Lessons from Managing Partner of McKinsey, Joe Ngai

“Be generous with your time. The world would be a better place with a little more generosity.”

We were privileged to have the opportunity to spend close to 2 hours speaking and learning from Joe Ngai, Director and Managing Partner of McKinsey & Company Hong Kong. A man with many hats, Joe currently also leads McKinsey’s Financial Institution practice in Greater China.

Outside of his professional career, Joe is passionate and actively involved in community and public services, serving as Chairman of Diamond Cab, Director of Social Ventures Hong Kong, President of Harvard Business School Association of Hong Kong and as advisors on various Government’s advisory committees.

Joe’s journey with McKinsey Hong Kong started in 2002 and he has since been with the company until today — 14 years and counting! Prior to joining McKinsey, Joe launched an e-commerce startup with a few friends after his MBA and raised USD $200 million during dot-com years.

When asked what made him stayed on in McKinsey, he accredited it to the intensive learning experiences and network of supportive colleagues — which are key requirements to look for in one’s career:

“When you are starting out, look for smart people to work with and mentors who would look out for you. Growth is not about the mileage — years and time, learning takes place only from intense experiences.”

As our meeting covered a wide-range of topics ranging from consulting to corporate culture and social entrepreneurship to even more personal questions like his daily habits and rituals, we have selected parts of the conversation to share.

What do consultants actually do?

“At the highest level, consulting is about change. The hardest part is not coming up with the solution, but to influence others to want to change. With technology nowadays, information has become a commodity.”

“The ability to influence others is the most non-commoditized skill.”

What qualities do you look for in candidates in interviews?

“I think employers from all over the world are looking for maturity, strong adaptability and positive energy. Others include strong communication skills, logical thinking, the ability to breakdown problems into structure and to influence others.”

What is one social issue you would like to bring more awareness to?

“Hong Kong’s youth. I hope they will be more optimistic.”

“In Japan, 95% of youth believe that the future will not be better than their parent’s generation. Whereas in China as you walk on the street, you can feel almost 100% of youth believe that their future will be better than their parents. For Hong Kong, I am still unsure, I think we are half half.”

Is Hong Kong too focused on the financial industry?

“Its easy for one to say Hong Kong is too focused on the financial industry, because if you look around that’s what has been successful in Hong Kong. Say, if you have five sons or daughters, and one performs really well, would others say you are too focused on him/her?

At the end of the day, businesses put capital and resources in what’s successful. Governments can’t force anyone to put money into things they don’t want to. There is a vicious cycle where success meets success.

Hong Kong is successful in the financial industry, not because of the government but because of the financial industry itself.”

Do you think Hong Kong should develop other industries?

“Yes. But the question is what and how, it’s not whether. When you have perfect capital, when you have young people going into the industry, and companies becoming successful, the government can’t stop it [the industry] from happening.”

How do you deal with stress?

“At this stage, there are things that I don’t get stressed over anymore. There will always be some pressure, some fires to put out, but it’s helps make your life more diversified.

I take a lot of energy from doing many different things. It keeps me learning and interesting. When I am here speaking with you, I am not thinking about the problems I have to solve out there.”

Despite having had a fully packed schedule, Joe was generous and made time to speak and answered everyone’s questions filled with energy, passion and authenticity!

Thank you Joe for donating your time to Time Auction Hong Kong which has raised over 181 volunteering hours to Hands On Hong Kong, Rotaract Club, Hong Kong Shark Foundation, Tsz wan Shan Family Service Centre, Feeding Hong Kong, Food Angel and more.

By Suet Yi Wong, Co-founder of Time Auction and Angela Lois, Time Auction Ambassador

For more information, visit Time Auction, a platform that connects you with inspiring mentors while encouraging volunteerism.

Let’s hear it from the volunteers…

Angela Lois, HKUST

It was such a great honor to be able to have this short yet fruitful meeting with Joe. I have always been fascinated with the consulting industries, how their fundamental idea revolves around changing (refining) the values or cultures to people as Joe said. I am sure that he has been handling a lot of different cases in this consulting industry, however when asked which case is the most challenging one, he quickly recalled that it would be the case he had to work for a family business. There were a lot of emotions involved, hence giving strategic advice was not an easy job at all. However, he also noted that the hardest one, is the one you never forgot and ultimately is the one you learnt the most. Totally agree with him! Hard work paid off.

