Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Welcome to the Asian Leadership Series My name is Karen, from the department of management And I'm your MC for this evening Some of you may wonder how this talk come about Actually it is through a conversation between your case manager and myself About how much we want to find a young successful Asian business leader someone who all our undergraduate students can relate to And the hostess said :"Well, Karen ,have you heard of or heard about the founder of POST PRODUCTION OFFICE LIMITED, Nicholas Tse!" And I said :" Perfect!" So, with the tremendous support、with the tremendous support from the POST PRODUCTION OFFICE LIMITED here we are , delivering to you our first Asian Leadership Series So…Thank you very much for coming! So, since this talk is especially for you students, the whole event is going to be hosted by students So, the format is this The first 20 minutes or so Mr. Nicholas Tse is going to share some of his experience and insights with us and that will be followed by an about 45 minutes chatting session between the 3 student interviewers and Mr. Nicholas Tse and then we’ll be round up by a 15 minutes Q&A session So may I now invite the 3 student interviewers, Johnson, Mandy and Nathan to the floor, please So before we officially kick off the event, just friendly reminders of some simple house rules First , can you please switch your mobile phone to silent mode? And secondly, no laptop, computer, no live recording And third, I understand everyone is very excited, but please remain seated during the event And last but not least, if you want to leave the lecture theater during the event, can you please use the door at back So without further ado, may I invite professor ROGER KING, director of the Centre for the Business Case Studies He himself a highly successful business leader,to kick off the event. Thank you all! It's really a great great honor and privilege for HKUST to have Mr. Nicholas Tse here First of all I would like to also thank our president Tony Lee, to be here, and our dean Brandon Chan And of course many many other honored guests But most importantly, you students 但最重要的是,是你們這些同學的到來 I think this is probably one of the biggest events we've ever had Just let you know, Nicholas When the registery opened and within hours, it was totally full In fact, this room only holds 400 people Within a day and a half, we have 1700 people signed up And clearly, (they) didn't come to see TONY Nor me But,anyway, I was asked to say a few words about our case center,Ok? and many of you may or may not be aware of it we have a case center here in HKUST’s business school which is relatively new. And let me just tell you why we actually started this thing It was actually the encouragement of our Dean and basically most of you probably aware of the notion of the case study itself. For those of you who may not understand, or haven't had the chance casestudy actually brings in real-life business situations into the classroom by writing cases on that company usually and but we also back it up with theory, and allow students to actually analyze the situation itself. So by having said that, there are a lot of other schools particularly Harvard, Ivy and Darmouth, and many many other schools do write cases. So why should we be writing cases? Well, one of my colleagues Professor Pang here And, what we did was before I said to Leonard “Yes we will do this" because he asked me to do it on a proposal base I might say. So I said “Well, before we actually do this let’s take a survey and understand what are we currently doing in our school, and who uses case method. And so we did was we actually took a survey for all the faculty members that are teaching the MBA program itself OK. and what we discovered was first of all at the encouragement of the Dean we actually had 2/3 of the faculty responded to the survey. over 66% and what was discovered was that students actually like classes that have cases in it. NO.1,they gained higher scores for class that had that so for those of you who are teaching this is great news. The second thing is that (they) actually like the professor that’s teaching it. And the third thing was… how come we always study western company cases why don’t we have more Asian cases? And therefore our main main focus is now on Asian. In fact, my colleagues and I,Karen Lee as well have now coined the concept---- Asian cases, by Asians, for Asians. No,it’s not to say that someone from Harvard they ask for a case we won’t give it to them But I would hope that in a few years, they would actually come to us and ask for cases Why? Because a Harvard professor their thinking-class is very very western They don’t really understand how businesses are conducted in this part And hence that’s our primary goal here And we are also very very lucky that many of our faculties now have been supporting the concept itself and in fact even though the 10 years system in the school doesn’t necessarily recognize those centres involved in writing cases or even teaching cases but we are moving along that long.So this is the purpose of that and in fact, many of our cases we are able to invite honoured guest to come but more importantly in the classroom sometimes. And I recall one of my cases the individual that came to the class, this is the person that actually in the case itself he said to me “Roger, you know what? This is great! I’m getting so many good suggestions from students In fact, it’s the cheapest consulting service I’ve ever had” so you know the whole idea is you need to participate for you students in this room And it’s a great great opportunity to analyze real-life situations So I’m sure again you’re not here because you want to listen to me So it gives me great pleasure and Nicholas really needs no introduction but here today he’s coming as a entrepreneur a business was founded, several years back when he was only , guess how old? 22! That was only yesterday right? And he has a very very successful business now He has an office here in Hong Kong of course, as well as in Shanghai. I understand. Right. So, without further ado, I would like to invite Nicholas to come up. That's not for me, right? Hello. Thank you for the warm welcome. And…Ladies and gentlemen welcome and thank you for