In Write your future we celebrate the diversity of our student and alumni achievement. As technology accelerates the speed of change, our students and alumni are venturing into new fields: Internships with leading international corporates, social enterprises in challenging overseas destinations, innovative startups, careers in leading tech companies, and even – inspired by the student exchange experience – authorship. Please enjoy their stories.
Write your future also takes a close look at the preeminent technology of our era, the ever-present smartphone. In the flow, an interview with Professor Matthew Lee, ventures into an area increasingly ignored: the psychology of smartphone addiction. From another angle Edwin Pang, our Associate Director of Communications and Public Relations, reveals how we are enticed into buying them. Living an exciting brand journey with Huawei describes the company’s ascent to become the second largest builder of smartphones in the world.
Digital advertising is an integral part of any marketing campaign and in a related story, our alumnus Johnny Wong, co-founder of Hotmob Limited, gives his take on how this can be managed responsibly. A further alumni story, Social impact investing comes from Dr Richard Yap, DBA alumnus, who describes some of the millennial-inspired Hong Kong startups he has witnessed, incorporating social and environmental initiatives in their business strategy.
In January, I was fortunate enough to be invited to talk at the Davos World Economic Forum which had the overarching theme “Global 4.0: shaping the global architecture of the fourth industrial revolution era." The Belt and Road Initiative plays an integral part in these changing dynamics and in Globalisation in transition you can read about our initial study at the Research Centre on One-Belt-One-Road at CityU. We highlight the critical role of Hong Kong’s financial and legal service industries in underpinning the expansion of China SOEs onto the world stage.
In our frantically activity-driven city, work life balance is an elusive goal, which few of us seem to achieve. We look at the issue from two sides. In Burnout Dr Catherine Lam, Associate Professor of Management highlights some of the causes of workplace burnout, which sectors of the working population are most vulnerable, and how we can overcome it.
We also look at the role of a possible antidote to burnout: culture in all its glorious forms. We were fortunate enough to have Henry Tang, Chairman of the Board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, to present at our CEO Forum last autumn, and in Arts and culture in Hong Kong he shares his excitement at the prospects of the massive new arts hub. Then, closer to home, in Better than the real thing? we talk to CityU Gallery Director, Dr Isabelle Frank, about how new media technology is redefining authenticity and the challenges of producing an exhibition – largely without traditional exhibits.
I do hope you enjoy our varied and many-splendored offering in this issue!
Houmin Yan
