AmChamHK Jul/Aug 2018

Magazine of The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong

July/August 2018

THE WORK / LIFE ISSUE

Rooftop Revolution Making Hong Kong sustainable one rooftop at a time

Eyes Wide Shut The high price of sleep deprivation

School’s Out Kick the kids off the couch, Lantau’s waiting

Cover Sponsor Cover Sponsor

WHY STEM EDUCATION IS IMPORTANT FOR YOUR CHILD’S FUTURE Accepting 2019/20 Applications from Pre-Primary to Grade 9

BOOK A SCHOOL TOUR

As technology develops, the job market changes so must education also evolve in order to ensure that we are preparing our children for tomorrow’s world. The picture of tomorrow’s world is hard to imagine due to the rapid changes we have seen over the past decades. This has given rise to a shift in education from a more knowledge-based system to a skillsbased focus. This includes our higher-order thinking skills, which at the top of Bloom’s famous taxonomy model which include analyzing, evaluating and then at the top, creating.

To help develop these critical skills, Stamford has chosen to add one critical part to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and that is innovation, or it is collectively known as STEMinn at Stamford. By design, STEM education is meant to allow students to develop their critical thinking and analytical abilities by presenting them with ideas and problems across disciplines to draw upon a variety of skills however Stamford wants to inspire and challenge students to be innovators.

A project centered around space might include building a space model to scale (math) after learning about space technology (science) then, drawing a mock-up using a design app (technology) and actually constructing the model (engineering). During the design and construction process, students will learn invaluable trial and error skills by modifying designs, often working in teams to develop their collaboration skills; students must work to improve their designs and sometimes even fail, which presents an invaluable opportunity for improvement. This process of going through the design

cycle allows students to develop new ideas but more importantly test how they function in real-world scenarios.

At Stamford, the innovation part of the curriculum becomes the key differentiator, students are exposed to more projectbased learning using the core skills they have developed using the STEM curriculum, but also move beyond to develop their own ideas. For instance, Grade 5 students were pitching practical solutions to solve common environmental problems such as paper waste at companies; while lower elementary students repurposed items collected from a beach clean-up to build functional items such as a dish rack built from plastic water bottles. Driving students to create and using the tools in our innovation center or visiting our Global Mentor, Cesar Jung-Harada’s maker space MakerBay, where the students constructed life-size boats of their own design, allows students to have no limits on what they can design.

To ensure all students develop the basic foundational skills from Pre-Primary to graduation, STEMinn education at Stamford also introduces students to the latest in AR, VR, coding, 3-D printing and a wide variety of apps on their 1:1 iPads (elementary) or 1:1 Macs (middle school). This program keeps students engaged while ensuring that technology is used to support learning appropriately in conjunction with the traditional core subjects and world language programs.

The overall goal of STEM education is not only about using the latest technology in teaching, but also to inspire and encourage students to use innovative thinking, which is vital for the ever-changing world.

Limited seats available for 2018/19 entry – Apply Now! SCHOOL CAMPUS

ADMISSIONS OFFICE

25 Man Fuk Road, Ho Man Tin, Kowloon, Hong Kong +852 3467 4500

Suites 4005-4007, Level 40, Two Exchange Square, 8 Connaught Place, Central, Hong Kong +852 2500 8688

www.sais.edu.hk

Connect with us:

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AmChamHK

7-8 • 2018

Contents JULY/AUGUST 2018 | VOL. 50 NO. 7-8 Publisher Tara Joseph

AMCHAM NEWS AND VIEWS

HOBBIES & INTERESTS

04 President’s memo

34

Managing Editor

07 New business contacts

Jennifer Khoo

08 Member spotlight

Advertising Sales Manager

11

My favorite AmCham

Tom Chan

experience

History revision

AROUND HONG KONG 40

AmChamHK’s contents do not necessarily reflect the views of officers, governors or members of the Chamber. We welcome your letters, comments & feedback.

Cards on the table;

Beating the school break blues

BEES

Email: feedback@amcham.org.hk

44

Big city buzz

On the cover: (Left to right): Felix Chan, senior property manager and district head at JLL; Michelle Hong, co-founder of Rooftop Republic; Chung Chi-hung, regional director of property management at JLL

CORPORATE MEMBER COVER STORY

PROFILE

12 ROOFTOP REVOLUTION

48

Making Hong Kong more sustainable one rooftop at a time

1904 Bank of America Tower, 12 Harcourt Rd, Central, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2530 6900 Fax: (852) 3753 1206 Email: amcham@amcham.org.hk

Path to the summit: Iron Mountain

ICYMI 54

Smart city summit; Lounging in luxury

Website: www.amcham.org.hk Printed by Ease Max Ltd 2A Sum Lung Industrial Building 11 Sun Yip St, Chai Wan, Hong Kong (Green Production Overseas Group) Designed by Tiffany Lau & Jules Langlais Tel: (852) 6432 2573 Email: ttiffanylauu@gmail.com Website: www.tifflaudesign.com ©The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, 2018 Library of Congress: LC 98-645652 Single copy price HK$50 Annual subscription HK$600/US$90

58 The Last page SLEEP 20 EYES WIDE SHUT Too many of us are asleep at the wheel… and it’s bad for business

TECHNOLOGY 24

Digital detox way overdue

TRAVEL 30 It’s time for a new approach

Fractals: Nature’s chill pill

to travel AmChamHK

7-8 • 2018

7

President’s Memo discussion over the challenges of work/ life balance and whether technology actually helps or hinders their fatigue.

From senior executives on relentless business travel schedules, to budding entrepreneurs living in teeny tiny apartments, Hong Kong work days are generally long, gruelling and stimulating all at the same time.

Our society is also laced with mobile technology which can boost and/or hinder stress, and make it possible to work 24/7.

At the chamber we spend much of our time focused on networking, advocacy and thought leadership across a variety of sectors. But I also routinely witness people huddled in quiet

their dashboard. Does it really make them better drivers?

This issue of AmCham HK is devoted to work life balance in the hope that the chamber can build on the conversation of how to work smarter and live better rather than work harder and feel exhausted.

One executive recently told me how he would spend more time in the U.S. than usual this summer, but set up a remote desk at home so he could try and conquer the demands of home life and work. Another person told me he doesn’t have time to take a break this summer. If he’s gone more than a week, he could miss important opportunities in a fast moving and competitive market. Others, quite rightly, plan to switch off all devices for at least a week by taking a digital diet at the beach.

I’d be keen to keep this conversation going throughout the year, not just during the summer break and look forward to hearing your thoughts whether by social media, email or text (my mobile phone is generally always switched on – so I’m easy to track down.)

Many people hail New York as the city that never sleeps, but Hong Kong may well lay claim to that award – AIA research shows Hong Kongers are the most sleep-deprived in Asia, a continent of sleep deprivation. Mobile penetration is still the highest in the world, with almost two and a half mobile subscriptions per person. It seems most Hong Kong taxi drivers now have at least three mobiles on

Regards, Tara Joseph AmCham President

BOARD OF GOVERNORS CHAIRMAN Jack Lange VICE CHAIRMAN Robert Grieves TREASURER Owen Belman

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

GOVERNORS Donald Austin

Matthew Hosford

Jenny Wong

Jennifer Van Dale

Julie Brandt

Clara Ingen-Housz

Patrick Wu

Diana David

Steven Xavier Chan

Simon Ogus

Lennard Yong

Seth Peterson

Sanjeev Chatrath

Karen Reddington

Catherine Simmons

Elaine Cheung

Anna-Marie Slot

Richard Weisman

David Cruikshank

Eric Szweda

Mark Green

Rick Truscott

PRESIDENT Tara Joseph EX-OFFICIO GOVERNOR Walter Dias

CHAMBER COMMITTEES Apparel & Footwear

Entrepreneurs/SME

China Business

Communications & Marketing

Food and Beverage

Gareth Brooks

Laurie Goldberg

Ben Simpfendorfer

Anita Davis

Veronica Sze

Lynne Sprugel

Cynthia Chow

Jin Ling

Heather Bach

Peter Johnston

Ball

Infrastructure & Construction

John Siu

Corporate Social Responsibility

Intellectual Property

Environment

Genevieve Hilton

Gabriela Kennedy

Jim Taylor

Hans Leung

Victor Tse

Rachel Fleishman

Financial Services

Anna-Marie Slot

Sally Peng

Seth Peterson

Energy

Law

Rick Truscott

Chiann Bao

John Zadkovich

Jessica Bartlett

People and Organizational Culture

Pharmaceutical Caroline Johnson Grace Lau

Innovation & Technology

Stephen Leung

Patrick Kirby

Peter Liu

Women of Influence

Jen Flowers

Wendy Zhang

Jennifer Parks

Leonie Valentine

Transportation and Logistics

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Ian Chung

Anne O’Riordan

Real Estate

Gavin Dow

Young Professionals

Robert Johnston

Geoffrey Siebengartner

Jamie Ford

Colin Jones

Lauren Chung

Jasper MacSlarrow

Rebecca Terner Lentchner

Trade & Investment Barrett Bingley Tatman Savio Herman Cheung David Chao

Song Jia Ning Insurance & Healthcare Hanif Kanji Amelie Dionne-Charest

Taxation

Invest in USA

Education

Eric Szweda

Virginia Wilson Abigail DeLessio

Ivan Strunin Peter Guang Chen Wade Wagatsuma

AmChamHK

7-8 • 2018

www.amcham.org.hk

AMCHAM Means Business

Members Directory

Over 500 pages in three major sections, including a complete guide to chamber services, corporate sponsors and AmCham Charitable Foundation. This directory lists about 1,350 members from about 660 companies and organizations.

ISBN 978-962-7422-78-5

LC 98-645651 NON-MEMBER PRICE Local Delivery HK$1500 Overseas Delivery US$195 Shipping costs: Local HK$45 (per copy) US/International US$50 (per copy)

MEMBER PRICE HK$800 US$105

    AmCham Member   Name: Title:   Company:   Address:     Tel: Fax:     Email: Website:   copy(ies) of Members Directory     Total: HK$/US$ (postage inclusive)   payable to The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong  check#    Bank:    Charge to AMEX (US$) Diners (HK$) Visa (HK$) Master Card (HK$)   Cardholder's Name:   Card#   Expiry Date: Issuing Bank:         Signature: (Not valid unless signed)    The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong 1904 Bank of America Tower, 12 Harcourt Road, Hong Kong.

