Applying the carrot and stick — it can really work
Armed with a quarter-of-a-century’s background in the banking profession, Hu Ke, president of Shenzhen Vpower Finance Security, has scored well when it comes to running a business that’s cheek by jowl with security services for financial institutions.
The vast pool of expertise he had accumulated — from handling massive amounts of cash to managing operations — saw him stand out when he joined Vpower eight years ago.
“When I came to Vpower, my role suddenly switched from a service receiver — the bank — to service provider. Basically, we’re now serving the bank. I understand what the bank needs, so I wasted no time accepting the job,” he recalls.
The first thing Hu did was to improve the quality of Vpower’s service in response to the company’s unflattering “honor” of having been at the receiving end of up to 70 complaints each week in the first month of him taking up the post — grudges like the cash trucks not arriving on time on assignments, security guards being rude to customers, and employees caught lazing around at work.
Hu decided it was time to crack the whip, opting to show wrongdoers the door with a two-fold goal of healing the company’s tarnished image and serving as a wake-up call to others who still refuse to toe the line.
He was at pains telling China Daily he wasn’t being harsh to employees but only meant to guide them along the rules of etiquette, and not by merely using the stick.
“Punishment, I think, isn’t a very effective way to discipline staff because it may force them to harbor resentment against management. A leader should do everything that’s good for the company, and which is within the scope of the whole enterprise. If employees feel you’re determined to right what is wrong, they’ll budge and change for the better. A powerful leader also needs to motivate staff, listen to them and spend time communicating with them,” he says.
For the younger generation aiming to climb the career ladder fast, Hu believes one has to embrace the challenges at work to achieve self-development and learn from one’s experience.
“When I was still a credit manager at a subbranch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Shenzhen, my leader one day told me he would like to recommend me to be an office director in an associate company, meaning I had to leave the bank. I declined the offer in the belief that I had little skill in managing an office, and I was quite satisfied with my bank job. But the leader managed to convince me to take up the offer, saying ‘if you know how to manage an office, you’ll know how to manage a bank’.”
Hu ultimately accepted the challenge and, after spending two years managing the office, he was transferred back to the bank and promoted to vice-president in the subbranch before ascending to a regional bank.
“If I had not given myself the chance, I wouldn’t have grown stronger and would not be capable of managing a bank. As the saying goes, the greater the effort, the sweeter the reward. My leader then again recommended me to Vpower as ICBC is one of the shareholders in the company. I gladly accepted it, confident that I can do it well.”
Hu sees himself as extremely lucky to have good leaders guiding him along, and he would give young people as many chances as he could.
“Giving your staff opportunities is a recipe for encouraging them to perform better. One young man I had helped promote has done well and is now a president with a regional bank.”
If employees feel you’re determined to right what is wrong, they’ll budge and change for the better.”
Hu Ke,