How Tencent CFO John Lo picked up valuable skills from a top Hong Kong-based MBA course
World’s best MBA programme is a joint course involving local university, and counts other business elites as alumni
It was a top-ranked MBA course based in Hong Kong that inspired management and business strategies at Chinese tech giant Tencent, the company’s chief financial officer said on Monday.
In 2009, John Lo Shek-hon graduated from an Executive MBA programme jointly organised by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Illinois. Eight years on, the course is still going strong.
On Monday it was ranked first in a list of the top 100 Executive MBA programmes in the world, compiled by the Financial Times.
The best two business school programmes in the world are based in Hong Kong, according to the Financial Times
It was the eighth time the 19-year-old programme claimed the top spot since its entry into the rankings in 2005.
“All parts of our company must adapt swiftly in the fast-developing industry of technology and the internet. That’s why the forward-thinking concept I learned from the programme is important,” Lo said, when asked how the course contributed to his daily management of the Hong Kong-listed conglomerate.
As trading closed on Monday, the market value of Tencent stood at more than HK$3.3 trillion.
According to Lo, the skills in planning ahead, which he picked up from the programme, led to the company’s first issuance of dollar bonds in 2011 – part of the infrastructure built to prepare Tencent for future developments. The company raised US$600 million from the move.