having me on campus. This is truly overwhelming,Really. I’m instructed to deliver a speech in English So therefore I will be speaking in English But if any of you prefer to speak in Cantonese or mandarin, please feel free to do so I do hope that at the end of the session both parties,you and I, will gain something out of it and leave behind some,what? kick-ass memory, all right? Wow, this is really intense right now, for me.really. maybe because this is my first time to show up as an entrepreneur, in front of the crowd What is very odd is that I’ve been doing this most of my life I have been giving speeches and performances, and talks around the world The crowds ranging from 30 people to 130,000 people but never have I been so uptight and nerve-racking Maybe it’s because I am simply put in front of a crowd of academics And I feel that I’m now actually out of my…… I do feel I’m talking to another caliber I’m left out So the first point is really to tell you I dropped out of school in grade 10 And I urge you really to go through your education Most of you I think have gone half way, right? Might as well go all the way and grab that damn piece of paper! If I had the chance to take all the wealth and so called fame and glory that I have now and buy back 15 years of life but keep the knowledge that I have now and relive the physique I had 15 years ago and trade places with you right now I would make that trade in a heartbeat, really,seriously I dropped out school when I was…maybe in grade 10 and ever since I set foot into the so called business world There has not been a day that has gone by without me hating myself and regretting that I did not fully commit to my education Maybe fine arts, agriculture, architecture, ceramics… who knows, I don’t know MBA. But, I dropped And every day that has gone by, I do regret Some of you may not feel it right now. But that diploma when you are trying to close a deal with someone it means just that much more When you are trying to convince someone to an idea, concept, something new that piece of paper will just mean that much more and people will judge you and they’ll doubt you that much less That is reality, and it has been hard for me but…so I think I’m here to hopefully convince you to go through, go to the education, go all the way grab that piece of paper before you leave. OK? Do not walk the path I’ve ever gone through So and for the people who did not know I have been running a so-called post production business for the past 9 years And that’s what I do apart from the acting or the singing part, the entertainment part There’s also the business part of Nicholas Tse We are based on Hong Kong right now We have a subbranch in Shanghai, it’s going very well We are going to open in Beijing in the end…hopefully the end of May. Can I say that, please? Because we are in a rush and everything is really…. so I’m looking at my colleague whether we can pull it off at the end of May When I say post production it’s actually to a lot of people a very foreign term So what is post production? Post-production is… I mean by audio dubbing, online editing, offline editing compositing, animation, computer graphics…all that good stuff Actually, everything you see right now on television, advertising Broads, or in the cinema, or even on the Internet Every visual image you see right now is actually…it has…it should have undergone the process of post-production in order to achieve a certain standard of broadcast quality And just by saying that I’m very very happy to say that it has already obvious very high demand or else I will not be here today And so…for a more visual explanation of what I do I would like to show the company reel and…These are some of the brands that we do represent in Hong Kong or in the mainland China right now Some of you may recognize or may not recognize it. OK? Thank you. That’s some of these brands that we represent at the moment but…what you have just seen is the pretty side of the production I would actually like to show you some of the before and after as to actually how we make a living So what I’m about to show you, is a…something called the Canon G12 model. It is an advertisement shot 2 years ago by a very famous crew But, why don’t I show you? Here you see in front of the green screen, just a… it’s merely a model holding a camera. And all it is… I'm sorry. It’s just actually a track back show of this model it’s not quite up to the entertaining part… This is the source that we got when we first accepted this project We have taken the initiative to talk to the producer and director and say… hey, why don’t we do something more interesting and something that is to the next level… graphic wise and so… can we please show the next layer? So with audio and visual enhancement... each layer by layer, you can see, that inch by inch… this is what we do to enhance the visual effect…for the outcome… After 1160 and some more layers and modelling put onto this image you got the finished product… That’s it. All right,that’s one more full version or finished version. There you have it. And that’s what we do for a living For people do not know, post production… that’s what we do and…so any question so far? Why don't I ask you a question? Who in here wants to be successful? Raise your hand if you wanna succeed Coz I’m sure as I'll do. What's preventing you from raising hand? Anyway Second question, and the more important one: who’s lying? Because I’m pretty sure you go out there and you ask people “who wants to be successful?” 