6feetunder
16th Jan 2004, 11:10
John Swire & Sons, the London-based private company that controls Hong Kong-listed Swire Pacific and its subsidiary Cathay Pacific, looks set finally to bite the bullet and appoint a Chinese chief executive for the airline company.
Unfortunately for Cathay the man likely to be appointed is Philip Chen, who currently serves as Cathay’s chief operating officer. To put it politely Mr Chen is in the frame because he is one of the few Chinese faces seen around boardroom tables of the still remarkably colonial Swire group.
This attribute of nature may still prove insufficient to give him the job. Indeed, the planned management reshuffle has been delayed by six months, which may provide an opportunity for second thoughts.
Mr Chen is first and foremost a survivor and secondly an astute political player. Management skills, however, are not considered to be his forte. When Cathay was effectively running the fledgling Dragonair he was seconded to be the new airline’s chief operating officer.
Unlike the well established Cathay, Dragonair required drive and flair to get it off the ground. Lamentably, Mr Chen did not demonstrate these qualities and was soon back at Cathay “organising paper clips and smiling”, as one non-admiring colleague described his duties.
While other Cathay executives have distinct operational responsibilities, Mr Chen rarely seemed to have direct line duties and spent most of his time being the Chinese face representing Cathay at meetings and on committees.
However, it appears that even if he becomes the CEO, the running of the airline will remain under the control of his current boss David Turnbull, who is expected to take over at the helm of Swire Pacific when James Hughes-Hallett flies off to work for the parent company in London.
But Mr Hughes-Hallett is not going as soon as some reports suggest. The current taipan will remain until the end of this year. Mr Turnbull, who had been expected to take over in July, will therefore have to wait.
He is often remembered for his aversion to peanuts, especially those flicked in his direction by a dissident pilot, and is very much in the tradition of Swire taipans – big, bullying, basically sound at his job and not afflicted by modesty.
Because Swire almost always appoints its executives from within, there is heated speculation over who will fill the posts as they are vacated. If at the last moment the chaps in London baulk at the idea of appointing a non-Brit to head Cathay, this would propel Tony Tyler, the aggressive director of corporate development, into the top job.
He was the public face of Cathay’s battle against its pilots. His macho style is much admired by Mr Turnbull but causes misgivings elsewhere inside this quintessentially conservative company. Even if he fails to get the job he is highly likely to be promoted to Mr Chen’s old post.
No one is seriously suggesting that Swire should consider appointing its corporate leaders from outside the ranks of long-serving officers. In this respect it is very like the civil service, although unlike the Hong Kong civil service, it is still holding out against localisation at the top, even though it is being forced into some down below. Change, Swire-style, means that even the whites-only tradition on the flight deck of Cathay planes has been broken.
Away from boardroom shenanigans it is interesting to note revival of talk about pegging the Chinese currency to a basket of 10 other leading currencies, as opposed to the current peg with the US dollar.
Speculation on a change flared up just before the New Year as American politicians went into overdrive urging China to revalue its currency to counter “unfair” competition with US manufacturers.
A re-pegging would be an elegant solution to the currency dispute between China and the US. It would avoid loss of face in the sense of bowing to US demands for a re-valued currency and it would tie China’s currency more closely with its trading partners such as Japan, Korea the European Union and the nations of Southeast Asia. Unlike the US, a number of these nations have a positive trade balance with China and a re-valuation would have the effect of making their imports cheaper.
The intriguing question is whether the Hong Kong dollar would go into the basket of currencies on which China’s new peg might be based.
Because Hong Kong is China’s third largest trading partner there is considerable logic in bringing its currency into the basket, yet there is something awkward about including a currency from a part of China’s sovereign territory.
This then gives rise to the perennial but highly sensitive question of either the inter-changeability of the yuan and the Hong Kong dollar or the merger of the two currencies.
Although this is more of a taboo subject here than in the mainland it has one outstanding advantage that is rarely discussed.
The point being that at some time or other Hong Kong will have to tackle its own problem of ending the fixed link with the US dollar. Any direct breaking of the link can have no result other than a short sharp devaluation of the Hong Kong dollar. Whether it would result in the start of a long descent is not known. However, the link would effectively be broken by a merger of the two currencies, especially if the yuan were no longer linked to the US dollar.
