AS Watson hosts ‘hackathon’ challenge, in nod to importance of big data in retail management
Talent pool for data scientists in Hong Kong is ‘insufficient’, says chief operating officer of AS Watson
A S Watson Group, the retail unit of Li Ka-shing’s flagship conglomerate CK Hutchison, hosted over the weekend what it called the “first ever retail-themed big data hackathon in Hong Kong” to help it harness the power of data.
The retail giant hopes the event would help it scout for suitable candidates to become its staff or third-party data analytics consultants.
It plans to more than double its headcount of data scientists headcount, but recruiting such talent in Hong Kong is challenging, according to a top-level manager.
“The pool of data analytics talent in Hong Kong is insufficient, there are computer engineers but most of them work for the telecommunications, banking and airlines sectors,” Malina Ngai Man-lin, chief operating officer of Watson said on Sunday.
‘There is a notion that retailing is a more traditional industry that is not as exciting for data scientists to join.”
During the competition, Watson gave real operating data from its Hong Kong operations to 110 contenders, selected from over 200 applicants, who formed 16 competing groups.