As the only observation deck offering 360-degree panoramic views of Hong Kong, Sky100 has won various international accolades since it opened five years ago. Now more than a sightseeing attraction, it is one of the favourite venues for wedding and corporate events, hosting hundreds of big and small functions in the past few years. The deck blends innovation with tradition as Sky100 prepares to upgrade the mobile app it introduced in 2015 early next year with even more interactive functions using AR and VR technologies. Not to be missed is the gift shop with souvenirs showcasing Hong Kong’s unique culture and history. More surprises are coming as an international brand will start running the Sky100 cafe in the first quarter of next year.

Running ultra-long trails, teaching scuba diving and being a former Royal HK Regiment member aren’t enough for Senior Property & Facility Manager Patrick Chan at Kai Shing. He also spent 15 years on three higher degrees to sharpen his professional acumen for work.

Patrick finished the 170km-plus Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc in 46 hours. He had to cope with solitude over the course while most other athletes had support from teammates, but he embraced the loneliness: "The only thing I heard was my heartbeat and the whole world seemed to have stopped. As a supervisor at work, solitude is very important as it gives me the environment to think clearly."

Yet Patrick is an even bigger fan of team races like the Trailwalker, which he says inspires true teamwork. "All team members have to aim for the same goal, and at more or less the same speed," said Patrick, adding that people at similar levels have the greatest potential to do well.

In the same spirit, Patrick enjoys stretching his limits in other areas including academia. He completed a law degree, an MBA and a master's in Applied Accounting & Finance over 15 years to enable new achievements at work. Patrick is also a part-time Adjunct Lecturer: "I love exchanging ideas with others as you learn new things reviewing what you already know to teach."

This issue profiles SUNeVision - a company that Chief Executive Officer Peter Yan says is taking full advantage of the opportunities presented by "big data". Peter said the reason SUNeVision is an industry leader in Hong Kong is that the most important part of data service is being connected to the world, and SUNeVision's edge is over a hundred international telecom firms among its customers. 

The new MEGA Plus data centre in Tseung Kwan O is set for completion next year. And while this offers exciting prospects for growth, SUNeVision is also upgrading its existing MEGA-i data centre in Chai Wan and MEGA Two in Sha Tin to serve the current needs of customers better. All these projects underway allow SUNeVision to continue lifting service quality in its four data centres to enter the era of big data in full gear.

Details

SUNeVision has 190 staff. iAdvantage is a data centre business while Super e-Technology and Super e-Network provide broadband network and television antenna service, plus SMATV and security / surveillance systems.

At first it was just a way to relieve stress that led Cherry Tam of the customer service team at International Commerce Centre to take up flower arranging, but now she loves sharing her hobby with all sorts of people.

Most tenants at ICC are international financial firms where there is a lot of pressure at work, which is why Cherry’s classes are highly appreciated. She also began teaching flower arranging at a nearby elderly centre by chance. After helping a senior with dementia who got lost in the mall return, she decided to volunteer at the centre, teaching seniors floral art to liven up their normally monotonous days.

Vivid colours tend to make the blossoms the focus of a floral arrangement, says Cherry, but leaves actually play a more important role in the overall aesthetic as their diverse shapes can give the works different styles and appearances. Relating this to work as part of the frontline staff, Cherry thinks that the effort of every colleague counts, no matter how minor they may seem in the company.

As colleagues and tenants began to show more interest in her hobby, Cherry decided to go a step further in the art by getting an international qualification, even though that meant expensive courses and flying to Taiwan for the exam – which she says are worthwhile as they better equip her for introducing more people to the beautiful world of flower arranging.

Colleagues in the Project Monitoring Department see playing sport as a way of fostering team spirit, because people who have faced challenges together on the playing field tend to develop closer bonds that engender mutual rapport and trust at work. The team is also generous in sharing knowledge. Project Monitoring has put out four construction handbooks on skills and technology over the years, and a fifth is coming up. They are currently working with the Construction Department on a new mobile app for project inspections to keep up with the latest trend.

