Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師)

2011年6月19日星期日

Almaty Visit before TQM Kaz 2011 Forum

I was honor to be one of keynote speaker for TQM Kaz 2011 Forum in Kazakhstan. I would like to share my trip below. There was no direct fight from Hong Kong to Almaty, Kazakhstan. So we needed to go to Beijing first and then changed to another fight to Almaty. However, the fight schedule was not frequency. Our fight (KC 888) was arranged at 3:00am on 13 June 2011.

A few people were in the Beijing airport at 2:00am.

During the fight landing, Snow Mountain was seen.

Airport of Almaty

A sculpture in the road

We appreciated Prof. Azat who assigned a staff to drive us to Holiday Inn from airport.

Since it was too early to check-in at 7:00am, we went to a restaurant for breakfast.

Breakfast in mixed style

All notices and advertisement of the restaurant were either Kazakhstan language or Russian language.

Then we went to a park which near our hotel. Many roses planted in the park.

We saw a sculpture named “Sovereign Kazakhstan” which meant the independence of Kazakhstan.

The Central State Museum of The Republic of Kazakhstan was visited. Its history began in 1930s in Orenburg, when “The Museum of Orenbury Region” was founded in the Neplyev Military Academy.

Materials of the exposition of this hall covered the period of Kazakhstan’s history since Independence in 1991 to the present day.

I took a photo inside the museum.

After that Mr. Eszhan Myrzaliev and Mr. Denis Chernov arranged a very good lunch to us in “SOHO Almaty Club”. We saw Beatles photo.

I left a name card in that restaurant.

After lunch, we went to KOK-TOBE to view the whole city of Almaty.

Almatly means a Big Apple.

The cable car and whole city view was seen.

Some souvenirs were sold.

The other souvenir shop looked like Yurt (蒙古包).

After that we visited the Center Park of Kazakhstan.

Prof. Azat Abdrakhmanov was very kind to have a dinner with us in a Kaz traditional restaurant.

We took a photo before the dinner.

(Right: Dr. KS Chin, Prof. Azat Abdrakhmanov, Dr. Grant Regan, Dr. Dato’A. Aziz Mat and I)

Food is very plenty and unique.

It was my first time to taste the BBQ of lamb.

We tried the camel mike and horse mike.

Traditional music was performed during the dinner.

Reference:

IAQMA – www.standard.kz / www.quality-managers.org

Certification Center InterCert – www.intercert.kz

2011年6月12日星期日

Laboratory Management Workshop in Macau

The first Laboratory Management Workshop was organized by Macau Association of Science and Technology (澳門科學技術協進會), Centre for Continuing Education in University of Macau (澳門大學持續進修中心) and International Society for Chinese Medicine (國際中醫藥學會); and co-organized by Hong Kong Society for Quality (香港品質學會), as well as, sponsored by Macau Education Development Fund (教育發展基金).

I was glad to perform this workshop for the Centre for Continuing Education, University of Macau through Dr. Simon Lee (Associate Professor, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences) on 11 June 2011 (Saturday).

In the morning session, I briefed the quality management requirement and introduced Hong Kong Accreditation Service (HKAS) and its Hong Kong Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (HOKLAS), as well as, Calibration Theory and Practice. The participants were mainly from secondary school teachers and laboratory technicians.

The laboratory work was designed in afternoon session. I briefed the working instruction about calibration of analytical balance, different glassware and thermometer.

I also demonstrated some technique for this experiment.

Participants calibrated the analytical balance.

Other team members calibrated the pipette.

We had taken a group photo for memory.

I was arranged to stay in Regency hotel and the room was very nice.

The night and day view of Taipa (氹仔), Macau were showed below.

Reference:

Macau Association of Science and Technology - http://www.mapst.org/

Centre for Continuing Education, University of Macau - http://www.umac.mo/chi/continuing_education.html

International Society for Chinese Medicine (ISCM) - http://www.iscm.org.mo/

Hong Kong Society for Quality - http://www.hksq.org/

Regency hotel - http://www.regencyhotel.com.mo/

2011年6月11日星期六

CUHK Seminar about Investment Banks

The topic of June by Executive Study Group, CUHK is 'How “Investment Banks” Make Their Money?'. A better understanding of this industry is necessary for senior executives and entrepreneurs to cooperate with those banks. The seminar was held on 10 June 2011 in HKSTP.

Mr. Mark Lee (Centre for Logistics Technologies and Supply Chain Optimisation, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)) was guest speaker and this talk content included “Top 10 Investment Banks”, “Value Chain of Investment Banks”, “Strategy and Operation of Front Offices”, “Financial Crisis and The Road Ahead” and “Group Discussion”.

Mr. Mark Lee introduced the financial industry.

Then he explained the reason of financial crisis was loan securitization which caused the bank load less careful. Mr. Mark Lee quoted Alan Schwartz (Former CEO of Bear Sterns) statement “In our business, there are no patents to speak of, so everything is about staying in front of the curve and creativity. We keep creating new areas of high profit margin. When they get created they become commoditized, and then you have to find the next area of opportunity”.

Mr. Mark Lee introduced the value chain of investment banks (IBs), it was separated into “Back Office”, “Middle Office” and “Front Office” in IBs organization Structure.

