Deloitte and SAP Launch Business Outlook Report to Support Hong Kong Companies to Tackle Evolving Challenges with Digital Technologies

Deloitte China and SAP Hong Kong today launched Thriving in Hong Kong, a city of resilience and opportunities, a new business outlook report developed from a series of interviews with executives at businesses and associations across different industries and sectors. 

The report examines three key aspects of Hong Kong’s prevailing business environment: 

• The macroeconomic landscape and positive prospects for Hong Kong's economy, 
• business opportunities and beneficial exogenous factors for businesses, and 
• foundations for growth that guide companies to prioritize and capitalize on related opportunities with digital technologies.

"We expect the Hong Kong economy to bounce back over the rest of 2023 as the Chinese Mainland continues to reopen, economic activity resumes, and stimulus policies add support, and there are already signs of a rebound in the private sector," says Andy Zhou, Deloitte China SAP Alliance Leader and Deloitte Consulting China Enterprise Technology & Performance Offering Portfolio Leader. "This evolving economic landscape means businesses should prioritize growth and digital transformation by riding on policy tailwinds, and at the same time invest in efficiency, sustainability, and talent development to stay ahead of the game in the post-pandemic era."

The report highlights the Hong Kong government's plans to invigorate the local business environment, including the development of emerging industries, and make Hong Kong a launchpad for companies' regional and global expansion. With government backing, the Innovation & Technology sector has been identified as a growth opportunity for businesses. The report also explores opportunities in high-end manufacturing, noting that many companies have moved production back to Hong Kong, and the digitalization of long-established businesses like traditional Chinese medicine and food production. In addition, international companies are also eying opportunities arising from Hong Kong's stock, bond, and wealth management connect schemes and the Greater Bay Area (GBA). 

These market conditions underpin the importance for businesses to adapt and capitalize on post-pandemic factors such as the resumption of activity across all sectors of Hong Kong's economy. Drawing insights from well-established companies, the report encapsulates five priorities for Hong Kong companies to build up their foundations for growth: 

Ramp up business growth post COVID - As companies across all sectors accelerate the adoption of digital technologies, they can leverage cloud-based ERP and customer experience solutions to scale and build up omnichannel engagement to better meet customers’ evolving needs. 

Tackle inflation with cost control and efficiency - Businesses can leverage supply chain and procurement management solutions to generate real-time data and embed automation to create visibility into overall spending, reduce operational costs, improve production processes, and shorten time-to-market cycles. 

Manage supply chain disruptions - As global supply chains have experienced unforeseen disruptions, companies can enhance supply chain planning and risk management capabilities with integrated business planning solutions to augment demand planning, generate visibility of disruptions, and optimize their supply response to better meet demand. 

Progress with sustainability through reduce, record, and report (the 3Rs) - To achieve sustainability goals on a large scale, businesses are increasingly aware of and transparent about the environmental footprint of their operations and value chains. Cloud-based ERP solution can support them to collect and synthesize data for analysis and combine financial reporting and ESG reporting together in one single system. 

Double down on talent investment - The labor shortage in Hong Kong is one of the most challenging conundrums for companies to build a sustainable operation. Companies are advised to take steps to increase and upskill their labor force to meet market needs and drive economic growth. Human experience management solutions can help companies optimize their human resources operations from talent recruiting, onboarding, and learning and development to reward and talent retention. 

“As Hong Kong's economic recovery gathers pace, companies in every sector are accelerating their adoption of digital technologies and eying expansion into high potential markets,” says Esmond Tong, managing director, SAP Hong Kong and Macau. “Although they might be challenged by a host of difficulties including inflation, a talent shortage, and supply chain disruptions, SAP and Deloitte are well-positioned to support them to address these difficulties with best-in-class technologies and offerings. With a sound digital foundation, companies can build a future-proof operation and stay resilient and responsive to capture market opportunities.”