99% of people would tell you: I want to succeed I want to be the best basketball player I want to be the best hockey player; I want to be the best artist, engineer, whatever…They will talk But most of you want to succeed But are you truly being honest to yourself? Where has you found your passion? you know your strength and weaknesses? where to place yourself in the market, how you want people to see you and how to project yourself in a market I founded this company because… at the age of 22 and 3, between that time, I was on set, on a movie set And, I saw the director go up to the CG, computer graphics guy in the department and ask them:“ could we… actually, I wanna do this… take the computer graphic image and do this… ” and, he hesitated, froze, and I thought,:wow… So, that stalled for an hour or so But, ticking, tick tick tick, all that is money And he called back to his headquarters and asked for the allowance to say: They want to do this and that, so can we please… After days of freezing, multi million dollars was lost during that process And at the time I was releasing a lot of music videos I was doing a lot concerts, advertisements, and movies I wanted to enhance the visual effects myself and I thought: wow, this should be our realm That’s our profession, why are we doing so poor in it? So then if some of you have read through, may have read through my interviews that I did sell my property, for a certain amount of money to invest in this business I started off with 4-6 people and I bought 1 or 2 second hand machines to start it off And, luckily, I am here today But, what message I wanna get through is it seems like Nicholas Tse gambled everything away for the future I didn't It is a gamble, but… before I bought those second hand machines I actually calculated and talked to a few producers and we signed contracts for 3 movies, 2 advertisements, and 3 music videos so that we’d cover my one and a half years overhead, ahead of time So if I was to fail, I somewhat had a safety net that I won’t just kill myself. because I sold my house, sold everything, what do I have left? So I did have a bit of a safety net I don’t want to give the wrong message out to the public that… “he just sold everything, so we can do that too.” Please do not. OK? So, when I was saying, be honest to yourself if you want to be successful Because, some of us say we want to be successful but we don’t wanna succeed more than we wanna sleep We don't wanna succeed more than we look cool,and go to the ..tonight we don't want to succeed more than hanging out with friends,going to a cinema you must be honest to yourself and find your ultimate passion so therefore, are you willing to sacrifice all these temptations to prevent you from practicing your art? I don't believe the saying of “Practice makes perfect” to me, there is no perfection, there should always be room for improvement practice to me, practice makes permanence you will only have a much higher probability not to mess thing up, but there is no perfection That's to me Any questions, so far? These 3 guys are actually really intimidating right now Because it feels like that at any moment they’re gonna chuck some intellectual question like ninja’s darts this is the question from us. you basically answered about half of questions already, so because the angle you sitting, the angle you sitting So, really thanks for your brief introduction and a warm welcome to today’s Asian leadership series again so just before our conversation begin would you prefer us to call you NIC or just Nicholas (yes...) so, ah, NIC, as we know that you have established a very successful company and we know, we have saw a sample work from Canon we want to know what is the greatest challenge when you starting up your company? The greatest challenge really is to earn the trust of clients at the age of 23 because it is a human natural instinct not to believe in someone 10 or 20 years, younger than you and to establish that trust is a reputation but that together, it takes time And we started offer really miniture size work and earned the trust of some directors , and said: "you know, are you guys ready to go to the next level? " I personally say yes but then what I've learnt is that saying yes doesn't mean anything because no one wants to fall and it is a cruel world out there People will start blaming stuff, and say well, nic, he screwed it up, it’s not me So, what I’ve done, I've changed through these years I don't say yes any more I go back and ask my team:" Do you think you can do this? and if so, why don't we do a 30 seconds demo to shut their mouth? " period So the hardest part, the hardest challenge is to I think for any business is to earn the trust actually, mentioning that I myself, I … ever since I was little, I love Hong Kong action movies I still do, I really do, it’s all my passion being honest to myself, I can tell you, I love action movies and I am willing to put my life on the line, literally if it takes, and to protect HK action So 10 years ago ,I made myself a promise that if I'm gonna be in this business I wanna, I wanna be an action star at least participate in one of Jack Cheng's cool movies, or the Jet Li movies or the Donnie Yen movies And, I will show you this, actually it is more a present to my son it is a 2 minutes video for his first birthday some of my favourite stunts please do not try this at home because what you’re about to see for the next 2 minutes, I have been training for12 years and a lot of luck is involved that’s why I'm saying practice only makes permanence because the more I do this in this chance, I will die Jumping off the 41st floor is never wise, but I did that 19 times Yea, and that was only one or 2 feet away from breaking my neck That’s the Convention Centre It’s funny they say you can put these paddings on, but wherever you hit, it never hits the pad, it hits you. Now I tell you my son will not understand this message for another 20 years Thank god I'm still here one piece but that's how far I'm willing to go for what I love Of course, I'm not asking you to go jump off buildings I've actually seen this video about ten times. (really?) yeah! It still gives my goose bumps every time I watch it. It's very emotionally touching but shifting the focus on these students and you have definitely found your passion, but how would you advise us for finding our dreams and our passions? like I said, I think be honest to yourself No… I don't think anyone can answer that question for you it's what you feel every day you have to live with it, you have to smell it, you have to feel it, you have to touch it it's everything around you something that never bores you, I guess if you are hesitating for something give it a second thought but I'm here mainly to trial and error and I guess that's part of life you only start losing things when you start growing but that's contradictive, philosophical part of life so like when we 12 ,we are so eager to be 18 and say that I am old enough to stay up, I am old enough to go clubbing I am old enough to click the porn button but ,but