the Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Institutional Advancement) of HKU, presided the ceremony. Joining us at this memorable occasion also included Guest of Honour and our distinguished alumnus Mr. David Lee, Dean Professor Hongbin Cai, Honorary University Fellow Ms. Irene Man, other faculty members, and about 3,000 guests.

     

     

     

     

     

     

It’s a Family business

As both Dr. Zhuang’s parents are professors in marketing, Dr. Zhuang had been accompanying them in research work from a young age. Even though Dr. Zhuang has eventually followed his parents’ footsteps, he had once rebelled and picked electronics engineering as his undergraduate major. However, at the end of the day, marketing is still the apple in his eye.

“Compare with cold machinery, it is more engaging to interact with people”

Is an academic career worth pursuing? To students aspiring to become a professor, Dr. Zhuang has three cues for them in different stages of the process.

First, think twice before getting started. Being an academic is grueling. One must be very passionate about the discipline. Otherwise, working 24/7 on something you are uninterested in would be excruciating.

Second, never look back during the process. Since the path is not easy, the willingness to let yourself be consumed by research work is the key to run the gauntlet.

Third, it is ok to give up after you tried. Life is all about making choices and choices made could be both right and wrong. It is fine to step back at dead ends but unwise to limit our options.

Interdisciplinary is the key to excel

Dr. Zhuang believes that students with the aspiration to excel in the industry should focus on the latest marketing trends and must develop their acumen in the fields of data mining and AI. Dr. Zhuang observes that the act of persuading without evidence has become an endemic among business students. In the era of data, effective marketing strategies must be supported by concrete and meaningful evidences. Therefore, marketing students must work hard on their numerical reasoning skills.

Multichannel pricing is a heated topic

Currently, Dr. Zhuang is researching on the topic of cross-channel pricing strategy. He discovered that some companies will charge different prices across different sales channels. In the context of mainland China, after a price integration policy was introduced by an omni-channel retailer in 2013, the sales of most products will first decrease and later increase. He believes that the sales fluctuation is attributed to the three kinds of reactions made by consumers in response to price integration.

At the extremes, price-sensitive and experience-sensitive consumers will react oppositely. Price-sensitive consumers will shop less immediately after the price change as price-integration has decreased the low-priced channel’s competitiveness. On the other hand, experience-sensitive consumers may even increase their consumption because of a discrimination-free shopping experiences. Nonetheless, the majority of consumers will quit buying at the first place, and, after a period of accommodation, resume shopping as price integration has reduced their chances of being price discriminated by choosing the wrong channel.

Dr. Zhuang believes that his research findings can provide retailers with a clearer picture about the nature of pricing tactics in the omni-channel retail era. With this information in hand, retailers should be able to decide their multi-channel strategy and develop more effective marketing plans to target different groups of consumers.

What makes a good advertisement?

As a marketing expert, Dr. Zhuang believes that a good ad has to strike a balance among attractiveness, effectiveness, and relevance. For instance, Thai ads are renowned for their immersive viewing experience, the story may drag consumers’ focus away from the advertised product, leading the ads to be ineffective. However, an ad focusing only on the functionalities may be boring to watch. In the online media era, the relevance of ads is increasingly important. An effective ad must be relevant to the contextual preferences of its target consumers. Therefore, putting ads on YouTube under its current matching algorithm might not be a good idea, as it is ineffective in matching relevant ads with relevant audience, making ads more of a nuisance to them.

Way forward in HKU Business School

Before joining the University of Hong Kong (HKU), Dr. Zhuang had taught in the US and he really enjoys the classroom dynamics there. In contrast to the environment of Asian classrooms, he believes that the casual classroom environment in US facilitates teachers to bond with students and encourage intensive knowledge sharing. Dr. Zhuang comments that the young generation is very smart and creative as he can often learn more about the latest global trends from them. What these kids need are enlightenment and guidance from an experienced teacher to unleash their potential.

Now teaching introductory courses in HKU, Dr. Zhuang has changed his views towards HKU students over time. While students might be initially a bit introverted, they have gradually opened up during class discussions. He looks forward to cultivating their interests in marketing.

The success of any school rests upon the success of its graduates, who through their professional and personal achievements will bring honour to their alma mater.

To further strengthen the links between the Faculty and its alumni,  the faculty level alumni association – HKU Business and Economics Alumni Association (HKUBEAA) is officially established with the support and encouragement from all FBE alumni. HKUBEAA is committed to connect every alumni worldwide, and develop a thriving community for alumni to network with, and support one another, in their ongoing professional and personal development.The first round of membership recruitment was successfully held on November 11 at FBE Graduation Ceremony 2019. Class of 2019 graduates gathered at our alumni booth and shared the happy moments with their friends and family members.

