HKUST Business School [SBM] Newsletter, Summer 2000 (Issue 10)

H

ans Michael Jebsen, corporate advisor and scholarship donor to the Business School, received an Honorary Fellowship award from the University at a ceremony held on campus in May.

This is the first time the University has awarded such an honor to achievers from the community who have maintained long-term and significant relationships with its various disciplines. Alongside Jebsen, Yuk-Lam Lo, President of Bio-Rad

Pacific was named on the same occasion as Honorary Fellow.

The two fellowships were awarded by the Honorable Sze-Yuen Chung, Pro-Chancellor of the U n i v e r s i t y, D r V i n c e n t L o , C h a i r m a n o f t h e U n i v e r s i t y Council, and President Chia-Wei Woo in front of a gathering of key members from the University, HKUST supporters and family members of the recipients.

Jebsen said he was very delighted to have been named an Honorary Fellow of HKUST and

Inside

this

issue:

vowed to continue with his efforts in playing a part in supporting the further development of business education, protection of the environment and promotion of art and culture.

T

he HKUST debate team were the winners at the 2000 Joint University English Debating Team Championship held in early April. The team took the lead from the start and continued the winning streak through the final, during which it topped its rival 4-1 and landed the championship.

The championship, sponsored by Oxfam, aims to increase the public’s awareness of the impact of information technology on poverty. It ran from February to April with six participating teams from the Baptist University, Chinese University, City University, Polytechnic University, University of Hong Kong and HKUST. Each team comprised four speakers who presented their arguments on the stage, and 16 members who prepared and raised questions from the floor after each round of arguments. The four speakers on the HKUST

team are Dennis Lai (ECON 3), Dinesh Moorjani (FINA 3), Abbie Hui (FINA 2) and Reto Wieland (MARK 2).

According to team manager Rachel Mak (ACCT 1), the team conducted several mock debates to let members acclimatize to the procedures and get a feel for what it would be like to be challenged from the floor. “In January, thirteen of us went to Sydney to participate in the 20th World Universities Debating Championships for international exposure and experience. That was an eye-opening lesson for all of us. We met and exchanged ideas with other elite students from top universities around the world. It was an extraordinary opportunity for us to hone our communication and debating skills,” said Mak.

UNIVERSITY HONORS

HANS MICHAEL JEBSEN

INTER-UNIVERSITY DEBATE WIN

Hans Michael Jebsen receives the Honorary Fellowship medal from Dr Sze-Yuen Chung and certificate from Dr Vincent Lo.

(cont’d on page 8)

HKUST TEAM LANDS FIRST PRIZE

IN AD COMPETITION

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he ingenious ideas contrived by Angela Choi, Regina Wong, Eliza Yuen (all full-time MBA year-one), and Antonio Wong (part-time MSc (Information Systems) year-one) have earned them the Diamond Award in the annual Advertising Competition Express, an event organized by the student bodies of six local universities.

This year, some 40 teams took part to develop advertising proposals to revitalize the brand image for Coca-Cola, the sponsor of the event. The HKUST team riveted the attention of the judges by deploying skate-bikes and smart vending machines to create a younger and more energetic image of the soft drink. “Before we came up with our proposal, we had conducted a research to study the likes and dislikes of today’s teenagers. The findings helped us understand more about our target audience and were instrumental to formulating our advertising strategy,” said Regina Wong. Both Regina Wong and Angela Choi reckoned that it was an excellent learning e x p e r i e n c e . “ T h e t e a m ’ s

chemistry was just great and we learned a lot from each other through vigorous brainstorming and debating,” said Choi.

Choi was also named the b e s t p r e s e n t e r i n t h e competition. She attributed her success to the interactive presentation with other team members and attractive visual aids.

From left: Antonio Wong, Angela Choi, Eliza Yuen and Regina Wong.

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

E-COMMERCE PROGRAMS FOR EXECUTIVES

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echno experts gathered at HKUST to exchange ideas on the implications of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) on the future development of e-commerce, thanks t o t h e D e p a r t m e n t o f I n f o r m a t i o n a n d S y s t e m s Management’s (ISMT) organization of a workshop in March. Coordinated by Xu Yan, Assistant Professor of ISMT, the workshop was held in cooperation with the Hong Kong Computer Society and locally based WAP portal and platform provider WAPHead!. Featured at the workshop’s panel discussion were Prof. Sirkka Jarvenpaa from the University of Texas at Austin, Joseph Leung from Smartone Mobile Communications and Francis Au from WAPHead!. Chris Westland, Head of ISMT, chaired the discussion session that covered a broad range of issues, from tariff policies, to consumption behavior and future prospects for broadband mobile communications in Asia.

Prof. Westland, who had been a vocal and key promoter in the area of e-commerce long before its business potentials were recognized in Hong Kong, said opportunities abound for local talents to make their marks in the application of WAP. “They just have to be creative and ready to pounce on good ideas and get on with them,” he said.

