Visit to Shenzhen Association for Quality (SZAQ)

Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) executive committee member visited Shenzhen Association for Quality (SZAQ) on 9th September 2014 (The day after Mid-Autumn Festival). We gathered in the Shenzhen Metro station.

We arrived the station named “Grand Theater” and walk to SZAQ office.

We observed the slogan for “Quality of Transportation”. However, the Chinese words “交通” means not only for “Transportation” but sometimes for “Communication”.

We arrived the building named Shenzhen Book City which SZAQ office was located here.

Firstly, Dr. Mickey Li (Chairman, SZAQ) welcome us to visit SZAQ and showed us their 25th anniversary video.

Then Mr. Peter Fung (Chairman, HKSQ) and Dr. Aaron Tong (Former chairman, HKSQ) gave a speech to introduce the Hong Kong Society for Quality.

After that Dr. Michey Li also introduced Shenzhen Association for Quality (SZAQ) which was established in 1987 (where HKSQ established in 1986). SZAQ is the bridge between Government and Industries (with quality professionals) so as to enhance quality awareness, technology and continuous improvement. The organization structure of SZAQ was shown as follow. SZAQ had mainly corporation members and their services mainly focused on training, QCC activities, 6 Sigma training, Quality Assessment, Publication of magazine named “Special Zone Quality”, as well as Quality Technology Award application and management.

Dr. Li was very interested in HKSQ Company based Student Project Competition and we shared our experience to them. Moreover, we would like to enhance our cross-activities exchange such as invitation SZAQ members to attend HKSQ seminars and visits in Hong Kong.

Before end of our cooperation idea exchange, Mr. Peter Fung (Chairman, HKSQ) presented our flag to Dr. Li.

We also took a group photos in the meeting room and in the main door.

SZAQ established the ASQ Local Member Community in Shenzhen, China.

We had lunch with Dr. Li in “Victory Restaurant” which was restaurant implemented 5S in Shenzhen.

Group photo for lunch

The most famous meal was Special Fish Head. We ordered two dishes and both chairman performed cutting ceremony.

After lunch, Mr. Chow (Business manager, Victory Restaurant) introduced how they implemented 5S. The most important thing was “Insistent”. They insisted to inspect their own responsible area before and after meal in order to test and trace if any error happened.

Then Mr. Chow introduced their Victory 18 points as below.

The second part of visit was in Dafen Art Museum.

Then we went to OCT-LOFT (華僑城創意文化園).

Minda and I took a photo in front of Black and White sculpture.

We had dinner in Chalet BBQ (木屋燒烤).

Reference:
HKSQ - http://www.hksq.org/
SZAQ - http://www.szaq.org.cn/

2014 Local Healthy Agricultural Produce Dinner and HKSQ Student Project Competition Winner Award Presentation

HKSQ ex-co members and students, who won Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) Student Project Competition 2014 (This year topic related to handle food waste), were invited by Mr. Kwok Ming Cheung (Managing Director, Vital-Health Livestock Development Limited) to have local healthy agricultural produce dinner (本地健康農產品養生宴) on 5 Sep 2014. The dinner was coorganized by Hong Kong Food Science and Technology Association Limited (HKFSTA) and Healthy Choices Association. Vital-Health Livestock Development Limited was the sponsor organization.

Before start of the dinner, we were invited by Mr. Kwok Ming Cheung to have a group photos with the guest Mr Wong Kam-sing (JP, Secretary for the Environment).

Photo of HKSQ exco members

Photo of HKSQ Student Project Competition winners.
(http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2014/03/hksq-student-project-competition-2014_30.html)

In the beginning, Mr. Kwok Ming Cheung gave an introduction of this dinner and explained health environment and food, as well as, supporting on HKSQ Student Project Competition for university undergraduate students.

Then Mr Wong Kam-sing (JP, Secretary for the Environment) gave an opening speech and he committed to enhance policy on reducing food waste and reducing pressure on landfill sites.

After that Mr. Peter Fung (Chairman, HKSQ) gave address for introduction of HKSQ and Student Project Competition. Industry and we provided opportunities for university undergraduate students to handle different real world problems and contributing back to the industry. This time is golden opportunity to raise the awareness of our environment and food waste treatment. Finally, Peter pointed out that HKSQ aimed to enhance our Quality of Life.