Tel: (852) 2530 6934 Email: hchung@amcham.org.hk

New Business Contacts The following people are new AmCham members: Company Name

First Name

Last Name

Position

Akamai Technologies Hong Kong Ltd

Maureen

Chong

Country Manager

APCO Worldwide

Stephan

Engel

Director and Hong Kong Market Lead

Capstone International Hong Kong Ltd

Larry Paul

Sloven

President

CBRE Limited

Kurt

Luedtke

Analyst, Advisory & Transaction Services Office, Hong Kong

CLP Power Hong Kong Ltd

Johnny

Wang

Deputy Director - Innovation and Commercial Development

Egon Zehnder

Matthew

Edwards

Consultant

GFM Group Limited

Tariq

Dennison

Retirement Plan Investment Advisor, Responsible Officer

Global Sources

Brent

Barnes

Chief Operating Officer

Herbert Smith Freehills

Jeremy

Birch

Senior Associate

Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd, The

Danish

Qureshi

Country Head of International Subsidiary Banking

InterAsia Corporation

Bella

Chow

Business development Manager

Journalism & Media Studies Centre, University of Hong Kong

Keith

Richburg

Director, Journalism & Media Studies Centre

Li & Fung Foundation

Tyler

Faust

Strategic Engagement Lead

Marriott International, Inc.

Yibing

Mao

Chief Legal Counsel

Ken

Rehmann

Chief Financial Officer

Office Depot Asia Holding Ltd

Adam

Peck

Vice President, Global Sourcing and Private Brand

On The List

Marie

Bouxom

Business Development Executive

Diego

Dultzin Lacoste

Co-Founder

Delphine

Lefay

Co-Founder

Rebecca

McHarg

Senior Manager

PricewaterhouseCoopers Ltd Rouse & Co. International (Overseas) Limited

SAP Hong Kong

Chad

Dowle

Executive and Legal Consultant

Theresa

Mak

Senior Associate

Philippe

Cherigie

Vice President, Head of Strategic Customer Program

Thomas

Gerstner

Managing Director

Michael

McComb

Vice President, Communicatons

Starr International Insurance (Asia) Ltd

Ronald

Hudon

Chief Operations Officer, Asia

Top Master Concept Ltd BB Jazz Lounge

Mattia

Bruna

Group Operations Manager

Vobile Group Limited

Yangbin

Wang

Chairman & CEO

WatchBox Hong Kong Limited

AmChamHK

7-8 • 2018

Natasha

Li

Marketing Director

Justin

Reis

Co-Founder

Liam Wee

Tay

Chairman

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MEMBERSPOTLIGHT Name: Karrie Dietz Job title: Head of School Company: Stamford American School Industry: Education AmCham member since: August 2016

Where is home? How long have you been in Hong Kong?

I am originally from the United States, growing up in a small town in southern Minnesota, where the winters are cold and snowy. My husband and I have been living and working in Central and South East Asia for the past 17 years, most recently working at the Stamford American International School in Singapore as the Elementary Principal. We have also lived and worked in Thailand, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan.

What do you like most about life here?

I enjoy Hong Kong’s mix of urban and traditional culture, and natural beauty. I appreciate the contrast of busy lifestyles and opportunities to explore the outdoors. I’ve found people in Hong Kong to be welcoming and friendly, and I of course appreciate the variety of food too!

Describe yourself using three words.

Open-minded, caring, courageous.

If I wasn’t a business leader, I would be…

I would likely be in a math or computer sciencerelated career. Math and computer programming were strengths and passions during my university years. I hope to provide opportunities for young learners to be empowered to pursue careers in STEMInn (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Innovation).

First ever job?

My first job was in high school teaching swimming lessons—I would spend my summers at our local pool teaching children of all ages. This was a way to save funds for university and it was also my first experience as a teacher, without a doubt influencing my decision to eventually pursue a career focused on education.

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‘Identify what makes you happy and what is important to you’ Favorite piece of advice.

Identify what makes you happy and what is important to you, and spend your time doing this.

For me, this has guided my career, relationships, and lifestyle.

Name something on your bucket list.

Visiting Iceland is a recent addition to my list.

What attracted you to Amcham?

I joined AmCham HK to meet and connect with others, and to develop an understanding of and contribute to the development of Hong Kong’s business initiatives.

Which AmCham event are we likely to find you at next?

I look forward to attending the Women of Influence Conference & Awards. I’ve heard it is a great opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women across various industries.

AmChamHK

7-8 • 2018

New Primary School Campus Opening August 2018

Now open for applications from Early Years to Year 6 Call us on +852 2480 1500 or email enquiries@shrewsbury.hk Visit our website www.shrewsbury.hk Follow the Shrewsbury success story

@ShrewsburyHKG

Exceptional People Outstanding Opportunities Academic Excellence

Book our

School Tour today

BOOK YOUR VISIT

AMCHAM 2018 CHINA CONFERENCE U.S. & China: Shaping the Future of Innovation & Technology The technological revolution is here. Businesses are being transformed; employees transitioned to the digital economy; AI, blockchain and IoT have the potential to fundamentally change our society. And as the world opens up to this uncharted future of infinite possibilities, its two biggest economies – the U.S. and China – are poised to drive the next big phase of digital disruption.

AmCham's 2018 China Conference is your opportunity to meet with and hear from the people who are shaping our future.

Date: Friday, September 7, 2018 Time: 8:30am – 5:00pm (Conference and Networking Cocktail) Venue: Island Shangri-La Hong Kong, Island Ballroom, Level 5, Pacific Place, Supreme Court Road, Central, Hong Kong KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

TOPICS

Prof. Minxin Pei, Tom and Margot Pritzker '72 Professor of Government and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College (Opening Keynote)

• Opening Keynotes: U.S. vs China in a Digital World • Panel Discussion: Tech Deal Makers: Step into the World of Venture Capital • Concurrent Breakout Sessions: From Silk Road to E-road: Chinese companies are going digital

Prof. Stephen Roach, Senior Fellow at Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, Senior Lecturer, School of Management at Yale University (Opening Keynote)

• Panel 1: China as a Global Trailblazer in Digital Economy • Panel 2: US & China in Fintech development • Luncheon Keynote: In the War Over Tech IPOs: HKEX vs NYSE

Mr. Charles Li, Chief Executive at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (Luncheon Keynote)

SPONSORSHIP

• Afternoon Plenary Panel: U.S. & China in Innovation & Technology: The New Era of Coopetition?

• Fireside Chat with Tech Leaders: The Rewards & Pitfalls of Big Data

REGISTER NOW

Villy Leung

SPEAKERS & PROGRAM

www.amcham.org.hk/china-conference

vleung@amcham.org.hk

Platinum Sponsors

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Michael Yu myu@amcham.org.hk

Gold Sponsor

Silver Sponsors

Bronze Sponsors

Official Carrier

MY FAVORITE AMCHAM EXPERIENCE

CAROLYN DEROBERTIS Senior Marketing Consultant, PwC

MY FAVORITE AMCHAM EXPERIENCE AmChamHK

7-8 • 2018

“My favorite experience at AmCham was being able to take part in a reverse mentorship program as part of the WOI committee. It was great to be able to partner up with a non-millennial to better understand how technology affects them and what they do to implement it into their daily lives, as well as give advice on how to keep it relevant for them... It was also great to get their insight on gender equality, work experience and also how to tackle conflict in the office. I am so glad I was a part of this program, and hope to see more like it in the future.”

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COVER STORY

ROOFTOP REVOLUTION An organic vegetable rooftop farm in the heart of Hong Kong’s financial district is challenging perceptions about sustainable city living

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AmChamHK

7-8 • 2018

COVER STORY

Photos by Karma Cheng

AmChamHK

7-8 • 2018

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COVER STORY

“Surreal” best describes the feeling of standing outdoors 38-stories high in the middle of Hong Kong’s Central business district, surrounded by lush green beds of amaranth, ceylon spinach and sweet potatoes. I am touring an organic vegetable farm of Rooftop Republic, an award-winning social enterprise aiming to challenge perceptions about sustainable city living.

The feeling doesn’t last long before the pregnant grey clouds overhead decide they can hold their liquid contents no longer.

The unsheltered vegetables, which have been meticulously planted and tended to over the past few months, are taking a beating. But the farm’s cofounder Michelle Hong is unconcerned.

“I’m used to the rain. It [the farm] has survived a couple of typhoon 10s before,” she says, as we sit huddled together in the stairwell of the Bank of America Tower waiting for the weather to improve so we can resume the tour.

“Tall crops like sweet corn break in half during the typhoons, the strongest remain,” says Hong, whose teams of volunteers harvest as much as they able in preparation for the city’s annual typhoon season.

Those plants that do remain occasionally fall casualty to the strong winds. “They might not fly off but some will be uprooted,” she adds.

Michelle Hong

COVER STORY

‘Space is a commodity in Hong Kong. The obvious solution is rooftops. They are already there’ Next to us is Chung Chi-hung, regional director of property management at JLL, and his colleague Felix Chan, senior property manager and district head.

JLL, which manages the Bank of America Tower, partnered with Rooftop Republic in 2015 to provide Hong’s team with management services and access to the building’s 3,000-square-foot sized rooftop.

The farm, watered by an auto irrigation system, operates and is managed all year round by Rooftop Republic. During the off-season typhoon months (typically around August) when the climate doesn’t allow for seed planting, Hong’s team is still busy with soil maintenance and other preparations for the next planting season.

Proof of concept By selecting the Bank of America Tower from its portfolio of properties for this project, JLL wanted to send a clear message to the business community that lack of space is no excuse, not even in one of the world’s most densely populated cities.

JLL is the first property management company in the city to involve its buildings in such an initiative, but Chung believes “most rooftops in Hong Kong should be able to do this,” its just a matter of will.

