What is the distinctive feature of the Hong Kong business environment?
A remarkable and distinctive feature of the Hong Kong business environment is the interplay between 'entrepreneurial' and 'managerial' firms. Hong Kong is the home of almost rampant entrepreneurship. This entrepreneurship is supported by a system that encourages people to start their own companies and rewards their efforts through low taxation and other benefits. The territory boasts more than 470,000 privately owned small and medium-sized companies, most with very small staffs. The 'Hong Kong trader' mentality is one of constantly seeking out and making new deals and looking for commercial opportunity.
What are the Hong Kong's entrepreneurial companies like?
Hong Kong's entrepreneurial companies are almost invariably founded by Chinese families, and remain under the control of those same families. As such, they have distinctive characteristics: decision-making power tends to be highly concentrated at the centre of the company, often embodied in one patriarch; professional managers and technically expert staff are recruited in increasing numbers as such family companies grow, but are seldom offered - or expect to be offered - any shareholding in the company or top executive position; and policy decisions or shifts can be taken extremely quickly, enabling the company to respond with great flexibility to shifts in market circumstances or fast-changing fashion trends.
What are the Hong Kong's managerial-style companies like?
The size of Hong Kong's community of 'managerial-style' firms has grown steadily over the past two decades, as multinational companies have settled in the territory, developing substantial local operations, and often using Hong Kong as their hub for regional business. This growth has driven strongly the demand for higher educational and professional qualifications. Firms such as Citicorp, Bank of America and Exxon have brought in American-style professional management and management techniques, have augmented the local pool of expatriate professionals and have added significantly to the amount of in-company training that goes on in the territory.
