Issue3

The information contained in this magazine is for discussion and reference only and should not be treated as investment advice. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the

magazine or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in the magazine for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information

is therefore strictly at your own risk. In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage

whatsoever arising from, or in connection with, the use of this magazine.

Source of photos: Unless otherwise specified, all photos are from Google Images.

CONTENTS

Market Update

Companies & Industries Dual Counter & Dual Tranche Dual Counter

Hong Kong: The first place to have RMB share outside China

Editor’s Note

Career Coach Career Planning: Market Exploration

—Investment Banking (2)

“Reach vertically & horizontally,

expand in multiple angles”

- Rocky Lok on networking

Biweekly Review: Market still floods with hot money Volatility will increase

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8

Columns

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18

Financial Planning

Better Safe than Sorry What is meaningful work?

Borizon

People

10

‘Try’ and ‘Triumph’ 2 Dialogue with the CFO With Rocky Lok CFO, Birdland KFC Hong Kong & Macau

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Issue 3 |Oct 2012

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2

Borizon

Editor’s Note

The difference between ‘Try’ and ‘Triumph’ is just a little ‘umph’

By Kelvin Sham

M id-term exams are around the corner,

try your best for good grades. GPA is

a key to job-hunting! Borizon is a platform

for students to share ideas with students

alike. We welcome anyone to join us and

contribute to our fellow readers! Make your

voice heard at [email protected].

T hanks to my supporting team-mates for building with me one of the

achievements I am most proud of —Borizon. I have always dreamt of having a start-up and now it is coming true. When my partners brought up the idea of Borizon, I did not know if it could become another ‘Bloomberg Businessweek’ in the future. However, I thought every success begins with a try, so I was like ‘Let’s give it a spin’ and here we are!

B orizon is one of the breakthroughs in

my university life. It is not just a

project for a line in my CV. We hope it can

do our fellow students good. In my first

year, I was always so confused about

career issues and there was not much

help. There were advices, but sometimes

they contradicted each other which made

me more confused. Through Borizon, we

wish to share the best of our experiences

with you so that you can fare better than

we did.

Issue 3 |Oct 2012

◆ Market still floods with hot money

◆ Volatility will increase

Abstract of last issue One should beware of any short term downtrend which could hurt one’s position.

Then….. Although inflow of hot money pushed up the index constituents, most of the individual stocks start their short term correction. The up/down ratio of all common stocks drops from 61:39 on Wednesday to 22:78 on Friday. At the same time, Indexes finally slide. HSI loses over 200 points on Friday while HSCEI declines 3 days in a row.

MARKET RECAP

The direction of the market is mainly affected by the flow of money instead of the performance of global equity market. Although the US market has corrected over three weeks, the Hong Kong market is still immune from that and keeps its uptrend.

On Friday, the HK government released the new SSD policy to cool down the real estate market. It would adversely affect the real estate sector for a short term but it would be a good news for the stock market. Owing to the increase of trading cost and liquidity risk, the hot money will seek for other profitable assets.

HK stocks would then surely be the first choice.

What now?

Our market timing model for both HSI and HSCEI still shows an ‘Uptrend’ signal. One should keep searching for stocks in the strongest industry group and keep observing the relationship between HKD and the market atmosphere. Keep in mind that volatility will increase in the future due to

the flow of hot money. Market is riskier but more profitable. It is still worthy to put your every cent into the market.

HSCEI corrects 3 days in a row

Hang Seng Index keeps rising steadily

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Borizon

Market Update

“The anti-gravitational force will consistently act on HK stock market, boosting all stocks ultimately. Smart investors should ride on the trend immediately. ”

By Joseph Lau

Market Update

THE WINNING INDUSTRY

Owing to the growth of exploita-tion of Shale gas in China, the oil and gas equipment industry be-comes the winner in the current trend. The largest state-owned drilling service firm COSL(02883) surges 6% on Friday due to the better-than-expected quarterly earnings. Anton Oilfield Service (03337) and Honghua Group (00196) even broke new high with enough volume. The rise of the whole industry can be attrib-uted to the future development of the Shale gas, the new energy. Also, the significant increase in earnings provided support for the stock price. It is expected that the uptrend will last for at least two quarters.

