Association continues to reflect needs of the business community
Hong Kong is renowned as a place of business opportunity - but in order to be inclusive to all willing to make the effort, lifelong learning and the value of striving for excellence ought to be encouraged.
Looking back at the work of the Hong Kong Management Association over the decades, deputy chairman Dr Dennis Sun says education and professional development are among the core HKMA values that have left their mark on society.
They are also close to the heart of what the role the association performs for its 12,000-strong membership. The organisation held 2,300 courses last year which benefited more than 48,000 people.
Links with leading international business schools offer the best in management education for executives, with courses equipping people with the necessary skills and knowledge to enhance their career choices. But it wasn't always so easy.
'In the early days, most people in Hong Kong never had the opportunity, like today, to go to college or university,' says Sun, who is also president of the Asian Association of Management Organisations and chairman of Fuji Photo Products Hong Kong.
'Lifelong learning is not only for a management career, but for those who have left directly from school. When the HKMA first started, it tried to provide training courses after office hours and related to business needs - from secretarial skills to human resources and management.
'We still feel there is a need through different paths to achieve quality standards, training and development,' Sun says. 'Most of our courses are certified accredited quality and connected through management networks. We're still performing the same role and still trying to reflect the community's needs.'
Guidance in education and training extended over the years to developing benchmarks for higher standards of management practice. Sun sees award schemes for such areas as management excellence, annual reports, sales and quality benchmarking as events HKMA members should be proud of.
'We always try to co-operate with educational institutions by organising joint programmes and bringing these quality programmes to Hong Kong. These competitions give credit for achievement and recognition for managers which we hope will further encourage people.'
Sun says he has been impressed by seeing the HKMA grow with Hong Kong over the decades and by how standards of management meet world standards. He says Hong Kong is always in the top three when it comes to management style, but a different business and industrial landscape makes the Japanese more 'diversified' in their approach.
One of the highlights of the HKMA's 50th anniversary continues the spirit of lifelong learning and professional development with a congress being attended by more than 1,000 delegates at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre over the next two days.
'Our focus at the conference is 'winning in a changing world - innovation in management'. We have experts from London, Sydney India and Japan, with delegates from Hong Kong and 12 countries. I've seen in different parts of the world some of the ways managers use innovation and they all say we should keep learning,' Sun says.
It is in this vein that Sun and his colleagues hope that management practices will continue to develop in Hong Kong, as its economy faces the challenges of a globalisation and more people are allowed the opportunity to take on managerial roles in their workplaces. He sees the HKMA as playing a crucial role in training and helping attain quality standards, and hopes society as a whole recognises this.
'The HKMA has done a wonderful job for the Hong Kong business community, even though there is more competition. We've tried to be more flexible than a government agency with our seminars and speakers.'
