Speech by FS at HKUST EMBA Graduation
Following is the speech by the Financial Secretary, Mr John C Tsang, at the HKUST EMBA Graduation today (June 5):
President Tony Chan, Dean Donald Jacobs, Dean Sally Blount, Dean Leonard Cheng, Professor Steven DeKrey, Faculty Members, Graduates, Parents and Family Members of Graduates, Friends, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, …. I believe that should cover everyone!
Good Morning.
It is my great pleasure to join you all here today to share this very special occasion for all of us.
I say “us” because my wife and I are among the proud parents of this year’s class of graduates. This year is doubly special because it is also the 20th Anniversary of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Happy Anniversary.
I know exactly how significant this occasion is for everyone. I also have a good idea of the level of dedication and commitment required of all the graduates for this challenging programme and how hard the graduates have worked to get here today. I have seen my son burning the midnight oil at home while we enjoyed fabulous meals at some of the many great restaurants in Hong Kong.
I have seen him fall asleep on the couch while I played with my granddaughter, and I have seen him reading folders and folders of material while we discussed the intriguing scenes from the latest movies. I have witnessed all that personally.
So, first of all, congratulations to all the graduates! You have now done it after 18 months of hard work. You can put all that not-so-sociable behaviour behind you, and make good use of your newly acquired knowledge and skills. You are now even more equipped to exercise that executive ability of making decisions quickly, and then getting somebody else to do the work! Please join me everyone in giving a good round of applause to the class of graduates that we have come to honor.
You graduates are now embarking on a new and exciting phase of your careers, and if past polls were anything to go by, you are about to move up the salary bracket as well, but before you do so, I would like to ask you to spare a moment, a thoughtful and thankful moment, to show your deepest appreciation and gratitude for the support from your spouses, family members and friends who have helped make your ambitions come true. So graduates, please stand and give these wonderful people, and that includes me, a good round of applause.
For inspiration for my talk today, I have turned to a man regarded as arguably the world’s most successful university dropout!
Bill Gates. Of course. He dropped out of school to start his own business– and the rest, as they say, is history.
When Bill Gates finally picked up an Honorary Degree from Harvard in 2007, he shared his thoughts on pursuing goals with the audience. I would like to pass on to you a few of his words of wisdom.
Bill Gates said, and I quote: “Cutting through complexity to find a solution runs through four predictable stages.”
The first stage, according to him, is to identify a goal: that means finding an opportunity that is ripe for the taking or a problem that requires fixing.
Second stage is to find the highest leverage approach, which basically means the most effective way to achieve your goal.
Third, Gates said, is to discover the ideal technology for that approach. But before the discovery of that technology, make the smartest application with what is available.
And lastly, after identifying the problem, finding the approach, and discovering the most appropriate technology to achieve your objective, the final step is to share your successes and failures so that others can learn from your efforts.
The key to success, he said, is never stop thinking about the problems, never stop caring about people, never stop being concerned about the environment, and never quit.
Well, these stages may seem rather obvious to you, and I am sure that you have all done it yourselves many, many times dealing with different situations. So what’s the big deal? The deal is that when faced with seemingly insolvable problems, and that is like all the problems that I have encountered so far in my current job, it is always best to return to basics with a simple, straightforward strategy, and the beauty of using such a simple approach when dealing with complex issues is the logic and certainty in the phasing of the stages, and the room that is opened to you to exercise innovation along the way.
The knowledge you have gained from this programme will equip you properly in tackling this sort of problem and in finding workable solutions from new and refreshing points of view.
Ladies and Gentlemen, there is no limit to the way that you can advance your careers and contribute to your respective communities at the same time.
Allow me to cite the work of a couple of your local predecessors as examples.
Thomas Chan used his EMBA experience to strengthen the effectiveness and fund-raising capability of World Vision Hong Kong. He is now Honorary President of the organisation. Through his efforts and those of his colleagues, more people in need are able to benefit from the organisation’s charitable work.
Another graduate Mei Mei Ng was the first student under the programme’s NPO (Non-Profit Organisation) Tuition Award Scheme. She is the Executive Director of Hong Kong Education City Ltd. She said that the EMBA programme gave her the skills and confidence to take e-learning to a whole new level. Since graduating from the course last year, Ms Ng has spearheaded a regional expansion of her organisation. This has helped connect schools and teachers around the world and give students a greater choice of free and high quality on-line learning opportunities.
These are seemingly micro issues that will not change the world and solve problems like world hunger or global warming. But they are exactly the essential building blocks that we need to nurture a livable environment in this universal of ours. And to do that successfully we need a lot of heart and the ability to apply the knowledge that we have learned in a creative and constructive way. We need imagination to make better use of the swath of information that we have already.
Albert Einstein said that “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
We need look no further than this university to understand that thought, knowledge and imagination are cornerstones for success.
The founding fathers of HKUST set an ambitious goal of achieving academic excellence. This is no different from other schools, and many of them have been around much longer. So an imaginative but pragmatic approach was needed for a modern institution, like HKUST, to achieve success in a globalised world.
The highest leverage approach, using stage 2 of Bill Gates’ model, for the founders of this university was to attract the best and the brightest students from around the world to come to HKUST. They did that by bringing on board the best teachers and by making the best use of the resources at hand. To borrow a phrase from the founding president, Professor Woo Chia-wei: “First-class people would bring other first-class people.”
Today, HKUST is a top ranking University in the world. Just last month, HKUST was, for the first time, ranked as the top university in Asia by QS Asian University Rankings.
I also learned that not only is the Kellogg-HKUST EMBA programme ranked number one in the world, it also gets an “A+” for attracting foreign students. The ratio of non-local to local students is about 6-to-1. Of the 700 people enrolled in the programme since 1998, more than three-quarters (77%) come from overseas. Only 14 per cent of the students are locals while the remaining 9% come from the Mainland. I understand that half of this year’s class flew in constantly for their courses. It is a “United Nations” of top talent, reflecting global trends and aspirations in the 21st Century.
HKUST’s reputation for excellence has acted like a magnet, attracting high-powered senior executives, like yourselves, from all over the world. It is common knowledge that the more international a programme, the greater the rewards for the participants. The world’s top universities are great partly because they are international centres of learning. The international character of this programme is a measure of its global success.
The University’s achievements are an inspiration to us all. It shows that when Hong Kong people put their minds to do something, they can produce quality of the highest order.
Credit must go to the administration of the university and everyone who has contributed to making this a successful programme. I wish to thank you all, especially the teachers, for delivering such a high quality programme for our new generation of business leaders. I hope that the audience would join me in extending to the school administration and the hard working teachers our recognition.
To all the overseas graduates, you have travelled long distances to be here. You have gone to great lengths to benefit from, and contribute to this programme. I sincerely hope that you have enjoyed your studies as well as our way of life here in Hong Kong. This is not the end of your journey with us. I hope this is just the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship with our city and our people. I hope that you would continue to maintain and nurture this very special relationship for a long time to come.
Finally, in the interest of balance and the spirit of fair play, which is something that we always exercise, sometimes regrettably, I would like to leave you with two quotes from another successful university dropout – Steve Jobs of Apple.
First though, allow me to add a short footnote. Although Bill Gates and Steve Jobs did not complete their degrees, most of the people that they employ did! I hope that this provides some comfort to you all.
Anyway, Steve Jobs hit the nail on the head when he said, and I quote: “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.” Remember that. He also had this piece of good advice for us : “Stay hungry, stay foolish!”
Thank you and good luck.
June 5, 2011