But most of the time it isn’t corporate clients who need convincing of the benefits of a rooftop farm, says Hong. Building management companies with concerns about about the safety and practical aspects of such an operation (e.g. typhoon protection measures and potential soil leakage), are reluctant to implement it on top of their own buildings.

AmChamHK

7-8 • 2018

Hong says Rooftop Republic’s successful partnership with JLL is “proof of concept” that the communal benefits of rooftop farming far outweigh the risks.

What are those benefits?

As is often the case in life, you gain a better understanding of something by experiencing it yourself. Urban farming is no different. Teaching people about key organic farming concepts (crop rotation, soil resting, seasonal farming) and letting them experience the same challenges organic farmers face (weeding, working under the heat of the sun), helps them appreciate their food that much more.

When the farm first opened on the Bank of America Tower in 2015, Rooftop Republic held urban farming workshops exclusively for JLL staff volunteers for the purposes of team building.

While the majority of JLL’s staff were excited, Chung admits there were a few individuals who initially struggled to understand the benefits of this “totally new concept” and how they could get involved.

But the workshops were a hit, and have since been extended to JLL’s friends and loved ones, who are invited to take part in regular “family farming days.”

JLL volunteer Wendy Chan says that for a long time, she and her husband were considering renting a plot of land near Sai Kung to grow their own vegetables but eventually decided against it after weighing up the significant travel and time commitment required.

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COVER STORY

Fellow co-founder Pol Fàbrega

After frequent participation in JLL’s program, Chan now tells me she firmly believes that “urban farming requires a lesser commitment but offers the same outcome.” She has brought her own children (ages five and nine) along to JLL’s family farming event three times.

for hot lunchbox meals, making sure they are always seasonal.

The farm yields more variety in the winter compared to the summer; kale, red cabbage, colorful carrots and swiss chard are just a few examples of what volunteers have harvested during the cooler months.

“They always ask me: When will be the next workshop? What will happen to the seeds? Can we eat the vegetables?” she says.

Business meets community Accessible by invitation-only to JLL’s staff, tenants and external business organizations and schools, Rooftop Republic’s farm atop the Bank of America Tower is not a commercial operation nor is it open to the public.

“The point of it is not to compete with organic farming but to educate the public on what sustainable city living looks like,” says Hong, who describes the operation as more of an “awareness project.”

One hundred percent of the vegetables harvested by volunteers up on the Bank of America Tower is donated to food distribution charity Feeding Hong Kong year-round. With that in mind, Hong’s team tries to plant vegetables that can easily be cooked

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AmChamHK

7-8 • 2018

COVER STORY

But while seasonal crop diversity is always a delight, the focus year-round is on growing good quality produce (and enough of it) for the food banks.

Aside from giving to charity, the other driver behind the urban farming movement is to turn unused and “idling” private assets into places where the community can come together. For Rooftop Republic, that place turned out to be on top of an old helipad in the heart of Central.

“Space is a commodity in Hong Kong. The obvious solution is rooftops. They are already there,” she says.

‘We aren’t targeting the percentage [of the population] who are already converted, but those who are sitting on the fence - those who are interested but could do without it’

Staff volunteer Wendy Chan with her family and colleagues at a JLL “family farming day” event

Amaranth leaves

AmChamHK

7-8 • 2018

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COVER STORY

Drone image of the farm’s location atop the Bank of America Tower in Central

From Hobby to Lifestyle Singaporean native Hong co-founded Rooftop Republic in 2015 together with husband Andrew Tsui from Hong Kong and Pol Fàbrega from Barcelona, both of whom had prior experience running the now-closed urban farming enterprise Time to Grow.

“In the eight years I’ve lived in Hong Kong, I could never be sure of where my food comes from. City dwellers don’t get the opportunity to get to know farmers,” she says. What started as a weekend hobby (urban farming) in 2012 quickly became a way of life for Hong, who subsequently left her advertising job to run Rooftop Republic full-time.

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This shift in Hong’s own perception towards urban farming is what she also hopes for the people of Hong Kong - for them to learn that growing your own food while living in a city can be a realistic and practical option, and “not just a novelty anymore.”

Rooftop Republic’s message targets city dwellers with an interest in joining the sustainable city movement but don’t know how to get started.

“We aren’t targeting the percentage [of the population] who are already converted, but those who are sitting on the fence - those who are interested but could do without it,” she says.

AmChamHK

7-8 • 2018

COVER STORY

Michelle’s Tip: Start small, go seasonal “All you need is a couple of pots to begin with. Do your research into what grows well in Hong Kong.

I’ve met many avid gardeners from the U.K. who say they cannot seem to make it work here, because the varieties they are used to planting over there just don’t flourish over here,” she says.

Left to right: Chung Chi-hung, Michelle Hong, Felix Chan

AmChamHK

7-8 • 2018

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SLEEP

Eyes Wide Shut Too many of us are asleep at the wheel… and it’s bad for business

By Johan Nylander

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AmChamHK

7-8 • 2018

SLEEP

Few people would feel comfortable in their ability to turn up at the office early in the morning reeling from too much booze the night before and still putting in a good day’s work. But arriving tired, eyes red from lack of sleep, is common practice at many companies. Indeed, burning the midnight oil and pitching up in time for the breakfast meeting is even considered a badge of honor in many workplaces.

Research shows that being sleep deprived can have the same effect as being drunk. Lack of sleep is doing more harm than just making people grumpy and unhealthy – it kills creativity and lowers work output.

It leads to thousands of fatal accidents every year.

“Lack of sleep decreases efficiency and judgment,” says Marcus Marcet, specialist in eye and vision care at the Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital. “In general, over about 20 hours of continuously being awake is roughly equal to alcohol intoxication above the legal limit to drive.”

‘Over about 20 hours of continuously being awake is roughly equal to alcohol intoxication above the legal limit to drive’ - Hong Kong Sanatorium’s Marcus Marcet

Sleep deprivation affects many aspects of life, including cognition, memory, driving and work performance. Research has shown, he explains, that sleep deprived workers are more likely to make mistakes in performance. While a boozy lunch on work time is no longer acceptable, it could in fact be safer to be drunk than sleep impaired once you hit a certain level, according to neuroscience research.

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deprivation is seven to eight hours for adults – some people need more, others less.

In general, people in Asia suffer more from sleep deprivation than people in the West. About half of all full-time workers in Asian cities say they don’t get enough sleep, and that the problem is getting worse every year. In Japan the phenomena of over-tired office workers who hardly can keep their eyes open even has a special word: inemuri – “sleeping while present.”

People in Hong Kong are however ranked as being most sleep deprived in the Asia Pacific region, according to insurance company AIA’s Healthy Living Index. While Hong Kong adults would ideally like eight hours of sleep a night, they only manage six and a half on average.

Dr Noelle Ng Wing Kwan, a specialist in general practice at Gleneagles Hong Kong Hospital, says that lack of sleep affects us both physically and mentally.

It has a major impact on our cognitive function, especially in the area of attention, logical reasoning, creative thinking and multi-tasking.

“In view of impaired attention and cognitive function, productivity and efficiency at work would be lowered. In addition, workers would be more prone to accidents and occupational errors,” she says. “The consequences could be especially serious in certain type of occupation, for example, medical doctors, drivers and pilots.”

Undeniably, there can be few among us who would be happy seeing the pilot take a big yawn just before takeoff, or our surgeon just as we are about to go under.

“As an ophthalmologist, I would be remiss to not point out the bane of travelers on overnight flights – that is red eyes,” Marcet says. “However, lack of sleep can also cause more serious conditions.”

Lack of sleep can also be seen the financial numbers.

A study by not-for-profit research organization Rand Europe found that productivity losses at work occur through a combination of absenteeism – employees not being at work – and presenteeism – where they’re at work when they are ill and consequently working to a lower standard.

Sleep – just like water, food, and air – is a necessity for all humans. While you sleep, your body is hard at work, restoring, strengthening and rejuvenating itself. Researchers suggest that the average amount of sleep needed to prevent the side effects of sleep

The study – the first of its kind – found that lack of sleep represents a drag of US$411 billion a year on the U.S. economy, or 2.3 percent of the country’s economy.

Losses for Japan are even higher as a proportion of economic output, at about 2.9 percent of GDP,

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or up to US$138 billion a year. By simply increasing nightly sleep from less than six hours to between six and seven hours could add US$75.7 billion to the Japanese economy, the researchers said.

A separate U.S. study has estimated the annual costs of insomnia to be up to US$107.5 billion. Almost half of individuals with frequent sleep disturbances report missing work or events, or making errors at work, compared to 15 percent of healthy sleepers.

Dr Kenneth Tsang, a specialist in respiratory medicine at Hong Kong Adventist Hospital, says that people who do not have adequate sleep are more prone to deficiency in decision-making and problem-solving abilities when formally tested.

“Long-term sleep deprivation is also associated with increased risk of heart attack, stroke and diabetes mellitus, which are major killers in developed countries,” he says.

‘Long-term sleep deprivation is also associated with increased risk of heart attack, stroke and diabetes mellitus’ - Adventist’s Kenneth Tsang

A common cause of tiredness is snoring or apnea, a serious sleep disorder that results in daytime fatigue and a constant state of tiredness. Sleep apnea is a condition where a person stops breathing for a period of time during sleep, often occurring several times during the night. It can be due to physical blockage in the back of the throat or a miscommunication between the nervous system and breathing muscles.

Dr Terry Hung, specialist in otorhinolaryngology – the study of diseases of the ear, nose, and throat – at Matilda International Hospital in Hong Kong, says that untreated sleep apnea can impact your quality of working life by damaging cognitive functions but also making people bad-tempered.

“The sleep-deprived can exhibit mood-related inappropriate behavior. [The person] can be quiet and withdrawn, but also have outbursts of anger,” Hung says.

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Another way to catch up on sleep is to have a power nap. Many companies in Japan encourage employees to take a nap on the job, convinced it leads to better performance. So do an increasing number of companies in China – including the tech giant Huawei, whose office workers can be seen rolling out sleeping mats by their desks at lunch time.

“Having a nap in the afternoon is a common practice across many cultures and societies,” Adventist Hospital’s Tsang says.

