Meeting the CEO & CFO of Maersk Asia Pacific Region

Our meeting with Maersk was on Thursday morning in the district of Kowloon Bay, where the Maersk office is located. We were welcomed by the CEO of the Asia Pacific Region Robbert van Trooijen and Keith Chan the CFO of the Asia Pacific Region of Mærsk Line.

At first we saw an introduction video of the A.P. Møller Mærsk Group. It gave us a good overview how big the Maersk Group with all of their subsidiary companies is. It introduced us to a few of theirs subsidiary companies and showed us the actually size of the Mærsk Group. For example Mærsk Oil, Mærsk Line, APM Terminals and Mærsk Drilling. This was for sure a great start into the morning.

The Biggest Business of the A.P. Møller Mærsk Group is the Mærsk Line – the shipping business how we all know it.

After the video introduction Mr. van Trooijen gave us a Presentation on the Mærsk Line and its business, especially about business in south east Asia. For example Mærsk Line's capacity in 2016 grew by 2,2% to 3,1m (!) TEU.

Furthermore we've learned about the impact of the financial crisis in 2008 on the logistics market. We discussed about this topic with Mr. Robbert van Trooijen. He said that the small and medium sized companies got too little big vessels which can ship up to 20.000 TEU (Twenty Foot Equivalent) containers. They can’t operate worldwide at the same time and this is what most of the customers want and need.

At the end of this event, we had the chance for a Q&A with Mr. van Trooijen and Mr. Chan, where they answered all of our questions.

All in all it was a very interesting event and I think all of us learned something new about the business on Sea. We surely appreciate that two very busy managers in Hong Kong took some time to meet our student delegation.

Alex

Tourist stop at the 10.000 Buddhas

On Thursday a few of us visited the 10.000 Buddha. Between the visits at Maersk an HK Invest we used the time for a trip to New Territories. After a long hike accompanied by hundreds of thousands of Buddhas we reached the first level. Here the hall of Buddhas was welcoming us. In the hall we found a huge amount of small Buddha. Nearby we saw the first free living monkey. On the second level we found more Buddhas and our impression was that the number of 10.000 wasn't a wrong promise.

It was great to get an insight into the Chinese culture and we were really fascinated by the number of golden Buddhas.

HK Invest

After the overwhelming visit at Mearsk we had the opportunity to visit Hong Kong Invest. It is located close to the Lippo Towers -were we already talked with the Hong Kong department of the foreign German Chamber of Commerce - in the Fairmont House Tower. Our group was well received by Mr. Charles Ng, one of three Associate Director-Generals. He presented about one hour to our group about various topics. Some of them were statistical data about Hong Kong, information about the economical background and major infrastructure projects of the city and details about how Hong Kong invest tries to attract and retain foreign investments and in which way they are capable of supporting companies in their expansion.

Some statistical examples are that every resident of Hong Kong owns on average 2,3 smartphones and that Hong Kong has the second fastest internet connections in the world together with extraordinary free WiFi-availability in the town. Some of the largest projects we were hearing about where a bridge from Hong Kong to Macau and a Speed Train connection between Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

After all, this visit and the presentation were one of the best on our trip to this amazing city. It was beyond interesting and gave us many new insights in how this city works.

Philipp

GSIS aka the "German-Swiss-International-School"

The very last visit of our study trip in Hong Kong started with a little misunderstanding: After a 40-minute hustle through the jumble of the always crowded public transport system we finally made it to the given adress. Confidently walking into the school (which was actually a kindergarten as we found out later on) we stumbled across the facility manager and the secretary who both have never heard of the HSBA. Several phone calls and some confused conversations later we found out that we were actually being awaited at the other campus of the GSIS which is located on the peak (the highest hill in Hong Kong). In order to get there we literally had to travel all the way back to the other side of the city..our motivation was quite "limited".
Luckily is was more than worth it!! Our visit was split into two parts: The first half an hour we sat together with the school principal, Mrs. Annette Brandt-Dammann, who gave us a quick introduction which afterwards turned into a Q&A session. We also found out the she used to be a teacher at the "Gymnasium Grootmoor" in Hamburg :-).
The second part was a tour around the facilities of the GSIS. A round tour through a normal high school? Does that make sense? Yes, in this case it definitely does!! Even though we have all spent 12 or 13 years in different schools around the world none of us has ever seen a school like this before... Besides several sports grounds, including a hockey and a football field, an indoor swimming pool, a gymnasium and more, the school also offers fully equipped music and drama rooms with the newest technology and a big stage. Even the normal class rooms show the newest IT developments: Instead of smart boards or normal blackboards the teachers now use massive TVs and all students are allowed use their own notebooks or tablets during class.
With its impressive and modern facilities accompanied by the amazing location on the peak (you can imagine the view) the GSIS really has a lot to offer...or in other words: you definitely know what you spend your money on... ;-)
This school is surely worth a visit!!