Last year, when WAP was still far from a common topic to most in the technology world, Prof. Westland and his colleagues in ISMT encouraged and helped some of the department’s students to study the topic in depth as their final year projects. Two of the students had their skills honed so well that upon graduation they joined WAPHead! and developed the technology that enables the provider to support both English and Chinese languages in mobile phones and handheld personal organizers. This bilingual capability is also the first of its kind in the world. (Related story on page 6.)

The March workshop was attended by over 200

participants. The panel discussion was preceded by a technical presentation and demonstration of several WAP application features. The audience was amazed by the variety of applications that included stock market information, an electronic positioning map, bus route searching and even Wong Tai Sin fortune telling.

Prof. Xu said “the workshop was so popular that we

WAP WORKSHOP DRAWS BIG CROWD

T

he evolution of the World Wide Web

has unleashed ample business opportunities and created a surging demand for a new breed of executives who can mesh the emerging technology with b u s i n e s s a c u m e n t o b e n e f i t t h e i r

organizations. Since the start of the year, the spawning of dot-coms in Hong Kong has triggered off a wild hunt for e-commerce professionals, who literally have become the most sought after species in the new economy.

To address the community’s dire need for e-commerce talent, the School is offering two new programs to help business executives to latch on to the latest knowledge and critical issues of electronic commerce. The two new offerings include a s i x - m o n t h d i p l o m a c o u r s e , “ T h e E x e c u t i v e D i p l o m a i n E l e c t r o n i c Commerce” (EDEC) and a three-day intensive program, “The Essence of E-business For Executives”.

The EDEC encompasses an array of practical issues concerning e-commerce, including the industry’s outlook and internet d e v e l o p m e n t ; w e b - b a s e d c o n t e n t d e v e l o p m e n t ; i n t e r n e t s o f t w a r e development; marketing and business-to-consumer aspects; business-to-business e-commerce; security, legal and financial issues of e-commerce. At the end of the program, participants are required to work on a business plan of a dot-com startup that will be evaluated by a panel comprising senior e-commerce executives and faculty

had to double our quota for registration. Even so, there were still quite a number of people who were not able to get in.” Simon Tam of Cisco Co. and also Chairman of the Hong Kong Computer Society’s Internet branch added “we highly appreciate ISMT’s support and we are looking towards presenting more programs of this nature in cooperation with the department in the future.”

WHAT IS WAP?

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a de-facto standard for presenting and delivering of information on mobile devices. WAP-enabled mobile

phones are typically mobile devices that incorporate a mini-browser for displaying WAP content or running WAP applications.

The standard WAP networking structure usually includes a WAP gateway that serves as a bridge between computer and mobile networks. The gateway accepts requests sent from a mobile handset and routes the requests to web servers that offer wireless markup language (a language developed specifically for content and user interfaces on mobile devices) content and applications using the standard internet protocol (IP) HTTP. Upon receipt of content from the web server, the gateway will encode the information and send it back to the WAP mobile phone.

Source: HKUST Information Technology Services Center’s web page.

members from HKUST. The program will run from the end of August 2000 to mid-February 2001.

“The Essence of E-business For Executives” will focus on the essential topics and the inherent risks of e-business such as the strategic implications of the internet revolution; the approach to explore and evaluate e-business opportunities; a survey of web technology management; legal, security and financial issues of e-business; internet technology as a marketing tool. In addition to classroom discussion, participants will also take part in group projects, luncheons with industry professionals, and an optional web-site design workshop. The program will be held on campus. Two classes have been scheduled, one from 18-20 May and the other from 7-9 June 2000. A few more will be lined up shortly.

For details, please visit the School’s website at http://www.bm.ust.hk/execprog or contact Betty Lau at 2358-8947.

Standard WAP networking structure diagram:

Dean Yuk-Shee Chan

FROM THE DEAN

T

his issue’s Newsletter has a fair amount of coverage of IT, including e-commerce courses offered by the School, a WAP workshop, and a technology startup by our alumni. Indeed, the impact of technological advances is far-reaching. And before our eyes, this impact is quickly permeating through to different levels of businesses and, in fact, to every facet of life.

At the center of this revolution is, inarguably, the Internet, which has propelled

the ascendance of the knowledge-based era. With it, the economy has become information-centric. The success of companies now hinges more on how well they gather, how well they manage, and how well they use information rather than on the amount of equipment and funds at their disposal. Clearly, intellectual capital has taken precedence over other forms of assets. What this means is that management education and training will become more essential than ever as the shelf life of knowledge becomes shorter and shorter. A good example is E-commerce. At our School we have witnessed overwhelming positive responses to our latest executive education offers. The 3-day “Essence of E-business for Executives” course that we offered in May was so popular that we scheduled a re-run in June, and with a few more on plan in the coming year.

