A Test of Time
With Alex Yeung’s appointment as vice chairman, a new generation of leadership at the Emperor Group is set to chart the group’s future success built on the values of the company’s 80th anniversary slogan, “From Time to Timeless”
An 80-year-old company getting into the metaverse?
That’s one of the ambitious pursuits of the Emperor Group’s Alex Yeung, who was named the company’s vice chairman in May 2022.
The company was founded in 1942 by his grandfather, Yeung Shing, as a watch retail business. His son, and Alex’s father, Dr Albert Yeung, branched out from the watch shop, and began the expansion of the Emperor Group. It is now Alex Yeung who is charting the future success of the conglomerate, which at present includes property development, financial services, watches and jewellery, entertainment and culture.
“Eighty years is a tremendous milestone for the Emperor Group,” he says. “I am jealously guarding our legacy and values, built over two generations. At the same time, I am fully committed to bringing onboard fresh perspectives and to innovate [from] our solid foundation.”
The Emperor Group’s diversified success is evident in their forward-looking approach. This includes exploring the metaverse for Canto-pop star Hins Cheung, one of the group’s artists. “We created a virtual community to bring his fans closer with immersive experiences,” Yeung says. The metaverse, he adds, has provided an opportunity “to create new ecosystems in our entertainment business by integrating our knowhow in intellectual property rights issues, and deepen our capability in creative content production”.
Yeung admits that he in a unique position: able to build synergy with longtime colleagues who are less familiar with the metaverse while bringing in young talents to keep the group
tuned in to what current and future customers are looking for. “My father has played a role in building the bridge between old and new,” says Yeung. “He told me, ‘You can always make money, but you can’t always find the right talent.’ The profound experience of our loyal, long-serving staff has kept the team striving for innovation by working shoulder-to-shoulder with the young recruits. Teamwork is simply in our company DNA.”
Even with his new responsibilities, Yeung has kept up his commitment to youth development. “Young people are the future, the hope and the cornerstone to our society as they fuel its long-term socio-economic development,” says Yeung. In 2021, the Emperor Group partnered with Mu Kuang English School, offering career planning to underprivileged teens. “Some of them undertook office internships, and a few were interns in our movie productions. We helped them to discover their interests, and we gained insight into the preferences of young people—the learning process was mutual. Personally, my involvement gave me inspiration for innovation, and for how we can further contribute to sustainable development.”
Over the next five years, Yeung intends to continue to find new frontiers that will further diversify the company. “We do not have a crystal ball, but we will keep evolving with the times,” he says. “But this pursuit would not have been possible without the unwavering dedication of the last two generations of my family, and the values that have withstood the test of time.”