The #CPA Conference 2021: Transcending Together. Grateful to see that #HKiCPA Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants has successfully organized their #f2f annual conference today.
It was not easy for sure as we were still having lots of challenges under the Covid-19. Thanks for the leadership from Raymond Chung Ching Cheng, President of the HKiCPA, and his teammates like Rosalind Lee, Horace Ma, Jonathan Ng to organize this event and invited me to be one of the panel speakers. Over 200 members joined this inspiring event. Congratulations.
The conference invited great speakers to share their experience. We really learned a lot from Kenny Sham from #LEGO as well as many others like Edwin Morris from #Jebsen, Teddy Liu. I was impressed how they innovated in the pandemic period. Kenny said that the traffic was dropped from 3,000+ visitors per shop daily down to 3. If you were LEGO, what were you going to do apart from scaling down, cutting cost, etc. They didn’t.
LEGO launched a number of innovative programs like Lego Brick at Home, Cross Girl Virtual Pop-up Store (AR), etc. They performed great in terms of not only sales but also customer engagement, branding, sustainability and staff loyalty. In essence, truly understanding the pains of different customer segments in the pandemic and being able to solve these problems using #innovation and #technology, and the established trust among colleagues made the difference.
I was in another panel on digital transformation. We had experts from the #Accounting and #Finance industry and certainly #DigitalTransformation, including Andrew Lee #EY, Dickman Chiu from #Bitmex, Michael Chan #Vis and Jeffrey Chan #GrantThornton. We agreed that change management, culture, purpose, collaboration and most importantly people are the key for success in digital transformation.
My final recommendation for the audiences was, rather than worrying about #AI may replace some of their jobs, to proactively #upskill themselves, especially on their #DataLiteracy and empower their companies to transform. In the context of this change, both the company and the finance people will have a chance to learn from the journey especially unleashing the power of #data and monetizing data. That experience will benefit not only the company but also the employees for better career options in the #DigitalEconomy.
Great to meet old and new friends there too Venus Tang (鄧麗華) Francis Fong Mandict Wong Johnson Kong and many others.
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