Mr Wong Kam-sing (JP, Secretary for the Environment) was invited to present certificate to the winners of the HKSQ Student Project Competition 2014.

HKUST

CityU

PolyU

PolyU

Winners group photo

HKSQ exco member, University professors and student winners, as well as, the competition sponsors took a group photo with Mr Wong Kam-sing.

The following menu showed local healthy agricultural produce foods including chicken, pork and vegetable.

During dinner, students celebrated with their teachers.

Lastly; student took a photo with their teachers.
CityU (Dr. KS Chin and I) (Left: 3 & 4)

PolyU (Dr. Albert Tsang) (Left: 5)

HKUST (I took for Prof. Fugee Tsung)

Reference:
2013 Local Healthy Agricultural Food Dinner 本地健康農產品養生宴 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2013/09/2013-local-healthy-agricultural-produce.html
2012 Local Healthy Agricultural Food Dinner 本地健康農產品養生宴 - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/09/2012-local-healthy-agricultural-produce.html
2011 Local Healthy Agricultural Produce Dinner (本地健康農產品養生宴) - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2011/08/2011-local-healthy-agricultural-produce.html
Hong Kong Food Science and Technology Association Limited (HKFSTA) - http://www.hkfsta.com.hk/
Healthy Choices Association - http://www.healthychoicehk.com/
Vital-Health Livestock Development Limited - http://www.kameihonbochicken.com.hk/
Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) Student Project Competition - http://www.hksq.org/company_based_competition.htm

ESG Seminar – Social Media Strategy (Xiaomi 小米科技)

The Executive Study Group (ESG) seminar in September 2014 named “Social Media Strategy – How Xiaomi Uses Social Media to Grow Explosively” which was held by the ESG, Asia Pacific Institute for Strategy Limited (APISL) and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp (HKSTPC) on 5 Sep 2014. I would like to summarize the seminar for sharing below.

In the beginning, Dr. Mark Lee (Research Director, APISL) introduced a successful case using Social Medium which was Ice Bucket Challenge. Dr. Lee asked how long you missing plastic duck which was very hot in social medium before. So such event would be outdated later. Therefore, we need a social media strategy.

Dr. Lee briefed the content of seminar included "Xiaomi Beats Samsung in Chinese Market”, “Fan-Centric Strategy for Social Media”, “Social Media Links CEO and Fans Directly”, “Competitive Advantages of Being Fan-Centric”, “Fan Development Strategy”, “Execution Steps” and “Cross-Industry Sharing”.

Dr. Lee said Xiaomi smart mobile sales was number one in China. The top 5 players in China showed that only Samsung decreased, Lenovo, Yulong and Huawei were increased.

Then he reviewed the top 5 players in the world. Samsung was still number one but no growth. Apple was number two with little bit growth. However, Xiaomi grew 3 times within a year to the position at number five.

Then Dr. Lee explained Xiaomi Fan-Centric Strategy. Their mission slogan was “Live for fans (為發燒而生)” that they produced the Xiaomi phone because of the Mi-fans. Xiaomi (Logo MI) was not a smartphone company and it founded on 6 April 2010. MI means Mobile Internet (Mark interpreted that MI would not be Samsung but Google!) Their marketing positioning was highest value-to-price ratio.

Through the Fan-Centric Strategy, social media linked Lei Jun (CEO of Xiaomi) to MI-Fans. Lei Jun posted over 100 comments daily through sina Weibo and he had more than 11M fan followed. (More than HK population ~7M!)

The competitive advantages of Fan-Centric Strategy were free customer research, inter-Fan promotion with no cost and fan volunteer customer service. Through social media and fans activities, Xiaomi was no needed to expense any cost through TV advertisement (where SONY employed HK$514M in TV advertisement for Xperia Z smartphone). Therefore, Xiaomi got many value-added inputs by fans included massive users, free translation, free development and e-word of mouth.

Five elements of Xiaomi Fan Development Strategy were showed as follows:
i) Recognition of Fan Importance (KPI for number of fans & setup fan department)
ii) Rich Topics for Discussion Continuously (MI-User Interface, Café Wifi Password sharing)
iii) Building a Sense of Ownership (Free Testing by Fans)
iv) Serious about Fan Feedbacks (Quickly acknowledge, Power User Management, Advisory Group)
v) Segmentation by Level of Participation (Fan Classification, Grant Different Rewards)

Then Dr. Mark Lee quoted Prof. Mikolaj Jan Piskorski (Harvard Business School) to explain what successful social strategies were.

