During times of economic uncertainty, what can you do to make your startup stand out in a crowd of competitors so that you can secure funding from investors?

On Saturday, October 10, 2020, more than 20 alumni entrepreneurs from various industries and business backgrounds attended the HKU Business School Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum to discuss how startup founders can leverage investors to scale up their business and unlock success.
Mr. Vincent Chan, Senior Managing Director and Head of Asia of Samena Capital and Mr. K.O. Chia, Director of Grace Financial were invited to share their insights on how to venture on a journey to being an effective entrepreneur, and hopefully the founder of the next unicorn.

They both emphasized that one of the critical success factors is people. Mr. Chan suggested that it is important to build a strong team who trust each other, and love working together as investors will not only consider your product, but also the structure and dynamics of your team. Mr. Chia also pointed out that the success of startup lies in its ability to uphold the core of your business and leverage on technology.

At the forum, alumni treasured the opportunity to network with speakers. Ms. Yina Chan (BBA (Acc&Fin) 2015), Co-Founder of Bamboo Network, learned that the true growth of a startup comes from within the team who is able to collaboratively turn a great idea into a profitable business, whereas the exponential growth comes from investors who usually look beyond monetary terms, such as the quality of the founding team and customer-engagement model. Mr. Harris Cheng (BEcon&Fin 2017), Co-Founder and CEO of Freehunter was thrilled to reconnect with Mr. K.O. Chia, who inspired him to pursue his startup dream when he was a year-3 student struggling with his career path.

We believe Hong Kong people have what it takes to become an entrepreneur and innovator – resilience, industriousness and discipline. To realise these potentials, HKU Business School is developing an entrepreneurial ecosystem that helps support our students and alumni and fuel our economic growth.

Mr. David S. Lee, Principal Lecturer of HKU Business School, received the University Grants Committee (UGC) Teaching Award 2020 under the category of Early Career Faculty Members for his outstanding teaching performance and excellent scholarly achievements. He is the first business discipline faculty member in Hong Kong to receive such prominent teaching honour.

The press release can be accessed at: https://www.hkubs.hku.hk/media/press-release/mr-david-s-lee-wins-ugc-teaching-award-2020.

The annual UGC Teaching Award was introduced in 2011 to honour those who excel in teaching in the UGC sector. The Award does not only recognise past and present teaching performance and achievements, but also the teachers’ leadership in and scholarly contribution to teaching and learning within and across universities. 

Out of the 34 winning teams, four teams from HKU Business School won the championships in 2020 PwC’s STEM Challenge. The Challenge attracted 1,700 teams from 100 universities from Hong Kong, China and other countries around the globe. It aims to raise the awareness among university students, to promote firm’s diversified digital services and to demonstrate PwC as a promising platform for the STEM talents to develop their long term career.

The Challenge was divided into two rounds (First round – submission of business solutions; Final round – presentation). Both rounds were conducted via online channels due to Covid-19.  Participating teams were required to choose one out of 12 topics under four major categories including Customer Experience, Operation Management, Risk Control and Product Innovation and came up with business solutions under the selected topic. Shortlisted teams researched with professional coaching from mentors and worked on the final presentation.

Sharing from the champion teams:

Team 1: 後浪中的alpha
Risk predict model based on IoT transaction data (基於物聯網的交易數據風險預警模型)

Team members:
Ms. YAO Jiaxin, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 3
(Remarks: The team comprises two more members from other universities in Hong Kong.)

“The PwC’s STEM Challenge is an innovative case competition aimed at unleashing students’ STEM potential by developing diversified digital products and services under various scenarios. Among four categories and 12 topics about different aspects of digital innovation, our team chose Risk Predict Model based on IoT Transaction Data, which was specifically used in supply chain finance. Through joining this Challenge, we developed a deeper understanding of building smarter finance model by using different new technologies, which is also a global trend for us to get used to.

Two key takeaways:
1.    Do not be afraid of big challenges, break them down into small and manageable steps, significant changes and big rewards are possible.
2.    Rely on teamwork, team members from different backgrounds can provide us with opportunities to develop our product from multi-angles which increase the overall competitiveness of the product.”