Joe also talked about his passion in Education, Social enterprises, and Youth. He is active in each of this industry, and that makes me wonder how can a busy McKinsey managing partner have time to do all this. What a great time management, I believe. I am particularly interested about social enterprises and how it relates to the management consulting industries. I am currently running a consulting club that gives pro bono consulting services to social enterprises and NGOs, hence knowing Joe’s insights about this was inspiring to me. He seeks the value of what he is doing more than company’s name, salary, or anything else.

Joe also humbly talked about how he could not survive 14 years working at McKinsey without mentors. He had multiple mentors, both from colleagues inside the company and also some from outside. The existence of mentor and supportive environment within McKinsey makes him stay for that long. At the very end, he left us with a message of how important for youngsters to quickly find a mentor and learn from them. Also he suggests us to have a balanced work life, not to get overstressed/ over-anxious. Things go along the way, don’t ever be afraid to make mistakes. Great great meeting with Joe!

Claire Chen, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Dear Mr. Ngai,

This is Claire from Time Auction meeting. I would like to thank you first for giving us deep and diverse views on youth, education and life. I always like talking to people who have lived a little bit longer than us and seen a lot more than we have. I believe through talking and sharing, certain experiences and ideas could be pass on.

You mentioned that nowadays careers are more project and stage oriented and companies are less willing to train graduates and provide MT programs. In addition, the world has become smaller and expertise can be found around the globe. So I believe finding my place in this world is the most important and that I should appreciate the company training I might receive in the future and thank them for being willing to invest time and effort in me.

I also agree on your advice on looking for intensity from a job or a project. I am now working on the online case competition organized by BNP Paribas. It is a 20 days competition with 10 little cases and the required knowledge is what I have learned in my four years of university. Every night I meet up with my teammate and revise topics on firm value, IPO, risk, bond and more depending on the case we receive on each day. The intensity I get from joining this case competition is valuable because I get to work with people on practical simulated cases within a certain time limit. It is totally different from solving questions in an exam or in class. I recommend it to every business school student because this is the most practical experience you can get besides joining an internship.

You said the high level of consulting is inspiring and influencing people and change. Originally, I thought consulting is helping business grow and solving problems for firms. However, you have definitely opened all our eyes by explaining what consulting is with a totally different and top-down angle.

Johnny Chen, City University

To meet with Joe is ‘luxurious’ for us and you can never feel how brilliant he is until you talk with him. And I love the way he talks, which is very logical, profound and persuasive. I want to become the person like him to communicate and to influence. And this is the essence about consultation which can never be commoditised. Inspired by him, I will keep curious about the world and take all chances to communicate effectively. It was a fruitful meeting, and thank Joe for the time.

Anthony Huang, University of Hong Kong

Things that I learnt from Joe:

1.Facing disagreement — It takes an advance presentation skills and logical thought to handle disagreement from others.

2.People around you are important — People around you are very important. Some of them use up your energy but some give you positive impact. Always stay with people with positive thinking

3.Inspiring others — To be a successful consultant, need to influence people and inspire others. To increase personal experience and knowledge will lead you to a inspiring speaker.

4. Companies are the key to change to society — Tough government policy may offer subsidy and motivation on innovation and technology change, investors are the key to lead the social development.

All in all, that evening was remarkable and it was very fruitful to talk with Joe.

Man Kit Kwan, HKUST

It was a great event where I learnt a lot from Joe. He shared his career experience in the highly sought-after consulting firm and his secret of having the enthusiasm in this ever-changing and challenging industry — to stay with people who have enormous positive energy rather than spending the time with people who will suck energy from you. Besides, I want to express my gratitude towards him for bringing me the insights towards the financial industry in Hong Kong, how the top management views the generation of millennial nowadays, and the development of social enterprise.

Anant Majumdar, Hong Kong International School

Joe Ngai shared inspiring insights about how business could be combined with social ends and this meeting has reaffirmed that there is really a path out there to doing well and doing good.

Robin Fong, City University

Sincere thanks to Joe Ngai for the sharing and to time auction to provide this valuable opportunity. As Joe mentioned, consulting is to inspire and change people with future-orientated. Apparently, we got insightful advice in this sharing from Joe.

In particular, one thought did echo in my mind — “there are always something that we are hardly to change. Yet time and luck will change the situation and get it solved.” It is quite true when it comes to stress and uncertainty. Over time, solution will come It is always good to learn from other’s story. Pleased and inspired to hear Joe’s stories.