Four steps of execution for Fan Development Strategy were discussed.
Step 1 is to engage them with interesting topics.
- More than more “Likes” received using Six progressive levels to participation (from 1 to 6): Viewing, Forwarding, Commenting, Creating, Moderating, and Arbitrating.
- To increase participation levels
- Arouse curiosity among Fans
- Frequent new topics for discussion
- Create expectation (Annual Fan Festival)
Step 2 is to address them honestly and positively.
- Both positive and negative comments engaged
- Virtually no secrets
- Detected negative word of mouth quickly
Step 3 is to monitor reviews attentively.
- Company commitment on Fan Care
- Comment classification
- Feeling of being respected
- Systematic approach
Step 4 is to unite as a family.
- People relationship
- Gifts for Fans
- Gathering Events
- Same-city Reunions
- Face-to-face Meeting Opportunities
- Social Activities

Dr. Mark Lee said Fans become self-started engine for social media and it was important to be integrated with the company strategy for its fans.

Before the cross-Industry sharing, Dr. Lee gave us an exercise to find out two most impressive and one least impressive functions of Xiaomi. And then group discussion was performed.

Reference:
The Centre for Logistics Technologies and Supply Chain Optimization, CUHK - http://www.logitsco.cuhk.edu.hk/
HKSTP - www.hkstp.org
Information about Asia Pacific Institute for Strategy Limited (APISL) (亞太策略研究所有限公司)

CityU EngD (EM) Orientation 2014

The Orientation of Engineering Doctorate in Engineering Management – EngD (EM) which established in the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management (SEEM), City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) was held on 4th Sep 2014. The EngD(EM) programme had started since 2000. It is designed for elite senior managers and engineers in all kinds of organizations in Hong Kong and mainland China. The programme aims to develop students’ creative thinking and overall capacity to apply innovative technologies and advanced management methods to meet the strategic needs of their organizations.

In the beginning, Dr. Alan Chan (EngD Prog. Leader, SEEM of CityUHK) gave a welcome speech to the new cohort. Dr. Chan’s talk entitled “A Platform for Innovation Leaders”.

Then Dr. Chan explained the different between PhD and EngD.
- PhD aims to produce academic researchers by continuing expansion of fundamental knowledge. It contributes to the continuous social and economic growth by making the fundamental knowledge useful in the world.
- EngD is an alternative to the traditional PhD, being better suited to the needs of industry, and providing a more vocationally oriented doctorate in engineering.

The diagram demonstrated the programme structure and model programmed path.

Then the profile of EngD (EM) candidate was mentioned and it included Education Background, Working Experience, Job Positions and Industry.

After that Dr. Amie Lai (President of CityU EngD Society) introduced CityU EngD Society. The mission of the society is to gather and connect all the graduates and students of CityU Engineering Doctorate Program. We organize activities, forum and conferences regularly to get our members connected. Moreover, I had summarized some EngD Society past activities in my blog at http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/search/label/EngD .

And then we introduced each other and shared our background, as well as, our research subject and supervisor.

(Top Left: Mr. John Wong (2013), Mr. Jacky Ng (2014), Mr. Ben Leung (2014), Mr. Sajeesh Kumar Babu (2014), Dr. TW Liu (2004), Mr. Lee Hok Ling (2014) and Dr. WT Chan (2004))

(Low Left: I (2005) photo taking, Dr. Amie Lai (2004), Dr. Samuel Fung (2005), Dr. Herbert Yeung (2004), Mr. Arunkumar Subramanian (2012) and Mr. Alex Chan (2014)) (Two cohorts were late – Dr. Rocky Lam (2005) and Dr. PM Lai (2008))

Lastly, all cohorts took a group photo for memory.

Reference:
Engineering Doctorate (Engineering Management) - http://www.cityu.edu.hk/seem/pdf/EngD_Leaflet.pdf
CityU Engineering Doctorate Society - http://www.engd.org/

ASTRI Industry and University Consultation Forum 2014

The ASTRI Industry and University Consultation Forum (IUCF) is a major event which was held annually in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. ASTRI organizes the IUCF to inform current and potential partners from industry and academia about the institute’s latest technical developments solicit suggestions for future R&D projects and cultivate opportunities to establish collaborations. I attended the morning part and would like to share industry and academic professionals’ view on Innovation and Technology.