Insofar as technology advances are creating more demand for management education, they are also reshaping the landscape of its delivery. Online education, though at an embryonic stage at this point, is expected to grow exponentially in volume with the improvement and availability of technology.

This brings out a question that I have been asked by many people: will online or distance education eventually replace facility-based education? My belief, and also from what we have learned from the experiences in the US and Europe, is that it will not.

The impact of technology and the force of competition will undoubtedly change the format and mode of learning and education. Facility-based universities will have to improve the delivery of their programs utilizing advanced technology because of growing competition from alternative learning opportunities. In other words, technology-enhanced distance education is bound to raise the opportunity costs of going to campus. But the best education, in my view, will still be delivered in a dynamic, interactive, team-focused environment with students and faculty exchanging ideas, sharing experiences, and challenging each other’s views.

Learning and education will nevertheless come in different modes. It is very likely that many facility-based education institutions will establish alliances with high-end online education providers to leverage their brand names in online education and to strengthen their capabilities in content and delivery. As a result, competition will intensify and it will be important for all educational institutions (facility-based and online alike) to maintain high standards.

In the face of such developments the School will continue with its on-going pursuit of excellence. It actively seeks evaluation and advice from well-established management education organizations for quality assurance and enhancement, and at the same time carries out internal assessment on a continuous basis to nurture strengths and promote excellence. As in the business corporations, there is no other way to succeed in the knowledge-based era than to take on the challenges and to capitalize on the opportunities that come with it.

HKUST Business School

Dean: Yuk-Shee Chan

Associate Deans: K.C. Chan, Steve DeKrey, Kar Yan Tam Newsletter Editors: Elaine Chu, May Hung

Sub-editor: Virginia Unkefer

Contact us: [email protected] or [email protected], fax: (852) 2358 1467 Website: http://www.bm.ust.hk

© 2000 by the School of Business and Management, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. All rights reserved.

T

he Economics Department played host to a week-long visit by Prof. Li Yining, Dean of Guanghua School of Management, Peking University and Vice-chairman of the Financial and Economic Committee of National People’s Congress in April.

The highlight of Prof. Li’s visit featured an open seminar that was attended by faculty, staff, students and members of the press. Prof. Li shared with the audience his views on the development of the securities market and on initial public offerings of technology firms in China.

Prof. Li is currently an Adjunct Professor of Economics at HKUST.

HKUST HOSTS TALK BY PROMINENT

CHINESE ECONOMIST

H

KUST students once again paid homage to their favorite lecturers in the Ten Best Lecturers’ Election, a university-wide student organized event that has been held since 1995. The winners this year included members from all four schools. Among them, four were from the Business School, including professors Derek Chan, Cheol Park, Lydia Price, and Mike So.

When asked about the essential qualities for successful teaching, answers from all four winning business professors revealed a common thread: enthusiasm.

The methods used to inspire students to learn, though, can be different.

Lydia Price, Assistant Professor of Marketing, said it is important to encourage students to think actively rather than to memorize or draw on established views. “To do this, you have to challenge them in class in a non-threatening way. I’ll raise questions, ask for reactions, use a lot of demonstrations, and offer assistance and hints when necessary. Certainly, a stroke of humor always helps,” she explained.

THE MAXIMS OF GOOD TEACHING

Mike So, Assistant Professor of Information and Systems Management, said he always strives to provide a conducive environment for discussion and participation. “The statistics classes I’m teaching involve quite a few theories, which may be abstruse at times. The most effective way to illustrate these abstract concepts is to use real life examples. This way, students will find it easier to grasp the knowledge and be more willing to take part in class discussion,” he said.

To Cheol Park, Assistant Professor of Finance, a successful teacher is simply the one who leaves a good impression of the subject with the students. “If students find the subject interesting and worthy of their time and energy, then the teaching must have been a success,” said Prof. Park. Likewise, Derek Chan, Assistant Professor of Accounting, tries to kindle his students’ interests by providing a clear framework to help students learn. “Always show enthusiasm towards the subject matter and prepare well ahead,” he said.

A comment from Prof. Price sums it all up, “demonstrating excitement and a passion for the topic is essential. If you are not interested, how could the students possibly be?” Derek Chan

Cheol Park

Lydia Price

Mike So

BALANCING ACT

I

t is funny how a common belief goes unchallenged until someone points out that perhaps there are other dimensions to consider.

Over the last two decades, an implicit consensus favoring privatization over government ownership has been formed among most researchers focusing on state-owned enterprises. However, fresh results from an initial study conducted by a group of Asian researchers indicate that the presence of government ownership may in fact help, rather than hinder, the performance (defined as market-to-book equity ratio) of a firm.

But like most other things in life, there should be a balance. The three researchers, Qian Sun, Wilson Tong and Jing Tong, point out in their study that neither too much nor too little government control is beneficial to a firm’s efficiency.

