Author

Samson Lai

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Hong Kong FinTech Week is back to f2f physical starting tomorrow (Nov 3) and will last for 3 days. Please join me for the two inspiring discussion panels, one with the top #FinTech #Startups in Hong Kong and the other one with one of the world-leading #Incumbent #Bank, in the next 2 days.

Panel 1
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Theme:Reaching the Unreached: Disruptive Technologies Changing the Narrative

Venue: Future stage, Hong Kong FinTech Week, HKCEC (10:30am, Wed)

I will discuss with the financial inclusion leaders in town, Tat Lee #WeLabBankVenetia Lee #AlipayDavid Rosa #Neat and Karen Man #BakerMckenzie on how technology and data have democratised finance and empower more people to make use of finance to change their lives.

Panel 2
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Theme: Building Billion Dollar Ecosystems

Venue: Hong Kong Stage, Hong Kong FinTech Week, HKCEC (10:30am, Thu)

I will discuss with leaders from #HSBCDharini Kannan HemantChristina OngYvonne Yiu and Sami Abouzahr on how to collaborate with the #innovation and #technology #ecosystem to co-create values for customers. Startups, incumbent banks and investors shouldn’t miss this opportunity to learn from HSBC’s valuable experience. Thanks for Jaff Lau and many other HSBC teammates to make this happen.

I cannot wait to learn from the panel speakers and contribute my experience to these 2 panels. Also, many exciting talks, forums, networking, pitching sessions and fun and more..will be there in the next 3 days at the #HKFTW #HKFinTechWeekhttps://lnkd.in/gbdw5bcU

See you there..

How do you like my “Digital Look”? Stay young and stay innovative. We should not call “IT Look” anymore as it not cool or chill enough. It should call “Digital Look” or “D-Look” these days.

Since I have seriously been engaging with the innovation and technology ecosystem worldwide 7 to 8 years ago, I feel younger and more passionate than my last 25 years in the traditional IT industry. If you would like to be younger or look-n-feel at least, stick around the innovation and tech ecosystem.

Feel really grateful and happy to be back to large-scale physical innovation and technology conferences and exhibitions in the 2021 Hong Kong ICT Expo this week and the 2021 Hong Kong FinTech Week next week. More importantly seeing my friends and partners f2f like #OpenCertHub Andy Kwok #B4B Francois Lee #HKTDC Will Li #Arical Clement Tien #CRGroup Dennis Choi #Cyberport Queenie Chang #HKSTP and #ASTRI friends, Emil Chan Paul kk Chan wilson chong and more. Lots of joy and catch-up!

See you around in the upcoming physical events. More to come like 2021 HKICT Awards Ceremony… I have a series of fully packed activities before Christmas. Cheers.

#HKICTExpo
https://lnkd.in/g7UQCttk

#HKFTW #HKFinTechWeek
https://lnkd.in/gNF–y47

#GBA (80+ million people in 11 cities of South China) and #ASEAN (650+ million people in 10 countries of SE Asia) are the two biggest and rapidly growing markets nearby Hong Kong. Enterprises, #SMEs and #Startups in Hong Kong are finding ways to seize these unprecedented opportunities for them.

Today, I was so grateful to have experts on GBA and ASEAN to share their experience in 2 consecutive forums. I moderated one forum on GBA in #SunLife in the morning and moderated another forum on ASEAN in #HKPC in the afternoon.

Appreciate King Leung #InvestHKPeter Mok #HKSTPJennifer Tan #AntGroupKeith Ip #SFExpressDick Fong and Thomson Ho #10Life to share their experience on the ecosystem collaboration in GBA.

Thanks Joseph Chan #AsiaPayStanley Sy CCRA #Sanomicswun chi lam #SpaceshipSunny Chau #HKTDCGary Lam #AsiaCEOCommunity and Sunny Chow from Leading Star Vietnam to share about their market entry strategy to ASEAN, consumer behaviors, partnership models and talents management for ASEAN markets.

Heartfelt thank to Clement LamCynthia Sit, and Alice Chuck #SunLifeKaren F. Marius Chow #HKPC and my #CUHK teammates to make these 2 forums a successful learning opportunity for everyone.

I believe Hong Kong can reach another peak in the next 5 to 10 years by leveraging on #innovation#entrepreneurship #intrapreneurship and #technology to capture the arising opportunities in GBA and ASEAN. Creating synergy through the collaboration of two regions is critical for our success. That is what I have been working on as well. Let’s add oil 大家加油!

