Learning the West in the East

Hong Kong, an "enclave" where the West meets the East? From the judicial system, the financial market, to the Manhattan-style night view of Central, it is all Western-style. On the other side of Victoria Harbour, the fortune-telling stalls on Temple Street and Cantonese opera on the street have been the same for a hundred years.

East and West meet here in a turn. Differences due to openness and learning due to differences have always been the eternal theme of Hong Kong. In the ten years since the return, the theme has not changed. What has changed is what Hong Kong people learn and how local management training and business schools organize teaching.

"If you don't study, you will be left behind"

"Almost all of my colleagues are busy charging, and some people are preparing for three certificates at the same time." An employee who came to Hong Kong from the mainland to work has always been amazed by the people in Hong Kong. enthusiasm for learning. "Ask them, what makes you die (what makes you study so hard)? They all answered the same, everyone else is learning, if you don't learn, you'll be out (if you don't learn, you'll be out of date)!"

When Learning has become a kind of inertia, and it no longer reflects the work pressure shouldered by Hong Kong people or the professional spirit that is integrated into the blood. The changing era has witnessed Hong Kong people's learning boom time and time again.

Taking language learning as an example, in the concept of Hong Kong people, English is the stepping stone to job hunting. In addition to the English teaching from kindergartens, various international or local English training classes "more than rice shops" are also the traditional main force of Hong Kong's training industry. Whether it is a new person facing a job search or an old employee who has worked for many years, English is the first choice for self-cultivation. With the wave of globalization sweeping Hong Kong, French, German, Spanish, and even Arabic have become new choices for professionals in the workplace.

Perhaps for the first time, Hong Kong people's learning objects are in the East, and so close to themselves.

In the past ten years, Mandarin, Shanghainese and Hokkien have become the new favorites of Hong Kong's training industry. Closer economic and trade ties with the mainland have enabled Hong Kong people to turn their past learning enthusiasm to the mainland of the motherland. In addition to Putonghua and other dialects, the legal and financial system of the mainland is also a hotspot for Hong Kong people to learn. However, the focus of Hong Kong people's learning has returned from the West to the East, also in order not to "fall behind" in the era in which they live. At the same time, Hong Kong has also better played the role of a window and bridge between the East and the West.

Training industry "bridges"

Like this city, management training in Hong Kong is also a bridge. One end is the western "management jungle", and the other end is the foreign trade, logistics, finance and other export-oriented industries that Hong Kong depends on for a living, as well as the Asia-Pacific headquarters of most multinational corporations from the West. After 1997, the bridge is extending towards the mainland of the motherland.

One direction is north. Now, nearly 80% of Hong Kong management training institutions have landed in the mainland. After establishing a foothold in South China, the enclosure of Beijing and Shanghai has become its strategic focus.

According to the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Shanghai are the main markets for Hong Kong's training industry to export services, while Shanghai and Beijing are the cities with the most promising prospects in the next one to three years. As far as training topics are concerned, non-technical areas are its strengths, including concepts and skills in management, negotiation, communication, decision-making, etc., as well as quality improvement in customer service and marketing. As far as industry is concerned, manufacturing is not an advantage of Hong Kong's training industry. Experience in international management, finance and logistics is the first choice for Hong Kong's training industry to go north, and it is also an area with strong demand for training in the Mainland.

Another direction is south. While Hong Kong training institutions and trainers are heading north, mainland enterprises and institutions are sending their employees to Hong Kong to learn from professional quality to practical skills.

In April of this year, a Hong Kong professional conduct training called "I will do my job well" was launched. The organizer, Guangdong International Travel Service and a training institution, said that through observation and interactive courses in Hong Kong, it will help to solve the common problem of "misalignment of employees' professional conduct and enterprise survival requirements". In such "sales elite training camp" and "senior management training", mainland enterprises, the training industry and the tourism industry in both places will benefit from it. From this more intuitive study tour experience, employees will also feel the impact of concepts that they have never experienced in the classroom.

"Hong Kong training institutions can introduce the most advanced training courses in Europe and the United States to play a bridge role", this is the view of Hong Kong trainer Gu Xiuquan. His company is expanding into the mainland market after entering Shunde. However, "full westernization" is not the whole of Hong Kong's training industry.

Just like Gu Xiuquan, who holds two doctorate degrees in psychology from the United States and Chinese medicine from the Mainland, he has created a "wealth creation" with the traditions of Guangdong and Hong Kong based on modern psychology and career development theories. The combination of Eastern and Western characteristics is the magic weapon for the survival of Hong Kong's training industry. Especially as most small and medium-sized enterprises, with their consistent adaptability and market sensitivity, they have put demand research in the first place in the process of entering the mainland in recent years, which has laid a good foundation for the localization of training programs.

In addition, the relaxation of relevant policies after the handover has become an opportunity for Hong Kong's training industry to go north. Before 2004, training institutions in Hong Kong were regarded as foreign-funded companies and were not allowed to operate solely in the mainland. However, CEPA has broken this requirement, so that Hong Kong training institutions do not have to rely on mainland companies, thereby reducing operational risks and winning more room for development.

Business schools "open the window"

Compared with the training industry, business schools are farther from reality, but closer to the essence of enterprises and markets. Aloof from the East and the West, Hong Kong Business School has achieved unprecedented development in recent years.

On the shore of Clear Water Bay on the Kowloon Peninsula, there is such a university: established in 1991, ranked first in the ranking of Asian business schools by Asia-Inc magazine in 2001, and ranked first in the global MBA rankings of the Financial Times in 2005 two. On the eve of the tenth anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, the dean of the School of Business Administration has been appointed as the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of the Hong Kong Government.

The young Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Chen Qiangqiang, who has been promoted from HKUST to Hong Kong's "rich son", have jointly witnessed the internationalization and sinicization of local business schools before and after the handover.

Whether it is the oldest Hong Kong University or the youngest HKUST, Hong Kong's business schools have always followed the British and American models. The difference is that old-fashioned universities such as Hong Kong University mostly follow the British tradition, while HKUST follows the American style. Looking back at the beginning of the establishment of the college, Chen Jiaqiang said that the college designed courses and hired professors based on the University of California, Los Angeles. All English teaching and all North American doctoral teachers have become the hallmark features of the school. In the words of Chen Jiaqiang, it is to "build a first-class research-oriented business school and recruit only the best international professors." Business administration education can draw on the experience of Britain and the United States that is no longer far away in terms of running schools, courses, and academics. At the same time, professors who have studied in the West are here to test the Chinese practice of great theories.

"China is the most important force for Asian economic integration." At an economic forum before leaving office, Chen Jiaqiang pointed out that Hong Kong's backing to China makes it easier to seize the opportunity. The same is true in scientific research. Because of its attention to the growing capital market in the Mainland, the financial research of HKUST Business School ranks first in Asia and even in the world in many international academic journals. Lang Xianping, currently a chair professor of finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, breathes full academic freedom here and continues to express "radical" opinions on the mainland stock market. In his view, "academic freedom has driven the rapid accumulation of talents in Hong Kong, which is very important to Hong Kong's economic development." Lang Xianping believes that this westerly wind will also "ferment and gradually expand" in the mainland.

As a "bridge" and "window" between the East and the West, Hong Kong's east and west winds cannot overwhelm the other, thus fostering a tradition of learning that is integrated into the blood. Looking back on the ten years since the handover, Hong Kong's management training and business schools are no longer limited to the local area. They have begun to focus more on the mainland, and have become a major source of learning for the Chinese business community.

The author is an associate editor of the World Manager website.