The functions of different offices were described as follows:

Front Office:

1. Investment Banking Service

2. Sales and Trading

3. Asset Management

4. Research

Middle Office:

* Risk Management

* Corporate Treasury

* Financial Control

* Corporate Strategy

* Compliance

Back Office:

* Operations

* Technology

Then Mr. Lee explained details in each function of Front Office. The first part is Investment Banking Service which included mergers and acquisitions (M&A), equity-capital markets, debt-capital markets and leveraged finance.

The second service was Sales and Trading which invested in "Fixed income, currency, commodities (FICC)", Equities and Derivatives.

The third service was Asset-Management. Mr. Lee said the "Alternative Asset Groups" was equal to very high risk asset group. Private Equity Fee had "2 and 20" formula that was 2% in annual charge and 20% profits that the fund generates (the carry).

The last one was Research such as stock trends, financial metrics and valuation analysis. This service was easier to join in compared with the other three service. Mr. Andrew Look was awarded the best analyst by the Asiamoney magazine in 2007. The he found Look's Capital Limited in April 2009. That was the example transferred from "Research Services" into "Asset-Management Services".

At the end, we had a group discussion for post-crisis industry strategy review. It needed to select 2 biggest challenges affecting the strategy in our industry.

Reference:

The Centre for Logistics Technologies and Supply Chain Optimization, CUHK: http://www.logitsco.cuhk.edu.hk/

HKSTP - www.hkstp.org

2011年6月10日星期五

Six Sigma Society of Hong Kong - Fellowship Dinner

I (represented Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ)) was honour to be invited by Daniel Yu (Chairman of AGM and Fellowship Dinner Committee, SSS) for the 5th Fellowship Dinner organized by Six Sigma Society of Hong Kong (SSS) on 9 June 2011.

Mr. Henry Soo (President of SSS) was the keynote speaker and his topic named "Briefing on TOC Thinking process on food waste reduction".

Mr. Soo described the project background and explained TOC thinking process. The project was related to food wastes reduction in lunch boxes disposal for primary school student. The project was collaborated with IVE Chai-wan, Department of Applied Science.

The following diagram showed the hierarchy of Constraints. TOC thinking process is a tool that enable us to recognize, verbalize, challenge, and/or change our assumptions.

During the project, it was identified different conflicts among students, parents, teachers and food suppliers. The core consolidated conflict cloud was shown.

Before end of the talk, Mr. Soo concluded that food waste reduction starts from ourselves!

The“Treasure Food – No Food Waste”Carnival 「珍惜食物－零廚餘」嘉年華 was introduced and it would be held on 19 June 2011.

Photo taken with Mr. Soo.

Group Photo

Reference:

Six Sigma Society of Hong Kong - http://www.sixsigma.org.hk/

「珍惜食物－零廚餘」嘉年華 - http://www.twcps.edu.hk/2010News/2011-05-06_c1.pdf

2011年6月4日星期六

Democratic & Freedom (民主與自由)

思考之道解結, 不思考之道斬結. – 李天命

今天是六月四日, 這日子令我想起民主與自由. 在五月中, 我到過理大及美國紐約. 分別為民主女神及自由神像拍了照. 我把李天命對民主與自由的一些討論節錄下來給大家參考.

由法國大革命開始, 人權成了一個非常重要的概念. 民主, 自由及平等都是從屬於人權.

但是, 人有沒有某些人權, 這種問題並沒有經驗事實作為解答的確據. 這時唯一剩下的就是理性, 最終我們需要進行理性的討論. 什麼是理性呢? 其定義就是: “正確思考的能力”.

西方有民主的傳統, 於是在實踐上, 一般都表現出對民主有了解. 反觀中國和亞洲許多國家, 一向缺乏民主傳統, 加上人們有望文生義的習慣, 結果把民主過簡地了解為“人民當家作主”. 怎樣算是人民當家作主? 這才是關鍵所在. 總言之, 要了解民主, 宜通過其傳統來了解.

民主女神

自由的界線該如何劃定呢? 依據康德等人所提出的 “自由法則”, 在不妨礙別人的自由這個前提下, 我們可以盡量爭取我們的自由. 但問題是怎樣才算妨礙, 怎樣才算不妨礙別人的自由?

自由神像

人權問題的背後其實牽涉到一些約定或制度性的因素. 由於沒有意識到這個關鍵, 有些人就表現得像是真理的代言人. 這些約定或制度的因素並不是先天的, 而是人為的, 是由規定產生的, 如賽跑有100米, 400米及1500米等等.

何謂真理? 依據亞里士多德對真理的經典界定, 是如此卻說不是如此, 不是如此卻說是如此, 所說的話就是假的; 是如此就說是如此, 不是如此就說不是如此, 所說的話就是真的.

獨立思考有兩條基本法式: 其一是問 “X是什麼意思”, 其二是問 “X有什麼理據”. 前者是為 “釐清式”, 後者為 “辨理式”.

去年今天：New Goddess of Democracy (新民主女神)

Reference:

破惘 – 思之旅(星篇) (第五版) 李天命明報出版社一九九六年七月

從思考到思考之上 (第十版) 李天命明報出版社二OO二年七月

2011年6月3日星期五

TQM Kaz – 2011

TQM Kaz – 2011 is an International Quality Forum in Kazakhstan which organized by International Association of Quality Managers and Auditors (IAQMA).

The mission of IAQMA - Kazakhstan is to promote quality management, standardization and business excellence in both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (Central Asia) through a number of various activities with the aim to improve global competitiveness of domestic companies and organizations as well as life quality of the society.

The vision of IAQMA is an efficient hub for dissemination of the global best quality and sustainability practices and approaches in the Central Asian Region.