Venture capitalist says he always knew that one day he would be running his own company
Inside almost every employee in Hong Kong there is an entrepreneur waiting to get out. Some just dream big, others plan and wait, but the minority - the true entrepreneurs - realise that, in the end, there is no substitute for action.
In Raymond Yeung Wing-keung's case, that moment arrived as he approached 40. He had been with Ingersoll-Rand for several years, latterly handling a regional M&A job based in Shanghai. The career prospects were good, but the certainty had grown that if he was to strike out on his own, it was now or never.
'You realise that even a CEO is only a company employee,' Mr Yeung said. 'But life has different phases, and I always knew that one day I would run my own show. I decided it was time to move on to the next stage.'
That was in 2006, and thanks to careful planning, hard work and astute management, he is making his name as a venture capitalist. As executive director of his own company, Innobiz Capital, Mr Yeung is identifying and investing in relatively young mainland companies, and now finds himself able to give full rein to diverse business talents.
'I wanted to transform myself from being seen as someone with an engineering and IT background to having a much wider business role,' he said. 'I also wanted to make sure I was ready to take any opportunities that popped up.' With that in mind, he signed on for the Richard Ivey EMBA in 2003, realising too that it would be a great way of building contacts. While taking the course, he started to formulate business plans and bounced them off classmates in order to get alternative opinions and feedback.
'The class was really helpful in providing a platform because there were people from diverse backgrounds who were happy to debate ideas and exchange experiences, and they were a tremendous help in giving me different perspectives,' he said. The course also included workshops, which examined how well-known entrepreneurs had started their businesses, and what had affected their decisions.