One of the researchers, Wilson Tong, Assistant Professor of Finance at HKUST, said, “our investigation shows that the relationship between government ownership and firm performance follows an inverted U-shaped pattern. A certain level of government ownership seems optimal.”

The sample used in the Qian, Tong and Tong study includes all companies listed on China’s two bourses, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange, over the period 1994-1997, during which many state-owned enterprises went public. As shown in Table 1, market capitalization during that period grew from RMB 370 billion to RMB 1,737 billion, an increase of 400

percent over four years. The number of listed companies increased from 289 in 1994 to 745 in 1997.

Of the 1,887 total of listed companies on the two exchanges during the period, 1,785 yielded sufficient data to be analyzed. The researchers divided the nature of shareholding of such companies into six main categories, namely, state shares, legal person shares, A-shares, B-shares, employee shares and H-shares. Definition of each type of shares and their proportion to the total shares are provided in Table 2.

The researchers evaluated the impact of government ownership on firm performance together with other factors such as annual sales revenue (firm size), total debt ratio (leverage), firm location (coastal versus inland), presence of foreign investors (whether shareholding structure includes B-shares), and the impact of regulatory industries (e.g., utilities).

As state shares and legal person shares both contain governmental involvement, they are put under the government ownership category for the analysis.

Results show that government ownership (whether in the form of state shares or legal person shares) has a positive and significant impact on firm performance.

“The generally accepted notion of the less government control the better may have blinded us to the positive roles that government ownership can

play,” said Prof. Tong.

Such benefits may include the signaling effect when a government shows its commitment to the firm by retaining a relatively high portion of the firm’s equity; the monitoring role that the government plays for the benefits of all shareholders; and the supporting policies that the government formulates to favor the firms it owns or partially owns. The last benefit can be especially important given the fact that the Chinese state-owned enterprises perform poorly and face serious “triangular debt” problem.

However, Prof. Tong cautioned that the findings should not be seen as a blind support for government ownership per se. What they show is that when a state-owned enterprise goes private, it may be beneficial to build in a stage when a certain degree of government ownership is maintained, rather than going too quickly from a state-owned status to complete privatization.

In addition to government ownership, two other factors are also identified in this study as having a positive effect on firm performance. Firms in the coastal areas perform better than firms in the inland or remote areas. Firms in the regulated industries (e.g. public utilities) also perform better than those that are not regulated.

Firm size and leverage are found to have a negative relationship with firm performance, while the presence of foreign investors shows no significant impact. Wilson Tong is Assistant Professor of Finance at HKUST, email: [email protected] Qian Sun is Associate Professor, Division of Banking & Finance, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; email: [email protected]. sg

BUSINESS FORUM

TABLE 2: OWNERSHIP STRUCTURES IN CHINESE STOCK MARKETS 1994-97

Types of Shareholding Holders % in total shares

State shares Central government, local governments, or solely government-owned enterprises. 28% - 34%

Legal person shares Business agencies, local governments who helped in starting up the company. 31%-33%

A-shares Chinese citizens and domestic institutions. The Government requires that A-shares should account for no less than 25% 17%-32% of total outstanding shares when a company goes public.

B-shares Foreign portfolio investors, people from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. B-shares are quoted and traded in USD or HKD. ≤ 5% on average Employee shares Workers and managers of the company. Such shares are usually offered at a substantial discount. ≤ 5% on average

H-shares Any investors. H-shares are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. 0.2%-1.1%

Jing Tong

is Senior Officer at Singapore Exchange Limited Original research “How does Government Ownership Affect Firm Performance? Evidence from China’s Privatization Experience”

by Qian Sun, Wilson Tong and Jing Tong

TABLE 1: MARKET CAPITALIZATION AND NO. OF LISTED FIRMS ON THE SHENZHEN AND SHANGHAI STOCK EXCHANGES 1994-97

1994 1995 1996 1997

Total Market Capitalization (incl. A & B shares) in RMB Million 369,062 347,429 984,058 1,736,654

I

n the intricate corporate world, it is difficult to figure out why some people seem to have great chemistry with their bosses, often right from the start. While this is surely something nice to have, those who don’t have it need not despair. For, by the end of the day, the ticket to a successful relationship with your boss (an important criterion for a successful career) actually hinges on your performance more than anything else, an HKUST researcher has found.

Utilizing a longitudinal research experiment that included 186 senior university students and a cross-sectional test administered to 288 professionals in a large utility company, Katherine Xin, Assistant Professor of Management of O r g a n i z a t i o n s , a n a l y z e d h o w t h e supervisor-subordinate relationship develops and changes over time.