Anika

Visiting the Modern Terminals with Hapag Lloyd

To start with the most important fact: Our visit of the Modern Terminals was very interesting!! When we arrived two people from Hapag Lloyd and three from Modern Terminals were already waiting for us. We even found out that one of the Hapag employees regularly works in Hamburg for a few weeks per year.

First we saw a corporate video, which explained the work of Modern Terminals and how they work together with Hapag Lloyd. In the second part we looked at a map of Hong Kong and discussed advantages and disadvantages of the Hong Kong port. It turned out that Hong Kongs port is facing high competition from mainland China´s ports like Shenzhen and even Nansha port. Due to the fact that Hong Kong can present geographical advantages the port will most likely always remain a  big and important transit port. At the end of the visit we were able to enjoy the outlook from the tower bridge of the terminals. From this huge open-plan office we had an amazing view over the entire harbour with its containers, ships and trucks.

Have a look by yourself and compare it to the harbours you know. We as a group where stunned by the size.

Felix

Recycling in Hong Kong - Ecopark

On Wednesday morning our group visited Ecopark, which is a governmental entity that supports waste disposal and recycling companies with information, financing and infrastructure. Another central task is to inform and sensitize local citizens about the growing problem of waste disposal in Hong Kong. Ecopark is located in the outskirts of the city, so we had to drive about one and a half hours by train and bus in order to reach our destination.

After arrival, we were greeted by our tour guide. He gave us a brief introduction that included some information about the different types of municipal solid waste and their sources. Afterwards, the students were able to put their newly acquired knowledge into practice by separating different types of waste into the right trash cans on large touch screens. This joyful interactive part was followed by a short movie on Hong Kong's challenges to deal with the ever-growing amount of garbage in the city and the innovative ways of the government to tackle this issue. Next up, we had the chance to see a product gallery where different companies exhibit their products related to waste management in Hong Kong. Finally, our tour ended with a photo booth as an opportunity for the students to take pictures as a souvenir of this memorable visit.

Tobi

Snapask

For our first visit on Tuesday we went to Snapask. The meeting with the start-up was very informative and interesting. We were warmly welcomed by the founder and two employees who were awaiting us in their modern office space. Afterwards the founder told us his story about how he has founded Snapask and his experiences.
During his stay in China he has learned how to solve problems due to the need of earning some money. That knowledge helped him to create his start-up. The two big problems he faced at the beginning were the lack of money and the missing network. In addition the founder mentioned the difficulty to find Investors for a new business concept. But "if you believe in your idea, you should never give up!"
The founders reason for the development of Snapask is that in addition to the quite impersonal tutors the students need to have a mentor who personally supports them. Especially within the Asian teaching style, which almost  has no interaction in class, individual help after school is definitely a necessity
Answering one of our questions regarding their working times the founder as well as one of the employees explained that they cannot tell how many hours they work, because instead of seeing it as work, they just love to do it, which is essential for the growth of the start-up.
By now Snapask has about 130,000 users and in the next years the company wants to expand it's market to Vietnam and Indonesia.
The company's future goal is to match the profiles of the customers who have the same questions and share their learning paths to create small communities within the community to create a loyal customer base.

Elena

Blueprint

On Tuesday afternoon we visited Blueprint. The office space is located in a highly modern building complex (Taikoo complex) on Hong Kong Island. The visit was split into two parts. First we were shown around in the offices and afterwards we found out a few more details during a short presentation about the business.

