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Success ingredient e have 10,000 workers here,” says Shereen Tong, group chief financial officer at VTech, as she sweeps her hand across a bird’s eye view model of the company’s campus in Dongguan that would not be out of place in Silicon Valley. “And, here is our InnoTab,” she says, proudly pointing at the global bestselling electronic learning product for children displayed in the company’s showroom. “And this is our most popular phone,” she explains, picking up a demonstration handset from the hundreds displayed on the other side of the room. As she continues to introduce the different products that VTech specializes in, waltzing around the room with the proud 30 December 2012 “VTech is not just a manufacturing company; we also have sales offices around the world – in the U.S., Canada and Europe – and we have our own brands.” confidence of an athlete, it’s clear that this company, this showroom and this job are Tong’s passions – it’s what she knows best and where she loves to be. “VTech is not just a manufacturing company; we also have sales offices around the world – in the U.S., Canada and Europe – and we have our own brands. When I first joined, I realized VTech is an amazing company because it covers the whole supply chain starting from producing the products to selling it to the end user,” explains Tong. “It’s challenging and that’s what attracted me.” Prior to joining VTech and almost immediately after graduating from City University Hong Kong, Tong started her career in the accounts departments of Hang Seng Bank. A short while later, she switched to work with BNP, the French bank. In 1992, Tong landed a job at insurance and investment management giant Prudential, also in the accounts department where her love for the profession grew exponentially. “When I was working in the banks, I used to find accounting boring because I used to think it only involved preparing monthly reports,” she says. At Prudential, however, Tong was also preparing investment reports for each fund, which she found fascinating. At the same time, she studied part time to earn her certified public accountant qualification in 1994. That was the catalyst in her career, propelling her from accountant at Prudential to chief accountant at VTech. “It
was a really huge step up and a completely different field compared to my previous places,” Tong says. As chief accountant, her fresh perspective helped her execute an idea that revolutionized the way VTech functioned. “When I joined VTech, everything was quite manual – we didn’t even have a cash flow or financial forecasting mechanism,” Tong explains. At the time, VTech would look at historical data such as the monthly profits and losses and cash flows without producing any forwardlooking projections. Within three years Tong and her team had established a forecasting tool not just for Hong Kong but for the company’s global reach. “We also switched to using a single bank for all our overseas subsidiaries.” With these foundations in place, VTech has been able to grow aggressively. According to the firm’s 2012 annual report, profits grew by 4.2 percent year on year to US$1,784.5 million compared with US$1,334.9 million a decade earlier. Tong didn’t stop there. She continued studying part time while at VTech and earned a master of science degree in information technology from Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1999. When Tong was promoted to group CFO in 2004, she was put in charge of IT and human resources as well as the financial aspects of the company. Behind the sharp, strong façade, Tong laughs or smiles when her achievements are A PLUS played up. “A lot of people in my generation were studying part time,” she said, almost coyly. “It was very common back then.” Being better than good Today, almost three VTech products are sold every second in 90 different markets around the world. This year, the company shipped 45 million handsets and 38 million electronic learning products worldwide. It is in such a solid position, Tong says, that the strength in itself is its greatest challenge. “We are very good already,” says Tong. VTech’s InnoTab products have been featured on several top gift lists for 2012 in newspapers and websites in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia December 2012 31
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Page 3 and 4: REGULARS 01 President’s message 0
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Page 7 and 8: Talks over European Union budget en
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Page 29 and 30: 38 million The number of electronic
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Page 35 and 36: CPAs make a difference Giving back
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