STUDY 1

I n h e r f i r s t s t u d y , X i n d i v i d e d t h e participants (students who all attended the same course) into different work groups. Each group contained six or seven members with one member appointed as the group manager. During the course,

THE SECRET OF SUCCESS

Original research “We First Judge a Book by its Cover: Relational Demography, Interpersonal Behavior, and Performance in Supervisor-Subordinate Relationships” by Katherine Xin

each group was asked to complete two projects. The relationships between the group managers and the members were described at three points as the course progressed.

The first evaluation of the relationship was done in the first and second class sessions. The group managers were asked to evaluate their members by filling out a questionnaire when the only meaningful information available was their members’ demographic and background details.

The second evaluation was conducted at the mid-point of the course after the first group project was completed. This time, both the group managers and the members participated in the survey. The members filled out questionnaires that measured perceptions of their interpersonal behaviors such as communication and impression management with the group manager. The managers were asked to evaluate their working relationships with each group member.

Finally, when the second project was completed, all students, managers and members alike, were asked questions regarding their performances and their perceptions of their manager-member

relationships.

STUDY 2

I n S t u d y 2 , s u p e r v i s o r s a n d t h e i r subordinates completed different versions of a survey. Measures for the study were the same as those in Study 1, only that questions were worded appropriately to reflect the respondent’s role.

FINDINGS

Xin shows that there are usually three phases involved in building a supervisor-subordinate relationship (Figure 1). At the initial stage, supervisors and subordinates will size up each other based on visible and easily identifiable factors such as age, race, gender, educational background and level, and country of birth. Previous studies in the last two decades suggest that individuals have a collective awareness of themselves as belonging to various groups that share common identities. People tend to like each other if they share similar characteristics. Xin found this to be true in her studies.

“This birds-of-a-feather judgment tends to develop fairly quickly,” said Prof. Xin, “often times it begins at the first moment the supervisor and subordinate meet and takes only a few days to form when both have obtained e a c h o t h e r ’ s b a s i c background information.”

T h e s e c o n d p h a s e begins when the pair starts to interact. During this stage, i n t e r p e r s o n a l b e h a v i o r comes into play. Three types of interpersonal behaviors are considered to be most important.

The first type is self-disclosure, which is defined as the willingness of a person (usually the subordinate) t o o p e n u p a n d t o communicate. The level of self-disclosure is found to be positively associated with the quality of the supervisor-subordinate relationship. The effect of self-disclosure will be more favorable if the substance of the information disclosed is positive rather than negative.

The second type of be-h a v i o r i s i m p r e s s i o n management. An employee

can make an impres-sion on the supervisor by focusing on differ-ent subjects, namely, the job, him/herself, and the supervisor. Examples are: for job-focused impression management, arriving at work early and stay-ing late; for self-fo-cused subjects, mak-ing sure one’s efforts or accomplishments a r e k n o w n t o t h e supervisor; and for su-p e r v i s o r - f o c u s e d subjects, showing an i n t e r e s t i n t h e supervisor’s personal life or doing personal favors.

The third type of behavior is self-m o n i t o r i n g . T h i s i s d e f i n e d a s a n employee’s ability to modify and adapt his/ her behaviors to suit the supervisor’s expectations, preferences and demands. Self-monitoring requires a process of “adaptive self-regulation” during which one would seek the supervisor’s feedback on his/her behavior, evaluate the difference between what he/she does and what is expected of him/her, and then try to adjust his/her behavior so that the difference can be reduced.

The final stage of the supervisor-subordinate relationship development involves only one main factor, performance - both in terms of the ability to meet the call of duty and of going beyond to be a good citizen in the working environment.

Xin has found that performance not only influences the relationship between the supervisor and the subordinate, but it, afterall, makes a difference in the quality of the relationship independent of other factors.

“Performance is the most powerful factor of all,” said Prof. Xin, “even the best starting relationship can wear thin if the subordinate lets the supervisor down on the job time after time.” On the other hand, she said, a subordinate from whom little or nothing is expected can become valued, or even favored, by contributing stellar performance over time.

The simple message, she said, is that “while first impressions are the most lasting, it is often the slow but sure who will win.”

Katherine Xin is Assistant Professor of Management of Organizations at HKUST, email: [email protected]. The original research paper won the “Best Paper based on a Dissertation” award at an Academy of Management national meeting in Boston, 1998. Figure 1

A PROCESS MODEL OF SUPERVISOR-SUBORDINATE RELATIONSHIPS (SSR)

Relational Demography 1. Similarity in race, gender,

age, tenure, country of birth, education Interpersonal Behaviors 2. Self-disclosure 3. Impression management a. job-focused b. supervisor-focused c. self-focused 4. Self-monitoring Subordinate Performance 5. a. in-role performance b. extra-role b. performance Demographic similarity impacts positively on SSR

All 3 types of interpersonal behaviors enhance the quality of SSR

Both in-role and extra-role performances are related positively to the quality of SSR

Supervisor-Subordinate Relationship (SSR) – Phase 1

SSR – Phase 3

SSR quality in Phase 2 enhances that in Phase 3 SSR – Phase 2

SSR quality in Phase 1 enhances that in Phase 2

ALUMNI NEWS

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n slightly more than a year’s time, PacificLink iMedia (www.pacim.com) grew from obscurity to one of the juiciest tidbits in the internet circle when 51percent o f i t s s t a k e w a s s o l d f o r a c a s h consideration of HK$6.8 million to a locally listed e-commerce and application services provider, Netalone.