Borizon Ranking

COSL (02883):

Anton (03337):

Honghua (00196):

Hilong (01623):

SPT (01251):

CIMC (03899):

Honghua Group (00196) outperforms the market

Anton (03337) breaks from a ‘cup with handle’

Issue 3 |Oct 2012

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Strongest 5 industries

1) Oil and gas equipment

2) Comm. equipment

3) Shipbuilding

4) Gamble

5) Supermarket

THE TREND

Leading sectors are rising. Apart from the oil and gas equipment, the communication equipment industry benefits from its new de-velopment. The demand for equipment of 4G service creates huge opportunities for related manufacturers. O-Net Comm. (00877) and Chengdu Putian (01202) become the top gainer this week. COMBA (02342) and China Wireless (02369) still con-tinue their uptrend.

However, communication service provider could not benefit from the trend. Owing to the worse-than-expected quarterly earnings of China Unicom (00762), its stock price slid over 7% in a day. China Telecom (00728) even dove four days in a row.

The effect of a news on upstream and downstream companies can be completely different. Investors should take notice.

Borizon Ranking

Comm. Equip. :

Communication:

China Unicom (00123) faces selling pressure

Chengdu Putian (01202) stores momentum

Weakest 5 industries

1) Communication 2) i-phone related 3) Metal 4) Personal care 5) Marine

Market Update Issue 3 |Oct 2012

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Borizon

Companies & Industries◆ Dual Counter V.S. Dual Tranche Dual Counter

◆ The first place to have RMB share outside China

E arlier this month, Harvest MSCI China A Index Exchange Traded Fund (Harvest ETF) was listed on Hong

Kong Stock Exchange under a “Dual Counter” model, the first one of its kind in Hong Kong. Just a few days ago, Hopewell Highway infrastructure limited launched the first RMB-denominated share placement , making it the first company to have both RMB-traded and HKD-traded share under the “Dual Tranche Dual Counter” model. Suddenly, Dual Counter (DC) and Dual Tranche Dual Counter (DTDC) models heat up and draw much attention from the public and the media.

Harvest ETF—the first DC ETF

Harvest ETF was introduced under Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) scheme, which allows qualified RQFII holders to use their RQFII quotas to raise Renminbi funds in Hong Kong and to invest in mainland securities. On top of Harvest ETF, there are other physically-replicated ETFs listed on HKSE under RQFII scheme, including CSOP FTSE China A50 ETF, E Fund CSI 100 A-Share

Index ETF and ChinaAMC CSI 300 Index ETF. What makes Harvest ETF different from others is that it is the first Dual Counter ETF in Hong Kong.

Under the Dual Counter model, the RQFII ETFs have two trading counters, namely, the Renminbi counter and the Hong Kong dollar counter for investors to trade in secondary market. Investors can buy and sell units in different counters according to their needs and the transaction will be settled in different currencies under different counters. For example, an investor can buy an ETF in HKD counter with HKD and sell in RMB counter to receive RMB. However, Dual Counter trading is possible only if the brokers provide both HKD and RMB trading services and inter-counter transfer services.

ETF units traded in different counters are in essence the same and the holders are entitled to the same rights and treated equally. However, despite of the same underlying securities and net asset value, the unit price of the ETFs may not be the same under HKD and RMB counters because the unit price of an ETF is also determined by market forces of supply and demand.

What is RQFII? Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) is a policy launched by the mainland authority which allows qualified RQFII quota holders to raise RMB capital in Hong Kong and to invest in China’s securities mar-kets. The initial quota of the scheme of RMB 20 billion will soon be reached due to positive responses from in-vestment managers. The program is seen as an action to promote the internationalization of the Chinese cur-rency as well as to promote Hong Kong’s position as an offshore RMB centre.

