In the mid-2000s, the world’s attention increasingly began to focus on Asia, attracted not just by the region’s rapid economic growth but also by the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It was within this atmosphere of excitement and potential that Joey Wong made a very pivotal career decision. Having grown up in Los Angeles after her family had emigrated from Hong Kong, Wong had always been drawn to math and science, a passion that eventually led her to MIT, where she studied economics and business.
Initially, her goal had been to pursue a career in in the world of governmental economic policy, but the lengthy academic path that such an end result would require made her rethink her future. “I realized that this would mean many more years of studying before I could actually have the credentials,” she recalls.
Read MoreDetermined to put her skills into practice, Wong set her sights on the business sector instead. Feeling a deep connection to Asia and recognizing that her Chinese language skills might help to provide a competitive edge, she took the bold step of accepting an internship role with Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong. Immersed in the vibrant financial markets of Asia, she initially centered her attention on media and telecommunications companies—two sectors experiencing significant growth in the region.
Today, as CFO of Lenovo’s Asia Pacific (PCSD) division, Wong continues to leverage her deep expertise in regional markets, utilizing the financial and strategic acumen that she had begun to acquire very early-on in her career. Her understanding of the business landscape in Asia has made her a key player in Lenovo’s growth story, as she has helped to drive initiatives that capitalize on the region’s evolving opportunities.
In an interesting twist, it turns out that the same Beijing Olympics that had helped to attract Wong back to Asia had also played a significant role in shaping Lenovo’s global brand image. As an official sponsor of the 2008 Games, Lenovo provided more than 30,000 pieces of equipment, including PCs and servers, which all served to showcase on the world stage the firm’s technological prowess.
It is fitting, then, that the Games that in part first sparked Wong’s desire to return to Asia also foreshadowed her future at Lenovo, where she now contributes to the same brand that had made headlines during the Olympiad. In some ways, the excitement of those Games might be seen to have marked the start of a new era not only for Asia but also for Wong’s career.
“Being an investment banker taught me the importance of structuring information, communicating with senior executives, and developing an advisor mindset – skills that have been invaluable throughout my career.” – Joey Wong
“As an investor, I learned to think like an owner, be agile, and focus on leading indicators. This risk mitigation mindset has helped me make more informed decisions as a finance leader.” – Joey Wong
Made Possible By
CFOTL: What are your priorities as a finance leader over the next 12 months?
Wong: Given the AI boom, this is a very exciting period for the tech industry. The key job of a CFO like me right now is to ensure that we have the right resources to allocate to the right investments. For example, Lenovo has committed another $1 billion toward investment in AI, so I have to do my part to ensure that we generate sufficient flow to support this commitment, as well as to make certain that we allocate it to the most beneficial areas with Asia Pacific. This is my first priority.
Expand TitleMy number two focus will be on the new business models that we’re going into. We’ve been on our services transformation journey for a couple of years now, just as we continue to grow our hardware offerings as a truly scalable services business. At the same time, we are dedicated to the growth of our AI-related products.
So, one of my key priorities is figuring out how to design the right sets of metrics to measure the success of our new, fledgling, business innovations. I don’t think that we should be viewing these through the same lens that we use to look at mature businesses. So that they can track progress, we need to provide to our business leaders visibility into every corner of everything PCSD.
Our BMS is probably not currently structured to provide optimum visibility into tracking some of our new products and services. Thus, for me, it will be really important to enable transparency in all of these new areas.
My last major concern would be to be keenly aware of the macro volatility of everything in business today, especially in terms of ethics. From a finance perspective, how do we anticipate some of the implications of this? How can we create stronger scenario planning, better analyses of future financial situations, and better analyses of risks and the means for their mitigation? These are all very important considerations in my own mind.
Lenovo www.lenovo.com Quarry Bay, Hong Kong