Career Advice Successful High flyers’ story

Victor Cha Mou-zing, deputy chairman and managing director of Hong Kong Resort International, swears by core values but is not afraid to move with the times.

For someone able to trace his family’s lineage back more than 2,000 years, Victor Cha Mou-zing, deputy chairman and managing director of Hong Kong Resort International (HKRI), is a business leader who likes to look ahead. This is a point Cha makes when he talks about his company’s upmarket residential Discovery Bay development, which was built from scratch 40 years ago and is still being developed. Home to more than 19,000 residents, the resort development has seen the launch of thousands of careers over its four decades of existence – many of which have been new types of career or a twist on traditional ones.

When the idea for Discovery Bay was conceived in the late 1970s by Cha’s father, the late Dr Cha Chi-ming, there was no template in Hong Kong for a mixed residential complex of its design or size, the largest plot of privately owned land in the territory. The development plan called for a residents’ membership club house and other assorted leisure facilities, plus a ferry service, which required equipping staff with new skills.

 “We introduced a lot of ‘firsts’, not necessarily ‘firsts’ in the world, but ‘firsts’ in Hong Kong,” says Cha. Today, Discovery Bay staff, which make up the largest proportion of HKRI’s 3,000-plus headcount, are targets for talent poachers across the world setting up similar schemes.

Despite Hong Kong’s perpetual war for talent, Cha takes a philosophical view when it comes to raids on his company’s talent pool. Instead of counteroffers of higher salaries and perks, Cha often encourages staff members to broaden their horizons and try something new.

 He even encouraged his own son to take up a job offer to join The Grosvenor Estate in the UK, headed by the Duke of Westminster, even if the son wrestled with his priorities over breaking with family loyalty. While Cha’s approach to talent management may seem a little cavalier, his rationale is based on forward thinking.

“We have a high number of returnees, which probably says something about the company as an employer, but importantly, when people return they bring new skills and capabilities with them,” says Cha, who believes in the collective knowledge and capabilities that teamwork provides.

“It’s probably one of the main things I’m known for. Whether it’s business partners or colleagues, I am always asking if they have spoken to this person or that person to get their opinion,” Cha continues. “It takes more time and effort working as a bigger team, but the extra effort and end results are usually worth it.” He adds that, as a leader, he extols the benefits of breaking down silos and utilising collaborative expertise.

Cha applies the same principle of collaboration and teamwork, when HKRI is considering investing in a new real estate development project.

“We have an executive committee and, after looking at all the pros and cons, each member has to agree before we go ahead with a bid for the project,” Cha explains. Out of every hundred or so projects the company looks at, the list is narrowed down to about 10, of which the company expects to win two or three bids.

An MBA graduate of Stanford University, where he was a Sloan Fellow, Cha says that, although he enjoyed the educational experience, an MBA programme is about concepts and guidelines, but in the world of business it is more about managing people and navigating unique problems. “People are moving parts who change their minds when you don’t want them to and won’t change them when you do want them to,” he says.

Born in 1949 in Hong Kong, where Cha’s family opened the China Dyeing Works in Tsuen Wan after migrating from Chongqing two years earlier, Cha worked in the family textile business until 2001, when he took up his current position. Originally from Yuanhua Town, voted the “most beautiful small village in China”, in the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, about five years ago members of the Cha family collated the family linage, which dates back more than 2,400 years, and had it printed in old Chinese style script, which was bound in 28 volumes.

Aware of his family’s entrepreneurial history, Cha believes his business leadership style reflects the fundamental values of Confucianism, which include being true to your word and upholding business principles that business should benefit the community, he is also quick to point out that some of the business traditions his father practiced need to be updated. “If I didn’t change with the times, I would say I was not living up to my father’s expectations,” he says.

Under Cha’s leadership, HKRI has grown into a conglomerate with diversified interests in real estate development and investment, property management, hospitality, healthcare services and other investments in Hong Kong, mainland China and across Asia.

“We actually see ourselves as a ‘lifestyle curator’ rather than a property development company,” says Cha, citing the company’s latest mainland flagship development, a US$2.56 billion, 323,000 square-metre retail office and hotel complex, a 50-50 venture between HKRI and Swire Properties in Shanghai’s Jingan district.

Originally designated as a two-third residential site, Cha and his team persuaded the local authorities to change the development permit.

As a result, Cha says, the mixed-use commercial project has become a new landmark and provides shopping, dining and lifestyle options for residents of Shanghai and visitors.

 “It’s popular with locals for the lifestyle options it provides and good for the city because the business tax base is bigger,” Cha says, explaining that, because HKRI commits to relatively few projects, to differentiate the company, a lot of thought is given to adding character and soul.

 “It may sound trivial, but it’s important, to distinguish ourselves, by developing something we can put our arms around rather than duplicating what someone one else is doing,” says Cha.