Just finished conducting a 4 days intensive and fruitful EMBA course on Innovation and Intrapreneurship Management for CUHK. On one hand, I am exhausted. On the other hand, I am very grateful as 83 top executives from the mainland China participated my class on Zoom even under the pandemic situation. Engaging 83 executive students for 4 full days on Zoom (plus conducted in Putonghua) was not easy as you could imagine but we did have a joyful and valuable learning experience together.
Not only the number of students has broken my record of teaching EMBA class, the quality of the students were very impressive. They came from different industries like property, professional services, design, manufacturing, engineering, technology and even agriculture. At the beginning, I had some doubt on how much they wanted to learn innovation and how much effort they would put on a course as they are all busy and uprising bosses and top executives. To my surprise, they were serious and really put lots of effort to learn. Really appreciate their passion and perservance to learn.
Apart from going through core concepts and models, we learned corporate innovations and intrapreneurship by exploring 10 influential and inspiring internationl and Chinese cases. We discussed, debated and learned through this process. It was also my honour to have three elite leaders as my guest speakers to share how they innovate as a startup (Sum Wong from #EventX), a tech giant (Jacqueline Chong from #Amazon#AWS) and a traditional enterprise (Damien Wu#ChinaChem). We all learned a lot from them. Really appreciate it.
Now, I need to relax a bit and get a good sleep. Enjoy the Easter Holiday!
#Innovation#DigitalTransformation#CorporateInnovation#Entrepreneurship#DigitalStrategy#intrapreneurship#Startup
CUHK Business School#CUHK#CUHKEMBA#CUHKChineseMBA#EMBA
Thanks to Joe Wan, CEO of #Tricor, for his experience sharing on talents cultivation in the digital era. Also, appreciate Teddy Liu for delivering the workshop on Leadership and Workforce Transformation in the Digital Era Programme. It was a part of our Digital Leadership Series for Executives initiated and designed by me and a number of industry experts and professors for #CUHK.
https://lnkd.in/gZBZmjp
Here are a few key takeaways from Joe’s sharing.
1. How important is “#WHY” and “#PURPOSE“.
We have to help our colleagues know why he or she is here and how important and relevant their contribution is to the company and themselves. If that alignment works well, people will not just stay but also do their best in their jobs.
2. Listen to all levels of employees
Willing to listen to different levels of staff and answer all kinds of questions directly from staff from levels down will earn trust and pick up ideas that senior management can never think of.
3. Transform every employee to be a #startup
Encouraging #intrapreneurship and innovation from the bottom also encourage talents to join you and stay and grow with the company. Joe has supported their teammates to open a cafe which is now in their building and other places.
4. Take exit interview seriously
Not only finding out more about why a colleague leaves, but also offering staff, who are leaving, a final chance to stay. Joe said in the Exit Interview, “If you stay, I can waive the advanced notice for your next resignation if any.” That sincerity is really building another level of trust even the staff finally left. Alumni groups can be very powerful these days as ecosystem collaboration is the key to success in the digital era.
5. Respect each other
Joe asked and enforced every manager to treat their staff with respect. For instance, it is fine for a manager to shout at their staff but never one stands up and the other sits down. A simple gesture means a lot.
All these tips applied well in particular to the young generation. I learned a lot from Joe and Teddy. To thank Joe, I also shared a copy of my book #數碼力大提升 to him.
#CUHKEMBA #CUHKMBA #APIB
CUHK Business School
#DigitalLeadership
#DigitalTransformation
#DigitalEconomy
#DigitalWorkforce