Team 2: BitDynamics
Financial Companies Digital Transformation Strategy Researching (金融公司數字化轉型研究-從戰略到技術)

Team members: 
Ms. HO Cheuk Yan Sabrina, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 4
Mr. LIU Chun Kit, BBA(IS), Year 3
Mr. WONG Pak Ho, BBA(IS), Year 4
(Remarks: The team comprises one more member from other universities in Hong Kong.)

“It was our great pleasure to win the championship in the 2020 PwC’s STEM Challenge. The journey was fruitful and rewarding. Throughout the Challenge, we were encouraged to study the Hong Kong FinTech landscape and banking digital transformation trends. This led us to the realisation of the huge potential benefits that FinTech could bring to the banking industry. The task of formulating a digital transformation solution for banks also provided opportunities for us to learn the problem solving and strategic planning skills. All in all, we would like to thank PwC and our mentors for the opportunity and support.”

Team 3: The Fast and The Curious
RPA (Robotic Process Automation) technology in epidemic age (疫情時期的機器人流程化技術)

Team Members:      
Mr. KALA Divyansh, BEcon&Fin, Year 3
Mr. LOHIA Saharsh, BBA(IS), Year 3
Ms. SOOD Preksha, BEcon&Fin, Year 3
(Remarks: The team comprises one more member from other HKU faculty.)

“The journey of our team, The Fast and The Curious, in the 2020 PwC’s STEM challenge was great and fulfilling. This Challenge provided us with a great platform to build and showcase our knowledge. It also allowed us to realise how RPA technology helped to reduce the risks during the pandemic. Throughout the Challenge, we received full support from PwC and our mentor who helped us set the direction for our solutions and eventually emerge as the winner.”

Team 4: STEMnovators
Lightweight dynamic cyber risk dashboard (輕量級動態網絡風險儀表應用)

Team Members: 
Mr. CHEUNG Yik Fung, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 4
Ms. HUI Yi Lam Yvonne, BBA(Law)&LLB, Year 4
Ms. LEUNG Gianna Wai Tak, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 4
(Remarks: The team comprises one more member, Mr. KOO Chak Yin, who is HKU Business School alumni currently studying a Master programme in HKU.)

“Before joining this Challenge, even though we were interested in learning more about cybersecurity, we had no idea how and where to start. After joining this Challenge, we received valuable advice and updates from our mentor regarding cybersecurity. Our mentor also gave us feedback on our drafted dashboards which alleviated our queries and concerns on cyber risk management. The process from data research to dashboards design, and lastly to the making of website simulator was surely one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences we have ever had so far.”

Learn more:
https://www.instagram.com/pwc_cnhk_campus/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2020-pwcs-stem-challenge-participants-reward-mentors-tracy-mak/

On December 10, 2019, the Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) announced the recipients of the University’s Teaching Excellence Awards 2019. Mr David Lee and Mr David Bishop in the Faculty of Business and Economics received the HKU Teaching Innovation Award (Team Award) for FinTech Ethics & Risk (HKUx’s FinTech Massive Online Open Course).

This year has delivered a series of challenges that have never been seen before. Part of the struggle has been trying to deliver world-class teaching without many of the face-to-face elements students are used to. To support student learning during the Covid-19 pandemic, technology has been adopted to deliver everything from lectures, to tutorials, workshops, forums, study groups, assessments, and guest speakers. The weapons of choice? Think of all the platforms used in the business and personal world, from Zoom to Microsoft Teams, and all the way to YouTube, WeChat, WhatsApp, and Facebook.

Positivity in the face of Covid-19

Many students say that regardless of the situation, the outcomes have been a positive during the past semester. “Overall, I think my online learning experience was great because I got to learn and review all the videos in my own pace which provides me with great flexibility in my daily schedule,” says Chloe Yip, a BBA (Accounting and Finance) second year student. The feedback was shared by Martin Ngan, a second year student in BBA(Law)&LLB double-degree programme: “Online learning was an interesting experience. It is convenient as we could attend our lecture as usual through Zoom or watch the recorded lecture anytime. Online learning is very convenient at the same time as we can arrange our timetable flexibly without being restrained by time and location,” he says.

What did the professors think about teaching in the midst of a pandemic? For Dr. Olivia Leung, Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning) at HKU Business School, the key is to utilise the power of EdTech to deliver good outcomes. “A high quality online course is engaging, interactive, and effective in supporting students,” she says. “Compared to face-to-face courses, online courses require teaching materials to be more accessible, concise, logical, and user-friendly. To build a supportive and positive online learning community with students, teachers need to create their online teaching presence to add the human element,” Dr. Leung adds.