Researchers agree that a power nap is good for you, as long as they don’t interfere with your normal sleeping pattern. It makes you cleverer and more creative at work. Your decision-making sharpens and it lowers the risk of making clumsy mistakes.

‘Sleep deprived can exhibit mood-related inappropriate behavior’ - Matilda’s Terry Hung

One study of 23,000 Greek adults found that people who took midday naps are less likely to die from heart disease. And one British study actually reports an improvement in blood pressure on the subjects tested even on anticipation of a nap, Tsang says.

Napping is also shown to improve memory, and thus should be good for productivity.

You should, however, stay away from long naps – they make you drowsy.

‘The consequences could be especially serious in certain types of occupation, for example, medical doctors, drivers and pilots’ - Gleneagles’ Noelle Ng Wing Kwan

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SLEEP

One alternative to a nap is to encourage employees to exercise regularly, preferably during the late afternoon, says Gleneagles’ Ng, as this has a positive effect on the person’s overall sleep pattern.

In short, sleep deprivation is bad for businesses.

Consistently burning the midnight oil can trigger a downward spiral in mental health and work performance. Creativity needs a rested mind if it is to flourish.

US$411 billion Estimated annual cost of sleep deprivation for U.S. economy

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TECHNOLOGY

Digital Detox Way Overdue Smartphones and mobile technology are powerful tools we can use to improve our lives, but all too often we are slaves to the machine, writes Johan Nylander

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TECHNOLOGY

Some time ago, I made an experiment. After finishing work on Friday, I switched off the data roaming on my mobile phone – silencing all social media, emails and instant messaging – and didn’t turn it on again until Monday morning. Admittedly, it might not sound as daring as going totally off-grid at a silent spiritual retreat in the Hindu Kush for a year. But the outcome of the weekend experiment was striking.

First, I hadn’t felt more relaxed in ages. Just revoking this constant distraction of social media notifications, emails and news alerts made me feel like I was on holiday. I felt more present in conversations, more social and fulfilled, with more energy. What was striking was that the positive effect kicked in almost immediately; just knowing the phone was off put a warm blanket of calm over my shoulders. I didn’t, however, switch off entirely as family and friends could still reach me with a phone call. Still, silence lingered.

Second, it wasn’t easy. Several times I had to fight the temptation to have just one tiny little glance at my Linkedin or Facebook, a cheeky check of WeChat or WhatsApp, or a sneaky peek to check for any breaking news, urgent emails, game updates or… well, just anything. My fingers were itching. Perhaps not as bad as for someone trying to quit smoking but I felt a strong urge to turn the data on. I had to mentally fight it. They call it nomophobia – or no mobile phone phobia.

‘Mobile phones really affect you and your family, as well as your eating habits, sleep and routines. It’s a huge problem’

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Mobile phones, digital devices and the internet have brought amazing benefits. They have become central to our lives; for work, studies, social connections and entertainment. They are fun and efficient. But expects also warn about over-dependence, and an unhealthy attachment.

Today, mobile phone addiction seems to be spreading like wildfire across the world, and according to some research the problem is the worst in Asia. Although there’s still a lack of adequate academic studies and scientific data, most researchers agree that a new powerful obsession has entered our society.

Hooked...

No matter where you go, people have their heads buried in a virtual world.

Dr Joyce Chao, a clinical psychologist at the Dimensions Centre in Hong Kong’s Central district, explains that our digital devices, as well as the content they display, are designed to be addictive.

When we’re unable to check our devices for whatever reason, anxiety sets in.

“I have more and more people coming to our clinic because they feel anxious if they don’t stay connected all the time,” she says.

Before setting up the practice in Hong Kong, she worked in Hawaii with people suffering from severe psychiatric problems, including a jail diversion program to help criminals with mental illness and drug addictions.

“Back in Hong Kong in private practice I also see many people with severe addiction issues with substances like alcohol, sex or gambling. But also adults and children with internet addictions. Some kids won’t even get out of their house.”

Sometimes, she explains, she feels like a personal trainer for the brain. She assesses a patient’s strength and weaknesses, and helps them to train their mental muscle to resist the temptation. The fundamental idea of the iPhone, she says, is that the device becomes a part of us, attached to us. So how do we create a healthy detachment? She gives an example:

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TECHNOLOGY

“Tell yourself that during dinner tonight I shall not look at my phone. If you realize that you can’t, that you have to check your phone although you shouldn’t, you really have a problem. If you try to use the mental muscle but the muscle doesn’t work, you might need psychological help.”

Indeed, in Hong Kong it’s a common sight to see couples on a romantic dinner ignoring each other and instead texting with other people on their smartphones. You can see groups of friends in a bar with every single one of them absorbed in their screens. We’ve all seen children burst out crying when their parents take the digital device away from them – and how often does the parent lose the fight and hand the phone or tablet back to the bawling brat? This is harmful in many ways, according to several experts interviewed for this article.

‘You can chain an alcoholic to a radiator, but it won’t make him not want to have a drink. It’s all about losing the desire’

A lost generation...

The numbers affected by mobile overdosing are striking. In South Korea, for example, 72 percent of children own a smartphone by the age of 11 or 12 and spend on average 5.4 hours a day on them, according

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to a 2016 study of almost 1,000 students. As a result, the study concluded, about 25 percent of children were considered addicted to smartphones.

Hong Kong’s Department of Health has found that infants younger than one year are frequently given electronic devices as “e-pacifiers,” or a “shut-up tool.”

Some 32 percent of the youngsters polled by the department believed they slept less because of the internet, 39 percent said the habit had affected their academic performance and 51 percent said there were more family quarrels as a result. Yet, the survey also found only very few parents said they supervised their children when using electronic devices.

Ninety-eight percent of parents in Southeast Asia allow children to use devices, according to a study commissioned by Samsung Kidstime. The primary motivation of parents for allowing their children to use devices is to supplement their education, but the same study shows that most kids use them for something else – gaming. At the same time, 92 percent of polled parents were worried about the impact of device use on their children’s health, and the addiction to devices. Children’s health was the biggest concern in Thailand (99 percent), inappropriate content in Indonesia (95 percent) and addiction to devices in Singapore (94 percent).

In China, the first country to recognize internet addiction disorder as a mental illness, there are military-style clinics to stamp out new media addictions. According to a 2016 survey from Tencent, among citizens aged 28-37, 94 percent are not used to going out without their mobile phones, 84 percent will feel anxious if their phones fail to connect to the internet, and 73 percent check a social app at least once every 15 minutes. In fact, special pedestrian lanes have been created for “the heads-down tribe” – a nickname for pedestrians who constantly have their eyes glued to their mobile phone as they walk and text or watch videos.

“Data shows that for the young people in China, smartphone addiction has become a chronic and widely extending disease,” research company Daxue Consulting said in a blog post. Chinese are finding it increasingly difficult to live without their smartphones.”

Mobile phone stress has given rise to an array of

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TECHNOLOGY

“digital detox” self-help books, courses and even apps to limit and monitor your own use. Also, a growing number of hotels have seen the need for their guests to get a break from the digital inflow.

Wakeup call...

At the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong, guests can slip into the “Digital Wellness Escape,” a detox treatment curated to help guide the mind, body and spirit away from online distractions and light pollution.

“People are increasingly recognizing how much harm is coming from digital devices and the constant use of them. I mean, phones are amazing.

There are so many benefits. But we’ve come to a point where people are too attached to them,” says spa director Misty Stewart. “So in a spa setting, we try to counterbalance that.”

The treatment is more than just a 90-minute escape.

It’s a way to create long-term awareness, like a wakeup call. The treatment starts with a quiz with questions including: Do you allow digital devices during family dinners? Do you reply to emails and texts while walking on the street? Are you unable to put your phone aside while you focus on other things?

“The answers of the questions tell how connected you are, or rather how hard it is for you to disconnect.

We want to give people that awareness where they think ‘wow, let’s look at this’. Mobile phones really affect you and your family, as well as your eating habits, sleep and routines. It’s a huge problem,” she says.

has reached his or her addiction threshold. First, when it becomes impossible to control the amount of time they are spending on their devices, and second, when their behavior starts to have a negative impact on their life. In other words, heavy usage of technology does not necessarily make a person an addict: that only happens when their use becomes exaggerated.

But how much is exaggerated use? Often it’s people around the individual, like family members or work colleagues, who first see the signs and negative consequences, MacAuley explains. He cites the example of a client who came for help after his wife alerted him that he was overdosing on social media.

“His wife was fed up with him never being [mentally] present. He would wake up around 3 or 4 in the morning and spend the next few hours on Twitter.

He would be late for work and not be able to manage his wake-sleep cycle,” he says.

But, at the end of the day there’s only one person who can make a change – yourself. It’s all about your own motivation, or your mental muscle.

“You can chain an alcoholic to a radiator, but it won’t make him not want to have a drink. It’s all about losing the desire. The problem is not stopping, it’s staying stopped.”

The same goes for mobile phones.

Dr Seamus MacAuley, head counselor at rehab clinic The Cabin Hong Kong in Central, warns that withdrawing from the real world and hiding in the virtual can lead to “intimacy anorexia,” a relationship disorder where people withhold love and affection from others.

“There’s a huge amount of gaming, surfing and texting out there. In itself it’s not harmful; not until you feel negative consequences and can’t control it anymore,” he says. “Some even sleep with their phone under the pillow.”

He explains that there are two signs an individual

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TECHNOLOGY

Hard wired Our attachment to gadgets may be part of a deeply imbedded evolutionary adaptation central to our use of tools.

Behavioral scientists studying the cognitive abilities of animals such as beavers, crows, bower birds and chimpanzees raise the possibility that when using tools – in the broadest sense, the interaction between our fingers and other moving parts and inanimate things – our brains have evolved to include them as part of our body map.

Once an animal takes hold of an object such as a stick, stone or iPhone 8+, it becomes, for “conceptual purposes a temporary part of the animal itself,” Princeton biologist James L. Gould and his science writer wife Carol Grant Gould wrote in Animal Architects, Building and the Evolution of Intelligence, “only to become a separate entity again once released.”