Founded in 1998, PacificLink is the brainchild of Alvin Lam and Andy Hui (both graduates in Finance in 1998). With barely HK$50,000 in hand, Lam and Hui started off with a passion for the internet and the t e n a c i o u s n e s s t o p u r s u e t h e i r entrepreneurial dream.

“I was working for a web design house at that time and found many of our competitors were not even up to speed with what should have been the basic standards of this new technology era. I thought I could do much better than they did. It didn’t take much effort for me to talk Andy into the deal as he was already enthralled by the idea of running his own business. So that’s how we got started,” Lam recalled.

Indeed, the entrepreneurial streak in Lam can be traced back to his college years. An internet zealot since his teens, he volunteered for a slew of internet-related work at the university. He created a f i n a n c i a l d a t a p o r t a l n a m e d

FINANCE GRADUATES GO HI-TECH

financialsources during the second year of his study. “At that time, the concept of a portal was still very vague. I set up the website for the convenience of searching information for my own projects. It turned out that the site was frequented by many o f m y c l a s s m a t e s , ” s a i d L a m . Financialsources is now incorporated into PacificLink’s website.

In the early days of its inception, PacificLink mainly focused on corporate web design and development. The company made a splash when it won the 2000 Platinum Award for eTailing from the Hong Kong eAward, organized by Hong Kong Productivity Council, DigiHall and the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau, for the first fashion e-commerce portal it developed for http://www.izzue. com. Today, the company has 16 people on its payroll. Its tentacles have extended to almost every facet of e-business including strategic consulting on internet marketing, information architecture building, and even content development for e-commerce portals.

“We aim to provide one-stop solutions to our clients, helping them to jump start their internet business with the minimal hassle. Within the next five years, we plan to branch out to other major cities in Asia. Our first step is to set up an office on the Chinese Mainland this year to capitalize on its abundant supply of technical talents and, more importantly, to gain first-hand knowledge about this fast emerging market,” said Hui, who is in charge of the business development of the company alongside Lam.

Both of them credited the program at HKUST for its well-rounded training that helped to sharpen their intuition and business sense. Lam added, “to succeed you have to have callous determination and laser-like focus. This is especially true for internet businesses as the market changes at a lightning speed and you are literally racing with time to leap-frog over its latest development.”

From left to right: Lennon Ho, Senior Media Designer; Alex Lo, Creative Director; Andy Hui, Executive Director and Alvin Lam, Managing Director.

T

he annual JUPAS information sessions were held on the first and second Saturdays of May this year. Some 2,700 secondary students attended.

Among the 10 sessions scheduled this year, six were on BBA programs, two on the BBA in Accounting, and two on the BSc in Economics and Finance. Each session featured presentations by faculty and

MASS SESSIONS CHALK UP OVER 2,500 STUDENTS

e x p e r i e n c e s h a r i n g w i t h e x i s t i n g undergraduate students. Some sessions also featured graduates who spoke on their career development.

“The mass sessions underscore our on-going effort to better the communication with secondary schools. Aside from the yearly Principals’ Day, Outreach Day and school visits, we shall also organize a Summer

Study Program this coming July for Form 6 students. The program aims to offer participants an opportunity to explore academic subjects not available in high school, experience university life, and interact with distinguished faculty members as well as other like-minded peers,” said Prof. Kar Yan Tam, Associate Dean and Director of Undergraduate Programs.

The Summer Study Program will run from 31 July - 4 August 2000. The theme is “Economics and Finance in a Hi-Tech Society”. It is structured with lectures by the School’s faculty members, firm visits, and social and dormitory activities organized by student groups. Certificates will be awarded upon successful completion of the program.

INFORMATION SYSTEMS GRADUATES

WEAVING THE WIRELESS WEB

S

herman Chan, Kenny Chu and Joseph Lam (all ’99 ISMT graduates) parlayed their Final Year Projects (FYPs) into promising careers at a Hong Kong-based technology company WAPHead!. The outfit focuses on the narrowband and broadband wireless internet market. Its portal - WAPHead! - is purported to be the world’s first wireless internet portal supporting Chinese and English for cell phones and handheld organizers. Working on the same FYP team on the wireless application protocol (WAP), Chan and Lam were among the first in Hong Kong to develop internet wireless applications based on WAP, a de-facto standard for presenting and delivering information on mobile devices (related story on page 2). They developed the first WAP services for checking and sending emails and for using ICQ (internet chat) on cell phones. “We started the project back in 1998. At that time, WAP was still a very new concept and not too much was known about the technology. We spent a lot of time and effort to explore and experiment before we came up with something solid,” said Lam. “The absence of a road map was the most challenging part of our projects. But the experience was very rewarding,” Chu chimed in. Chu was involved with another FYP studying internet protocol multicast, which is a communication protocol to support many-to-many realtime multimedia information distribution.