HKUBEAA membership is now open to all graduates who wish to join.  Don’t miss out the chance to join our global alumni network and get a HKU Business School Cardholder. Apply here.

Working together we aim to support both the future ambitions of our alumni community and the Faculty. Please stay tuned for upcoming events.

       

     

     

A Fortuitous Occurrence

Professor Fong starts off as a physics major. However, attending an economics elective course has enlightened him on what is his true interests. He found economics fascinating as the methodology is very systematic and formal, while studying human beings and firms is fun. Captured by the knowledge of economics, Professor Fong then changed his major from physics to economics, hopped onto the boat of MPhil, and eventually, embarked on his lifelong scholarly journey.

“You can say that I am an accidental Economist.”

Looking back to his academic path, Professor Fong enjoys every bit of his research journey. It requires great effort and patience. Also, some research projects can take many years to finish. However, once you have succeeded to break through all the hurdles, the sense of achievement is paramount. An advantage of being a scholar is that it is at your full discretion to decide what to research on, you will be always working on something you are truly interested in and enjoy the process. Therefore, Professor Fong strongly encourages students that are fond of knowledge creation and are being really passionate on their discipline to take the academic path.

Teaching as a Privileged Occupation

Professor Fong’s dedication in pedagogy is germinated during his teaching years in a renowned US business school. Nurtured in a culture that values teaching on par with research has deeply impacted Professor Fong’s academic life. Teaching to him has ever since become a noble and privileged profession. He hoped that, even in a minor way, he can produce positive influence on his students’ personal growth. Professor Fong’s passion for teaching was recognized with multiple awards.

Interdisciplinary Knowledge is the Key

Professor Fong’s thirst for knowledge has encouraged him to seek new frontiers to explore. During his early years, Professor Fong has already started to research on interdisciplinary knowledge. As the first local economists researching on how exogenous changes in extra household environmental factors affect independent and spousal leisure between couples, Professor Fong and his coauthor and MPhil thesis advisor found the topic is surprisingly common among psychologists and sociologists while it’s the opposite among economists and the concept of “spousal leisure” was unexplored by them.

He believes that interdisciplinary intellectual exchange and the opportunity to analyze cross-disciplinary knowledge with different methodologies is conducive to academic and research advancement. This experience is remarkable in the sense that significant strides are made in his crusade of knowledge exploration.

The same belief also applies to academic learning. Professor Fong encourages students to learn more about technology and analytics, while focusing on business-related applications. He believes that one should dive deeper in knowledge regarding to machine learning and AI. As the world is getting increasingly digitalized, being tech-savvy and numerical sensitive would greatly strengthen ones’ competitiveness.

Interestingly, Professor Fong also emphasized the importance of learning from the past while we eagerly seek for future opportunities. He highly recommends students to study history, be it Chinese or world history. Possessing rich cultural knowledge might be a helpful tool in networking with people from all walks of life, opening new doors to career, investment or even business opportunities.

Corporate Social Responsibilities as a Heat Topic for Thoughts

When sharing about his recent research, Professor Fong highlights his recent studies on whether engaging in Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) initiatives can enhance firms’ reputation in a dynamic setting. While firms need to build up a reputation for their product quality, some customers genuinely care whether the firm is being socially responsible. He is interested to find out whether these two actions are complementary to each other and whether the analysis will be different based on different kinds of CSR initiates adopted by firms. Interested students could pay attention to it.

Currently, Professor Fong is also conducting a research on fintech lending, with the aim of studying the impacts fintech lenders can bring to the existing competition among traditional financial institutions. We look forward to seeing his research results.

Way Forward

After joining HKU Business School, Professor Fong notices the Faculty is growing rapidly. New initiatives are setting in motion and new challenges awaits. HKU has always been the den of intellectuals and experts, with new scholars joining the faculty, Professor Fong looks forward to creating new knowledge in HKU. 

Former CEO and current HKU professor Philip Chen has met his fair share of challenges throughout his 40-year career. The MBA students in his new elective at the University of Hong Kong learn what used to keep him up at night, what to do in a crisis and how to win the hearts and minds of employees.

The contemporary business environment is increasingly complex, interconnected and constantly changing. Preparing the business leaders of the future is not an easy task. After mastering the basics in their foundational business courses, students increasingly want to hone their leadership skills in a practical and demanding way. Teaching leadership, however, requires special experience. MBA students value academic smarts while also demanding authenticity. They crave openness and frank feedback from people who have been there before. A recent course offered by Prof. Philip Chen, a resourceful leader himself who are passionate about pedagogy, caters to students’ needs on all counts.

