HONG Kong Jockey Club

IT Division

Group 9:
Rahul Padia
Nimesh Gupta
A.Archana
Sanjoli Madan
Pankul Ashok
Pankaj Khemka
 Hong Kong Jockey Club
Hong Kong Jockey Club a Non Profit Organization.

The club included:

• Hong Kong Jockey Club
• Hong Kong jockey Club Charities Trust
• Jockey Club Membership Services Ltd

Held races twice a week at Happy Valley and Shatin.

Major races attracting on-site crowd of 50000-90000

Membership of the club highly desirable. It was a mark of success.

Members had special seating during races, Exclusive betting halls and various
dining and recreational facilities.
Organizational
Structure
 Social Work done by the Club
Many educational and Medical institutions carried under name of HKJC.

In 1998 more than HK$1 Billion allotted for projects in health care. Social welfare
services, training, youth services and environmental projects.

Donations to cover the construction of a Panda habitat at Ocean Park.

For many years the club was similar to working of civil services.
Had many bureaucratic policies and procedures in place.
 The IT Division
Established Sector of HKJC for many years.

Until 1977 external suppliers maintained the computer systems.

In 1978 the club decided to build an internal team to manage both

hardware and software.

There were several issues plaguing the IT department and was of major
concern to the Management.
 Issues in IT Dept.
•Whether the overseas Subsidiary be closed or not.

•Second issue was whether its functions and departments are working efficiently.

•Third major issue was whether hardware repair and maintenance functions could
continue to remain in house.

•Robert Chan the acting director worked with Sandra Stone- Manager of HR dept
to see if there was a change required and whether there was a need to reorganize.

•He identified A.T.Kearney the best firm to meet the needs of the IT division.
 Review Process.
Rich Bennett, the new director appointed in 1998.

He liked the proposal given by A.T.Kearney

A.T.kearney appointed Alex Ho to lead the team.

From 380 people, 52 were selected as representatives to the working group.

Entire working group divided into 3 sub-groups:

IT task force-8 people including Chan and mostly executives and assistant
executives.

Design team-21 members and were expected to propose a plan for change.

Feedback Team-23 people and would give feedback to task Force and design
team.
 Review Process
Was proposed in 2 phases-

Phase1:
•Examine HKJC organization chart and study each unit business function in
depth.

•It was important to learn the extent to which the users depended on IT and
identify user’s expectations.

•To assess internal and external environment and conducted a SWOT analysis on
IT division.

•Ascertain business imperatives for IT users.

Phase 2:
Designing a new structure and process to help IT better serve its customers.
 Positive aspects of Review
Process
•Identified new problems and also that they were aware of.

•T.K.Lam, Manager IT systems engineering pointed out many defects in the

system

•He pointed out that internally developed softwares were not tested to a level that
performed consistently when it went to production.

•Mass of different externally purchased software systems within the organization.

•Another problem identified was requests not handled in coordinated fashion.

 Contd…
Employees felt there was no hidden agenda and they felt free to speak out all
issues.

Could identify overlap among IT departments and understand that people didn’t
know who to approach for different topics.
 Problems Identified
1. Misalignments between user requirements and IT support

2. Ineffective utilization of resources.

3. Lack of consistent internal IT management practice.

4. Functional silo structure among 3 departments in the division.

5. Insufficient focus other than on Betting.

Everybody felt a need for
change and could
understand it was a
disaster about to happen
otherwise.
 Improvements in Review
Process
•Change management process could be improved by:

•Making more employees part of the process.

•Currently executives and assistant executives part of the process.

•Make them realize the need for change in an urgent manner rather
than Laid back attitude adopted by Robert Chan.
 IT Division Culture
•Had many bureaucratic policies and process in place.

•Due to overseas subsidiary it was becoming very difficulty to handle it

effectively and efficiently.

•Overlapping and unclear responsibilities.

•New software development was technically driven and the solutions

delivered to users without consulting them for their requirements.

•It was a mass of different externally purchased software systems

•The long Serving manager left in the mid 1990s.

 Negative aspects of the IT
Division Culture
•Unclear roles.

•Difficulty to coordinate with overseas subsidiary.

•No common Platform and different types of systems not integrated.

•Insufficient focus other than on Betting.

•People didn’t know who to approach for different services.

•Creation of small islands of power.

•Ineffective utilization of resources

 IT Division Structure
Director

Betting Systems
ITSE ITFM
redevelopment
 Improvements in IT Division
Structure
Director

Research IT
IT Facilities IT systems HKJC Club
and Management
Management Engineering System
Planning Services
 Rich Bennett And Cultural
•
Aspects
Rich Bennett had Spearheaded 4 organizational Reorganizations.

• But in Hong Kong he might face some problems:

• Business culture in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Jockey Club) leans heavily on the
Confucian concept of relationship.

• American culture (Rich Bennett) on the other hand encompasses traditions, ideals,
customs, beliefs, values, arts, folklore and innovations.

• Most of the people in the U.S. pay more attention to the process while people in Hong
Kong mostly focus only on the result of the courses.

• Rich Bennett was not only focussed towards achieving the objective/result but instead
he wanted to achieve active participation from both the IT division and the users
 Cross Cultural Problems
•Problems coordinating with Australian Teams

•American culture is inclined towards short-term orientation

•We can identify various cross cultural contrasts in the case.

•HKJC was influenced by long tradition, changed slowly, was

bureaucratic.

•During the change process, cross functional collaboration is only

possible when people understand and respect the cultural
difference that is there.
 Path Ahead for Rich
Bennett
Rich Bennett has 5 main issues impacting the IT division’s performance
and the resignation of Robert Chan to deal with.

•First, the IT support system needs to be developed on the basis on the

user requirement.

•That is all the relevant requirements of the club and its employees must
be identified and then the support system built accordingly.
•
•Also the It support needed to be extended to other departments as well.
 Path Ahead
•A proper organizational structure needs to be developed keeping the
interest of the company and the clients in mind. The employees must
know their exact role.

•Also the user requests must be handled in a proper way – FIFO (First
In, First Out) manner.

•Lastly there must be proper integration and communication system in

place between all the three departments in the division.

•This can only be achieved if it is aligned with the company culture, its
mission and vision.