(Source: HKJC)
The new racing season is just a shot away and it promises to be one of the most exciting, interesting and important ten months in the history of the sport in Hong Kong- and for Hong Kong in too many ways to get into in this post.
As mentioned, the days when the HKJC needed to compete with other racing clubs are gone.
The Club is in a class of its own- in the Premier League- and could never retain this position if even handed on a silver platter to, for example, some of the leading racing administrators in Australia and elsewhere.
Why? Simple.
They are not worldly enough.
(Source: Krankys Cartoons)
Also, as has been proven time and time again, they do not have much vision, nor the wherewithal, the passion and the intellect.
Add to this, with many being so parochial-minded, they will be lost in the “new universe” and cosmopolitan Hong Kong without a strong roller deck to take them out of their head in the sand thinking.
In very simple terms, they don’t have it and so, they don’t get it.
(Source: CVM)
With co-mingling and bona fide horse racing in China around the corner, the challenge for HKJC CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges is, amongst others, ensuring that the team around him understands that many of the old ways of doing things are exactly that- old- and that god and the devil are in the details. And “EB” rises to challenges.
(Source: Susan Corso)
We noticed, for example, a competition currently running on the HKJC website where the prize is “a piece of a utility tool”. Huh?
(Source: HKJC)
Goofy stuff like this cannot sneak through the filter. In these times of social media and instant everything, consumers are looking for answers and also looking for mistakes.
This bit of silliness has already become a joke on twitter- not a great example of something going viral.
Too much of this type of lazy goofiness and it hurts the brand and all the positive changes and improvements already made and being made. And this is where there is a need for serious inward-looking and remembering The Peter Principle.
(Source: Habits Of Mind)
As in love and marriage, there is no time for carrying deadweight and unnecessary baggage.
This just slows everything down and creates a bottleneck which could clog up and block progress- something which brought about the decline of the monolithic music industry.
(Source: XDA Developers)
Being more than just another racing club and carrying the weight of its charitable contributions to Hong Kong on its shoulders, the HKJC is in an enviable position to be the only game in town.
Paradoxically, it is in an unenviable position of having to constantly deliver and “prove itself” without dropping the ball.
IIt’s a very delicate balancing act where horse racing is always the main attraction, but where “racing for charity” needs to be much more than a vague slogan.
(Source: The Exhibition God Manchester)
How to market the fact that BECAUSE of racing and the substantial taxes the government receives from the HKJC is, to us, the missing link- and the challenge to find it.
(Source: Advanced Distribution Software)
This is the bridge to somewhere and, for way too long, it has not been built. This is usually what happens when too many “experienced” people get used to old ways and refuse to see the forest for the trees.
(Source: Flickr)
Somewhere, somehow, the many contributions of the Club to Hong Kong is something that needs to be seen as more than a few ad hoc achievements to those whose worlds are cluttered with information overload.
Ad hoc makes all the good work look smaller than it really is when looking at everything from a holistic manner.
(Source: Amazonaws)
With its Happy Wednesday brand, for example, the HKJC has something that takes horse racing into that bigger arena of entertainment.
In marketing terms, it’s an “umbrella “statement” under which there can be many and varied products- venues, entertainment, racing, socializing and, of course, betting.
It’s there in place and provides a focus and no room for any off-kilter scatter-brained thinking.
(Source: Endeavor)
This “umbrella statement” is something missing- for the time being- with the HKJC Charities whereas, perhaps, that missing link might need a human touch- like a Jeremy Lin, perhaps a Beckham or some other Hong Kong sporting role models like equestrian riders Patrick Lam and Samantha Lam.
(Source: SCMP)
(Source: SCMP)
The more we watch Patrick Lam and the more we know about him and his fan base- and the future and image of equestrian sports in the world and Greater China- we feel that he can offer the HKJC brand with a great USP- as can Samantha Lam.
As for the main attraction- racing- we see new riders in action this season along with newly-licensed local trainers.
Are they the best in the world? Of course not and neither are some of the players kept on for the time being.
However, with Dougie Whyte, Zac Purton, Mosse, Prebble, Olivier Delouze, and that work-in-progress Matty Chadwick plus Tony Cruz, John Size, Dennis Yip, Johnny Size, Richard Gibson and Caspar Fownes in the Trainers ranks, Team Hong Kong is the most International in the world and which can be seen on every racing day.
(Source: Hong Kong Traveller)
In December, Hong Kong becomes the venue where The Champions Meet when International Week begins and the world racing media gathers to see the best horse racing carnival.
Perhaps, here is the best time for Hong Kong- and the world- to understand better the role of the HKJC Charities and which could take the Club into mediums other than the racing pages?
(Source: Politifake)
Meanwhile, we keep coming back to equestrian riders Patrick Lam and Samantha Lam as somehow being that missing bridge between horse racing and all the charities the HKJC supports- and everything in-between.
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