Dawn take-off for Cathay bosses on bulk lai see special delivery Santa Claus is rightly famed for his generous gift-giving, not to mention his skill at handling high-flying reindeers. Less famously but in something of the same spirit, some Hong Kong executives are prepared to rouse themselves early in the Lunar New Year to give lai see packets to their staff. Aptly enough, the guiding hands of another airborne business, Cathay Pacific, led the way in delivering the earliest, and probably the most, red packets on the first day in Lunar New Year. Chief executive Philip Chen Nan-lok, following a habit he has built up over 13 years, arrived at the airport at 7am to deliver what is known as the 'work day lai see' to his frontline staff. Helping him out was his lieutenant Quince Chong Wai-yan and Dragonair chief executive Kenny Tang Kwok-kit. The lai see packets had a token HK$20 but the management gesture gave a boost to the hundreds of staff who had to miss out on family reunions because of the extra holiday workload at the airport. Giving away lai see on an industrial scale isn't easy. It took Mr Chen and his crew up to five hours to work through Reservations, Sales Office (Ticketing), Flight Dispatch, Crew Control, Cargo, Load Control, Integrated Operation Centre in Cathay Pacific City and other outlets. By the end of the day, the executives had shed a pound or two as well as a few bucks after delivering nearly 1,000 lai see packets, including hundreds given to participants of the Cathay Pacific International Chinese New Year night parade. Cathay Pacific executives were reluctant to confirm their role in the grand New Year giveaway, preferring to keep it low-profile and stressing that it was not carried out for publicity purposes. Raining red Hong Kong Disneyland also took the traditional lai see practise seriously. Chief executive Bill Ernest arrived at the park at a still respectable 8am to greet his staff with 'kung hei fat choi'. The magical kingdom's 5,000 staff each had their name on a red packet to ensure no one missed out on contents that included a HK$100 note, a Year of the Pig pin and for some a personal lai see packet from Mr Ernest. It all helped to ensure smiles all round at Disneyland over the festival. Tycoon ensures love life sparkles Managing a dozen casinos must be tricky enough. Managing four wives in a family might be even trickier. So we salute casino king Stanley Ho Hung-sun for pulling off both feats. At a recent Valentine charity ball sponsored by Grand Lisboa for the orphan charity Po Leung Kuk, Mr Ho pledged to his guests that he'll love his fourth wife, Angela, forever, stressing: 'I am a loyal and faithful person.' Asked for tips for a successful marriage, he said: 'I'll look into her face and give her a jewel that could match her face colour. Well, I always have many jewels in my pocket: red, green, blue and yellow.' It all comes down to careful planning. Thanks a million ... or fifty From the colour of stones to the colour of money. Former Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing chief operating officer Patrick Conroy headed back to the World Bank after a four-year secondment with fond memories of the city's financial market. Mr Conroy made nearly HK$7 million in 2005, with an option for 1.96 million HKEx shares (of which he has exercised 492,000 shares) at an exercise price as low as HK$12.96. Given the skyrocketing HKEx share price - it hit HK$87.50 yesterday - and allowing that half the options had be forgone on Mr Conroy's resignation, he could easily have pocketed more than HK$50 million on his way out. There's lai see for you. Playing it safe A reader thinking to earn a property management diploma at City University of Hong Kong wondered if there was some cross-fertilisation between courses going on when he read in his curriculum the topic: 'Fire precaution and freighting''. Could be a typing error for fire fighting, he thought. Or maybe a key element of property management was being allied with training on how to handle tenants' needs when a conflagration gets out of control. Got it covered Our cartoonist Ming found time in his holiday break to create special New Year Greetings (fai chun) on investment. The left one urges: 'Don't be a stupid pig!' The right reads: 'Pearls and treasures fill the house.' Excellent sentiments with which to start the year. Ming will be back next Tuesday.
