The ‘IMBA 2.0 Enrichment Talk: Cross-cultural Business Strategy’ was held successfully on 13 April, 2019, where Mr. Baniel CHEUNG, Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Business and Economics, and Mr. Eudes FABRE, CEO North Asia of Lagardère Travel Retail, who is also our alumnus of the EMBA Global Asia programme, shared their insights on cross-cultural marketing strategies, and the impact of culture on entrepreneurship.

Presenting the theoretical framework and cases of cross-cultural people management, Mr. Baniel Cheung emphasised the importance of ‘effective team mix’ and how it affects the entire communications and marketing strategies of an organisation. Mr. Eudes Fabre gave a talk on ‘Creating competitive cross-cultural business and marketing strategies’, and shared how he managed to bring the foreign brand Lagardère to the Chinese market. Mr. Fabre mentioned the biggest challenge to operate a company in a foreign market was to keep the unique cultures of the brand while develop a different business model to meet the local needs.

The enrichment talk ended with a Q&A session, where participants and the speakers had engaging exchanges.

Mr. Baniel Cheung and Mr. Eudes Fabre shared their market insights with the audience.

Two representatives from European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Mr. Alexander Plekhanov, Director for Transition Impact and Global Economics, EBRD Office of the Chief Economist and Mr. Richard Jones, AIIB-EBRD Business Development Director, visited HKU on 8 March 2019 and delivered a Knowledge Exchange (KE) Lecture on their 2018-19 Transition Report titled Work in Transition.

During the lecture, Mr. Plekhanov and Mr. Jones shared some interesting findings of the report, e.g. life-long learning programmes are needed to cope with an ageing workforce, as their average skill scores over the working life continue to decline after 30 years old. They also discussed with the audience how governments should respond to urbanisation, an ageing workforce or rising numbers of young people entering the labour market.

Full report can be found here.

Congratulations to WONG Ka Ki Eunice, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 4, taking home the Second Prize in the EY’s Young Tax Professional of the Year 2019 (National Competition). The competition was successfully held on 30 March in Shanghai, and gathered top winners from other cities in the Greater China. Eunice has previously outperformed over 100 participants from different local universities, and won the First Prize and My Most Favourite Presenter Award in the Local Competition. This is the third consecutive year for FBE students to seize the championship in the local competition. Dr. Christina Ng, Principal Lecturer, is the faculty advisor of the competition.

Going through the two major rounds in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Eunice felt honoured to be part of the competition, “It has definitely aroused my great interest for Hong Kong and international tax. One thing that taxation fascinates me most is that there are no right or wrong answers in most of the cases. The tax planners have to work around the issues with critical and creative thinking, given that the general standards are complied with.”

“The most challenging part of the competition is to learn the taxation systems of China and other countries when preparing for the national round. The differences in the types of tax charged and the double taxation agreements between jurisdictions make tax planning way more sophisticated than I thought before.”

Eunice also said that the competition was a great opportunity for her to enhance the technical knowledge and to meet talents from other regions, “The expereince and connection made are definitely valuable to my future career development. I would encourage my cohorts to join this programme in the future”.

During the final competition, participants were given a case study to express their views in group debate. Shortlisted finalists then did an individual presentation to a panel of judges, showing their technical skills and competenecies in tax technical, reasoning, presentation and communication.

Established in 2010, the EY’s Young Tax Professional of the Year is an international competition designed to identify young talent with an interest in tax, help them enhance their professional skills and develop their careers. The competition gives participants the opportunity to share experiences with people from a range of backgrounds and cultures, and exposes them to the skills required to be tomorrow’s tax leaders.

Dr. Christina Ng (first from left) is the faculty advisor of the competition.  

Held on 20 February at The Chinese Banks’ Association in Central, the FBE Masters Programmes Alumni Spring Dinner 2019 was a rousing success. Over 100 alumni from MEcon, MFin, and MScBA programmes and faculty members gathered together to celebrate the Chinese New Year, and to express gratitude to industry leaders who have served as mentors during the past year.

The event opened with a warm welcome from Professor Haipeng SHEN, Associate Dean (Executive Education) and Founding Director of the MScBA programme. Professor Shen shared with alumni the recent development of the Faculty, and invited alumni to render support to building a stronger alumni community.

Dr. Rujing MENG, Director of the MFin programme, applauded the dedication of mentors who have supported the MEcon & MFin Mentorship Programme and spent precious time and effort to nurture younger generation of business talents.

