There is no shortcut to construct a building and you must follow prescribed orders and start by developing a firm groundwork for construction; and there is no royal road to success, and you must consolidate knowledge and begin with laying a solid foundation. Terence Ng, after graduating from Haking Wong Technical Institute (the former of IVE) with a diploma in Civil Engineering, devoted himself to building industry and started from grass-roots level. For more than a decade, he was promoted to project manager from site supervisor. This experience enabled him to know each process well from site opening to construction completion and provided him with the chance to fully exercise his ability, setting the stage for future business.
Terence established Ching Lee Engineering Co., Ltd. in 1998 which was listed on the Growth Enterprises Market in 2016. In September of last year, he led the company to go public on the Main-Board Market in the name of Ching Lee Holding Limited Company (3728). As the captain of a company with market price of HK$ 1 billion, he has tried to cross the industry to set forth in the property market recently. As for operation, Terence always practices what he preaches and attends to everything personally.
“At its inception with great support of peer brothers, I followed through all engineering projects, fully took charge of preparing bids, meeting clients during the early, middle and last stages of each of them.” Terence’s all-out effort eventually made his first pot of gold at the initial stage of establishment. Later, more and more projects were awarded due to years of accumulated interpersonal connections.
Of course, only one person cannot be strong and mighty as superman, but he was lucky to encounter good friends and partners so that he could overcome the fluctuating economic cycles. Even in the wake of property bubble in 1998, wreak havoc of SARS in 2003 and depression of Hong Kong construction industry, Terence managed his company with contextual strategies, practicing wisely the art of cost control, turning the corner of the company smoothly and expanding the business increasingly.
Up to this day, the company has over one hundred employees, and there are thousands of workers working in the sites supervised by company every day. “Now, I intend to authorize my professional team to operate the company.” Although he said so, Terence extremely emphasizes the project quality and still supervises the measurement of materials, project cost and construction procedures personally to ensure the quality and benefit. Such behavior also gains good reputation and favorable public praise to the company and even leads to the successful listing of it.
From Terence's way of going into business, we can learn that the leader of small companies should get ahead and struggle together with the employees; and when the company develops certain scale, the leader should make final check at the proper post for the company. As the company goes public and the business expands increasingly, where does Terence stand? It seems a rear position where he is fully committed to promote the development and cooperation of the company and the industry.
Internally, Terence wishes to allocate more resources for staff training and development, nurturing talents to support the company and the industry. To reinforce the employees' sense of belonging, the company has spent effort in their career planning because staff retention can strengthen its overall competitiveness. Externally, Terence still makes some time to hold the public office no matter how busy he is, such as acting as committee in Construction Industry Council, Occupational Safety & Health Council, Buildings Department, etc. and undertaking the vice-chairman of Hong Kong General Building Contractors Association, to actively speak up for Hong Kong middle and small-sized enterprises and provide suggestions for the government in order to promote the overall development of the industry. Thus, it can be seen that this leader is such a resourceful person who can grasp the essence of a situation and exercise practical wisdom.
In addition to providing voluntary service for government and industry, Terence also makes earnest efforts for charity and public welfare establishments. Over the years, he has continuously supported the needy children for schooling in China. So far, hundreds of schoolchildren have been benefited. At present, Terence acts as the member of the Guangdong Provincial CPPCC, the standing committee of Meizhou City CPPCC in Guangdong Province and the chairman of Hong Kong-Meizhou Youth Exchange Promotion Association in Hong Kong.
As immersed in construction industry for thirty years, Terence has interacted with various people. He commented frankly that the graduates from IVE were really reliable with practical experience, and some of them are of great potential. In recent years, the government has launched many mega construction projects and there is a huge demand of talents to support the construction industry, so Terence encourages his younger peers to enter the industry. He opines that the career prospect in the industry is bright, in particular to those who possess enthusiasm and positive work attitude.
