The right call

Caroline Wan’s path towards a career in finance and the ACCA Qualification began all the way back in high school. Two decades in and embarking on a new role – as vice president, business performance management, at telecoms provider HKT – she believes that an ability to shift between markets, adapt to technology and embrace new challenges are key to success.

‘I was pondering what subject I should study in university,’ she recalls. ‘Because I was in the science stream and did pure mathematics in my A levels, I thought analytical skills were one of my strengths and maybe I could give it a go. I also turned to people I trusted, and they told me finance will be a very important function within any organisation.’

Advice in hand, Wan studied finance at the University of Hong Kong before going on to work at a Big Four firm as an initial public offerings auditor. In 2001, she joined General Electric (GE); there, she took part in the company’s 100+ years financial management programme, which provided two years of rotational work alongside classroom training.

Global accreditation

For Wan, gaining the ACCA Qualification was crucial to her burgeoning career. ‘I liked to move between markets very early on,’ says Wan. ‘ACCA is widely recognised; I think the global brand that ACCA is has really helped me.’

However, she really discovered the merits of the ACCA Qualification when she took a two-and-a-half-year break from work following the birth of her son, while living in Brisbane, Australia.

‘I had been working for 15-plus years straight; I wanted to cherish my motherhood to the fullest, and be there to take care of my baby and witness all his first-time moments. To me, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,’ she says, adding that she felt that having the ACCA Qualification, coupled with her years of experience as a finance professional, would enable her to seamlessly re-enter the employment market later.

Pandemic challenge

Many of the challenges Wan has faced recently are, of course, familiar to many, with the Covid-19 pandemic resulting in social restrictions and prolonged periods of working from home.

‘We need to find a way to still connect and work well together,’ Wan says, noting that the pandemic has been particularly stressful for families with young children who required home-schooling.

‘One of the biggest challenges of kids having Zoom classes was that they could not concentrate for too long,’ she says, adding that, for many Hong Kong families, sharing both internet bandwith and limited space at home was a constant struggle.

‘The challenge was to keep the kids focused in their home learning and also keep their sanity by arranging other activities, she says. ‘At the same time, in a lot of cases, parents’ commute time was replaced with lengthened work hours.’

New skills

After leaving General Electric when her son was born, Wan later worked as a SOX auditor in Brisbane before moving back to Hong Kong. The move was, she says, ‘mainly because there were more opportunities to work with multinationals, and this fitted my career path’.

There, she took on a role as British Telecom’s head of finance for Hong Kong and Taiwan. It was, she admits, an enormous learning curve.

‘My previous roles were all either at regional or global level, so the focus was more on compliance, governance and making sure the countries met the numbers,’ she says. ‘I needed to roll my sleeves up and deep dive into preparing for financial reporting and analysis, as well as owning the relationships with banks, external auditors and lawyers. I really acquired a whole new set of skills.’

Business focus

After three years with British Telecom, Wan was ready to ‘move up the value chain’; in her new role, she is leading a team of 30 who are responsible for the analytics of the group’s latest performance and opportunities pipelines.

‘I will not just focus on the finance department but will be more involved in business advisory and partnering as part of HKT’s commercial group management team,’ she says. 

Wan was attracted to HKT as it is the market leader in Hong Kong’s telecom industry and is embracing emerging technologies such as Smart City, Smart Living and the Internet of Medical Things. ‘I have the opportunity to develop deep business acumen as HKT has the best range of products and services, the biggest customer base and the most advanced technology,’ she says, adding that the role also involves working on business strategy and performance management with the head of the commercial group and other sales directors.

While her new position is primarily commercial rather than financial, Wan says that she developed many of the relevant skills in her previous roles, which involved acquiring telecoms companies and working with multinationals.

Wan is looking forward to working with a larger team. ‘It is a growth opportunity,’ she says. ‘I will also get to know the potential of different people, how to allocate my work, and how to help the team support the priorities of the business.’

The new role will also involve Wan in various projects, including government initiatives, in both Hong Kong and the wider Greater Bay Area. ‘I’ll get to know Hong Kong and its digital footprint,’ she says.

Digital transformation

Looking to the year ahead, Wan predicts that digital transformation will be front and centre – not just in accountancy but in all professions.

‘This got boosted by Covid-19 as it became the norm to let staff work from home,’ she says. ‘This had been happening for the past decade but it is accelerating now.’

Wan notes that the automation of administrative work is now standard. ‘Enterprise resource planning software is getting more and more powerful,’ she says. ‘Previously, we needed to reconcile the numbers and ensure the integrity of the data; now, this is already automated. This forces accounting staff to move up the value chain to more advisory roles.’

Parental responsibilities

Wan will continue to juggle work with her parental responsibilities. ‘Personally, I think it is more difficult to be a full-time mum,’ she says. ‘You need to sacrifice for your kid and there are a lot of expectations on you. If you are a working mum, when you go to work, you can still take breaks.’

To be a successful working parent, Wan believes that time management is key. ‘You become very mindful of switching between being mum at night and helping the business during the day,’ she says.

Wan adds that progress towards gender equality has been made but the road ahead is still long. ‘If you look at, for example, the number of CEOs who are female at Fortune 500 companies, then you will see that it’s still very low,’ she says.

‘In general, I think females are more risk-cautious and and males generally look at the return. Having both females and males in senior roles is very important,’ says Wan, adding that the ability of mothers to multitask is a key asset for businesses.

Women in business

Wan is committed to furthering opportunities for women in business. She serves as a ‘buddy’ for Women in Engineering Queensland and, during her time with GE, was a committee member on the GE Women’s Network. She is also honorary vice president of the Business Association of Hong Kong University’s Student Union. ‘I feel obliged to give back to society after all the years that I was being nurtured,’ she says.

With a busy workload and other professional commitments, Wan still manages to carve out time for her own interests. She prioritises being with her family and enjoys finding out about new cultures; she is currently learning Japanese, building on a love of the country’s culture that has been with her since childhood.

Her advice for young professional women looking to succeed in their careers is to keep equipping themselves and focus on their current work.

‘Put in 100% to work to the best of your ability and then, at the same time, be open-minded,’ Wan advises. ‘If you have an opportunity and you think it sounds right to you, just go for it.’