Since its inception in March 2014, the Shadow a CEO Programme has enabled Hong Kong’s future leaders to see what life’s really like at the top by providing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet renowned top executives in the city. The programme has partnered with firms from a diverse range of industries including retail, aviation, engineering, media, automobiles and IT.
Sunil Jethani, a business operations management student from City University of Hong Kong, was pleasantly surprised by how much time he got to spend with Gary Liu, CEO of the South China Morning Post, last November as part of the programme. “On our first day, we had the opportunity to meet with Gary for 30 minutes before the town hall staff meeting in Tai Po and for another hour before the town hall at Causeway Bay. These one-on-one-sessions with Gary were amazing since we were able to chat about his daily routine and life as a CEO.”
Jethani also learned that empathy and encouraging staff to work as a team are very important to Liu. “Gary values team work very highly and is empathetic towards colleagues. He always seems to know exactly what is going on in another person’s mind, and this emphasis on team work is very important in running a large business.”
City University of Hong Kong business management student Charles Tse shadowed Albert Wong, CEO at Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks in October 2017. “One of the key things that I learnt from Albert about running a large business is to build up a good corporate culture. I met with HKSTP staff from different teams and all of them were very clear about their role and mission in the company, and share the same vision: to help start-ups at the park grow their business.”
Chineye Egbuna, an accounting and finance student at Hong Kong Baptist University, shadowed chief human resources officer at Schneider Electric Olivier Blum last November and December. One of the highlights of the programme was the meet and greet sessions with senior management. Blum also shared his experiences about career, family and other general aspects of life with him and the other shadows. “I learned that a good leadership style should be open enough to encourage free flow of ideas and creativity from team members to ensure that everybody’s opinion is valued to enhance synergy and trust and promote openness,” she says.
Tushar Agarwal, a student in business management at the University of Hong Kong, shadowed Dr Wendy Lee, country sales manager for Hong Kong and Macau at Autodesk, this January. He says the highlight of the programme was working on live challenges and presenting solutions to the CEO. “More importantly, we got to know her feedback right away and found out how she planned to incorporate our solutions in the company’s strategy for the upcoming year. Through our interactions, we learned the values of resilience and innovation required in running such a large business,” he adds.