The trio was invited to join WAPHead! as assistant managers by Francis Au, chairman and CEO of the company, who was then advisor to their FYPs. “Apart from giving them technical advice, I would also put the students in touch with my other business partners so that they had access to the necessary development tools and a test-bed for experiment,” said Au. He has high praise for the FYPs. “They allow students to get in touch with the business world and apply their business knowledge and technical skills to a project in a real business setting,” said Au. He conceded that the FYP was one of the best talent-search opportunities available to managers. “Given a year’s time, it is not difficult to know the strengths and weaknesses of the students, and tell if they are fit for the job,” he added. The Department of Information and Systems Management (ISMT) makes it mandatory for all year-three students in the Information Systems stream to take part in a FYP, be it a collaboration with business corporations or an internal project cooperating with other University offices. Students work in groups and under the supervision of a faculty member from the Department and a representative from the project partner.

STUDENTS

M

BA student Ken Law Lok Yin (full-time year-two) received the 1999/2000 Scholar Award from the AmCham Charitable Foundation in recognition of his strong drive for excellence and dedication to extra-curricular activities. Ken Law was presented a check for HK$25,000 and a Certificate of Merit at a special ceremony held on 28 March 2000.

An architect by training, Law decided to chart a new path for his career when he enrolled in HKUST’s MBA program in 1998. “I found myself more interested in the management field and I thought a

reputable MBA program was essential for my career advancement. Hence, I picked HKUST for its strong faculty and advanced facility. In fact, HKUST surpasses my expectations. Not only does it boast the most international student body a n d c u r r i c u l u m , i t s placement office has also built a close relationship with the business sector

and has done a great job in promoting g r a d u a t e s t o m a n y p o t e n t i a l employers.” Law is currently working

START@STARTUP

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our full-time MBA students, first-years Henry Chan, Marko Schmidt, Alan Wang, and second-year Ellen Chan, were the only students from Hong Kong invited to attend an internet event start@startup held in Frankfurt in March.

Organized by RIFU Institute, a German organization specializing in the development of young professionals, the event gathered over 230 business students from elite business schools like Stanford, Wharton and INSEAD to meet with representatives from some 20 internet startups including such big names as Lycos, eBay and MyToy.

The two-day event offered an excellent forum where the participants could converge and share their penchant and visions for the internet and e-business. It also provided opportunities for the company representatives to tap into the wealth of talent being trained at the top business schools that were represented there.

The meeting was structured around one-on-one interviews, real life cases, industry presentations, and special theme-based groups to foster dialogue and interaction among the participating parties.

“We are very lucky to have the chance to attend the meeting. Only three universities from Asia were invited to send representatives to the event and HKUST was the only university in Hong Kong being invited,” said Alan Wang. “It was a perfect chance for networking and getting first-hand knowledge about the industry. I was fascinated by the entrepreneurial imagination and spirit of many of the participants. It also bolstered my confidence to start up my own internet business after graduation.”

AMCHAM AWARD

for a hi-tech company in charge of an array of technology projects and services from manufacturing, systems integration, consulting, to internet ventures.

The AmCham Scholar Award aims to promote quality business education in Hong Kong. Every year, the AmCham Charitable Foundation presents the award to two outstanding students based on nominations from two local universities - HKUST and Chinese University, the only business schools in Hong Kong offering full-time MBA programs.

Jason Feltron (left), AmCham Charitable Foundation Chairman and Ken Law, 1999/2000 Scholar Award winner. From left: Henry Chan, Ellen Chan, Marko Schmidt and Alan Wang.

T

o most of the people, it seems that it only takes good numerical sense to be an accountant. But Peter Tam and Kelvin Lau tell us otherwise. Both earned bachelor’s degrees in Accounting in 1995 and have been working in the field since then.