#CUHKMBA #CUHKEMBA

It was the first time for me to teach under the typhoon signal #3 in my life. Really appreciate all of our executive students’ heart to learn and join our class on <Leadership and Workforce Transformation in the Digital Era> yesterday. It is a part of the #CUHK #APIB <Digital Leadership Series for Executives> programme that I introduced and designed. https://lnkd.in/gU8AzDJ

We had leaders and executives from various industries such as #FinancialServices#Retail#Energy#Pharmaceutical#Technologies, etc. to join the class yesterday. It indicated that leaders from these industries are keen on learning more about the soft side of digital transformation.

Appreciate Teddy Liu to co-teach this class with me. In fact, Teddy is the master mind of this course. He is an expert on the people side of digital transformation. Teddy shared his experience and wisdom on this subject matter. In my part, I explored a few digital transformation real-life cases with our students.

It was our honour to have Stephen Leung, Country Manager of #Pfizer Hong Kong and Indonesia, to share his wisdom on leadership, people and change management. It was very valuable and insightful. I was also impressed by his way to share his thoughts. He made good use of interesting stories and fantastic analogies.

Thank you, Stephen. I will remember to drink more water H2O. Healthy, Happy and Optimistic. Thank you, Teddy, to empower me and our students to master the change management and talents strategy in the digital era. Appreciate the great effort behind the scene from my CUHK APIB teammates.

One more day to go for this course. We will have another enlightening leader Joe Wan, CEO of #Tricor, to share his wisdom. Stay tuned.

#DigitalLeadership
#DigitalTransformation
#ChangeManagement
#DigitalWorkforce
#WorkforceManagement
#Leadership
#CUHKEMBA #CUHKMBA

The Hong Kong Corporate Innovation Index programme #HKCII co-organized by #CUHK and #HKGCC with the support from key industry leaders has been progressing well. We have invited leaders in town to join our pilot study yesterday. More background of the #CorporateInnovationIndex:
https://lnkd.in/giJKk2Au
https://lnkd.in/geP2TCCw

The pilot study aimed to collect feedback from the leaders on the design of our survey which is going to send to hundreds of companies to study their innovation. The preliminary design of the survey was a result from our literature review and direct consultation sessions and focus groups with close to 50 large to small companies. Really thank to the inputs from these participated leaders and executives.

Apart from the discussion with the guests yesterday on the survey design, we also invited Ir. Andrew Young #SinoGroup to share his corporate innovation experience. We had Watson Chan #HKGCC and Professor WM Cheung gave opening speeches. In addition, we had a panel discussion with #startup, well-established enterprise and #SME including Andy Ann #NDN, Horace Chu #Gammon and Mandy Chan #Frutodor. Appreciate for all their valuable sharings.

What’s the next? We will continue to collect feedback from leaders, practitioners and researchers to revise our survey design and finalize the constructs and measures of the survey. Stay tuned!

Big thank to our guests, friends and partners who joined our pilot study yesterday. Eunice Chan Anson Bailey (eMBA) Peter Chan Chris Au Young Teddy Liu Eugene Hsia Chris So Matthew Chan Janssen Chan FCPA (Aust.) Patrick S Lee Dominic Chan and many others. Appreciate the effort and support from our CUHK #APIB and HKGCC teammates.

#Innovation
#CorporateInnovation
#CUHKMBA #CUHKEMBA

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 #JebsenTeddy 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 #EYDickman 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.

What is the future of shopping malls? How are emerging technologies shaping the future of #Shopping? What are the innovative business models to bring communities and experience to the #ShoppingMall? Is the trend of #NewRetail a threat or an opportunity for shopping malls? More..

These were some of the key questions that we have discussed in the two consecutive forums organized for the management teams of the #HarbourCity – one of the leading shopping malls in Hong Kong as well as the #GreaterBayArea. It was a part of the “Business Innovation in the New Era” program – an #innovation and #technology empowerment training program that I designed, led and organized for #Wharf Group. It includes training, hands-on experiential workshops and fireside chats with experts on #RetailTech#BigData#AI#CustomerEngagement#DesignThinking and more.

The whole #Retail industry is facing big challenges due to the Covid-19. While the industry is seeking for survival, they are also looking for not just technology but also new ways to engage customers, new business models to count not just transactions at the mall but also traffic, new ways to cultivate communities, a new mechanism to monetize experience created for customers and more.