As human intelligence developed, so too has our ability to conceptualize, plan and imagine though externalization and abstraction. In our heads, perhaps, our smartphones have become part of us.

“As birds use their claws and beaks, and beavers employ strong teeth and hand-like paws, we manipulate the objects around us, using them as either components or tools (or more often both),” the Goulds wrote. “Once a familiar component is in our hand, it can become part of us conceptually, an object for which the behavioral possibilities can be estimated on the basis of past experience and then extrapolated.”

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TECHNOLOGY

Take the Mandarin’s Digital Wellness Health Quiz Do you allow digital devices during family dinner?

Do you text or use internet while eating alone?

Do your friends of family express frustration with your technology consumption?

Do you watch TV or use the internet right before going to bed?

Do you sleep with notifications and ringer in the “on” position?

Does your work expect you to be available more than 10 hours a day on the phone?

Do you reply to texts or emails during meetings?

Do you reply to emails and texts while walking on the street?

Do you look at your phone screen during workouts?

Are you unable to put your phone aside while you focus on other things?

If you answer YES on more than half of these questions, you might suffer from smartphone overdosing.

(The full quiz contains twice as many questions)

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TRAVEL

IT’S TIME FOR A NEW APPROACH TO

By Randy Malamud

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CO TRAVEL

When I overcame a flying phobia, I resolved to make up for lost time by visiting as much of the world as I could.

So in the course of a decade, I logged over 300,000 miles, flying everywhere from Buenos Aires to Dubai.

I knew intuitively that my travels would “make me a better person” and “broaden my horizons,” as the clichés have it. But I’ve come to believe that travel can, and should, be more than a hobby, luxury or form of leisure. It is a fundamental component of being a humanist.

At its core, humanism is about exploring and debating the vital ideas that make us who we are.

We study music, film, art and literature to do just that. And while it’s important to explore these ideas in our own communities, people and places that are not like us have a role to play that’s just as crucial.

This is where travel comes in. It’s what sent me packing to see some of the places I have spent so long reading about. And it’s what compelled me to write “The Importance of Elsewhere: The Globalist Humanist Tourist,” in which I wanted to make a case for a new approach to travel.

The imperialist tourist In academia, travel studies have long looked at the intersection between imperialism and tourism, describing how they flourish in tandem.

From the 16th to 19th centuries, European empires gobbled up territories around the world, planting their flags and building embassies, banks, hotels and roads. Imperialists traveled to collect cinnamon, silk, rubber and ivory, using them, upon returning home, for pleasure and profit.

The golden age of travel roughly coincided with that period. Not long after the military and commercial incursions began, tourists followed imperialists to these far-flung locales.

Both tourism and imperialism involved voyages of discovery, and both tended to leave the people who were “discovered” worse off than they had been before the encounters.

Globalism’s impact on the way we travel Over the last century, globalism – a vast and daunting

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concept of transnational corporate and bureaucratic systems – has replaced imperialism as the dominant network of international relations.

Globalism can be overwhelming: It involves billions of people, trillions of dollars, innumerable inventories of goods, all ensconced in a technocratic vocabulary of geopolitics and multinationalism that’s anathema to those of us who approach the world on a more human scale.

It has also made travel much easier. There are more airplane routes, more ATMs on every corner and international cellphone services. You can travel elsewhere without ever leaving the comforting familiarities of home, with McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts and Holiday Inns now dotting the globe.

But why bother traveling if you want familiar comforts?

I would argue that we need a new travel guide that acknowledges the sweeping interconnectedness of globalism, but balances this with a humanist mindset.

Because beneath the innocuous activities of visiting cathedrals, lounging on the beach and collecting souvenirs, travelers can still harbor selfish, exploitative desires and exhibit a sense of entitlement that resembles imperial incursions of yesteryear.

In a way, globalism has also made it easier to slip into the old imperialist impulse to come with power and leave with booty; to set up outposts of our own culture; and to take pictures denoting the strangeness of the places we visit, an enterprise that, for some, confirms the superiority of home.

The model tourist Humanism, however, is proximate, intimate, local.

Traveling as a humanist restores our identity and independence, and helps us resist the overwhelming forces of globalism.

There’s nothing wrong with going to see the Colosseum or the Taj Mahal. Sure, you can take all the same photos that have already been taken at all the usual tourist traps, or stand in long lines to see Shakespeare’s and Dante’s birthplaces (which are of dubious authenticity).

But don’t just do that. Sit around and watch people.

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COVER C-SUITE TRAVEL STORY TALK

Get lost. Give yourself over to the mood, the pace, the spirit of elsewhere. Obviously you will eat new and interesting foods, but think of other ways, too, of tasting and “ingesting” the culture of elsewhere, of adapting to different habits and styles. These are the things that will change you more than the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Psychologists have found that the more countries you visit, the more trusting you’ll be – and that “those who visited places less similar to their homeland became more trusting than those who visited places more similar to their homeland.” Immersion in foreign places boosts creativity, and having more diverse experiences makes people’s minds more flexible.

With the products and conveniences of globalism touching most parts of the world, it simply takes more of a conscious effort to truly immerse yourself in something foreign.

My own empathy, creativity and flexibility have been immeasurably enhanced by such strange and fascinating destinations as a Monty Python conference in Lodz, Poland; a remoteness seminar near the North Pole; a boredom conference in Warsaw; Copenhagen’s queer film festival; Berlin’s deconstructed Nazi airport; a workshop in Baghdad on getting academics up to speed after Iraq’s destruction; and an encounter as an ecotourist with Tierra del Fuego’s penguins.

There’s an especially vital argument to make for travel in these fractious times of far-right ideologies and crumbling international alliances, burgeoning racism and xenophobia. The world seems as if it’s becoming less open.

A trip is the greatest chance you’ll ever have to learn about things you don’t experience at home, to meet people you wouldn’t otherwise encounter. You’ll probably find that, in many important ways, they are the same as you – which, in the end, is the point of doing all this.

Humanists know that our copious insights and deliberations – about identity, emotions, ethics, conflict and existence – flourish best when the world is our oyster. They dissipate in the echo chamber of isolationism.

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Randy Malamud is Regents’ Professor of English at Georgia State University and this article was originally published on The Conversation.

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Cards on the Table

Atlanta-founded Peachstate Hobby sells nostalgia along with its sports trading cards. We speak to the founder’s daughter, Morgan Davis, about the company’s expansion into Asia

T

here is something timeless about collecting things, sometimes referred to as the world’s oldest hobby. For collectors with a love of sports, an enduring and immensely popular quest is the pursuit of sports trading cards. Morgan Davis, General Manager of Peachstate Hobby’s Hong Kong branch (the company’s first in Asia), knows that when customers buy a pack of cards, they are buying a piece of their childhood.

“In the United States, most collectors have been doing it since their childhood so there is such a nostalgic feeling that comes with collecting,” she says.

Davis is an employee with a unique position within the company: She is the daughter of founder Scott

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Davis. Born and raised outside of Atlanta, in the Peach State of Georgia, Davis spent her summers breaks from Boston University interning at Peachstate’s Atlanta offices before joining the company full-time after graduation.

With six offices in the U.S. and a small but growing client base in Asia, Davis says the decision to expand to Hong Kong was a no-brainer as the founders recognized that having a local office would make expansion in the region much easier.

When she first heard about the plan, Davis says she “jumped at the opportunity” to move here to help with Peachstate’s first global expansion.

A fan of sports, Davis enjoys watching games any opportunity she gets. “I didn’t really know much about the cards until I started interning,” she admits, “but there are so many unique cards for collectors to try and get. I can see why people love collecting.”

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ased out of the United States, Peachstate Hobby was founded in 2004 by Scott Davis and Jim Grant, who first met at a sports trading cards show back when they were just collectors themselves. Inspired by their shared passion, Davis and Grant set out to sell cards themselves, acquiring distribution licenses for the major manufacturers and partnering with a gaming company to form Peachstate Hobby Distribution LLC and transition into the wholesale market.

Today, Peachstate in the U.S. is a wholesale distributor of sports trading cards, gaming cards and supplies to retail stores, with six warehouses around the country.

Citing key differences between the American and Chinese markets, Davis says, “In Hong Kong and China, NBA [basketball] and soccer cards are big sellers whereas Japan and Korea focus more on buying MLB [baseball] cards. In the U.S., NFL [American football], MLB, NBA, soccer and [ice] hockey cards are all popular.”

HOBBIES & INTERESTS

“We have a wide range of products at different price points to satisfy every type of collector,” she says. But buyers in Asian markets wanting to get their hands Peachstate’s other offerings will have to wait a little longer.

“As of right now the Hong Kong office is our first office in Asia and we only carry sports trading cards,” she says.

One thing to remember is that the wholesale collectibles business doesn’t see the record-breaking sales prices paid for individual products as is typical of the retail side of the business. (An individual Michael Jordan rookie card currently sells for as much as HK$1.3 million on eBay).

This may sound less exciting to some, but to Davis, the goal on both sides of the business – wholesale and retail – is the same: It’s about making people – the end consumers – happy.

“As a wholesale distributor, our client base is retail stores, but the end consumer is typically an avid collector. Our clients buy for business and their clients buy for pleasure,” she says.

Aside from sports trading cards, Peachstate in the U.S. sells other sports-inspired collectibles like stickers, which Davis says are especially popular abroad in the lead-up to major sporting events like the World Cup.

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HOBBIES & INTERESTS

History Revision King & Country’s new Tet Offensive commemorative 50th anniversary model set seeks to capture the reality of what company founder Andy Neilson says is a widely misunderstood chapter in the Vietnam War, the fight for control of the old imperial capital of Hue. “A lot of people think the U.S. lost that battle,” says Neilson, a former Royal Marine and a self-avowed stickler for accuracy and the finer details of history.

“In fact, it

was by any measure a success for the Americans.”

The sorry truth about war throughout the ages is that the sacrifices made by fighting men and women on the ground often end up having little bearing on the end result: wars are won and lost at home, on the battleground of public opinion. In the case of Vietnam, by the time of the Tet Offensive in 1968, public opinion at home was already shifting away from the war.

