SECTION B - VISION FOR THE FUTURE
After careful deliberation and consultation with the membership, the strategy committee arrived at the following statement to describe what The British Chamber should seek to be.
"The British Chamber should:
(a)
(b)
be an effective and authoritative representative of British business in Hong Kong to ensure that the momentum of 150 years of British presence is maintained past 1997 into the twenty first century; and
promote the development of British business interests in China.”
SECTION C - MEMBERSHIP SURVEY
A distillation of the Membership Survey carried out by Survey Research Hong Kong Ltd in April 1992 points to a number of key findings of value to the formulation of the Strategic Plan. Of particular note is the importance members attach to the Chamber improving its services in the following fields:
facilitating business networking opportunities
providing a representative voice that will be heard and acted upon by authorities
making available market intelligence based on in-depth research
assisting in the promotion of members' interest in the China market
The authenticity of the findings was endorsed by the response rate from member companies which was exceptionally high for surveys of this nature - 48% (154/320); fourteen non-member questionnaires were also received.
1. Respondent Profile
41% represent companies with over 100 employees pointing to a fairly even spread of the big and small within the membership. 39% of members also belong to the General Chamber and 34% to the American Chamber. Respondents are primarily interested in selling into Hong Kong and China; exporters appear to be under-represented.
2.
Reasons for Joining
75% of the members joined the Chamber for business networking opportunities. A further major reason was to support the British business community. In addition, a significant number specifically indicated they joined to be part of an effective lobby group which had access to high officials.
3.
Current Performance
The overall current performance of the Chamber was rated at 4.0, out of a possible 7.0, above average, but clearly still room for improvement to achieve greater customer satisfaction. The Chamber Magazine received the highest rating at 5.0, but significantly the Chamber's effectiveness as a lobby or pressure group scored the lowest rating at 3.7. This is possibly because the Chamber has not, so far, behaved specifically as a pressure group. Later in the survey respondents indicated an expectation that the Chamber should play more of such a role in future.
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