Tam had almost ten years work experience when he enrolled in the Accounting program as a mature student. “I felt the urge to upgrade myself to get past the roadblock at that point in my career development. Studying seemed to be a good option for me.” He is now an accounting officer at China Light and Power Company, Limited. He reckons that the heightened competition in the marketplace has driven many companies to streamline their operations and only those who can add value to the company prevail. “When every company is talking about technology and automation these days, only being

ACCOUNTING COUNTS MORE THAN NUMBERS

good at your own profession is no longer good enough. Just take my case. We have to use sophisticated accounting and business application software in our everyday work. Though in-house training is available, it will be very hard to catch up without some basic IT knowledge. Worse still, you cannot make any sensible suggestions as to how to improve or modify the system to serve the company’s need.” Lau agrees that being tech-savvy is very important. He is an assistant manager i n t h e i n t e r m e d i a r i e s s u p e r v i s i o n department at the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). His role is to supervise and monitor the activities of the financial intermediaries at SFC including the brokerage houses, commodity dealers, investment banks and fund managers, making sure they comply with the rules and regulations set forth by the Commission. “As SFC has hundreds of

financial intermediaries, we rely very much on technology to keep track of their transactions and financial position. Besides we have to work closely with the IT department to ensure our system works well and we get the most up-to-date and accurate market information and analysis. In a nutshell, you don’t need to be a tech geek. The bottom line is that you need to know the technology well enough to

f a c i l i t a t e y o u r w o r k . O f c o u r s e , communication skills are essential as we have to deal with many clients with different backgrounds.”

Both laud the well-rounded training of HKUST’s business program. “The program nurtures a shrewd business mind, and the advanced facilities help expose students to the latest technology during their course of study,” noted Tam.

ALUMNI NEWS

Peter Tam (center) and his colleagues during a site visit to Black Point Power Station in the northwest New Territories.

EMBA CLASS KH02 GRADUATION

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n a fine Sunday afternoon in April, 40 executives of the Kellogg-HKUST Executive MBA KH02 Class celebrated the completion of their program with their families and supporters on the HKUST campus. Lecture Theater A, the University’s largest auditorium with a 400-seat capacity, was decorated like a garden for the Graduation Ceremony.

The Ceremony was presided by Dean Yuk-Shee Chan, Associate Dean Steve DeKrey and Erica Kantor, Assistant Dean of the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. HKUST

President Prof. Chia-Wei Woo and the guest speaker Paul Chow, Chief Executive of HSBC Asset Management, both warmly congratulated the graduates in their respective addresses to the audience.

At the Ceremony, Yuka Yeung, representing the KH02 Class, presented the Top Professor Award to strategic marketing expert, Prof. Lakshman Krishnamurthi, from Kellogg. This award was organized by the students to show their appreciation of the high quality of teaching during the course.

Clockwise from top: Prof. Chia-Wei Woo, Ms Erica Kantor, Dr Steve DeKrey, Dean Yuk-Shee Chan and Mr Paul Chow.

E

ditor of this Newsletter Elaine Chu and some of her colleagues had first hand experience with how working and exercising outdoors change one’s perspectives.

Together with two other Business School colleagues, Mak Pui-hung, Executive Officer of the MBA Office and Swallow Wei, Executive Officer of the Accounting Department, Chu participated in a two-day residential High Island Training Camp in Sai Kung in March. The program was organized by the University’s Personnel Office and had a total of 29 participants from different schools and functional units.

The participants were divided into four random syndicates and were assigned tasks that had to be completed within a set period of time. For example, the participants were asked to use their creativity to design and build a workable raft. They were also asked to walk in teams along a trail near midnight. Chu learned the night hike brought out the self-confidence of the participants. “For safety reasons, we were allowed to bring a torch but no one ended up using it. After having walked a few meters, you started to realize that your vision could adjust to different levels of illumination and even with moonlight and the reflection on the trail we could see sufficiently well. But for someone who is used to modernity, the first thing you think when learning you have to walk in the dark is to get some external aid rather than trying it out by yourself.”

Throughout the camp, teamwork was repeatedly

HIGH ISLAND TRAINING CAMP

emphasized on. “We were required to perform tasks that called for the concerted effort from every member. As a result, we got to know more about our teammates and ourselves. I was so glad that my team members were all very high-spirited and helpful and we saw each other through every difficult situation,” said Mak. “It was a very useful process and a great experience.”

Elaine Chu, front row center, teammates and their award-winning raft.

Dennis Lai attributed the team’s success to thorough preparation and a spirited work team. “From the preliminary round to the final, each team was given a week to prepare for their arguments. Once we got the topic, we would split into two groups to prepare for a mock debate. The vigorous debate among ourselves allowed us to gain better understanding of the issue and helped us formulate our arguments and strategies. Though only four of us would present the arguments on stage, the other members were also very important as they had to challenge the weaknesses of the competing team by raising the appropriate floor questions. We were thankful to our faculty advisors, especially Prof. Mary Wong, for giving us useful guidelines and suggestions.”

“This win is a boost to the morale and confidence of our debating team. I think their success owes much to consummate research, brilliant communication and presentation skills, and acute minds that can tackle any impromptu challenges,” said Prof. Wong.

The HKUST debate team was formed through a campus-wide recruitment and selection process. The final 20-strong team includes 19 students from the Business School and one from Engineering.

(cont’d from page 1)

INTER-UNIVERSITY

DEBATE WIN