BEST IN BUSINESS IN HONG KONG CELEBRATED AT ANNUAL AWARDS
Every year the DHL/SCMP Hong Kong Business Awards recognise the efforts of leading companies and this year saw them navigate a particularly challenging economic environment, locally and globally, writes
As Hong Kong nears a full transition out of the pandemic, last night’s 2022 DHL/SCMP Hong Kong Business Awards (HKBA) ceremony and gala dinner helped wrap up a tumultuous year by honouring those who have best weathered the business climate of today, while looking towards the future.
First established back in 1990, this year’s HKBA celebrated individuals and firms with awards in seven key categories: Business Person of the Year, Executive, International, Enterprise, SME, Start-up and the Lifetime Achievement award.
This year’s winners deftly navigated a year where Covid-19 restrictions lingered in Hong Kong as the rest of the world opened up, alongside a significant economic downturn best embodied by the steady drop of the Hang Seng Index, and the dramatic slump in cryptocurrencies throughout the latter half of the year.
Strong leaders are key to traversing tough times, as personified by the 2022 winner of
Business Person of the Year, Wheelock and Company chairman and managing director Douglas Woo.
“Hong Kong, as a competitive service platform, has seen an unparalleled period of growth since the 1997 Asian financial crisis and Sars in 2003,” said Woo. “We have also experienced an accelerated pace of change from technological advancement, paired with a low interest rate environment. Black swan events and other crises are keeping the world on its toes.”
Amid a slump in Hong Kong’s property market, Wheelock this year picked up prime-located properties at 47-57 Staunton Street for HK$529 million; acquired the Happy Valley residential tower Ventris Court, which it plans to redevelop; and submitted an application to redevelop areas of Kai Tak.
“This award is in many ways a reflection of the company and all the hearts and minds involved over the years – on the front lines and in the engine rooms,” said Woo. “As a team, we are humbled and very much appreciate the recognition and encouragement as we continue our journey along with best-in-class peers in Hong Kong and beyond. It would also be appropriate to commend our teams’ energy and positivity especially over the past few years.”
Mary Huen – recognised for her roles as both chief executive officer for Hong Kong and a member of the group management team of Standard Chartered Bank, and as chairman of Mox Bank – received the Executive Award this year. This came as Standard Chartered and Mox continue to navigate the frontiers of digital and virtual banking, and as Standard Chartered completed its first carbon credit transactions in the latter half of the year – key wins for the industry in both digitalisation and sustainability.
The final but certainly not least of the individual awards, the Lifetime Achievement Award, went to former chief executive officer of HSBC Asia-Pacific, Peter Wong Tung-shun. The septuagenarian was named the bank’s first Chinese Asia-Pacific CEO in 2010, before retiring in June 2021. His last significant act was signing a public petition supporting the National Security Law, presaging HSBC’s expanding China strategy as HSBC Qianhai Securities became the first foreign bank in China to set up a Communist Party committee in July.
“There is nothing new about inflation, geopolitics, pandemics or market turmoil,” said Wong, who now serves as a nonexecutive chairman of HSBC. “Our job is to help young people learn the resilience we learned, to nurture their hope, and to show them that the challenges we face today are not trials to be suffered – they’re problems to be solved.”
This year’s International Award went to Pharmaron Beijing Company Limited. Founded in 2004, the Hong Kong-listed Chinese biotech and pharmaceutical firm acquired Absorption Systems of Pennsylvania, US, for US$137.5 million in 2020 and a Liverpool, UK, research centre from AbbVie Inc for US$118.7 million in 2021. This year, Pharmaron returned to Britain to add the Cramlington active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) site from
This award is in many ways a reflection of the company and all the hearts and minds involved over the years – on the front lines and in the engine rooms
DOUGLAS WOO,
BUSINESS PERSON OF THE YEAR AWARD
WINNER
Aesica, and announced in May its planned acquisition of Noramco’s Coventry API manufacturing site.
“Since 2004 it has always been Pharmaron’s mission to support our partners’ successful discovery, development and commercialisation of innovative medicines,” said Pharmaron chief financial officer Gilbert Li.
“We will continue our core strategy to build and improve our end-to-end, fully integrated global services platform. This award has profound meaning to the management team and our colleagues around the world who have worked extremely hard in the past few years in expanding our global services network against the backdrop of the global pandemic.”
Investment and distribution house Jebsen Group – responsible for bringing Blue Girl beer and Porsche to Hong Kong – took home the Enterprise Award this year.
In October, the group helped expand the success of Germanybased Boxine’s Toniebox speaker toy, bringing it to Hong Kong amid Hong Kong Trade Development Council reports of a surge in toy demand in China due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Technology continues to be a key theme in the economy, exemplified by Web3 and mobile app marketing agency Gogochart Technology Limited and digital operations solutions provider Yoov Internet Technology HK Ltd, which snapped up the SME and Start-up awards respectively.
Celebrating its sixth anniversary in 2022, Gogochart is
keen to expand its alreadydiverse range of Web3 marketing offerings, which include app store optimisation; social media, Google and Apple search advertising; web and UI design; and key opinion leader partnerships. The company celebrated a 265 per cent revenue increase to HK$50 million from 2020 to 2021.
For CEO Daniel Lo however, it all comes back to the people. “Company culture has been crucial to our company growth
and it has enabled us to navigate through the global pandemic and economic downturn. Our team members are our most important assets and everyone at Gogochart has worked as one team, leading us to many milestones and industry recognition,” said Lo.
Yoov, founded in 2016, introduced their Yoov Plus solution to the market this year, allowing enterprises to develop their own systems by dragging and dropping prepared
modules via a no-code development platform.
“Winning the start-up award is a great encouragement to us,” said CEO Phil Wong. “It gives us confidence to move forward in promoting digital transformation among enterprises. With Yoov Plus, they no longer need to invest big money in IT talent nor systems for different departments. Data is centralised in one single platform which supports digitalisation across departments.”