From a Hong Kong perspective, that would soon manifest itself in President Richard Nixon’s entente with China and Mao Zedong, who held the key to an early U.S. withdrawal from the Vietnamese engagement.

(For more, see the March edition of AmCham HK.)

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underscored by his attention to detail and intimate personal knowledge of military matters – when a soldier carries a heavy weapon, for example, he tends to lean to one side to counterbalance the weight.

Deep research into the subject – the exact type of kit, which weapons were deployed and in which proportions, how they were used and in which scenarios, and even the racial makeup of military units – all inform the modelling process, which takes months to bring from conception to production, Neilson says.

King & Country’s Tet collectibles continue the company’s tradition of modelling in exquisite detail and accuracy friezes from key military encounters or traditions.

Meticulous planning has on occasion been augmented by miraculous intelligence: an inside tip from a military advisor on Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” allowed Neilson to get a head start on planning a miniature set to go alongside the film’s release – one of the company’s best-selling ranges, he said.

The company’s origins stem from a boyhood love of toy soldiers coupled with the opportunities offered by Hong Kong and southern China as a manufacturing center, alongside the essential happenstance that is so often a cornerstone of business success stories – the meeting of the right mix of people and talent at the tight time (See: Wild Colonial Boy).

In this case, Neilson’s partnership with his entrepreneurial wife Laura McAllister, his military background and his training as a designer.

New lines of King & Country models begin with a series of minutely detailed sketches by Neilson,

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WILD COLONIAL BOY

Andy Neilson’s path to running one of the world’s leading miniature collectibles businesses is the type of story that grizzled gweilos used to trade over the wooden counters of Hong Kong’s pre-handover bars: Glasgow lad goes awry over girls, finds adventure in America, finds himself in the British Royal Marines and then heads east for opportunity… and little bit of love.

A classic Hong Kong story of adventure, redemption and reinvention

Walking into the 23rd floor Lockhart Road offices of King & Country, the mostly military-themed miniature model making company he founded with ex-wife and business partner Laura McAllister in 1984, is a Gulliverian experience – thousands of Lilliputian snapshots of warfare, martial pride and the occasional civilian experience crowded onto the shelves; buzzbies, kilts and khaki.

And Neilson himself, ensconced in his corner office, is the personification of a storied story well-told. (If I were him, I would be tempted to make my autobiography as a set of miniature friezes, though I suspect his Scottish self-deprecation would find that idea beyond the pale.)

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Born in Renfrew, then a small town just outside Glasgow, Neilson says his childhood hobby was toy soldiers. That is, until he discovered girls. This is how he found his way back, full-circle, to his boyhood passion:

War, what is it good for?

The dead end of the 60s: Vietnam, assassinations, Chappaquiddick, Altamont. Death, destruction, disillusionment.

Neilson was born the son of a carpenter and a housewife, but won a scholarship to the Scottish equivalent of a grammar school – the upper end of the UK’s two-tier but still government funded school system at the time. A big break for a working class kid.

His interest in art took him to graphic design at college, an upward trajectory cut short by a brawl over a girl in the student union bar – with a lecturer.

Kicked out of college, Neilson found his way to the States, where we worked in a steel foundry in Michigan. After six months, immigrant workers like him were eligible for the draft – eligible to fly off and fight Uncle Sam’s deepening war in Vietnam.

And so it was back home, where he managed to complete his education, landing a job at an early offshoot of Saatchi & Saatchi in Glasgow.

But then, love struck – but not in a good way: his fiance ditched him. Like so many rejected and dejected souls over the centuries, Neilson signed up for the Marines, spending six years in the elite military force… though the promise of exotic adventures far from home shores never came to pass, he says.

After handing in his notice, Neilson was transferred to the Government Information Service, where he ended up working full-time at triple his police salary. Stashing away the extra cash, Neilson opened a small design studio. Meantime, his wife, stymied

by Hutchison’s policy of never promoting women to manage the bar, suggested they open their own.

And so Mad Dogs was born, the first of a legendary chain of pubs that included Joe Bananas.

A Christmas gift from his brother of a small box of Royal Marines toy soldiers kick started Neilson’s boyhood passion. His wife pointed out that they were living in the middle of the world’s toy manufacturing capital, so why not make his own?

The rest, as they say, is history.

Well, not quite. Success sometimes carries its own cost: the couple divorced as their businesses prospered. Too busy, too frenetic, too little time for themselves.

Today, Neilson says they remain great friends and business partners. Both have moved on to new lives and families.

But when asked what he makes of the new Joe Bananas and the changing face of Lockhart Road, Neilson says he doesn’t really know as he never goes out for a drink there anymore.

“I had some of the best years of my life there,” he says, “but also some of the worst.”

Perhaps that’s why, after marrying local sweetheart McAllister, he was open to the suggestion from a former military buddy that he apply to join the Hong Kong police.

In an explanation pregnant with untold stories, Neilson says it didn’t take long to realize he wasn’t cut out for life as a Hong Kong copper. Fortunately, his wife’s job as a barmaid in the Bull & Bear – a Hutchison-operated drinking hole on the ground floor of what are now AmCham’s Bank of America Tower offices – led her to meet a graphic designer who said Neilson could earn a lot more money by switching careers.

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Beating the School Break Blues A trip to South Lantau is the ideal antidote for slothful teenagers and their hassled parents over the long summer vacation The kids have been looking forward to it for the past few weeks. In fact they’ve been going on incessantly about how they can’t wait to get out of school and into their summer holidays. And so, now they’re off… and have absolutely no idea what to do with themselves – or at least, no idea other than to traipse through Hong Kong’s air-conditioned and eye-wateringly expensive luxury malls, slurping iced drinks in overpriced restaurants.

Summer holidays can be frustrating times for hassled and hard-working parents who often end up tearing their hair out in despair over what to do with slouching teenagers. So here’s a Magnificent Seven ideas for the young, free of heart and light of wallet from 17-year-old Ella, the much-nagged wannabe couch potato daughter of AmCham’s head of content Ben Richardson.

Cool off in a river...

Hong Kong beaches can be crowded and filthy, and the sea like sinking into a bowl of warm soup – complete with unidentified lumpy bits. If you take the effort to climb up into the hills a little way, you can stumble across some beautiful rock pools, waterfalls or even the odd man-made water catchment pond. Some are deep enough to jump from the rocky surrounds, but at the very least they offer a wonderfully refreshing dip in pristine clean water. We often spend hours lounging around and 44

cooling off, picnicking and nattering. The rivers are also full of small fish and crayfish that love to nibble your dead skin – a free pedicure. But try to avoid lowlevel pools: my dad once found a big buffalo leech in his shorts after an hour messing around in a Pui O river.

WHERE: There are well known pools above Mui Wo, between Mui Wo and Pui O, above San Shek Wan and at Shui Lo Cho in Tai O. There are many others to be discovered and some that, sorry, we’re keeping secret. But if we found them, so can you.

WARNING: Be careful not to swim in village gathering grounds – you can typically tell from the pipeworks that collect the water. Be careful of floods higher up the mountain: a sudden downpour at the top of the mountain can lead to a flash flood lower downstream, even while you’re still basking in sunshine.

Scrambling time…

Don’t let the end of the beach be the end of your fun: there’s great adventure to be had scrambling along the rocks and cliff-faces that separate Lantau’s beautiful sandy beaches. Some will lead you to river mouths that then present another challenge. You can follow some river beds up the mountain to the very top. Three or four hours should get you to the top of Sunset Peak, where you can rest up and cool AmChamHK

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AROUND HONG KONG

off in the breeze on the roof of one of the stone and concrete missionary huts, before a 90-minute jaunt back down to civilization.

WHERE: For beach scrambles, follow the coastal path from Mui Wo to Shap Long, and from the end of Pui O beach heading towards San Shek Wan. Also, junior versions can be found at Cheung Sha and Tong Fuk. Riverbed scrambles are more strenuous and dangerous, but a good starting point is from San Shek Wan to Sunset Peak – there are plenty of “escape routes” along the way.

WARNING: Aside from those flash floods, don’t make risky climbing moves. Always tell someone where you’re heading and keep a fully charged phone in a waterproof bag. Take trail-mix, energy bars or other supplies… just in case. And watch out for snakes, which love to hang out in dry riverbeds.

Cheap eats…

Think about it: for the price of a muffin and chocolate chip frappuccino in a Central coffee shop, you can pig out on a giant bowl of Hong Kong’s staple egg and spam noodle soup and a drink. Yummmm.

(I’m vegetarian, so I go for double egg and hold the ham.) It’s so much better than a McDonald’s and the beauty is, you can usually find a shop willing to knock up this dish more or less anywhere on Lantau – from the isolated village of Sham Wat an hour’s walk from the Big Buddha at Ngong Ping, to the posh beach of Cheung Sha to the Big City sprawl of

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Mui Wo. And when we really want to splash out, we try the Thai restaurant behind the BEA branch in Mui Wo – a big dish and drink will cost just $45. The Pad Thai is so big we often end up sharing. For the sweet toothed, another favorite is tau fu fa – silky beancurd in a light syrup and sprinkled with delicious orange palm sugar. YUMMMMM. WHERE: Cheap Thai in Mui Wo, cheap Indian in Tung Fuk and cheap egg and spam noodle just about everywhere. Our favorite spot for tau fu fa is up in Ngong Ping.

Horse shoe crabs…

Let’s face it, searching for hermit crabs is OK for young kids. Spending hours watching some little brown warbler through binoculars might be OK for the grownups. And my dad’s obsession with bees and wasps is OK for, well, him. But if there’s one Lantau nature experience that takes the biscuit and is undeniably too cool for school, it’s spotting baby horse shoe crabs down at Shui Hau. My uncle who was visiting from England said Lantau was like being in a David Attenborough documentary: mud skippers, fiddler crabs, buffaloes and horse shoe crabs, praying mantises and thousands of beautiful butterflies and dragonflies. Then again, he did come eye-to-eye with a massive king cobra on a Friday evening out jogging with our dog Daisy, only to have to wrestle a 14-foot python off her on the Sunday.