when we do get older, like I am now, we lose the standard we stared losing a lot of reflexes, speed, power, all of that then, we start treasuring stuff but ,what you love the most, ask yourself I don't think anyone can really tell you that question ,or the answer well ,but like sometimes if we find our own dream we may not follow, like we cannot listen to our hearts ,because… our social norms, or expectations from our parents so what if I…can you give us students on really pursuing on your dream and stick to your mind? I don't think anyone… unless your dream is something that is so destructive that you’re hurting someone else I don't think anybody would stop you from pursuing your dreams, right? if it’s not something constructive, or something we don't normal, I would say… it should be OK, you are not trying to kill someone and make a statement that's what I did in my stunts you know ,I didn't just go about, talking to the director saying , I wanna do action movies someone jumped off. I trained and then I started going little stunts, I started to train weapons, my fitness the whole thing, it has to start from scratch so you want to prove someone wrong, prove them wrong regarding this as Asian leadership series for you we invite you to talk about your passion, your leadership experience then what do you think is the one key leadership quality that you think is the most important to you to success? one of the most important leadership qualities, I think is to know yourself and to place the correct people in the correct position you know, really, after I’ve started this company a lot of people say, they ask me right to the point, what the hell do you know about post production? And, to be honest if you ask me to sit in front of a multi million dollar machine and ask me to… will I do as well as my staff I will not. I will fail. I will crash But, I don't know how many of you follow football, but… for example, let’s say, last night Chelsea and Manchester United play a game, all right? see we’ve got people’s reactions now. The manager of Manchester United, MR. Ferguson he is not going on the field doing corner kicks and free kicks or saving the ball he is placing the correct people in the correct position if Rooney scored a goal is it purely Rooney's glory that he scored the goal or was it also because MR Ferguson placed him in the correct position so he had the chance to be assisted then to score? So I think to place correct people in correct position to do their work, do the jobs and to inspire, to dedicate, to motivate all that together seam through your staff Being honest to yourself, your work and your staff All the things together, I think is good. Speaking of your human resources, cooperation we have about 350 students sitting here today and they might just happens to be interested to applying for your company feel free, please, please, please Just maybe! Just maybe! So, For qualities of your employees, what’s your specific qualities of your employees you’ll be looking for? Creative thinking Because in a business like ours it’s imperative, that every job is unique we cannot duplicate jobs Actually I’m not quite happy with my business model because of that, because it makes very tough, whereas… We’re not in a job, where robots and machines, can just keep printing and make money of that product Each job is unique. So when I look for people, in our staffs I look for creative thinking motivation, energy that they want to bring into the image, and of course, technique and maybe some inborn sense or talents You have many staffs in your company so how do you encourage creative thinking in your company? We have over 130 staff now and after opening Beijing we might raise the number a lot I actually, I participate in their daily routine of their lives It might surprise you, but actually sometimes I cook for them I make them desserts Some of you may have read on newspapers we just had just went on a pretty fancy vacation Do you have the video here? OK I gained weight That’s a very amazing trip As we can see from the video we know that you actually have a very good relationship with your employees, your workers I’m wondering what is your company’s philosophy regarding work Do you often go to like overseas trip with your employees every…? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. I try to participate as much as I can And…trips like this is very good to come by these days, and… I’m not just throwing a multi-million dollar trip for them and say hey, you know, take this, go and enjoy yourself You got to be part of it You got to be live through their eyes see what they are going through, solve the problem before it actually hits the rock Before the collision starts, solve the problem and you will earn the utmost respect The difference I think between a world class company and mediocre company… if you are feared… your staff will only work as hard as to do not get fired but if you are respected not only will you have staff, you have a team Not only you have the team, you have an army And they will go that extra mile, they will push that extra mile for you, for the company And that is the difference between a world class company and…just…that’s not bad. You’ve mentioned earlier that trust is important in your company so how do you build trust with your employees among Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong. We have a…we actually take turns We send some of our senior partners and our senior engineers up to mainland China, and we trained new people Our business is actually very creative and human based business whereas we need a lot of people That’s whereas the next challenge for me lies is to find people like you, who are young who have potential to enhance better graphics And have that motivation to say “I can take this up to the next level.” I think the whole business is… I think the whole world is asking for people like you right now Steven Spielberg in 2011, last year and now he’s decided he is gonna dump in 1.5 billion dollars into Shanghai doing post production in dream works To me, yes, that is scary, that is a big pressure but I’m happy that…just to know that there’s such a high demand, so therefore…supply is also needed, so… Could you explain to us your vision standard of your company? We or I, myself I