The dinner was generously sponsored by Fargo Wealth. Mr. Jefferson SUN and Ms. Cece HE, who represented Fargo Wealth and alumni of the MFin programme, have also joined the event. The evening was filled with festive joy and inspiring chatters.

   

   

   

The Faculty of Business and Economics Mentorship Programme Ceremony has successfully held on 28 January 2019. We were delighted to welcome many mentors with experienced business background, most of whom are alumni, friends and supporters of the Faculty, as well as about 60 student mentees to embark on this year’s mentorship journey.

We are excited to provide this opportunity for students to connect with mentors of diverse background. Mentoring is especially valuable in benefiting students by mentors’ sharing their knowledge and experience, encouragement and inspiration. Through regular mentoring sessions in the academic year, we believe students can learn and gain new perspectives on their studies and future career options.

We are deeply honoured to have Professor Yingyi Qian from Tsinghua University to visit our Faculty and give a public lecture on ‘The Rise of China’s Universities in Comparative Perspective’ on 24 January 2019.

Professor Qian is the Distinguished Professor of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Former Dean (2006-2018) of School of Economics at Tsinghua University. He shared his valuable insights on the higher education in Chinese mainland and examined university rankings from an economist’s angle. Professor Zhiwu Chen, Director of Asia Global Institute and Victor and William Fung Professor in Economics at HKU, and Professor Zhigang Tao, Associate Dean of Faculty of Business and Economics, and HSBC Professor in Global Economy and Business Strategy later joined Professor Qian, and had an engaging dialogue to further explore the higher education and in the Nation.

In the latest World MBA Rankings released by The Economist¹ today, the MBA Programme offered by the Faculty of Business and Economics of The University of Hong Kong (HKU Business School) has been awarded No.1 in Asia for the ninth consecutive year since 2010.

“We are delighted that the HKU MBA Programme has been ranked the best in Asia for nine consecutive years. This remarkable achievement is a recognition of our continuous efforts in offering the highest quality MBA education.” Professor Hongbin Cai, Dean of HKU Business School, said. “I would like to thank the support from all our stakeholders, who have contributed to the development of the Programme. We will continue to strengthen our connection with alumni and together, we will make our MBA Programme stronger and better.”

Professor Patrick Chau, Associate Dean (Postgraduate), added, “We have been further enhancing the learning experience for our students, not only providing multi-location exposure and Asia-Pacific focused curriculum that differentiate us from others, but also a wide array of electives that are relevant to the dynamic market landscape. We are committed to strengthening the career development services and aspiring them to achieve greater success. We shall, from time to time, introduce timely elements to the Programme in order to meet the changing needs of the business world.”

With strong demands from the globe, the HKU MBA Programme continues to grow in scale, providing market-oriented and/or China- and Asia-focused electives. Our students come from different parts of the world which makes the HKU MBA multinational and international.

The Economist MBA Ranking is based on independent surveys on the following factors which are considered to be essential to their education by MBA students around the globe:

• Open new career opportunities and/or advance current career
• Personal development and educational experience
• Salary increment
• Potential to network

In addition to The Economist rankings, the HKU MBA is consistently ranked amongst the top programmes on other reputable international league tables. In the 2018 Financial Times ranking of ‘Top MBAs for Finance’, HKU MBA is ranked No. 13 in the world and No. l in Hong Kong. HKU MBA also ranked No. 7 in the Forbes 2017 Full-time MBA Rankings: The Best International MBAs: One-Year Programs (https://www.forbes.com/business-schools/list/international-1-year).

¹The Economist MBA Ranking: www.economist.com/whichmba/full-time-mba-ranking

A ceremony was held on January 23, 2019 to mark the inauguration of the HKU-Accenture Business Consulting Programme 2018-19 – an experiential learning opportunity which allows students from HKU Faculty of Business and Economics to gain industry knowledge and exposure to business consulting. This year, 30 undergraduate students were selected to join this two-month programme.

Professor Ian HOLLIDAY, Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) at HKU urged student participants to make good use of the opportunity to acquire practical skill-sets that allow them to gain a competitive edge and excel in their future career.  He added that ‘HKU and Accenture value students’ growth, exchange of ideas and knowledge, and are advocates for innovation and technology. We believe that this programme helps foster these values and our partnership with Accenture continues to nurture future business leaders’.

In his keynote speech, Mr. Leo NG, Managing Director of Accenture Hong Kong explained how students could benefit from this programme. ‘Leaders from Accenture will equip you with the essential knowledge and skills in business consulting’.

Last year’s participants commented that the programme was very practical and inspiring, advising this year’s joiners to participate in class discussions proactively.