Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師): Cyberport Smart-Clinic Seminar on HKQAA Startups Registration Scheme

2016年8月19日星期五

Cyberport Smart-Clinic Seminar on HKQAA Startups Registration Scheme

After our last visited Cyberport on 15 Jun 2016, HKQAA and Cyberport organized the Smart-Clinic Seminar named “How to Gain Business Partners’ Trust by using Management Tools”. We would like to introduce the scheme named “HKQAA Hong Kong Registration - Start-ups”. I was invited by HKQAA to give a talk together. Before the seminar, Mr. Nic Chan (Account Manager, HKQAA), Mr. Nathan Liu (Smart-Space Community Manager, Cyberport) and I took a photo for memory.

Then Mr. Nathan Liu introduced us to all Cyberport incubatees.

I was the first speaker and my topic was “Quality Startup Management System” in which I briefed the history and development of that scheme. HKSTP and Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency (HKQAA) kicked off the "Hong Kong Innovation & Technology Support Programme" and signed MOU on 24 Mar 2015. One of our services is provided recognition for start-up business matching. Therefore, we assisted HKQAA to establish “HKQAA Hong Kong Registration - Start-ups” and aimed to nurture technology startups and foster their long term development.

Why we had this idea? It was because my experience to assist three of incubatees in Science Park to achieve HOKLAS accreditation, ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 certifications. Most incubatees seek certification to verify their service and product at the last minutes and it was found that those incubatees invested a lot of manpowers to do it. We would like to do some foundation and enhance their management awareness for long term business development. Therefore, we thought the simplified version is more suitable.

In my analysis, most of our incubatees’ milestones that planed but not met were focused on business development area (not in technology / product development areas). So the scheme design aimed to assist incubatees (startup) to get the first customer through business matching under HKQAA assurance.

Mr. Nic Chan was the second speaker and he introduced HKQAA role and responsibility. HKQAA was non-profit-distributing organization and established by the Hong Kong Government in 1989. Scope of services included QMS, EMS, Food Safety MS, OHSMS and Social Compliance/Accountability, etc.

He also mentioned the limitation of startup for certification included “Limited Resource”, “Shortage of Manpower”, “Lack of Recognition”, and “Lack of Track Record”.

During development of “HKQAA Hong Kong Registration - Start-ups”, they gathered the needs, expectations and concerns from different stakeholders included “Incubator”, “Angel/VC”, “Academic”, “Big Corporations” and “Start-ups”. Then Nic briefed the partner and supporting organizations.

On 13 May 2016, HKQAA Symposium invited Mr Nicholas W. Yang, JP, Secretary for Innovation and Technology, the Government of the HKSAR, to be officiating guest of the kickoff ceremony, indicating that scheme was supported by Hong Kong Government.