Hong Kong Dragon Airlines' Kenny Tang, reviews his career from the accounts books to the role of CEO

Kenny Tang, Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong Dragon Airlines, says that he did not have a specific “turning point” in his personal or professional life. Instead, as he reviews the previous 30 years of his working life, the things that stand out are the small changes that are made everyday.

Mr Tang says that moving forward was a series of small steps, and that it was these small changes that created the personality and the thinking processes of the man that he is today.

“I don't think you will wake up one day and suddenly find that everything has changed. Rather, we have to experience many small changes that accumulate to become a big change. This is how we improve in different aspects of our lives,” Mr Tang said.

It was this same process through which Mr Tang developed his career: step by step, with hard work and perseverance. Mr Tang became a qualified accountant in 1980. After working for the Tax Department of the Hong Kong government for two years after graduating from Hong Kong Polytechnic in 1977, he joined the Finance Department of Cathay Pacific in 1979, rising through the ranks to become General Manager, Corporate Finance in 1994.

In 1997, he decided to move out of the accounting field and enter general management and commercial work as the Chief Operating Officer of freight carrier Air Hong Kong. In February 2000, he took over as General Manager, Cargo, for Cathay Pacific until 2004. That same year, he was relocated to Taiwan, managing the motor car business, Taikoo Motors, for Swire Pacific. Finally, in August 2006, he was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Dragonair.

During that time, Mr Tang said his toughest decision was in 1997, when he had to choose whether or not to accept a new work arrangement, in order to begin general management work for Air Hong Kong.

“Basically, in the past 20 years, I developed quite well in terms of my career in general. But there were some relatively big changes in terms of the job nature. For example, in 1997, I had to give up my specialised work area in accounting which I have been doing for more than 10 years, and switch to a role in general management. This was a big change. I thought to myself, ‘Is this suitable for my personality? Does the job nature suit me? Or do I want to stay in the accounting arena?' I spent a long time thinking if I would accept the new work arrangement,” Mr Tang said.

“Of course, this meant that I would have to leave my comfort zone and there was a certain amount of risk. There was a chance that I might not succeed. However - and maybe it was because I understood the cost-benefit analysis that I learnt in my financial training - I thought the change would be good for me,” he said.

Mr Tang believed that by taking up the new role, he would learn much more, so he accepted the offer in 1997. Then, in 2004, he was offered a position that would mean relocating to Taiwan and changing from airlines to motorcars with Taikoo Motors.

“I also had to plan and make arrangements for my family when I was relocated to Taiwan. These were all major changes and challenges in my life that I had to think over and consider,” he said.

Apart from his personal life, Mr Tang said he faced other challenges working in the airline industry, because the industry is characterized by its short business cycles.

Mr Tang said that, in his experience, the business fluctuations in the airline industry are dramatic. One year might offer excellent business; the next year could be terrible.

“I joined Cathay Pacific to be the General Manager in charge of the cargo business in 2000. Business was good in the first year, but the 11 September tragedy happened in the US in 2001 and it had dampened the US market and globally. The year 2002 was a good year, and there was the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in 2003. These are all factors out of our control,” he said.

“Therefore, when the business environment is good, we have to prepare for the worst, and during bad times, we have to move one step ahead of our competitors and turn the difficulty to an opportunity. We can't afford to just look at our operations today. This is what every CEO should do,” Mr Tang said.

So, what is the most challenging aspect of being a CEO?

“In the past, I was a department head. Now, as the head of an organisation, I have to consider many more factors and areas. I could leave the human resources work to the human resources department when I was the head of the cargo department in the past. But as the CEO, these are my issues as well. This was a bigger challenge and much more complicated work. This is definitely very different,” he said.

An accountant's work is very clear. It is just black or white, or right or wrong when you do the balance sheets. However, Mr Tang said, when a CEO makes decisions everyday, he or she has to look at numerous factors, such as: how the decision affects the company's business; how it affects the employees; how it affects the society; and even how it affects the natural environment.

“My financial training definitely helped me a lot in understanding the underlying financial impact and implications when making strategic decisions. For example, how the decision would positively affect revenue and what the impact on costs is. But now, I have to consider the nonfinancial implications as well. It is about looking at the bigger picture,” Mr Tang said.

As Mr Tang looks back at the last three decades, from when he first became an accountant up to the present day, he admits that the industry and accounting standards have changed a great deal, and he believes that accounting practitioners have to practice their professions with passion in order to understand the whole field.

“You have to be in the business for a really long time before you get to know everything. I don't think you can work on it for a year and get it.”

“On the other hand, accountants working for a company should not just position themselves as just accountants. They have to think how other departments will make use of their accounting information to make decisions. They should think what accounting report other departments need for decision making, and look at a wider picture of the whole organisation,” he said.

Source: ACCA Hong Kong