Providing electricity supply to 80 percent of Hong Kong’s population, CLP Power’s experience with SARS and many other incidents in the past century has helped it cope with the recent pandemic. Betty YUEN, Group Director and Vice Chairman of CLP Power Hong Kong, calls on people to care for others and share knowledge during these challenging times.
Some might call it a cliché, but the saying that “the one constant in life is change” often rings true.
The world has certainly seen its fair share of changes this year, having been thrown into a whirlwind of uncertainty against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising geopolitical tensions, and global market worries. Especially at times like these, business leaders need to stay calm, devise a strategy, and forge ahead, says Betty Yuen, Group Director and Vice Chairman of CLP Power Hong Kong.
The 119-year-old public utilities company has grown stronger and wiser when it comes to riding out storms, past and present.
“We are luckier than other industries because even if there’s a shutdown, people still have to consume electricity,” Yuen says. But the company has not been immune to challenges caused by disruptions in the global supply chain and people movement.
“We source a lot of materials, equipment and services from all over the world, and the disruption has affected some of our projects. Experts could not come to our locations to help with certain projects and some of our employees were stranded in undesirable locations,” she says.
The company had to address some of the more immediate challenges very quickly, but problems were mitigated by a resilient management, a diligent workforce, strong partnerships and the strategic inventory of spares and equipment. “You always have to be prepared,” Yuen says.
The company has learnt from its past experience with the SARS outbreak in 2003, Yuen says. Since then, CLP Power has been prepared to deal with similar outbreaks. The company had prepared inventories and protective gears, examined how to protect its employees including working remotely and splitting teams to minimize cross-infection, and how to scale down customer interaction services.
“We are somewhat experienced. So when we had to mobilize, we were quite quick,” she says of the recent pandemic.
Now the bigger question is how will CLP Power prepare for what comes next? Yuen sees a post-coronavirus environment as one where it is not just about the virus receding and resuming business as usual, but rather an environment that is filled with uncertainty, she says.
“This pandemic has affected the whole world. The dynamics have changed, geopolitics has changed, and countries are realizing that they may be relying too much on each other’s supply chains,” she says.
“There are also geopolitical considerations of how the Western world relates to China and to some extent Hong Kong,” she adds. “We must factor all this into our strategy and investments.”
Uncertain environment
Moving forward, businesses will have to operate in an increasingly uncertain environment, and to accept that this may be the new norm. Change may be a constant factor, Yuen believes.
“Even with a vaccine, we will expect uncertainties to persist for a certain period,” she points out. “There’s no point waiting for things to get back to normal. We must treat this situation as a new operating environment and charge ahead.”
As a public utilities company, CLP Power was not hit as hard as other businesses which experienced a loss of usage. Although the company’s performance in sectors such as hotels and retail sales dropped, it was compensated by the rise in demand in the residential sector.
With its strong commitment to corporate responsibility, CLP assisted those in less fortunate sectors by offering concessionary payment schemes and donating sanitizers and masks to those who needed them.
Yuen says that business leaders must respect and nurture their business relationships through tough times. “You must build on the strengths that you have and understand that certain stakeholders are going through rough patches. You need to value those relationships,” she says. These include those with customers, suppliers and employees.
Yuen says businesses must make it a top priority to look after their employees and stakeholders during a global crisis. “We have to be very mindful of the well-being of employees. If your employees are mentally stressed or emotionally challenged, it will definitely have an impact on your business and we are conscious of that,” she says.
CLP Power has launched programs to look after the well-being of its employees during the pandemic. Yuen notes that some of CLP Power’s employees in Hong Kong used to cross the border each day to work in the neighboring Guangdong Province.
The closure of borders has resulted in some colleagues being separated from their families for a prolonged period so there are concerns about their mental health.
Employee well-being
It is not surprising that CLP Power puts a strong emphasis on the well-being of its employees. In 2019, it was recognized as one of the world’s 12 most attractive employers, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame for 2020-21 by international HR firm Randstad. It is the first company in Hong Kong to receive such an honor.
Yuen believes that COVID-19 is a reminder to humanity of how vulnerable we can be, and she believes that the environment and climate change play a role in disease outbreaks. Therefore, it is important that the power industry continues to work hard to lower carbon emissions, she adds.
Yuen says a positive mindset is extremely important. “Someone once said that when things go bad, if you sit back and look at them again, it’s usually not as bad as it seemed at that moment,” she says.
“Humanity has overcome such challenges many times without the benefit of the knowledge we have today. With our ability to share that knowledge today, I am sure we will overcome this. We just need to be diligent and have a bit of faith,” Yuen says.
“There’s no point waiting for things to get back to normal. We must treat this situation as a short-term operating environment and charge ahead.”
Flexible Work Arrangements
Outside Hong Kong, CLP Group invests in the energy sector across Asia Pacific with projects situated in Mainland China, India, Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Australia. With different travel restrictions to and within these countries, its management and over 7,900 employees largely rely on technology to stay connected whilst working remotely. Yuen finds more people accepting the idea of working from home. She says that every challenge comes with new opportunities and sees innovation and technology as sectors which will accelerate once people see the merits of things such as flexible work arrangements.