A big #GBA market is in front of us but we are also facing keen competition not just malls in Hong Kong but other competitive malls in the GBA which are relatively more digital savvy and innovative. This unprecendented opportunities and the #SenseOfUrgency to change for competition are driving the industry to do more innovation and certainly digital transformation. It is not an option anymore.

It was a fruitful, insightful and impactful journey for Wharf’s friends and my team. We cannot accomplish this program without the great support from these friends of us. A big thank to the Wharf team. Appreciate the support and effort from Ivan NgAmy IpMatthew ChanMichael ChengVicki AuCK ChanVincent SoKenny ChienPatrick TuRio Chau, Gabriel Lee, Larry PoonEugene HsiaAnvil NgStella KwanAlice SoCandi YeungSamson Lai, and many others behind the scene.

The vibrant Hong Kong #Innovation and #Technology #ecosystem is back to normal (well, at least getting close to that) with exciting and impactful activities every day and every week. Really grateful to seeing that happen.

Please join me in the next 2 weeks for a series of exciting events (just a partial list).

AI & Big Data in FinTech Forum
Sep 29, 2021
https://lnkd.in/gH3N-wKp

The 14th CIO Executive Summit 2021 – Hong Kong
Theme: The CIO Imperative in the New Normal: Creating the Ultra-Adaptable Enterprise
Sep 29, 2021
https://lnkd.in/g7tb7728

The CPA Conference 2021: Theme: Transcending Together
Oct 2, 2021
https://lnkd.in/ghc8hBsC

Establishment of Corporate Innovation Index
Theme: Open Forum and Pilot Study
Oct 4, 2021
https://lnkd.in/g-xXf87h
https://lnkd.in/gAfA6c5R

Digital Leadership Series
Theme: Leadership & Workforce Transformation in the Digital Era
Oct 12 and 13, 2021
https://lnkd.in/gTq6KPkf
https://lnkd.in/gRhSrte9

and more.. Stay tuned for my post-event insights and key takeaways.

#CUHK #MIG #VFF
#VirtualFinTechFair #FinStep #NovsphereMedia
#HKiCPA #CPA
#DigitalTransformation
#DigitalWorkforce
#AI #BigData #FinTech
#CorporateInnovation
#CIO #CDO
#Finance #Accounting #Auditing

Elite #startups from #HKSTP Leading Enterprise Acceleration Programme #LEAP showcased their achievement and #innovations today in #HKSTP #InnoCentre. They are some of the best in our ecosystem. Really appreciate Kiki Y. Wang, CFA, MBAAnvil Ng and their teams to nurture and empower these startups.

Apart from the startups in the LEAP programme, corporate executives, investors, mentors also joined today’s gathering. Felt good to see friends like 陳繼宇Dr. Jason Chan, MH, JP, Harris SUNEdmund LeePatrick S LeeS.C. Mak & more, and made some new friends.

I particularly like the banner posted today on site. It is a city map which covers our daily works and lives. It includes #Retail#Logistics#SupplyChain#Manufacturing#Healthcare#FinancialServices#Airport, etc. Then, they put the logos of their LEAP startups on the right spots on the map. It helps us visualize where and how these LEAP startups contribute to our works and lives, and collectively build a #SmartCity. You can download the map here.
https://lnkd.in/gPbiSNXf

Well thought and well done, team.

#DigitalTransformation is a must for almost every large or small company these days. Most of the failure cases of digital transformation is on the soft side of the journey. The soft side includes #leadership#culture#talent and most importantly #ChangeManagement.

I am so grateful to partner with one of the most experienced enterprise transformation leaders in #DigitalEra in Hong Kong, Teddy Liu, to co-create, co-design and co-deliver a course on the soft side of the Digital Transformation. We called the course “Leadership & Workforce Transformation in the Digital Era”. Really appreciate Teddy’s contribution. This course is a part of #CUHK #APIB #DigitalLeadershipSeries designed by a number of #digital experts and myself.

We also invited two top leaders, Stephen Leung #Pfizer and Joe Wan #Tricor in Hong Kong to share their experience in their digital leadership. Special thanks to Stephen and Joe, and look forward to learning from them.

We highly recommend corporate leaders, #HR practitioners, digital transformation professionals, innovation leaders and change agents to join the course. The upcoming class will be on Oct 12 and 13. Be HURRY to enroll if you are interested. More information and enrollment link can be found here.
https://lnkd.in/gTq6KPkf

See you there!
#DigitalWorkForce
#Intrapreneurship
#CorporateInnovation