Prof. Philip Chen’s experience includes leading organisations such as Cathay Pacific Airways, Swire Pacific and Hang Lung Group. The next step of his career included designing the new experiential MBA elective class “Insights and Lessons – Reflections of a CEO”, blending practical business advice with theoretical models derived from his decades of first-hand experience.  His insistence on the importance of integrity ring true for the next generation, as well, a very clear sign that the next generation demands moral and ethical clarity from their leaders. “His words on how the core values of integrity, honesty and courage shapes a great leader definitely resonates with us”, noted his student Shubha Mani.

A chance to hear from the front lines

“Everything is beautiful at 39,000 feet. Go to the actual ground to have a look”.

This is the advice that MBA student Ada Kung most treasured from Prof. Chen’s class. “His model of strategic considerations stimulated us to think from a holistic view, yet his impactful experiential learning approach impacted us to understand the importance of paying attention to the finer details.”

The class is notable for Prof. Chen’s use of story-telling to illustrate his points. “Philip Chen’s CEO class was one of the most memorable courses I’ve ever taken. It was fascinating to go through cases and hear management stories from the source himself which just made everything stick that much better”, says student Chris Joonseop Kim. Through these insights and anecdotes from his career, students have the chance to apply the practical skills they learned from Professor Chen to real issues such as the importance of winning hearts and minds in managing change; developing and employing critical communications skills; and the pros and cons of different management styles.

“Philip brought so much experience to his course it felt like there wasn’t a situation as CEO he hadn’t heard about but at the same time was humble enough to field our questions and engage us as an audience,” notes student Paul Howard.

Learning by doing

“He believes in learning by doing and this can be seen in his teaching style”, Shubha Mani relates.

Prof. Chen’s unique management experience that combines different industry sectors and spans across the globe becomes excellent teaching materials that cannot be duplicated elsewhere. Over the years, he has weathered more than a few crises. To underscore the difficulty of navigating through challenging times, and the importance of a solid crisis preparation plan, Prof. Chen developed a crisis management drill this fall in which students were placed in unfamiliar situations and tasked to react to them in real time, all while being videotaped by a professional film crew. “During that exercise I learned not only how I behaved in a crisis as a leader, but also how my actions were portrayed outside the team. This class was about teaching us practical lessons about life and about the professional world, something that is unfortunately not given enough attention in education today,” says student Aadil Chitalwala.

Prof. Chen also invited fellow CEOs to supplement the course with their own experiences as leaders of large and complex organizations. Diana Cesar, HSBC Hong Kong CEO and Christine Ip, CEO of United Overseas Bank (UOB) Greater China, presented and helped judge the students’ final presentations, by asking tough questions and providing valuable advice and feedback.

Students appreciate this combination of theory and practical application. “For aspiring leaders, to have a seasoned senior executive share his successes and challenges over their illustrious career is indispensable. This is not something that can be found in traditional leadership courses, or even reading through most of leadership literature. Equally importantly, in addition to industry insights, during the class students will be put in the shoes of senior management and will be asked to act to the best of their ability. Practical courses like this is what can narrow the gap between what employers are looking for and what students are learning in the classroom,” says an MBA student.

A master of change management

Throughout his eminent career, the hallmark of Prof. Chen’s leadership is his ability to implement change, a notoriously difficult feat to accomplish and to master even as a seasoned leader. Prof. Chen speaks honestly about the challenge, which he calls a lonely one.  He reveals that while many people might not be able to imagine the road ahead, eventually the “pride of knowing that you did something right will far exceed the fact that other people couldn’t understand what you were putting in motion,” says Prof. Chen.

Prof. Chen highlights change management issues with his “Six Attributes Model”. The paradigm looks at critical issues such as understanding the dominant coalitions in companies; and the importance of taking time when reforming to get to the root cause of organisational malaise.

He is widely applauded for guiding Cathay’s consolidation of its share of the mainland China market with the acquisition of Dragonair. However, despite his famed approach to large mergers and acquisitions, Prof. Chen insists that small changes can also have large impact. Prof. Chen relates that there does not always have to be a fundamental sweeping reform, and that it’s possible to implement small actions that have outsized results. While working at Cathay, Prof. Chen tapped his network to bring Häagen-Dazs ice cream to inflight service, in one fell swoop introducing the legendary US brand to both Cathay and Hong Kong. To keep costs low, Prof. Chen asked for a smaller cup and bargained for a significantly cheaper price. “Nobody talked about the check-in, the airport security, the inflight meal or the baggage delivery after a trip. Everybody recalled the Häagen-Dazs ice cream,” says Prof. Chen.

Philip Chen has proven himself to be a Hong Kong legend both inside and outside the classroom. “Never had I anticipated that I would get the opportunity to learn business and life skills in one of my classes. Prof. Chen has accomplished what few in the professional world have ever achieved,” says Aadil Chitalwala. For the fortunate students in his class, this extraordinary experience is sure to be a highlight of their MBA journey.