The office covers two floors of the building. The lower floor is a co-working space were technical startups can rent desks for 180€ per person per month which is quite cheap for Hong Kong. The style of the furniture and decoration was very modern and reminded us of the way Google designs its offices. Our highlights were the chill-out lounge, a wall you could build legos on and the chalkboard-style walls in the restrooms which were covered with html codes for example. On the upper floor Blueprint hosts the startups that participate in their accelerator program. The program consists of up to ten startups which rotate every six months. Only startups that focus on a technical B2B issue can apply for this program. If they get accepted they will can enjoy free working places and the support of Blueprints network. The whole project was established because the part of the office complex Blueprints’ offices are in will be torn down next year sothat the two floors were empty. That's why the holding company Blueprint belongs to decided to use the open spaces for the project. This is also the reason why blueprint is not attempting to achieve any profits and does not invest into the startups itself.

On our way out of the offices we got to talk to a startup which participates in the accelerator program and develops smart mirrors. One of the founders showed us a prototype and told us about his perspective on Blueprint’s  project.

Afterwards some of us went to victorias peak to enjoy a beautiful sunset above the skyline of Hong Kong.

Jan A.

Getting to know our partner university

On Monday afternoon we visited the HSBA Partner University in Hong Kong. The Hang Seng Management College is located about one hour from the city center by public transport. We took a ferry to reach the other side of Hong Kong and had a beautiful view on its fascinating skyline.

As soon as we arrived at HSMC, we were stunned by the size of the university area. The campus included several big buildings, a basketball court and an outside pool. Due to the high temperature of about 30 degrees it is not hard to imagine that some of us would have loved to jump into the cold water 😉.

Mrs. Chow Lo, Head of the International Office, presented the university in a very interesting and interactive way. We started with watching the image film of the Hang Seng Management College, so we were able to answer the questions she asked in the quiz afterwards.

The university was founded in 2010 and strikes with its modern and environmental friendly  facilities: The new campus buildings were designed and constructed according to the "Platinum Standard" of the building environment assessment method which is the highest level of sustainability in building construction in Hong Kong. Furthermore it is possible to live directly on the campus area. About 1.400 bed spaces are provided for HSCM students. There are many opportunities for the students to spend their free-time. The university has its own gym, a dance room and an indoor playground + swimming pool.

Afterwards we had a little group chat together with some students of the HSCM, talking about the similarities and differences between our university lives. It turned out that two girls made the best choice and will spend their next semester at HSBA. We tried to give advice where to find a flat in Hamburg and answer other important questions in preparation for their exchange semester. In one thing we could definitely ensure them: They will not get lost at our comfy campus 😉.

Tina

National day firework

Some students from our group even got the chance to stand in the middle of a huge crowd celebrating the National Day on 1st October here in Hong Kong.

Not only the huge crowd will remain as a nice memory. The view was just spectacular.

Here some impressions of the night:

Safe arrival and a great start into our week

After everyone finally arrived Sunday evening, we met in a bar to start our excursion with some drinks. The next morning we had our first official appointment at the German chamber of commerce. We were very honored that the CEO Mr. Ehmann had the time to introduce us to general topics of business in Hong Kong. Besides the information of the differences between Hong Kong and Mainland China, he explained the structure of the chamber of commerce in general and the foreign chambers in special. All of them have very different functions as supporting german firms based in Hong Kong in various topics  e.g. recruiting. 

Further the German chamber of commerce implemented the German system for a dual apprenticeship. This point was very interesting for us. However, the program is currently mainly used by graduates of the German Swiss International School. Another function of the chamber is organizing events for the member companies. Networking is one of the most important things to do in Hong Kong. In November their event, the Asia-Pacific conference, will take place and Mr. Ehmann told us they invited various speakers for debates. 
This meeting was great to get an initial understanding of the business in Hong Kong and it was a perfect start into our excursion week. Many thanks to Mr. Ehmann and the German chamber of commerce.

Ulrike

Last day

The German Swiss International School Hong Kong (GSIS) was established in 1969 by German Swiss families who were looking for a bilingual German-English education in Hong Kong for their children. The schools main campus is located in The Peak, Hong Kong.

More than 1,300 students from over 30 countries are taught by a team of teachers from German and English-speaking countries.

The school offers education from kindergarten to secondary school with a choice of the following two school systems: the German or the British one, which correspond to the curriculum and education system in each individual country. Moreover, it also has a business college, which offers in collaboration with the German Chamber of Commerce two training programs “Wholesale & Foreign Trade” and “Transport & Logistics”.

