Prince Richard challenged to walk the talk on democracy
Sometimes it is just not easy to practise what one preaches.
Spare a thought for Richard Li Tzar-kai, whose PCCW was believed to have attracted a weird takeover attempt by Nelson Wong Kam-fu, who owns a tiny company, Smart Rich Energy Finance (Holdings).
Like most sophisticated Hong Kong investors, Mr Li would probably take it as a bad joke, giggling aboard his yacht, August Moon, without spoiling his festive mood. But here is something he may not laugh about.
Mr Wong's proposal put Prince Richard to the test as to how much he would enjoy democracy in his business. A new champion for Hong Kong democracy, Mr Li adopted a different approach in managing his company, hiring his close associates and consultants (and paying them real well) as a board of directors.
It would be alright if he could deliver results. The problem, as Mr Wong stated, was that PCCW has been underperforming in the past five years while its Hang Seng Index counterparts have doubled in the same period. So the question for the hundreds of thousands of PCCW shareholders is: who is/are not doing the job?