Sometimes, Lantau has a little too much nature.

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W

Pick your own lychees...

Summer is the season for lychees, and you’ve no doubt delighted in how juicy a bunch bought from the local wet market can be. Well did you know that as those lychees are sitting in farmyards, being trucked to the stalls and then laid out waiting to be bought that all those juices are evaporating? We hadn’t thought about it either until we got chatting to a farmer in Sham Wat and he invited us to pick our own from his fruit trees. We filled up a big basket with beautiful, plump and rosy lychees straight from the tree, with a few pounds of wong pei (a common fruit with a citrus tang that is found in villages all over Hong Kong) thrown on top – all for the princely sum of HK$100. And the lychees? Unbelievable.

Incredible. My dad ate at least three kilos on the way home.

Camping…

The ultimate sleepover. And no adults. There are campsites dotted all over Lantau that are a great way to get together with your mates for a low cost adventure. Some demand a strenuous trek, but for the natural couch potatoes among you, just take the bus from Mui Wo to Pui O and pitch up at the public camp site. There you have showers (only cold, but in the summer that’s a blessing), washing facilities, BBQ sites and a shop selling drinks and

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AROUND HONG KONG

snacks. And in the nearby village there are a bunch of cheap eateries including our favorite Cantonese restaurant, the Mau Kee. Nearby hikes include the easy one-hour jaunt up Lo Yan Shan, while there are surfboards, paddle boards and canoes for hire from Treasure Island Group.

Urban exploring…

Mui Wo isn’t everyone’s idea of an urban landscape, but it has its highlights. Mostly, that involves a plethora of abandoned buildings that offer the adventurous the opportunity to brush up on climbing moves, chill out on hidden rooftops or poke around in Cultural Revolution-era Communist Party offices. And it’s not just Mui Wo – there are dozens of abandoned farmhouses, pig pens and shacks dotted

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along country trails and in mountainous valleys across Lantau. They offer not just a glimpse into Lantau’s fascinating history, but also into the tough life of Hong Kong’s farmers and fishermen over the years. Also, the changing nature of Hong Kong itself – check out the observatory dome at the top of the abandoned school in Mui Wo, or the abandoned prison in Shap Long, complete with its own sewage treatment plant, helipad and officers’ mess. Chi Ma Wan peninsular has dozens of empty buildings with their own ferry pier that could house hundreds of Hong Kong homeless people. They’re now just left to the mold and rats.

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BEES

BIG CITY BUZZ

Bees are finding refuge in concrete jungles around the world… what about Hong Kong?

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The next time you happen to be strolling across the Convention Avenue pedestrian walkway – the one that carves a circle in the air through what’s been a decade-long construction site snarling up the approach to the Wanchani Convention and Exhibition Centre – spare a thought for the bees.

There on the right, as you descend onto the main drag heading toward the LegCo complex, you might look out onto a massive tunnel-boring machine for the Wanchai Bypass project and see dozens of men milling around the Nissan huts in the dust stirred up by heavy duty machines and trucks. Look a little closer and you’ll spot the unmistakable activity of a bustling colony of wild honey bees: hundreds of small, dark ovoids making a bee-line approach from every angle back to the hive after an outing to forage for nectar and pollen.

That is, unless a government hit squad or private contractor has been called in to exterminate the hive first.

“This is, unfortunately, a very common and normal practice in Hong Kong to deal with beehives found in unsuitable places,” says Johnson Group CEO William Hung (pictured overleaf). The Hong Kong-based pest-control company receives a

BEES

“large number of beehive removal cases from clients per month asking for a complete removal of the hive using toxic pesticides.”

both the degree of ignorance about the risk these animals pose, but also about their role in maintaining the natural ecosystem.

“The bee plays a very vital role in our ecosystem,” says Hung, who has started a Save Local Bees program.

There can be few people by now who haven’t heard about the threats facing the world’s honey bee population. Colony collapse disorder; the Varroa destructor mite; pesticides; over-exploitation for commercial use; habitat destruction and the spread of monocultural farming practices: They all add up to a deadly cocktail for the honey bee.

“Instead of killing all the bees with pesticide, we will call our beekeeper partner to assess and collect the hive and bees living inside. The beekeeper will then bring the rescued bees back to their farm and provide them with a better and safer living place.”

Such enlightened thinking is rare. Government websites contain almost no information about bees. When they do get a mention they tend to be conflated with their much more aggressive cousins – the wasps and hornets. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, for example, warns ramblers to avoid touching the combs of “bees/ wasps/hornets.”

In fact, as this author can painfully attest, there are several species of wasps and hornets in Hong Kong that will launch unprovoked attacks on passing walkers – even when on a well-trodden path. To touch the comb of a wild bee, however, would require some effort as they are typically hidden away inside tree cavities or similarly secure places. Security matters more for bees: Unlike wasps, whose combs contain only their eggs and growing grubs, bees stash their waxen versions with precious honey.

The response to wild bees in Hong Kong highlights

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So what’s this got to do with Hong Kong – one of the world’s most densely populated cities? True, there has been something of a blossoming of urban farming, including the use of rooftops and indoor hydroponics. And true, Hong Kong has some robust local apiaries that contribute to China’s status as the world’s biggest exporter of honey – leading a top10 list that shipped more than US$1.3 billion of the sweet stuff in 2016, according to Statista.com. (Po Sang Yuen Bee Farm, Bee’s Nest HK, ForME HONEY and Wah Sang Yuen are four of the biggest and bestknown local producers.)

Still, local farms produce less than 2 percent of the vegetables we consume, according to government data – meaning that the fate of the bees isn’t tied to food security in Hong Kong’s case.

So why the buzz about big city bees?

For one, bees are what’s known as a keystone species – ones that play a crucial role in a given environment.

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BEES

Forget for a moment everything you’ve read about how important they are for pollinating human crops.

About 240,000 of the world’s flowering plants rely on animal pollinators. Think of all the plants, seeds, nuts and fruits that are eaten by all the other creatures we share the planet with.

It is increasingly clear that honey bees are our canaries in the coal mine of overall pollinator populations: multiple studies have shown that where managed colonies of commercial honey bees are suffering, so too are wild stocks of bees, moths, butterflies, wasps and flies that provide pollination services for plants.

Healthy and diverse stocks of pollinators increase the overall biodiversity of a habitat. And resilience is the key to the long-term survival of any ecosystem… and of the human race.

It is also becoming clear that some urban landscapes are becoming places of refuge for these insects.

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One study in Stockholm found that bees had lower winter die-offs and were less prone to infection.

LVMH Group’s Guerlain subsidiary – which has used the honey bee as its symbol since 1853 – has installed beehives at its Paris offices and sponsored a four-year study comparing urban and rural bee populations.

The group also maintains a population of diseaseand parasite-free honey bees on a remote island off the coast of Normandy.

As more farmland is turned over to single crops, pollinators are faced with a short-term explosion of foraging opportunities followed by a “green dessert.”

Just like us, bees rely on a balanced and varied diet – extracting micronutrients from a range of different flowers. One Anglo-Dutch study found a 70 percent plunge in key wildflowers in those countries since the 1980s. Bees also need a habitat that offers secure nesting sites, freshwater and relative freedom from disturbance.

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BEES

Though at first blush counterintuitive, cities offer those benefits for pollinators: lower and less intensive use of pesticides than they find in farmland; gardens and parks that can be oases of plant diversity; and potential nesting sites aplenty – should residents, governments and companies be tolerant and enlightened.

Hong Kong has enormous potential, with about 1,500 public parks and gardens, including 25 major parks managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. In 2016, the department said it planted almost two million trees, shrubs and annuals over more than 1,250 hectares and that it has been increasing planting of native species.

Such government facilities help create pockets of habitat that are suitable for bees. But there is no specific mention of bees or policy aimed at tolerating and fostering bee populations. And there is no

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coordinating policy aimed at leveraging privately managed land through, for example, pollinatorspecific targets in the green building standards.

“While there is, at present, no specific pollinator policy set out by the department, we fully understand that honey bees are highly beneficial insects in the ecosystems and many plant species rely on them for pollination,” said an LCSD spokesperson. “Removal of a bee nest would be arranged only if we could not evade the harm and threats posed by them to the park users.”

Given the widespread misunderstanding about the insects, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department’s website offers an ominous sign: “Members of the public may contact FEHD 24-hour Hotline ... if wasps/wild bees disinfestation services is required.”

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CORPORATE MEMBER PROFILE

Path to the Summit Engineer-by-training Peter Hwang explains how a series of turning points and a lifelong dream to run his own company led him to global storage giant Iron Mountain

Peter Hwang at the Iron Mountain Annual Dinner 2017

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CORPORATE MEMBER PROFILE

‘When you’re at the top of the food chain, there aren’t many people you can share that with’ Iron Mountain Managing Director for Asia Peter Hwang’s career has been peppered with twists and turns but the journey has been anything but lonely.

When we met, the 42-year-old executive had just returned from a two-week tour of the Nordics, his latest annual retreat with the Young Presidents’ Organization, a professional community and peer support network for CEOs below the age of 45.

“When you’re young and put into quite demanding roles, it creates opportunities but also problems in your life. And when you’re at the top of the food chain, there aren’t many people who you can share that with,” he says, adding that he’s been fortunate to have such support networks and mentors throughout his career.

of the dot-com boom, and Hwang was pursuing a career in tech.

I had to ask: Surely working for the ISS is a dream come true for most aerospace engineers. Why did he give it up?

“Aerospace is quite a traditional industry in the sense that it doesn’t change very fast. And I was looking around me and everybody was twice my age and had been with the company for 30 years,” says Hwang. “That wasn’t the environment I wanted to be in long term. So that’s why I went to Stanford for my MBA thinking that after that I would join a startup or, you know, the equivalent of Google back then.”

Hong Kong-born Hwang moved to Australia with his family at the age of 12. Through a local university exchange program, he found his way to the States, completing Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in aerospace and mechanical engineering at UCLA in Los Angeles.

Forced to change tack again after the dot-com bubble burst midway through his MBA course, Hwang decided to enter the relative security of the corporate world. He joined consulting firm McKinsey right out of business school, spending a handful of years between their Hong Kong and LA offices before moving back to Hong Kong for good in 2007.