Furthermore, GSIS provides various extracurricular activities for the students. They have a wide range of afternoon activities as for example Tennis, Chess, Speech and Drama classes, Chinese painting, Hip Hop/ Jazz Funk Dance, Horse Riding and many more! These activities are charged and taught by external companies and GSIS teachers. Nevertheless, the school also offers Primary and Secondary extracurricular (sport and non-sport) activities which are delivered by GSIS teachers after the normal school day. In contrast to the afternoon activities these lessons are free of charge, however, once a student has enrolled in the program, these lessons become part of the school day and the student is expected to attend on a regular basis.

When visiting the GSIS the students of the HSBA are looking forward to gain insights into one of the leading international schools in Hong Kong and its education system and cultural diversified community. 

Thursday afternoon at Hong Kong Invest

Hong Kong is the heart of Asia, it functions as a connector between China and the rest of the world. With one of the lowest and simplest tax systems and more than sixty million visitors annually it is a good place to start a new business. To support potential investors, the governmental institution HK invest exists. They provide customized services and free advice to help businesses succeed. Some of the services HK invest offers are e.g.  giving information on Hong Kong’s business environment, providing information about emigration requirements and employment legislations or arranging relevant business meetings.

As the main task of invest is to give their customers advice about the business environment and regulations in Hong Kong we decided to visit this institution during our stay. For us as business students it will be interesting to see which requirements are needed to open a business or which regulations have to be respected. As a first step just for information but maybe one day one of us might come back to the advices we will receive!

A day at Maersk

Let’s get to know Maersk first.

What is Maersk and what is Maersk doing?

Maersk Line is part of the Maersk group, a collection of shipping and energy companies.  With his 630 vessels it is the largest container shipping company in the world and was founded in 1928. Maersk covers ports in almost all over the world – 343 ports in 121 countries – with a market share of about 17%.

It all seems that Maersk is a very traditional company; it’s operating in a traditional business and has a quite long history.

But A.P. Moeller, the founder of Maersk, realized that “constant care can prevent losses”.  The concept of constant care was renewed in all the years but it states that Maersk is openminded to innovation, changes in business environment or even ethical questions as in this example from the firm’s website: “For us, innovation is a highly focused discipline that aims to deliver better service, protect our employees and the environment, create new business opportunities and ensure cost-effectiveness.”

On one hand we expect the business in Asia to be different to business in Europe. On the other hand, Hong Kong is quite western, so maybe business there isn’t very much different or unusual?

We hope to get to know about the work atmosphere, business culture or even hierarchy aspects. We’d like to see how Maersk tries to renew container shipping to make it more energy efficient and in the end decrease the impact of container shipping on the environment.

At least, we would like to discuss the impact of the container crisis on Maersk Line and how they deal with the low transport prices to do not end up like Hanjin.

Robin

Back to the roots - Hapag Lloyd

On Wednesday, 5^th October 2016 we’ll visit Hapag Lloyd AG, one oft the largest global liner shipping companies in the world. The company developed from a merger between Hamburg American Line (HAPAG) an the North German Lloyd in 1970. Hapag was founded in Hamburg in 1847 and this is still the place where the group headquarter is located and where the executive board is based as well. About 20.6% of the company is even owned by the city of Hamburg^[1]. That’s why Hapag Lloyd is narrowly connected to our hometown Hamburg and well known by our studying group. We are very interested to get an insight of their work in Hong Kong.

Hapag Lloyd offers 170 ships and employs 9,300 people at 360 locations in 120 countries. About 7,800 employees work on land while 1,500 employees work on board. Volume of sales were at 6.8 billion Euro in 2014. The company has a world market share of around 4,4% which makes it the fifth largest container shipping company in the world, behold figure below.^[2]

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^[1]              Hapag Lloyd. „Hapag Lloyd: About us.“ Constructed on n/a. Accessed on 18 September 2016 [https://www.hapag-lloyd.com/en/about-us.html].

^[2]              Statista. „Hapag Lloyd: Statista Dossier.“ Created on n/a. Accessed on 18 September 2016. [https://de.statista.com/statistik/studie/id/24268/dokument/hapag-lloyd-statista-dossier/].

The market in Asia is important for the company and therefore also the great transition point Hong Kong. Hong Kong connects a wide part of inner china with the globalized world. While our visit we get the opportunity to enjoy a tour through Modern Terminals Limited, a service provider that owns and operates container terminals at Twai Tsing Container Port, Hong Kong. It opened Hong Kong’s first purpose-built container in 1972. Aside from Hong Kong it runs business units in Dachan Bay and Taicang.^[3]

We are happy that we can visit these two companies and are already looking forward to the 5^th October 2016.