It would also mean a whole host of other problems but it makes you think, does it not?
-- Stephen Vines
www.asiaxpat.com.hk
Unfortunately for Cathay the man likely to be appointed is Philip Chen, who currently serves as Cathay’s chief operating officer. To put it politely Mr Chen is in the frame because he is one of the few Chinese faces seen around boardroom tables of the still remarkably colonial Swire group.
This attribute of nature may still prove insufficient to give him the job. Indeed, the planned management reshuffle has been delayed by six months, which may provide an opportunity for second thoughts.
Mr Chen is first and foremost a survivor and secondly an astute political player. Management skills, however, are not considered to be his forte. When Cathay was effectively running the fledgling Dragonair he was seconded to be the new airline’s chief operating officer.
Unlike the well established Cathay, Dragonair required drive and flair to get it off the ground. Lamentably, Mr Chen did not demonstrate these qualities and was soon back at Cathay “organising paper clips and smiling”, as one non-admiring colleague described his duties.
While other Cathay executives have distinct operational responsibilities, Mr Chen rarely seemed to have direct line duties and spent most of his time being the Chinese face representing Cathay at meetings and on committees.
However, it appears that even if he becomes the CEO, the running of the airline will remain under the control of his current boss David Turnbull, who is expected to take over at the helm of Swire Pacific when James Hughes-Hallett flies off to work for the parent company in London.
But Mr Hughes-Hallett is not going as soon as some reports suggest. The current taipan will remain until the end of this year. Mr Turnbull, who had been expected to take over in July, will therefore have to wait.
He is often remembered for his aversion to peanuts, especially those flicked in his direction by a dissident pilot, and is very much in the tradition of Swire taipans – big, bullying, basically sound at his job and not afflicted by modesty.
Because Swire almost always appoints its executives from within, there is heated speculation over who will fill the posts as they are vacated. If at the last moment the chaps in London baulk at the idea of appointing a non-Brit to head Cathay, this would propel Tony Tyler, the aggressive director of corporate development, into the top job.
He was the public face of Cathay’s battle against its pilots. His macho style is much admired by Mr Turnbull but causes misgivings elsewhere inside this quintessentially conservative company. Even if he fails to get the job he is highly likely to be promoted to Mr Chen’s old post.
No one is seriously suggesting that Swire should consider appointing its corporate leaders from outside the ranks of long-serving officers. In this respect it is very like the civil service, although unlike the Hong Kong civil service, it is still holding out against localisation at the top, even though it is being forced into some down below. Change, Swire-style, means that even the whites-only tradition on the flight deck of Cathay planes has been broken.
Away from boardroom shenanigans it is interesting to note revival of talk about pegging the Chinese currency to a basket of 10 other leading currencies, as opposed to the current peg with the US dollar.
Speculation on a change flared up just before the New Year as American politicians went into overdrive urging China to revalue its currency to counter “unfair” competition with US manufacturers.
A re-pegging would be an elegant solution to the currency dispute between China and the US. It would avoid loss of face in the sense of bowing to US demands for a re-valued currency and it would tie China’s currency more closely with its trading partners such as Japan, Korea the European Union and the nations of Southeast Asia. Unlike the US, a number of these nations have a positive trade balance with China and a re-valuation would have the effect of making their imports cheaper.
The intriguing question is whether the Hong Kong dollar would go into the basket of currencies on which China’s new peg might be based.
Because Hong Kong is China’s third largest trading partner there is considerable logic in bringing its currency into the basket, yet there is something awkward about including a currency from a part of China’s sovereign territory.
This then gives rise to the perennial but highly sensitive question of either the inter-changeability of the yuan and the Hong Kong dollar or the merger of the two currencies.
Although this is more of a taboo subject here than in the mainland it has one outstanding advantage that is rarely discussed.
The point being that at some time or other Hong Kong will have to tackle its own problem of ending the fixed link with the US dollar. Any direct breaking of the link can have no result other than a short sharp devaluation of the Hong Kong dollar. Whether it would result in the start of a long descent is not known. However, the link would effectively be broken by a merger of the two currencies, especially if the yuan were no longer linked to the US dollar.
It would also mean a whole host of other problems but it makes you think, does it not?
-- Stephen Vines
www.asiaxpat.com.hk