After a three-year stint as a Boeing engineer designing radiator handles for the International Space Station (“a very interesting engineering problem”), Hwang packed his bags and headed for Stanford University in the heart of Silicon Valley. This was at the height

After that time Hwang continued his trajectory in the corporate world, holding multiple leadership roles including as President of a Hong Kong-based family office, and then as Chief of Staff at a Chinese pharmaceutical company that he helped lead to a

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stock market listing.

It was only in his next role leading business development and M&A initiatives at Asian health services group Zuellig that Hwang started to feel his lifelong “aspiration to run a company” was within reach.

“A typical career path for an ex-consultant is you get involved in transactions to buy companies and eventually you get placed as a CEO of one of those companies,” he says, feeling hopeful at the time.

Then just four months into Hwang’s new role at Zuellig came yet another turning point, when the company’s CEO – who Hwang respected and knew well – announced his departure for U.S. information management company Iron Mountain, and extended an invitation to Hwang to follow, which he accepted.

“That’s driven some of my career choices in the past,” says Hwang, “just kind of following people when

joining a company not necessarily because of the products or services but sometimes because of the people that I will be working with.”

M&A expert Iron Mountain is a B2B information management company that helps its 250,000 corporate customers store their physical and digital information and assets in secure warehouses and data centers around the world.

The difference between Iron Mountain and selfstorage companies is that its customers are all enterprises, says Hwang. They include firms in banking, law, accounting, engineering and architecture with critical, irreplaceable original documents or assets that need to go into high-standard facilities in terms of security, control and access.

“A lot more investment goes into the infrastructure of our facilities than regular self-storage facilities, so it’s a lot more sophisticated than self storage... in terms of fire prevention, virus oppression, and in certain cases, climate control,” he says.

Hwang oversees Iron Mountain’s business in Asia (“the company’s growth engine”), which spans the 10 markets of China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

“Asia is the fastest growing region for the company.

So there’s a lot of pressure on maintaining the growth and accelerating that growth.” He explains this can be done mainly in two ways: Organically, which involves selling more services and improving the efficiency of operations; or via M&A, which is especially common in Asia, and how he says he spends half of his time.

In the four and a half years he’s been at the company, business has grown close to 20-fold, and from four to 10 markets. “You can’t do that organically right now.

A lot of that is from acquisitions,” he says.

In his capacity as Managing Director of Iron Mountain Asia, Hwang has already led two large acquisitions of competitors in the region, Recall and the records-

With his family at a YPO Christmas event in 2017

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With colleagues at the International Women’s Day Luncheon 2018

keeping business of global removals and relocations company Santa Fe.

global shift to digital. How soon the inevitable transformation occurs is just a matter of will.

“The easy part is buying a company. I think the tough part is how to integrate that business,” he says.

“If I compare Hong Kong to – I hate to do this – Singapore, their government at least on the digital economy side has been a lot more heavy handed,” says Hwang, who thinks Hong Kong has the potential to go faster if it can shed the existing “legacy systems” that stop it from taking risks.

Speed is key.

“There’s a window where the customer might give you the benefit of the doubt. They know that you’re busy, that you’re distracted and that people are trying to adjust to a new way of doing things. But you need to earn their trust very quickly. It’s no longer a valid excuse after six months or nine months.

“In terms of the brand, it is about what customers see when when an employee shows up to collect your box. That person should be wearing an Iron Mountain uniform. The vehicle itself should be painted in our colors with the Iron Mountain logo,” he says.

Equally important is streamlining internal branding and integrating employees from the acquired company. “Maybe they are used to having the core values of the old company hanging there, and maybe even the old company’s logo. We want to make that change very quickly… for the employees who are now a part of the new company,” he says.

Hwang says his gauge of a successful integration is when “after six months you stop hearing the other company’s name.”

Life lesson for a city Like in other markets, Hong Kong’s information management industry is being shaken up by the AmChamHK

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“When you have something like the Octopus Card which was such a successful thing that people got used to, it’s hard to then say, ‘get rid of it and use your phone.’ I just think now it’s actually weighing down Hong Kong, whereas other markets have been able to leapfrog and go from paper cash straight to mobile phone payments,” he says.

But it is with good reason that local attitudes will take time to change. “We have systems that are already set and have served us well. How can you throw everything out the window? It’s much easier for emerging markets like China or India who have never had much and will happily adopt the latest trends,” he says.

The advice Hwang has for the Hong Kong government – to be open to change and accept the risk of failure – is a reaction to his own stern upbringing.

“One thing that I wish I had been more exposed to was creativity and the freedom to be wrong. Growing up there was quite a bit of emphasis on getting the right answer,” he says. “It’s okay to be a little bit confused because that’s how you find your way.”

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Herman Knaust

Iron Mountain was founded in 1951 by Herman Knaust, who had made a fortune from growing mushrooms. In 1936, he bought an exhausted iron ore mine and some land in upstate New York for US$9,000 to expand his production. When the bottom fell out of the mushroom market in 1950, Knaust hit on a new business venture that tapped into growing demand for secure and bomb-proof storage amid the tension of the Cold War – hence the company’s original name: Iron Mountain Atomic Storage.

aka ‘The Mushroom King’

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ICYMI

AmCham Smart City Summit June 27, 2018

Chief Executive Carrie Lam chats with Sophia the AI robot

Shadow Factory’s VR testing booth

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Carrie Lam inspects the winning Smart City model

Sacred Heart Canossian College, left, won AmCham’s ‘My Smart Hong Kong’ contest, with West Island School’s team runners up

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ICYMI

Lounging in Luxury The Hong Kong-headquartered Plaza Premium Group celebrated its 20th anniversary with the launch of a new luxury lounge concept – Plaza Premium First – at the Hong Kong International Airport.

d’oeuvres, and international breakfast options. The lounge also has a custom coffee and dessert bar, as well as its full-stocked AeroBar – a classic take on a whisky and cocktail bar, offering more than 50 specialty drinks and made-to-order cocktails

Plaza Premium First is the latest offering from the world’s largest independent airport lounge provider and winner of air travel guide Skytrax’s “World’s Best Independent Airport Lounge” for three consecutive years. It is located near Gate 1 at HKIA, offering travellers a first-class experience in the busy terminal.

Plaza Premium First is the airport lounge in Asia to serve the Beyond Meat Burger, a popular plantbased meat substitute, in collaboration with social startup Green Monday.

Designed by award-winning local designer Kinney Chan, Plaza Premium First resembles a calming oasis offering travellers exclusive services from massages to seasonal à la carte dining.

Primo – the brand’s newest table service-style restaurant – boasts a delectable menu of madeto-order entrées, all-inclusive and self-serve hors

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MARK YOUR CALENDAR The Mind of the Leader - Aug 29 Meet author and Potential Project founder Rasmus Hougaard to hear his insights into what makes for good leadership in the 21st century. Hougaard will share the research behind his new book ‘The Mind of the Leader’ and lead a Q&A session.

Based on extensive research of more than 35,000 leaders and interviews with 250 C-level executives, the book concludes that leaders aren’t meeting employees’ basic human need for meaning, purpose, connection and genuine happiness in their work. While 77 percent of leaders think they are good at engaging their people, 88 percent of employees disagree – with 65 percent saying they would even forego a pay rise to see their leaders fired.

Using real world examples from Marriott, Accenture, McKinsey & Co and many more, ‘The Mind of the Leader’ shows how a new kind of leadership turns conventional thinking upside down.

Venue: AmCham AmChamHK 1904 Bank of America Tower, 12 Harcourt Road Central, Hong Kong

Time: 12:00pm - 1:35pm

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Tickets: Member: HK$300 Non-member: HK$450

AmCham 2018 China Conference - Sep 7 The technological revolution is here. Businesses are being transformed; employees transitioned to the digital economy; AI, blockchain and IoT have the potential to fundamentally change our society. And as the world opens up to this uncharted future of infinite possibilities, its two biggest economies – the U.S. and China – are poised to drive the next big phase of digital disruption.

AmCham’s 2018 China Conference is your opportunity to meet with and hear from the people who are shaping our future.

Venue: Island Ballroom, Level 5 Island Shangri-La Hotel Pacific Place, Supreme Court Road, Central

Time: 8:30am - 5:00pm

Tickets: Member: HK$1,980 Non-member: HK$2,480 Corporate Table (10 pax): HK$22,000

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Lighting Up the Road - Sep 17 The real story of how an energy project got done in a challenging, frontier Belt & Road market. What did the country get out of it? And what business did it generate for multinational companies?

Eugene Sullivan oversees power, utilities and infrastructure investment and financing for the IFC in North Asia. Previously, he looked after this portfolio for Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

Prior to joining IFC, Gene held corporate finance and general management roles at ANZ, Credit Suisse and Deloitte. He holds degrees from INSEAD and Cornell University.

Venue: AmCham AmChamHK 1904 Bank of America Tower, 12 Harcourt Road Central, Hong Kong

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Time: 12:00pm - 1:45pm

Tickets: Member: HK$300 Non-member: HK$450

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THE LAST PAGE

Three, two, one… relax

Patterns in nature Known as “natural fractals,” patterns that continuously occur in nature are not just pleasing for the eye to look at, they are also scientifically proven to relax your mind. The symmetry and cohesion of these patterns soothes the part of our brain that’s constantly trying

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to create order from the chaos around us.

This is a dahlia flower, but natural fractals frequently appear in pine cones, shells, snowflakes and more.

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On your side

One-stop Outpatient and

Emergency Services

Rest assured that however late the hour, even during public holidays, we’ll take care of you.

Emergency medicine specialist onsite around the clock Immediate medical attention for critical and life-threatening emergencies Treatment for common and urgent medical problems, including: chest pain, severe allergic reaction, fever, cold & flu, and ankle sprain, etc.

(852) 3153 9000 www.gleneagles.hk 1 Nam Fung Path, Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong

Getting to

GHK

Gleneagles Hong Kong Hospital 64

Admiralty Station

Ocean Park Station

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6 mins AmChamHK

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