Beginning the forum, Mr. MY Wong (Chairman of the Board, ASTRI) gave a welcome speech. He introduced ASTRI mission to enhance Hong Kong’s competitiveness in technology-based industries through applied research and one of goals to performing relevant and high quality R&D for transfer to industry. Mr. Wong expected more and more technology commercialization.

Then Prof. Tony F. Chan (President, HKUST) gave an opening remark. Before his speech, HKUST video was shown and one of their students to be young entrepreneur (DJI) and elected as top ten innovators in China. He said many discoveries on technology application were in Hong Kong but no industry invested such as Google glass. We were missing strategy and long term planning on Innovation and Technology. Therefore, Culture on Innovation and Technology should be developed. Prof. Chan also said there were many support to universities / faculties in Korea compared with Hong Kong. However, Hong Kong had our advantages such as global talents and capitals, as well as, close to China.

Mr. Vincent Tang (Acting Deputy Commissioner for Innovation and Technology, ITC) was our guest speaker to give forum address. He said ASTRI was one of Hong Kong R&D Centres and about 30% increase in the industry income. Upto Jun 2014, Hong Kong government supported ASTRI through ITF funding to initiative 3600 projects and funds upto HK$2500M. Recently, ITC launched R&D cash rebate fund to encourage industrial R&D projects.

Kick-off Ceremony for IUCF

Group photo

Dr. Frank Tong (CEO, ASTRI) gave us a talk entitled “An Overview of ASTRI’s Latest Development”. He introduced ASTRI was government subvention organization. It is one of the five R&D Centers in Hong Kong and focusing on R&D in ICT field. Hong Kong office in Science Park is headquarters and one liaison office in Hi-tech Industrial Park, Nanshan, Shenzhen. Then he briefed the income and funding, ITF-funded projects, staff academic qualification (~80% is Master or above), Patents Granted and Filed, and number of Technology Transfer.

After that he introduced ASTRI’s existing core competence included IC Design, Component Packaging & Manufacturing Technology, Software Embedded, Software Cloud and Communication Wireless.

Dr. Tong mentioned there were four types of project funding included ITF-funded platform projects, ITF-funded seed projects, Contract research projects and Industry Collaborative Projects. He also stated some achievements such as ASTR Hosted the National Engineering Research Center for Application Specific Integrated Circuit System (Hong Kong Branch), ASTRI-HP Information Technology Research Centre, and TCL-ASTRI Strategic Partnership.

Panel Discussion named “Advancing I&T through collaboration among Academia, R&D Centres and Industry”
Mr Wong Ming-yam (Board Chairman, ASTRI) was the moderator and the panel members were (Left):
- Ms. Cally Chan (Managing Director, HP Hong Kong)
- Prof. Tony F. Chan (President, HKUST)
- Prof. Roland Chin (Deputy Chancellor and Provost, HKU)
- Dr. Samson Tam (Chairman, Technology Development Committee, Federation of Hong Kong Industries)
- Prof. Alex Wai (VP (Research Development), PolyU)
- Dr. Frank Tong (CEO, ASTRI)

During the discussion, Ms. Cally Chan said Innovation is our DNA and Technology is our core in HP. She wore a RED cloth indicating that R – R&D Resource is important; E – Engagement of all key stakeholders and D – Deployment to local industry is significant. Prof. Roland Chin said Hong Kong had only 0.7%GDP invested from government in terms of research which was not enough. Moreover, job opportunities for technology students were limited. Dr. Samson Tam added government had ready want to make change. We needed to select at least some area becoming excellence such as ICT. In addition, two areas included mobile commerce (O2O) and Automation & Robotic. Prof. Alex Wai also commented that Industry and government needed to accept failure and learnt from failure. No Risk Taking and No Innovation! Prof. Tony Chan said universities needed to teach entrepreneurship and change mindset (culture revolution) through changing the reward system, society mind and government on R&D that was not expenditure but investment. Finally, Dr. Frank Tong said we needed role model for young people and issued more projects.

Reference:
HKSTPC - http://www.hkstp.org/
ASTRI - http://www.astri.org/main/