hope to…I really hope to give something back to the society in terms of visualize since I’ve been in this entertainment business for over 14 years now I want to give something back to what is being broadcasted and to…this is my time to but re-educate the next generation, my kids to know what is a better quality, look at Korea, look at Japan We have always been following the footsteps of their images I think it’s time for us and that’s why we are here today for Asian leadership to tell the western people that: hey! I can tell you right now that if you want Nicholas Tse to do Titanic 3D, I can do it just give me that time and give me that preparation Post production alone cannot make a piece of blank paper into magic… We need the whole process of preproduction along with us to merge together then we can…I’m pretty sure that we can achieve 3D Titanic Don’t think that we can’t do it. We can But ultimately…I’m looking for education If there’s a kid like me, a random kid like me in Hong Kong that wants to learn about animation or that likes to play video games I’m sure a lot of you do You have different angles and visions of things that people don’t have So times that by the number of the population in the whole mainland China Only if 1 percent of mainland China people wanted to learn animation or post production that would mean 130 million students How can we not do 3D Titanic, I’ll do 8D Titanic We’ve already talked about your vision and we’ve also talked about how you build trust with your employees how do you ensure that you share the vision from different offices in Shanghai, in Hong Kong, or in Beijing? Each year I gave annual speech to them and so far I’m very very thankful to say that we have reached each year’s goal We have moved from… Our office was in a basement, a building in Causeway Bay, last year before April 2nd And after April 2nd we moved to a quite luxurious building right now in Cubus No.1, 5 storey building And…what is means, each year we’re meeting our goals and then two years ago, I announced that we are the first company to cross border with mainland China to have a sub branch in Shanghai and in Hong Kong And we have achieved that goal And within a year, I’m very proud to announce that we are going to open in Beijing which is no other company, post company has done in the history of Hong Kong So for the staff, I always tell them I’m not asking you to work for me, I’m asking you to work for yourself And it is important to make them feel like that they are at home; they want to go to work and they see their future. Not am I only getting the salary paid Wow…This guy is actually… he’s making every promise come true And for them, that is so important because they are not… everything is coming true and they see further And I think that is very important for everyone. Working in creative media industry I suppose there could be some divergent opinions amongst your work When you actually face such type of situation, how would you settle those disagreements? Uh, well, you know, Post production is really a passive sadly to say very passive business We...for the past maybe few hundred years, I think post production is to do what we are ordered to do by the producers or the directors of people who shoot these commercials But we have managed somewhat to turn it around to take the initiative… to actually go to the meeting with the directors, and say is this what you are trying to achieve or what are you trying to achieve why don't we go this way? So now we are participating more into the pre-production to ensure that we'll get good quality out of the post production That is mainly what we do Has there ever been a time when other companies try to steal employees from you? Since I guess, there could be some intense competition to get the right talents Yes, there has been and I think it was about five or six years ago One of our competitors was willing to pay five times the payroll for 20 of my staff to walk away from my company I'll tell you the truth, I mean, 5 times the payroll... I myself will think twice But out of twenty people, only one left I don't blame anybody for leaving; they must have their own reasons But I am very proud to say that we kept 19 of them And I did ask why. I said so… really, you know, why are you staying. What is it that makes you stay in my company? I am not paying you any more than other people? And they replied simply that, "We are happy when we’re here… we feel like home. We know how to bring a smile to our work". That actually shocked me quite a bit on how the new generation values their life today Not only do they wish for a high salary but they need to be respected, loved, cared for and feel this is our home There was once when we were moving to our new company actually I called on a vacation. I said, "Guys, stop today, we are not gonna work” They said, “what are we gonna do? " I said," we are gonna go look for our new office together”. And they were actually quite shocked And the whole army of us just, you know, we were strolling through all these buildings And they asked why are we looking at this? Because you are the ones who are gonna be sitting here 8 hours per day, not me I want you to feel like you are at home I want you to wake up and feel motivated to say " I want go back.And fix that, I think I can do better." These little things accumulate to a better crew That's really inspiring So it is inevitable that there are ups and downs in our life So how do you stay positive? Uh, stay positive I consider myself very lucky And we all should All this you have right now is really a privilege I remind myself that every day the fact that I am just alive, you know those crazy stunts… I am thankful I just keep reminding myself that every day as simple as that As a final question to wrap up from us three What is the most important message you want us to take from this Asian Leadership Series? You know all this is great I don't know how you feel. Thank you for all this warm welcome But all this 謝霆鋒 Nicholas Tse stuff, right? I am not asking any of you to totally embrace this guy's personality or the way he works, or the way he does his job not to replicate or duplicate, but to find yourself or pick up from this guy, what is useful to you and your lifestyle make compatible and find yourself So