Leadership is key to building a high performing team, according to Dr Pius Baschera, Chairman of one of the world’s best employers - Hilti. Dr Baschera shared his management philosophy and strategies to build and retain a high performance culture with students from the Schools of Business and Engineering at a sharing session held at the HKUST Business School Central on 19 June.
Founded in Liechtenstein in 1941, Hilti is the world’s leading construction technology company with over 21,000 employees in more than 120 countries. It has received highly regarded accolades including the “World’s Best Multinational Workplaces” (#15) by the Great Place to Work Institute and the “Best Employer in Hong Kong” (#3) by Aon Hewitt in 2013.
Dr Baschera, who had served as CEO of Hilti for 13 years, was on hand to tell the audience why it is critical for the company to uphold its caring and performance-oriented culture and how to create a great place for the employees. He said Hilti was committed to cultivating a caring and people culture by encouraging work-life balance, individual career development and open communications. It was one of the company’s guiding principles to look ahead and develop staff beyond the immediate job requirements.
The talk was initiated by Hilti with an aim to promoting career opportunities and attracting talents to join the company. It was open to business and engineering undergraduate and postgraduate students at HKUST. Hilti has been working closely with HKUST to provide different career services for students since 2011, including career and business management fairs, talks and workshops, training programs, and so on. This year for example the company has recruited six undergraduates for its internship program and is now working with the MBA Office in preparing a business case competition towards year end.
“We are pleased with the long-standing partnership with Hilti and in particular grateful for this exceptional opportunity, where its chairman Dr Pius Baschera and other senior executives share their management experience with HKUST students. As one of our premier corporate partners, I would like to thank Hilti for its ongoing support and look forward to more collaborations in the future,” said Mr Sean Ferguson, Associate Dean (Master’s Programs) and Director of MBA Programs in his speech to kick of the event.
Following the sharing by Dr Baschera, the company’s Hong Kong sales director Mr Michael Leung, also an HKUST alumnus, spoke on the value of being the best employer and career development opportunities at Hilti. Mr Leung shared his eight-year personal career development at Hilti and how he built his own high performing team in Hong Kong, highlighting the power of great leaders.
During the Q&A session, the HKUST students were given a unique opportunity to ask the company’s senior executives about their very own experiences. Questions raised included how they succeed as top executives, how they have made the international company adapt to a local environment while maintaining its own culture, what the most important qualities of being a manager are, how students should prepare for their career, and so on.