Technology takes time

In a dynamic environment when everything changes by the week, there are always going to be teething pains. “Online learning blurred the lines between the comforts and relaxation of home with the responsibilities and pressures creating a somewhat continuous unsettling stress,” says student Antonio Velasco, a non-local BBA third year student.

When assessing online learning, Martin says it is ideal for things involving many people. “For group project discussion, we usually meet through Skype anyway. As most of us are busy meeting online is the best way to gather everyone. It is efficient with no time or venue constraint, and we can share our screen easily which facilitates the meeting,” he says.

Teachers and tutors could schedule live online office hour slots to meet with each student or each project group.

Dr. Olivia Leung

Focus on new skills

In Dr. Leung’s opinion, the online teaching process requires some retraining. “Staff who did not have much prior video lecturing, recording or editing experience took some time to equip themselves with these skills in the beginning of this past semester. Other than technological challenges, some staff find it difficult to assess how much students have learnt and enhance students’ morale when face-to-face lectures are not possible,” she says. “To enhance morale, teachers could actively approach students online to initiate communication with students and to listen to their needs. For example, teachers and tutors could schedule live online office hour slots to meet with each student or each project group,” Dr. Leung adds.

At the end of the day, there were humorous situations that were able to shine a light on the dark. “You must be extremely careful when you are having an online tutorial at home as I have always been interrupted by parents or siblings, asking me to have dinner, soup, or fruit with a loud voice while I am answering questions,” says Martin with a laugh.

Many aspects of student life have been tough during the pandemic. To assist students to gain meaningful career experience, HKU Business School has a career service team that helps students with job and internship searches. During the second wave of the coronavirus outbreak, they organised a “Career Skill Enhancement Workshop Series” covering the likes of financial interview preparation, storytelling in business presentations, industry overviews, as well as networking and carrying out social-professional conversation.

Students were able to connect with industry professionals using the likes of live polling and virtual face-to-face Q&A sessions, gaining the critical industry knowledge needed to enter the market. This was augmented by a “Fireside chat with professionals — enhancing professional presence”, where students learned the essentials from industry professionals. Other initiatives included a partnership with Facebook to offer Blueprint Marketing Certificate free examination vouchers for students.

A screenshot of live polling which allows interaction and better understanding of the audience in the “Networking and Social Professional Conversation” webinar.

It’s an internship… but not as we know it

In a year where the whole world has turned upside down, students are still pursuing internships. So what has the experience been like for them? Amber Cheng, a BBA(Law) Year 4 student, took a four-week virtual internship at BlackRock that she found through the School, assisting in product positioning, client product strategies, along with data analytics.

“There have been an ample number of trainings and virtual meet-ups with mentors and colleagues from the company. Although not being able to interact with people face-to-face and network with people outside the team has been a disadvantage, overall this has been a great experience,” she says.

Meanwhile, Rain Wu, a BBA(Acc&Fin) Year 3 student, was an intern in the Investment Banking Division at Morgan Stanley for six months, starting in January 2020 before Covid-19 hit Hong Kong. “We had around one and a half months of working from home, during which my job duties were not particularly affected, because the company provided remote working facilities and I also set up a workplace in my home,” says Rain.

During an internship, Rain worked on an airline restructuring and many other exciting projects. So have there been any down sides at all? “We have had longer working hours. When working from home, there’s no clear boundary between life and work. There has also been a lack of interaction with people, and little chance for us to meet with colleagues and network. In the long-run it can actually make people feel lonely,” adds Rain.

Loneliness was not an issue for Elvis Ngai, a BBA(IBGM) final year student, who undertook an internship co-organised by the School and Neuberger Berman. During his internship, Elvis felt that he was part of the family because the company was concerned about the health and wellbeing of all its employees. “They offered us plenty of masks and sanitisers when supplies were tight in the market,” he says. For young people looking to start a career, a little love and care can go a long way.

HKU Business School Shenzhen Alumni Dinner was successfully held at Park Hyatt Shenzhen on Sunday, August 16, 2020. Over 100 alumni, students and guests gathered for this memorable evening.