from me, I hope that you can find a little bit of use, to put into your lifestyle and create your own dreams because my dream is to make belif believable and I will keep on doing that for a long long time Although I said that was a final question. I do have another one. Uhh… you’ve actually mentioned a lot of qualities, you talk about being charismatic how you lead your team, how you make them like you Or, you don't make them like you, they just like you You talk about bringing them to different places So what are some really important leadership qualities that a leader must have? Well, another one I would say is to… Set as an example you can talk all you want I can talk about stunts as I want but when you are really put under the spotlight and you don't know your stuff I don't care how much you talk, you can talk forever but can you make that jump? If you have been training for it, you can But that for me is an ultimate test Whereas in business I may lose money, I may lose a job or two But there, if I was not really honest to myself I would lose a leg, I would lose an arm, I would lose my life It's……it’s knowing your staff like I said again, practice makes only permanence. Thank you very much for sharing with us today Thank you for really encourage our students to pursue our own dreams, our passions and although we’ve asked quite a few questions, I’m sure the audience here have many more questions to ask you So we will now give the question to the floor Just as a reminder, today’s section is focused on entrepreneurship, leadership This is important keep in mind that today’s section is focus on entrepreneurship, leadership and management So questions fall out of these categories will not entertained Originally, we had about 20 minutes for Q/A sections so keep your questions brief and to the point If they drag on for too long I’m sorry but I’m gonna cut you short and I’m gonna get the questions from some other students so please be respectful to the audience Just another thing when we hand you the microphone after asking a question please pass it back to the staff members so other people can get a chance Thank you for your attention and we will now start taking questions Hi, Hi Nicholas very nice to see you here Actually we all know you as a very successful actor and singer, am I right? instead of being an entrepreneur So I just want to ask how did your great fame affect your occupation, your business? Is there any negative effect? Because there must be some negative effects Thank you very much! That is an awesome question You know, I was gonna say about the category that the questions are gonna come by I was gonna say if anyone was gonna asking for an autograph I would sign you the autograph if you can ask me a question that was a starter because after all we’re all in the study of MBA so why not study in negotiating But I like that question…Yes I did not launch to the public that I had this company that I have this company until April 2nd last year So I have been actually going undercover for 7 years and it has been really hard that’s actually what I forgot to mention It is another challenge for me to be such low-key. And to still participate in the company and why I kept it a secret was because I just thought if I really wanted to prove myself as an entrepreneur first I do not want to use my fame, so-called fame to assist it And also I do think that would actually harm it in a way because the press just gonna eat me up He’s another so-called actor who is trying to do a business but how successful am I really? I myself I want the real answer and therefore I kept it a secret And I hoped my clients are coming in because that they know they can rely on PO and rely on me as the CEO but not as… “Oh, I’m gonna give him a better credit because he just participated in my action movie” No I did not want that It has been painful sitting in the office seeing all these people, all the directors come by and say: “Oh you~ Hey~ You’re here for?” “I’m here for dubbing…” “Eh~ Oh~ You’re here again~” “I’m still here for dubbing…” I have been going there for 8 years and then thank whoever’s up there that’s looking after me Then last year I can present to the public that this is my company and they completely thought that you were dubbing for 8 years? You think I’m mad? Ya~ It’s true Any other questions? Hi, Nicholas~ My name is Johnny and I know that you were doing really great at the age of 22 in the entertainment industry I wanna know what motivated you to establish the post production at the age of 22 cause you were enjoying a lot of fame and money So you should have sacrificed quite a lot so what motivated you to establish the company? Thank you Like I mentioned before that little crisis I saw on set with the movie things with the hesitation, with the post production I was quite upset and ultimately I do want to give something back to the society and, say you know, I hope in the near future Well a lot of times when I was trying to sell a concept or an idea for my own music video back to the time, I was always banned I was always given the answer saying: You can’t do that ---why? ----that’s too expensive and we don’t have the technology we've got to go to Hollywood for that I said , Really? Well, Korea just did one quite similar I don’t think they went to Hollywood for it I was you know I was pissed off that we are relying so much on the western technology Whereas We have, to be honest, even today we have exact same machinery that they do It’s just the culture that is different What's the difference between Brazilian soccer and China soccer? We got the same balls, right? But it’s the culture that they live it, they breath it you know each kid is… all they have is a soccer ball and they play it every day like our badminton. It's the same it’s different in culture but I wanted to make a difference I wanted to make a statement Yeah, go ahead Mr. Tse, was there ever a time you wanted to… like you felt yourself drifting away from the business like when your company wasn't doing well and as a start-up I guess it’s very tough looking for projects and clients And how do you take time off your acting work to, you know; spend time to your company? And was there ever a time you felt like giving up or just very tired of this whole thing? No, I have