When I joined the British Chamber back in 2013, I always envisioned an organisation that delivered meaningful, impactful and essential work while putting community at the heart of everything we do. So despite this extremely turbulent year, I believe exiting 2020 that is what the Chamber has become the true ‘voice of British Business in China’ and an organisation that is no longer ‘nice’ to engage with, but rather it is a ‘must’!
COVID-19 has dominated 2020 and here in China we felt the impact first, however in the face of these unique and unprecedented challenges, the British Chamber team only saw new opportunities. We pivoted our workload accordingly and continued relentlessly to support our members, bringing the British business community together and I believe connections have become stronger than ever before.
My main reflection from 2020 has been Purpose – why we do things? I believe here in the Chamber we have a deep sense of purpose and the ‘why we do things’ has always been more important than the ‘what we do’. This year the entire chamber team stepped up, it would have been so easy to cave in, give in or just follow others but we didn’t, we lead from the front and we delivered even more than ever around our vision and our three pillars:
- Advocacy
- Knowledge
- Community
Finally on why I believe purpose has been so important this year, with great sadness and deep sorrow we lost our colleague and beloved friend Joyce Chan in March. Her final words resonate on what’s really important in life ‘Be happy and always cherish and appreciate your loved ones. We always seem to forget this’. So through the devastation we all felt when we lost Joyce, we all became more resilient and stronger than ever! Amid the chaos of 2020 I was so proud of the chamber team, they all grew personally and professionally and genuinely went from strength to strength.
As we have come to the end of what has been an unbelievably challenging year, I would like to take this opportunity to thank St. John Moore our Chairman and the executive board for their support and encouragement and once again thank the Chamber team and our incredible members for everything you have done to make this a positive year!
Have a wonderful break and looking forward to seeing you in the new year!
All the best,
Steve