Professor Hongbin Cai, Dean of HKU Business School, welcomed all guests with an opening address, “2021 marks the 20th Anniversary of the School. We are committed to becoming the leading powerhouse of research and knowledge creation in Asia with global impact. We look forward to joining forces with alumni in the Greater Bay Area to nurture a new generation of leaders in this fast-changing business world.”

Professor Chung-Mau Lo, Hospital Chief Executive at The University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Hospital, Chin Lan Hong Professor and Chair of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery delivered a speech as distinguished guest. He hopes to further strengthen the interdisciplinary collaborations between HKU Business School and Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine to enhance healthcare management.

Mr. Pan Lei, Leader of Executive Education Golf Team shared the joy of HKU Business School Friendship Golf Tournament which was successfully held in the afternoon.  Over 30 golfers from Executive Education programme, HKU-PKU DBA programme and the School’s Shenzhen Alumni Chapter enjoyed this outdoor event and built new friendships.

At the dinner, Mr. Wenwei Xu, Director and President of the Institute of Strategic Research at Huawei shared his student journey at HKU-PKU DBA programme.

Mr. Da He from HKU-PKU EMBA prorgramme updated everyone the preparation for the 15th Gobi Desert Challenge, and called for more alumni and students to participate in this meaningful competition

Mr. Ben Shen (EMBA-Global Asia 2018), President of HKU Business School Shenzhen Alumni Chapter, expressed his passion to continue strengthening the alumni network in Shenzhen and the Greater Bay Area, and serving as a bridge connecting alumni and the alma mater.

All guests enjoyed this wonderful gathering which demonstrates the strength of our alumni network, as well as the unity and dedication of our students and graduates. 2020 has been a challenging year for everyone in HKU Business School community, but together we will overcome the difficulties during this turbulent time and create a brighter future in post-pandemic era.

The team, Mind Benders, of four FBE students won the championship in the PwC Career Plus Challenge. Under the theme “Ideal Employer”, teams of undergraduate students worked on the case “How to make the ideal workplace come into reality through an innovative and systematic way?”. The competition was divided into two rounds. In the preliminary round, teams were required to submit a 15-slide analysis report. Over 450 applications were received from Hong Kong, China and some other Asian countries. 15 top teams were selected to advance to the final round.

Team members of Mind Benders:

Mr. KALA Divyansh, BEcon&Fin, Year 2
Mr. SONG Yongmin, BEcon&Fin, Year 4
Ms. SOOD Preksha, BEcon&Fin, Year 2
Mr. TAN Zhang Zhe, BBA(Acc&Fin), Year 2

Students Sharing:

KALA Divyansh, BEcon&Fin, Year 2

The journey of the team “Mind Benders” in PwC’s Career Plus Challenge was great and fulfilling. Being the leader of this team of talented individuals helped me to grow a lot. The Challenge provided us with a great platform to build and showcase our knowledge. It also gave us insights on how the work culture would transform and how GenZ would be the epicenter of change. Special thanks to PwC and our mentor, Ms. Berreta, who provided full support to our team throughout the Challenge.

SOOD Preksha, BEcon&Fin, Year 2

PwC’s Career Plus Challenge provided us with the opportunity to understand the key differences between GenZ and other generations and the way that GenZ would change the future workplace environment. It also enabled me and my teammates to expand our knowledge and to grow as researchers, presenters and leaders. It was definitely a beyond exciting journey and an extremely enriching experience.

Students have joined the Horse Riding & Stable Visit at the Tuen Mun Public Riding School on November 8, 2019 (Friday). They enjoyed a pleasant short horse ride there and a stable visit. Also, they discovered more about horse’s daily life and the stable operations.

The Tuen Mun Public Riding School is the largest public riding facility in Hong Kong managed by the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Details for the Horse Riding & Stable Visit: 

• Tour of school facilities and environment
• Introduction to horse fodder
• Briefing of horse habits and customs
• Demonstration of horse shoeing
• Touch and feel of miniature ponies
• Short horse ride

The BBQ & Golf Fun Day 2019 was successfully held at Whitehead, Ma On Shan on October 26, 2019 (Saturday). Both current students and alumni participated in the event and had a very relaxing fun day at Whitehead.

They experienced 2 hours golfing at the driving range with 1 hour golf training by professional coaches. After the golf basic training, they enjoyed the BBQ and mingled with fellow classmates, alumni, and friends at the seaside villa. All of them were able to have some fun, connect, and share their experiences.

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