By Louis Pang

DC Model VS. DTDC Model

However, investors should not confuse Dual Counter model with the Dual Tranche Dual Counter model. DTDC model refers to the initial public offering and seasoned equity offering by an issuer in both HKD and RMB and the subsequent secondary trading in both currencies. Under RQFII, ETFs are issued and redeemed in RMB only and, therefore, the listing of Harvest ETF adopted only a Dual Counter model but not a DTDC model.

On the other hand, Hopewell Highway Infrastructure truly adopted a DTDC model as it raised capital in RMB by placing the company shares to third parties. In fact, people tend to compare the share placement of the company with the suspended dual-currency listing of Dynasty REIT, a Chinese property investor backed Li Ka-Shing, on Singapore Exchange. The IPO of Dynasty REIT, which could be the largest one in Singapore this year, was set to be denominated in both Singapore Dollar and Renminbi and its units would have two trading counters should the plan was not pulled out at the very last stage of the IPO process.

Wins a battle against Singapore

Singapore has long been a competitor of Hong Kong in terms of their competitiveness in financial industry. Both have been competing to capture the growing offshore RMB activities. The success of Dual Counter Dual Tranche model as demonstrated by Hopewell Highway reaffirms Hong Kong’s position as a first-class international financial city. In fact, Hong Kong has been developing different RMB-denominated investment products, including RMB currency futures, RMB-denominated bonds and etc, to consolidate its role as an offshore RMB business centre.

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▲ Singapore is a major a competitor of Hong Kong in many

different aspects: RMB business centre, private banking and headquarter location for multinational companies.

Issue 3 |Oct 2012

Career Coach

Market Exploration

Investment Banking (Part 2)

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Borizon

◆ Understand the industry—Investment Banking

◆ The revenue centre of an investment bank

DID YOU KNOW?

Glencore International plc is the world’s largest IPO in 2011. The

company raised $10.3 billion after dual-listing in London and Hong Kong

1

I n the last issue, we have introduced to you briefly on what is the main business areas of an investment bank. The

organizational structure of an investment bank can mainly be divided into 3 major areas: Front Office, Middle Office and Back office. In this issue, we are going in-depth into the fee earning area, which is the front office.

Investment Banking Division (IBD)

The Investment Banking Division helps corporate raise capital; there are a number of ways to achieve this, for example: Equity, Fixed Income and Private Placement.

The IBD is divided into 3 major teams, they are: Investment Banking Division, Equity Sales & Trading, and Fixed Income Sales &Trading.

Investment Banking Division mainly facilitates clients to raise capital and help to deal with local legal issues. When a firm raises capital, the fund is raised in the primary market where only big investors are involved.

Whereas Equity Sales &Trading and Fixed Income Sales & Trading deal with the trading of Equity and Bonds in the secondary market.

For example, if Prada wants to raise capital through equity market, an investment bank will help to facilitate the capital raising process through the following procedures.

1. Setting Objective. Investment Banking Division will first ask Prada how much capital it wants to raise.

2. Road show. IBD will help Prada make a pitch book which introduces Prada to investors and the purpose of raising funds. The team will travel around different markets such as US, UK, HK, Singapore, Shanghai, etc. This is called Road Show.

3. Analyzing & Distribution. The client pre-

orders demand for Prada’s security. The price and quantity of Prada’s IPO will be determined this stage.

4. Choosing the market and IPO. After analyzing what the market demand is in different markets, IBD will advise Prada on which market should they have their IPO listed. For example, Prada can sell their security at a higher price in Hong Kong than Singapore.

By Marek Chiu

11

Sales and Trading

This division facilitates the trading of securities and fixed incomes underwritten by the banks in the secondary market. Let’s continue our example of Prada, Goldman Sachs (one of the underwriter commission) will have to seek for buyers for the newly issued shares once the price and the quantity of the newly issue is fixed. As one of the obligations of being an underwriter, Goldman Sachs will have to purchase the rest of Prada’s securities in IPO if the newly issued shares are not completely sold.