Written by Theresa & Felix

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^[3]              Modern Terminals. „Modern Terminals Limited: About us.“ Created on n/a. Accessed on 18 September 2016. [http://www.modernterminals.com/group/index.php/About/index.html].

Blueprint - A good place to start your business in Hong Kong

Blueprint Hong Kong is an organization that is grouping up to ten startups with technical background for a time of six month. In these six month blueprint acts as an accelerator to boost the work of the startups. The boost is generated by shared resources, infrastructure and workspace.

Blueprint is the latest manifestation of Swire Properties which is an organization that develops and manages properties. The properties are located in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Miami and are used for commercial, residential and other business uses. The organization was founded in China in 1866 by John Swire an English businessman.

These days blueprint is located in TaiKoo Place one of Hong Kong´s premier business districts. On two floors of a Swire Properties owned building the startups have access to professional support as well as interactions with partner organizations and industrial mentors. Additionally they can use co-working areas and event spaces to unify and share the interest in tech and build a platform for the exchange of ideas.

In connection to the topic of the excursion - Hong Kong: Gate to Asia – From International Trade and Finance to Digital Economy – the change from the history of John Swire who has moved to China to expand his trading business, to the future with blueprint as a part of Swire Properties and an good example for an organization that supports the markets of digital economy.

All members of the excursion look forward to receiving many new impressions by the meeting at the premises of blueprint.

Steffen

Snapask - Any homework issues we can solve?

We are happy to introduce you to one of the two companies we are going to visit on Tuesday during our stay in Hong Kong. The innovative startup Snapask will be the first visit in the morning hours.

In the March edition of the „Hong Kong Business“ magazine the startup „Snapask“ was rated 7^th on the ranking „Hong Kong’s hottest startups in 2016“. It is an application, which offers students help for their homework. For example a student can take a photo of his mathematics homework and then gets one of the 2000 professional tutors within only 17 seconds on average (according to Snapask’s website).The tutor will communicate via text messages, voice messages or photos to find a solution for the homework. This also works for several other subjects.

The first three so called „Snaps“ (photos of the homework) are for free. After these three were used, the students get the opportunity to subscribe to two options: Either use up to 10 snaps per month for HK$ 98 per month or have unlimited snaps and the choice of their tutor for HK$ 368 per month.

The company was founded in October 2014 and managed to get 50,000 users. They raised US$ 1.4 mio. until March 2015.

During our visit it will be interesting to find out about differences between German and Hongkong startups and also get some further details on their business model, problems they faced in the past and plans for the future. The company might also invite one of their interns or recent graduates to share the view on working for a startup. However it will be a challenge to fit all this content in the one hour visit.

Tatjana

Partner University - Hang Seng School of Commerce

Later on the first day of our excursion we are going to visit the Hang Seng Management College. It was founded in 2010 by the HSSC, the Hang Seng School of Commerce.

The HSMC has five different Schools:
The School of Business, the School of Decision Sciences, the School of Communication, the School of Humanities & Social Science and finally the School of Translation. 195 full-time academic staff members are working at the Management School and are teaching the 5000 students that study there. Currently there are 14 four-year bachelor’s degree programs offered, including one in Business Administration (with concentrations in Accounting, Banking & Finance, and Marketing).

With our short visit, we want to gain an insight, on how studying Business Administration in Hong Kong could look like: How the bachelor program differs from ours, how the college itself is organized and what it offers its students.

Pia 

First stop - Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce

Our first stop on Monday morning will be the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce. Hopefully everybody arrived safely until then to get this exciting week started. We thought it would be a great start to get an overview of Hong Kong´s economy.

The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1861. Now, it represents the oldest, yet most dynamic business organization in Hong Kong. Their members consist of a wide spectrum of local, Mainland Chinese and international businesses. Additionally, more than half of the flagship corporations listed on the Hang Seng Index is part of the Chamber of Commerce. Their membership, from renowned multinationals to thriving SMEs, employ around one third of the local workforce which is a lot. The Chamber serves as the voice of business and they help their members succeed through their core functions: Knowledge-based events, networking, advocacy and a variety of business documentation services. We are looking forward to hearing something about promoting business interests and integrity.

Jan R.