not. And I do feel tired sometimes as do my stuff but as much as we love our jobs… No we have never thought that you know… there’s not a second that has slipped by my mind that I would give up this business because I believe simply I believe and I see it’s a very logical business China last year became the third most movie-productive country in the world first being India, second being the States, third is China We made 716 movies last year that’s almost 2 movies per day how much post production is needed if that much of hours of movies are made each day It’s a very logical business if so much pre-production is made then there must be space for post-production and I don't doubt at all. I see a great future in this business The lady in front You have mention about the challenges your company had before how about the great success of your company? It’s doing OK~ I really don't dare to say it’s anything right now it’s nothing compare to lot of my idols like DreamWorks or Pixar but we’re getting there and I do believe that if no one’s gonna start it off might that it might as well be me So we’re trying we’re trying Hi, Nicholas~ You have been successful in different areas like you’re a very good actor entrepreneur so how do you manage your time so well? Like you must be very busy I must give this credit to my staff A lot of time I’m on the way and not in Hong Kong, or I’m not in mainland China, all over the places And we have established a trust a kind of a harmony that we are in sync we know what we want to achieve So this I give all the credit to my staff when I’m not here. They would make the harsh decisions and we’ll, through the internet, we will communicate And we are just obeying our rules The guy in shirt at back Hi, Nicholas~ I’m called Nicholas as well and I hope I will be as successful as you one day So we all know about you glory and success And I would like… I’m curious about what mistakes you have done before for you as a leader And what have you done to rectify your mistake as a leader? Thank you~ I…… I like that question. It’s hard… I have a tendency of rush As to all kids should, actually, maybe when they’re 22 or 23 right? We kind of rush into things and when I first started this business I did not go all the way to know it each and every part or department of how they run the business or I……I had……I had the picture of it But then it came to the part where I had to buy really expensive machinery When I was buying the second-hand piece of a colour corrector I did not……actually I brought a broken piece of machine and that cost us quite, pay a heavy price And we had to……The maintenance for that machine cost us a lot and luckily we were able to survive out of the crisis but yes I did make these mistake and I failed a lot of clients, I failed a lot of staff to trust me or not whether or not to trust me anymore Of course I was cheated also, but you know you can never really blame anybody but yourself as a leader Yes I did fail in buying a wrong piece of equipment. Yes, I did Yeah, the lady in red Hi, Nicho~ Actually I’m from Shanghai and I…… I’m wondering where is your office No, no… Actually I was wondering Is there any difference between starting a new business in Hongkong and especially like in mainland China I don’t think we should draw a line between any country especially that we’re as one now If you hold on to the same principles may it be Hong Kong, or mainland China, or the states, or Africa, I think it should be the same And my office is in the 紅方工業區 is it very luxurious? It’s OK; we might expand in the summer Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? Hi, Nicholas. Do you have any short term or long term plan on your company or on your personal life? I remember that you are like action movies, are you still going for that? Do you have any plan in the future to have you own film shot? sorry this is irrelevant to entrepreneurship, so… ——That’s all right.——Is it OK? Actually you know it’s kind of related and although it’s kind of a… it’s not a business secret but…… a lot of people think why did you all a sudden open a post-production company when you’re an actor Does it sound that ridiculous? Am I jumping from acting to cooking? I am not Actually if you think about it deeply it’s quite linked together if I have enough bargaining power and trust between the directors and the producers to say look my company can handle this now What about I participate in your next movie, and I do the post? Now, isn’t that a win-win situation? So do I have plans? Yes, I do have plans in making new movies and I hope that I can bargain the deal that I can also handle the post production part if……we have all seen that you know the last real big success in Hongkong----《桃姐》. We were really lucky to be able to o the colour correction part although I wasn’t in it But hey we got to the Venice Awards. The lady in the back You were 30… I’m sorry; you were 23 when you founded your company. (MC:22!) So you were so young, did you ever feel like you missed out on life? And how do you deal with these regrets? I tried to think that I lived my life fully That’s why I’m going for every… call me greedy but I’m going for every opportunity and yet why shouldn’t you? Right? A lot of people ask me that question do I regret anything Like I said I would take I would fully commit to my education if I have the chance to buy back 15-year’s life but I don’t I think I have lived my life fully I have two very cute sons and they're healthy I have……I’m just grateful I hope everybody should think out of the box sometimes I’m getting lots of questions whereas “how to pursue a dream?” or “Is this OK?” “Are we going too far?” “Where do you draw a line between reality and visions” Leonardo Da Vinci In 1493 I think, it was 1493 that’s a “Judy air screw”---- What we know today as a helicopter I’m pretty sure back in the time then people call him crazy “what? That thing flies?well whatever… Well, 500 years after, we are… I mean it’s a very well-known transportation device It's 1493 So don't doubt yourself you may get a lot of negative inputs or comments My mom, my families told me they were seriously, in words “You won’t make it, you won’t be a successful businessman.” I got tons of those And my dad you know all worried because… it’s just very seldom for