Mr. Shangkong | Transparent hiring needed in equal opportunity Hong Kong
Banks that hire influential sons and daughters for their connections must also show that they are just as qualified as the next person to do the job
In China, sometimes guanxi is more important than money. Actually, guanxi - relationships and connections - is equally important in the rest of the world too. Can you ignore connections when doing business in Washington or London? I doubt it.
In Hong Kong, especially in the city's financial industry, guanxi has made a difference for many banks and their clients in many cases.
To hire a son or daughter or even a mistress of a high-level Chinese official should not be a problem for a bank unless it is proven that the hiring is a breach of the bank's internal code of conduct or the hiring results in breach of market regulations and laws if the new hire misuses their connections to win business.
I believe the reason why the public has become more concerned about these "guanxi hirings" is more to do with growing distrust between the public and these employers - mostly international investment banks such as JP Morgan and UBS - over how such hirings, some of them politically sensitive, are handled.
In Hong Kong people believe in the rule of law and equal opportunity so when they read news reports about possible problems and loopholes related to these "sensitive hirings", many people will naturally ask themselves: Why can these sons and daughters, and even mistress get the job, and not me?
If the son or daughter of somebody has a good degree and some appropriate working experience, or something to prove that they are capable of the job, that's fine. Otherwise, the hirer must answer the simple question: Why hire him or her and not someone else without an important background?