As most of the institution clients are pension funds, mutual funds and hedge funds, sales are responsible for giving up-to-minute market information to their clients. These market information can include a country’s GDP announcement, major market updates, company earning announcement, unexpected market movements, etc.

The Sales needs to constantly communicate with the Portfolio manager concerning their buy-side clients and communicate with Research for timely market analysis.

The objective of trading is to aid clients to trade the security at the best market timing and help the firm gain some money while doing trading. The trading team is specialized in specific products such as

Equity, Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities and it’s market specific for example Asia Pacific Region (APAC) - Hong Kong.

Some may say that trader has the shortest working hours in the bank as they can only work when the market is open. That’s true once you can deal with the stress .

Research

Research is a centre of market information of the bank. Those market information is to help Sales and Trading update their clients on the market news and make advisory on their investments.

Each of the sales and trading team will be supported by a research team which are product-market specific.

Research can also serve as a brand promoter of the bank. Some of the Institution Investors choose their bank depending on what research reports they can gain access to. Research can cover a lot of topics including, market analysis and prediction, country analysis, stock analysis, trading model analysis, credit analysis, etc. Each report will be evaluated not only in the name of the bank but also your own name.

Personal Fame for research is also important for those who work in research in the bank.

Front Office

Investment Banking Division

Equity Sales & Trading

Fixed Income Sales & Trading

Th

e C

hin

es

e

Wa

ll

Equity FI

Middle Office Legal &

Compliance Finance and

Product Control Risk

Back Office Information & Technology

Operation Human

Resource

Asset Mgmt

Private Banking

Investors with excess capital

Clients who need capital

Issue 3 |Oct 2012

Borizon

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Asset Management

Asset Management can be classified into two main products namely investment service and brokerage service.

Investment service provides a wide range of products to their clients including high net worth individuals, Funds, Institutions, and Governments.

The Asset Management team divides the team according to investors and investment types

Type : Equity, Bonds, Foreign exchange, Real Estate, Alternative Investment

1. Institutional Investors

2. Retails Investors

3. Alternative Funds

As an asset manager, you will need to have broad knowledge on various products. While you move up your career ladder, you will like to be specialized on a product. Being an expert of a product can prove your value and gain trust among your clients. Networking and relationship maintenance are equally important while you are managing their portfolio.

The work of asset managers has proved to be fluid and dynamic as the market preference varies from time to time. In 2002, we have IT Fever; 2007, we have real estate; 2010, we have the rise of Emerging markets. The learning curve is steep and may require long working hours but it is definitely rewarding.

Private Banking

Private Banking provides advisory services for High Net Worth Individuals on financial arrangements.

Clients of Private Banking can be anyone who owns over a certain amount of money depending on the firm; the amount starts from HKD $3 million above.

Private bankers work with their clients to provide the best financial support and advise for their coming plans. Advise can be very broad including investment, taxes, retirement plans, estate planning, etc.

In order to nurture a better relationship with clients, understanding clients’ family needs and business need is vital.

Financial advise is not only about financial returns. It is about securing the living standard of their clients, growing their asset is the second priority.

Private Banking Service can be divided into 2 categories:

1. Discretionary – Clients who are willing to let you to manage their money fully which the bank can make investment decisions on their behalf .

2. Non Discretionary – Clients will only receive advice from the bank, the clients will have to make their own investment decisions.

Private bankers is about relationship building. One must prove to be smart, sociable, and honest in order to gain clients’ trust. An excellent academic record is not enough, being caring and understanding is essential in order to stand out from the crowd and make a difference as a Private Banker.

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Rocky Y.K. LOK CFO, Birdland KFC Hong Kong & Macau

Current Position ● CFO, Birdland KFC Hong Kong & Macau

Career ● VP, Greater China, Carlsberg ● Finance Director, Greater China, Campbell

Soup Company ● And pervious management positions at

LVMH Guerlain, HWL Watsons Manufac-turing, Waly Decorative Products

● Graduate job at Arthur Andersen & Co. (Former Big Eight CPA firm, later on spin-ning off Accenture Consulting)

Education ● Hong Kong Polytechnic University ● EMBA, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Borizon

People

A successful career with extensive experience in accounting, I.T., as well as most of the back office

functions, Rocky is the executive model we look up to. On top of that, Rocky served as the President of CUMBA Alumni Association, he is world champion in harmonica (Yes, World Champion! While LEE Shan-shan's was the last one before handover, his was the first one after)! He is rehearsing for a 25th Anniversary Concert on Nov 17, 2012!) and he is a caring mentor who aims to inspire the next generation of business leaders.

Our CUHK alumnus, Mr. Rocky Lok, shares with us his thoughts on career.

By T.K. Lo

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In the last issue we talked to an MBA candidate, how was Executive MBA different from an MBA?

EMBA students are all executives with more than 15 years of working experience. Every one is relatively senior in their field. Classes are directed by the professor, but the content you learn, is from your peers. It is a great learning opportunity as well as a networking opportunity.

Talking about networking, how should undergraduate students build up their network?

One must take the initiative to meet new people. One approach you can use is “reach vertically & horizontally and expand in multiple angles”.

If you are a year 2 student, look down and meet freshmen, look up and reach to alumni, MBA students and professors, they are in the same building as you are everyday! Make sure you know people from different age groups, they give you different perspectives. This is vertical.

If you study Quantitative Finance, talk to people in Marketing, or in Accounting. When you work during your internship, talk to other interns, that is horizontal.

Amidst his busy schedule, Rocky sat with our editor TK Lo and shared his thoughts on networking, internship and career.

“Reach vertically & horizontally, expand in

multiple angles” - Rocky Lok on networking

A harmonica virtuoso, Rocky plays

harmonica since his teenage years. He

performs worldwide for countless times.

(More than 100 in 30+ cities of more

than 20 countries!)

And….he is a CFO!

Networking tips: His music never fails

to impress the audience at business

events! What about yours? That way,

business and music blend.

Issue 3 |Oct 2012

▲Rocky with two of his 600+ harmonicas

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Borizon

A lot of our readers are planning to apply for an internship, do you have any advice on it? Keep your eyes wide open. One thing I learned over the course of my career is that, your brain thinks faster than you see, your eyes read faster than you say, your mouth speaks faster than your hands. If you plan to learn just by doing everything, it will take you a very long time. In the work place, try to pick up information using your eyes. As an intern, you might do photocopying, seize the chance to have an eye on the documents and learn about

the company’s operation from them. If you can see the value in every job task, you can learn way faster than other interns. Rocky, apart from your job, you are also involved in alumni events, music groups and many other. Undergraduate students are always too busy with projects and ECAs, how do you strike the balance? Great you brought up time management. Especially working on projects, I suggest you guys set a specific meeting time. For example, you meet for marketing project every two weeks on Friday afternoons. In this way, everyone must commit. If you only arrange a meeting on ad hoc basis, the meeting will never happen. That is what I do with my involvements.

Rocky has a tip for you:

Before reading the whole passage, read the titles and

headings, imagine what it is about, then verify.

That is how he speeded through his first 6 days at

Carlsberg, reading reports.

Tons of readings?

“Learn by observing.” - Rocky Lok on

internship experience

▲Rocky has been judging for CUHK Academic Cup since 2006!

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Rocky’s Steps

1980s

Rocky joined then-Big Eight Arthur Andersen & Co. upon graduation. As his career progressed, he moved to luxury brands as well as fast-moving consumer goods industries.

Rocky became the CFO of Birdland KFC Hong Kong & Macau, in charge of Finance, I.T. and development.

Now 2005

Having completed his EMBA in 2003, Rocky started to serve as the President of CUMBA Alumni Association.

Rocky served as Vice President, Greater China for Carlsberg. He was in charge of Finance, IT and Merger & Acquisition. Rocky led a team of over 400, including functional staffs, 30 directors and

2007

▲Being a CFO also requires micro-management, “If a store

manager reports to me they throw away two bags of chicken a

week, that is thousands of bags a year in Hong Kong!”.

▲Carlsberg is the fifth largest brewery in the

world. Its brand in China includes Carlsberg, Jolly

Shandy, Dali Beer (from Yunnan), Lhasa Beer

(from Tibet) and Wusu Beer (from Xinjiang), etc.

Issue 3 |Oct 2012

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Borizon

Financial Planning

Brief introduction of insurance

Last time, we ended abruptly on insurance and this time I will make it up to you. Generally, personal insurance is divided into 4 categories: Life, Critical Illness, Accident and Medical. Life insurance pays when the buyer is dead. Critical Illness insurance pays when the buyer is confirmed of having critical diseases like cancer, heart diseases, Alzheimer etc. Accident insurance pays when an accident causes death or disabilities. Medical insurance pays for your hospital fees, operations and other fees for

living in the hospital. Insurance is leverage. Every certain period you pay a fixed amount of money (premium) and it pays you back when unfortunate things happen.

The reimbursement is significantly larger than the total premium you paid. Take accident insurance as an example, every month you only need to pay around $200 but the reimbursement is $1M. What do you think of that?

‘Better Safe than Sorry.’ by Kelvin Sham

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Issue 3 |Oct 2012

Why do you need insurance?

To me, insurance is really good stuff, because I never know when bad things are going to strike me and, most importantly, how much they are going to cost me. With insurance, I can pay a known budget (premium) to control uncertain costs (medical fees). Besides, insurance is an income protection. If I get cancer and cannot work for months, the insurance can cover the medical fees and the payroll when I was absent. Imagine if I am not insured and I do not have enough to pay for myself, my family will have to pay for me. Do you want your problems to trouble your family too? What would you choose? Without insurance, you will be your own insurance company.

Some say they would rather use the money for investments than to buy insurance. However, are there often investments that can turn a few thousand dollars into a million in a month? What if cancer gets you the next day? My point is that you never know when life hits you.

Insurance is the only thing that can assure you of a great amount of money while you are only paying a thousand or two.

There are also people who have insurance but not enough coverage. Among the 4 categories, some may only have insurance for one or two but not all. However, would you close all four doors of a car or would you leave some of them open? Besides, some people think that the insurance provided by the employers is enough. However, those kind of insurance usually disappear when you no longer work for the company. Therefore, I advise those people to purchase insurance that can still insure them after their employment.

I am sure after the long discussion, you all should get the importance of insurance. You should get insured ASAP because the younger you are, the cheaper the premium is.

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Borizon

What’s meaningful work?

What does work actually mean?

Being final year students, most of my friends and I are starting to seek for our graduate jobs; suddenly, I found myself like a kite caught up in a hurricane, being pulled into the frenzied forces of CV editing, cover letter writing, recruitment talk sittings, and international exams taking. Yet, as I pause, sit back, and look at the storm from the outside, I start to question: Why are we all so concerned? What does work actually mean to us? Is it about finding something to do so as to prevent boredom? Is it about earning money in order to live the better life? Is it about conforming to societal norms and fulfilling expectations? Or, could it be a way to achieve purpose in life?

As times change, values change too; the meaning of work in the early 20th century is so much different from what it is now. In times when society is simpler and less affluent, people focus on how the activity of working enables one to provide for one’s family. For example, my grandfather takes pride in his job of being a small manager in a Chinese restaurant mainly because it gives him sufficient income to take care of a family of six, thus fulfilling his responsibility as the father, the bread-winner of his family. Now, with the society being wealthier and the increasing stress on western ideologies such as Individualism, much stress is put on the role work plays in an individual’s journey of personal growth.

Showcase your abilities and talents!

Since work is a major means to individual growth rather than being merely a necessary way to earn money, we must then consider what characteristics an occupation should have in order to be satisfying and meaningful to an individual. Firstly, work that gives one the chance to use and to showcase one’s abilities, interests, and talents is satisfying. Ask any chef whether he minds being in the hot kitchen the whole day, he would probably laugh it off and tell you the joys and satisfaction in inventing and cooking delicious dishes for customers and seeing their contented smiles. Prudence Mak, founder and head designer of Chocolate Rain Design, once shared in an interview that, due to her immense passion in illustrating and product designing, she insisted in setting up

her own design company in Soho in year 2000 despite family pressure and the lack of funds. It

was her passion in designing and confidence in her skills that

motivated her through the various ups and downs in her small start-up

business. Now, Chocolate Rain Design is a renowned company

famous for its unique, handmade pieces. Up till now, the company’s

design collection and illustration were commissioned projects for global

brands such as Clinique, Sasa Cosmetics, and Swarovski.

Prudence’s story, despite sounding a bit like a Disney cliché, nevertheless reminds us of the importance in identifying one’s talents and interests and focusing on developing them through work; it is through combining

natural talents and interests with career that one could truly enjoy the satisfaction and

happiness work brings.

By Gloria Emily Chan

Being part of a greater whole

Secondly, a satisfying and meaningful occupation gives one the sense of contributing to a greater whole, thus bringing a strong sense of self worth. For example, a housewife could find great satisfaction and meaning in taking care of household chores as it means maximizing every family member’s comfort and happiness. In this sense, the daily chores of a housewife (cooking, cleaning, tidying, taking the kids to classes etc) are not simply errands, but are contributions to the greater good of the household. Similarly, a university professor could view his teaching as a contribution to the society rather than simply information transfer from one to another: it is through the knowledge and care he gives to his students that they become better informed of the world, more confident, more able to think independently and critically, and gradually, ready to take up various responsibilities in the society as mature young adults. Thus, one should seek an occupation that not only matches with one’s interests and talents, but also one which serves a greater significance and purpose other than the work itself.

To archive your goals in life

Last but definitely not least, meaningful work should act as a path for one to achieve life goals. By “life goals” I do not mean the desires for money, power, and fame (we all know they are unending and can never be completely fulfilling), instead, by “life goals” I mean a vision of a better world. Sir David Akers-Jones, my mentor whom I highly respect, is the perfect epitome of using his work to make a good difference to the world. In his days working in the Hong Kong government, Sir made various important decisions that improved the livelihood of Hong Kong people, especially through developing the New Territories. For instance, during his days as Secretary for the New Territories, Sir was “instrumental in turning

small villages into New Towns…to resettle slum-dwellers on the hillsides of Hong Kong Island” (Smith, 2007). After retirement, and just having his 85th birthday celebrated a few months ago, Sir is still actively involved in associations such as the Hong Kong Girl Guides and charitable organizations such as Operation Smile China and Wu Zhi Qiao Charitable Foundation. Just last weekend, our regular Saturday morning meeting was forced to end early as Sir is having a lunch meeting with a celebrity who agreed to be the spokesperson for Operation Smile China, a charity in which Sir is the Chairman of, that aims at providing free surgery for kids with cleft lips all over China. Sir’s wisdom, clear memories, and desire to absorb knowledge never cease to amaze me, but what awes me the most is his never-ending vigor (he is 85 after-all!). Now, I know the secret to Sir’s flow of energy and his great achievements in life – it is his vision of a better Hong Kong, of a better China, of a better world. From Sir, I see that a strong commitment in achieving one’s life goal is definitely one of the most motivating factors for a person to act, hence, finding one’s life goal and a career that could bring oneself gently towards that direction is what we all should do.

One last word: Dare to dream

What are you waiting for? Close your eyes and picture how you would like your society to be, then think about how you could change it for the better with the abilities you have been given – the answer you come up with might just be the most suitable and meaningful job for you! One thing we should always bear in mind is that the meaning of work is not found in the work itself, but in the way the worker sees and uses it.

Gloria Emily Chan is a 3rd year English student.

Reference: Smith, Patrick L. (19 March 2007). "In Hong Kong, a man who stayed on for love". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 21 March 2007.

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Issue 3 |Oct 2012