one leaving entertainment business actually make it from the scratch in the business world But that’s me, that’s the rebellious side of me I like proving people wrong Sorry we’ll only have time for about two more questions? The lady in the front row there So Nicholas, I wonder…you mention that you have a competitor in Shanghai, right? So how are you going to lead your team to defeat your competitor? Yeah, competitors are everywhere And I……I like the thought of friendly competition Only through that will the clients know who is better and that makes us to excel, to thrive more for excellence If anything was monopolized by only one grand name they won’t fight There is no one to be in the race, you can walk that marathon and still win if you are the only walking or running, right? We just do our job as we should every day Regardless if there is a competitor if there is Steven Spielberg‘s DreamWorks coming into Shanghai or not I’m just doing my job, as should my staff Our last question will go to the guy in the black shirt Hi, Nicholas, my name is Ken as you mentioned the skill of post-production in Hong Kong is not that far from the western industry The only difference is in terms of culture So I want to ask do you have any plans to bring the Post Production Office to the international market by overcoming this barrier. Wow right now, I have to say I don’t have that ability yet because I have put my efforts and investments into, first, handling our whole China But I do believe that… you know… what’s that movie called? 《金陵十三釵》right? Christian Bill came to us, you know he China-based movie So you know if you ask me about that, that’s something really far away but I hope one day or maybe through IPO will I get the chance to go overseas and reach that goal but me alone I really can only do that much Our last question will go to president Tony Qian. Will you do the honours? Nic is a surprise now can I ask a question not tied to entrepreneurship? Everybody wants to ask that kind of question Sorry, sorry, I won’t entertain this, but I don’t know if he is feeling generous? (BOSS: Please) You know some of us who sitting here are a little bit older than most of the people here And some of us grew up with movies related to your family So, no, but I wasn’t gonna ask about that , I was gonna ask there must be a lot of family pressure, you know, maybe implicit to live up to the family fame You know, maybe founding a new company finding your own place, making your own name I just wonder how …your view on this, how you live through this? Must be a lot of expectation that a lot of our students also feel Before you say you have to find your own passion a lot of our students also feel the pressure from our family. A lot of family expectation So for you with the particular family you have with the fame you must feel that ten times more than the typical student I want to hear what’s your view on this? Uhh, it is a good question, really but I used to hate that shadow that overpowered Nicholas Tse because I am the son of whom and whom but I have learned maybe because I started working at the age of 15 or 16 and now did my parents do anything wrong? I have learned to accept and actually be proud of who they are I used to really hate that shadow…. 謝賢嘅仔… Seriously! But as you grow, and you go through crisis and all that crap You learn, when you get hit, and life will hit you as hard as he wants to No one will stand by you as close as your family And it is through these little problems and crisis where I have found a way to relieve that shadow as being whoever’s son and embrace it and love it and say:"yes, I am, so what?" We are both doing OK as a human being And in this business and the entertainment business I am proud now to hold my father or my mother’s hands and say we’ve done our part in this business So really, I know, cause I have kids also And sometimes when I think about it, I ask myself Wow, I’m under a lot of pressure I was under the eyes of 6 million people in Hong Kong watching me grow up as the son of Patrick Tse Now that I think about it, what‘s really unfair is for my kids because now they are under the… you know… the lens of 1.3 billion people in China My kids are under more pressure than I am But what I hope they will learn from this is if they can just simply grow as a human being and not let my shadow overpower them too much Now that’s being a man now that’s being able to live life as you should Why let anything stand in your way especially if they’re are someone who loves you and that’s unconditional love They expect nothing in return. I bet anything simply because you are sitting here today; they want the best for you This is HKUST, man! That officially ends the Q&A Session, Karen, back to you Ok, let’s give them a round of applause I have to say, Nicholas, this is the second time I meet you. The first time we did a video interview with him And that will be showing in the fourth-coming classes And there was truly inspirational, even though I heard it twice So thank you very much. To show our appreciation may I invite Dean to the stage for a gift-giving ceremony? Please remain on stage May I now invite President Tony Chan and Professor Roger King, and also the three students interviewers, please join Nicholas for a photo I can see there are lots of photos I think Karen, Renee and George should come here Ok, Thank you very much Most of all, thank you all for coming to the event, give yourself a round of applause Now I am sure many of you are very interested in joining Post Production Limited, right? This evening the senior managers are going to stay behind to answer questions, so you can explore job opportunities with them Yes. We have Amanda, Diana who is the managing director, Also, Michael is going to join us with the director So for those who would like to talk to them, please come down later And in the meantime, in the meantime, I am afraid this is the end of our first Asian Leadership Series And I hope to see you again. Goodnight So for those students who would like to talk, can you please come down? It’s a free format thing. Anyone wants a job?
A2 US nicholas company production post hong people Nicholas Tse gives a talk at HKUST 13718 755 VoiceTube posted on 2013/03/02 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary