Hong Kong firms should learn from Uber, Google and foster innovation within: Game Changers

Hong Kong enterprises are in need of a more open and entrepreneur-friendly management style to cultivate innovation within their ranks, industry experts said on Thursday at the second South China Morning Post Game Changers forum.

The prime examples cited during the event's panel discussion on innovation agility were internet giant Google and ride-hailing app Uber, whose representatives said their corporate culture fostered the sharing of ideas.

"To become more agile, organisations must push the principles of leadership, accountability, passion and drive for the business throughout the organisation -- literally," said Wu Po Chi, an adjunct professor in the school of engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Wu pointed out that many companies still followed a "hierarchical" leadership, in which information is held captive at the highest levels of management.

"So what all the people there can do is follow instructions. That is what makes a very rigid organisation, incapable of adapting to change and meeting challenges," he said.

In the highly competitive industries in which Google and Uber operate, the decisions on what product to offer or strategy to pursue are based on carefully vetted ideas from the their organisations.