GARY LIU
CEO, South China Morning Post
We spoke to Gary Liu on his first participation in the Classified Post Shadow a CEO contest in October 2017. This is what he told us.
What does your company do?
For over 110 years, the South China Morning Post has reported on China and Asia with global impact. We gather and publish news 24/7, with a team of world-class journalists, editors, visual artists, photographers and videographers.
What sort of brands and products are associated with your company?
The SCMP is the most awarded newspaper in Hong Kong. Along with this flagship publication, we also publish Hong Kong’s premium lifestyle and fashion titles, including Cosmopolitan, Elle, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar and The Peak. We are also home to Classified Post and cpjobs.com, a data-powered job search platform.
What activities do you have planned for your shadows?
They are going to attend company events and meetings, and interact with business leaders and department heads across our entire organisation to have a much deeper understanding of the SCMP – from editorial to products to marketing to our COO, as well as to me.
What do you hope your shadows will get out of the experience?
I hope our guests will be inspired by our company. It is one that has a long history and has seen many changes. We also want to passionately participate in that change to make this world a better place.
They will meet our business leaders who are not only the best at what they do in the industry but also good at leadership.
What leadership skills are you personally hoping to impart?
I think a leader needs to be a curious person who has a constant desire to learn and understand how important it is to gain new knowledge. Be curious, know how to listen well and ask the right questions.
What skills and experience are you looking for in applicants?
Certainly, we are looking for applicants who have a strong interest in and passion for media. It does not have to be traditional newspapers. It could be digital media. One thing that we care about the most at the SCMP is to tell the story of China to the rest of the world. So applicants who have a deep interest in that mission would fit in.
Did you ever benefit at the start of your career from the guidance of a mentor?
Of course. I have been very fortunate to have a string of great leaders and managers who helped me learn, not only about the industries but also develop my hard and soft skill sets. They really helped me develop as an individual and a leader.
What is the job market like for graduates in your industry?
It is not an easy time for journalism. When you look around our industry, most news organisations seem to be contracting and hiring fewer journalists. It is unfortunate, as the world actually needs more quality journalism.
Thankfully, at the SCMP, we are growing as a company, especially in our newsroom. I believe that graduates who can explain the changing world and have the discipline to create quality journalism and who have strong experience in digital storytelling will have plenty of opportunities.
STAN TANG
Chairman, Tang Group
What does your company/business do?
Stan Group is a family-owned conglomerate with more than 30 respected brands across various industries. Among these areas of business are property investment and management (SG Properties), hospitality and catering services (SG Hospitality), telecoms and advertising (SG Communication Services), financial services (SG Financial Services), and social innovation development (The STILE).
What sort of brands or products are associated with your company?
SG Properties has more than 100 property projects in Hong Kong, among them 168 Storage. There are a variety of brands associated with SG Hospitality, such as Tang’s Living Group, East Ocean Gourmet Group and Lafayette Wedding. Our communication services include ASAP, an internal marketing agency, and ETS Group, while SG Financial Services has HFS, GEAR Investment and SG Ventures. The STILE’s main brand is The Wave, a co-working and event space.
What activities do you have planned for your shadows?
Getting real-world experience is the most important thing, so we will be having our shadows sit in on business meetings and they will also attend a meeting introducing them to Stan Group’s corporate culture.
There will also be visits to the group’s various businesses, including hotels, restaurants, club houses and start-ups. But there are recreational activities also in store for them, such as hiking and swimming in the morning.
What do you hope your shadows will get out of the experience?
We hope that they will make the most of the time with Stan Group to see the value of having an innovative mindset and see how observing the way we work will help them. We would also like the shadows to develop an iron will, something that is vital for success in business.
What leadership skills or lessons are you personally hoping to impart?
There are a range of skills we hope we can share with our shadows. One is the concept of creating shared value and how to instil value-driven models thinking.
We would also like to teach the importance of Confucian business leadership, which encompasses respect – a warm working relationship, harmony – building a happy working environment, integrity – aspiring to change business for good, with and entrepreneurial spirit, and balance – dedication to creating shared value, with tomorrow in mind.
What skills and experiences are you looking for in applicants? What would really impress you?
As I said previously, we value innovative thinking, so we would very much like candidates to already have a tendency for such and that they have been able to apply what they have learned in college to that effect. We also want candidates to have great communication skills.
What is the job market like for graduates in your industry?
The hotel industry is always looking for talent, as local clientele and those from the mainland and Southeast Asia, are particularly discerning and want quality hospitality.
This is especially so as we have noticed a shift in consumer activity with guests wanting more of a family-oriented experience rather than simply shopping.
We also expect job opportunities on our start-up platforms to flourish in Hong Kong as it is government policy to support the sector. It really is an exciting time in this industry.
STANLEY YAU
Director, Human Resources and Administration, HK Express
What does your company do?
HK Express is a low-budget airline, catering for the needs of our passengers, the majority of whom are young travellers and graduate backpackers. Thus, we are here to offer them a range of exotic and authentic flying destinations, such as Takamatsu and Hiroshima in Japan, or Nha Trang in Vietnam.
Passengers can customise their experience with the choices we offer – for example, luggage allowance and our priority U-Fly pass.
More importantly, we aim to deliver safe and on-time performance and to extend it to our passengers. To deliver on our commitment, we have also implemented a series of measures and conduct continuous hiring events to ensure the efficiency of our internal operations.
What sort of brands/products are associated with your company?
As an airline, most of the brands or products that are associated with HK Express are tourism-related. Take our recent partnership with Dohop for example, where we collaborated with the Iceland-based flight comparison site.
It benefits our passengers and connects them with a wide range of destinations beyond Asia, bringing convenience to those in search of affordable multi-leg trips.
In addition, we are also partnering with a variety of online travel platforms, such as Klook.
We launched U-Explore in 2017, providing a platform offering end-to-end travel services and value-added experiences for our guests.
What activities do you have planned for your shadows?
Currently, we are focusing a lot in employer branding and staff engagement. In terms of the activities that we have planned for our shadows, for primary HR functions, participants will be invited to sit in on our headcount meeting, where discussion is facilitated, focusing on our hiring strategies and recruitment plans. Furthermore, they will also have a chance to execute their creativity and ideas, about our printed and virtual content with Linkedin, to enhance our employer branding.
We have also planned a series of staff engagement activities – for example, our recent annual dinner, cabin and cockpit crew forum, as well as future corporate social responsibility events. Shadows can look forward to our engagement activities, which bring everyone together within HK Express.
What do you hope your shadows will get out of the experience?
It would be our pleasure if our shadows get a quick glimpse of the aviation industry out of the experience and understand how precise HR decisions drive business on a day-to-day basis. Since airlines are strictly governed by CAD, corresponding HR policies and activities are needed to respond to the business’ needs and changes. The shadows should expect interdependency and effective communication between departments.
What leadership skills or lessons are you personally hoping to impart?
I am hoping to impart four sets of skills in terms of one’s leadership. We call it SEAQ. S stands for service, to anticipate the needs of our target audience or stakeholders involved in the process, be it our colleagues or our passengers. We always strive to deliver excellence in terms of our service. E stands for efficiency, a core factor in the aviation industry. Not only do our flights have to take off and land on time, internally our work efficiency to meet our set of targets is equally important.
Coming to A, for accuracy – the attention to detail and commitment to perfection is the drive to succeed. Lastly, Q for quality – the standard that we own for ourselves and the commitment we stand to hold.
What skills and experiences are you looking for in applicants? What would really impress you?
We will be looking for candidates who are both innovative and creative. It is essential for us to always look for ways to improve, to innovate and to think outside the box. Thus, it would be impressive for an applicant to think big, regardless of the idea’s feasibility, as long as it is original and germane to the point. A passion for the aviation industry would be another element that we look for. If the candidate shows enthusiasm for our field, it would be an advantage.
What is the job market like for graduates in your industry?
The job market in the aviation industry has tremendous growth potential, in terms of our market share, as well as our business expansion. New aviation education programmes have opened in the Hong Kong market in recent years, which we leverage and partner with to strengthen our talent pipeline.
To conclude, we would expect a growing maturity and popularity in the current job market and I myself am very much looking forward to welcome our new joiners to HK Express.
JONATHAN HUTT
Director, Commercial, HK Express
What does your company do?
As the only low-cost carrier in Hong Kong, HK Express introduces a new way of travelling. Targeting budget passengers, we strive to provide low-fare and personalised in-flight services. The idea is to customise each of our passenger’s needs, offering an option for them to choose from, ranging from seat preference to in-flight meals, catering for individual needs accordingly.
We are also committed to operating a safe and secure airline and, for HK Express, safety is always a priority. Consequently, being listed as one of the “Top 10 Safest Low Cost Airlines” not only recognises our efforts to pursue safety at all cost, but also acknowledges and reassures our customers of our commitment.
What activities do you have planned for your shadows?
Largely thanks to the variety of functions under our commercial team, we have planned a series of exciting activities to engage our shadows to get the most out of the experience. We will include them in our marketing revamp, stimulating creativity in terms of our marketing strategy.
Network planning is another session, hoping to bring discussion to our winter flight schedule and potential new time slots. Shadows will be given a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes of flight operations. On top of that, they will also get a chance to learn more about the modelling of price change and the ways to launch timely promotion with the e-commerce team.
What do you hope your shadows will get out of the experience?
I genuinely hope our shadows will make the most of the experience, understanding the fundamentals of the aviation industry, as well as the potential of the market. It takes a lot of effort from multiple parties within the commercial team to operate an airline and it is even more challenging operating Hong Kong’s only low cost carrier. Thus, we are constantly in search of talents in our field and it would be rewarding to see how the programme has sparked inspirations and insights from the younger generation.
What leadership skills or lessons are you personally hoping to impart?
When it comes to leadership skills, personally speaking, the ability to influence others would stand as a priority. Influence comes in multiple ways and, being a leader, one has to not only make individual contributions. But it is also equally important to encourage every member in the team to recognise their efforts and to influence by leading by example.
What skills and experiences are you looking for in applicants? What would really impress you?
Having to work in a fast-paced industry, it would be of great advantage to have outstanding learning agility and adaptability. Thus, if such candidate were to demonstrate their motivation to learn and ask, their natural curiosity and the drive to perform would sustain an opportunity to stand out from the crowd of applicants.
What is the job market like for graduates in your industry?
There is a lot of potential in terms of the job market in the aviation industry, due to the nature of the business. We are in constant demand of a variety of talents, ranging from customer service roles, commercial related positions to aircraft engineers. We are planning to expand our fleets and to cover more flying destinations, on this regards, we would demand an upscale of talents joining our team. To add in, there is a lot of excitement building our own brand locally. Consequently, graduates can expect a fun and engaging working environment here at HK Express.