The details

Project Monitoring has a Quality Control team to oversee all the company’s projects and ensure all aspects meet SHKP’s high quality standards and a Cost Audit team that monitors project costs and procedural requirements, as well as mediates with contractors to achieve fair and just solutions to problems.

Matthew Chan at The Royal Garden's Inagiku restaurant says people in hospitality benefit from taekwondo as it encourages perseverance, humility and courtesy, which are all desirable in the service sector. In his spare time, Matthew is a taekwondo coach and has taught over 30 colleagues at the hotel. Eight of them have international black belts and three were even on the Hong Kong team.

Ken and Maren are two of Matthew's current students. Ken won a medal in a local sparring competition after just over a year in the sport, and Maren – a first-dan black belt also at Inagiku – was recently offered a place training alongside the Hong Kong team in Korea after winning awards in local and Asian tournaments.

"It is in the spirit of taekwondo to train for a lifetime, in all weather," says Matthew, "Perseverance delivers unexpected gains – in a dojang (taekwondo gym) and at work."

“Keep going even in the nastiest weather,” says Wanda Lam from Corporate Planning & Strategic Investment. She ran in the Hong Kong 100 race
that came under media spotlight after athletes were stranded on the ice-covered Tai Mo Shan in a cold spell early in the year. Her quote sums up her
approach to life gained from long-distance hiking.

Most of the HK100 course was on the MacLehose Trail so Wanda said it should have been a rather safe race, but she encountered the strongest winds ever on the tough track in Ma On Shan and remembers thinking that she could have been blown down the slopes on either side if she had lost her balance.

Then came the temptations. The organizer had set up heaters along the route for athletes to rest and get warm in the cold weather and she said: “You don’t know how hard it is to leave the heat once you’re near!” But she kept reminding herself to keep going and not yield to the siren song, which was the attitude that got her across the finish line before ice started forming on the Tai Mo Shan trail and the organizer stopped the race. Wanda said the experience taught her that temptations, obstacles and hiccups in work and life are to be
expected, but you have to stay focused and push yourself out of the comfort zone because even a little hesitation can make things worse or produce a
regrettable result.

Hiking brings people close to nature, offers vast relaxing scenery and helps relieve stress. Wanda describes it as a tonic for health and happiness: “Now I rarely see the doctor. I can even cure the occasional flu with a sweat from hiking! Plus my appetite is getting better and better.”

Walter Au, Assistant Director at Hong Yip subsidiary Lik Kai Engineering, is a practitioner of the Chinese wushu arts tai chi, nanquan (southern fist), changquan (long fist) and swordplay. His passion even led him to obtain professional qualifications as a wushu coach and referee. In Walter's belief, the true aim of practicing wushu is cultivating the individual's spiritual virtue; not boasting of one's skill. He notes that while it isn't that hard to learn the series of movements, it's another thing to master the ethos behind them. They depend on a solid foundation of patience and absolute dedication, as an undisciplined practitioner is more prone to injury. Wushu additionally requires close coordination between different parts of the body, just as colleagues cooperate as a team to yield the best performance at work.

Dawn Kwok in the Accounts Department is skillful and passionate about handicrafts, and much of her work is simply amazing. She spreads her passion to colleagues as an instructor and has taught handicapped people the art of paper quilling (making objects out of thin paper strips) as an SHKP Volunteer Team member. She told of a memorable time teaching a deaf and blind person to make art with the assistance of a sign language interpreter. In addition to teaching, Dawn feels happiness when she sees other people smile in surprise so she creates handicrafts for her friends on special occasions.

Dawn thinks the growing popularity of quilling may be because it requires few tools and is relatively easy to learn. Quilling materials are available everywhere and Dawn encourages colleagues who are interested to look for teaching videos online as an alternative to taking classes, saying: "Most video clips are easy to follow and very helpful for beginners."

Practice helps Dawn refine her skills and make models as realistic as possible, but she admits to being less patient than she’d like. And while she might find certain craft procedures boring and repetitive, she almost always keeps going to the end. She said: "Perhaps it's my character. If something is half done, I feel that I have to go back and finish it off to have peace of mind before I can start something else."