TL;DR: Twenty years ago, Hong Kong's reputation for engineering safety was built on a rigorous, British-influenced system of compliance and process. Today, that reputation is crumbling under the weight of "systemic rot"—a pattern of increasing accidents, diluted accountability, and a focus on cost over safety. This isn't just a Hong Kong story; it's a warning for every business leader. When a system allows errors to go unpunished, it doesn't just encourage more errors; it actively incubates the next catastrophe. This article explores why a culture of rigorous compliance is not "red tape," but the only ethical and strategic firewall protecting your organization from collapse.
James here, CEO of Mercury Technology Solutions.
If you had told me twenty or thirty years ago that Hong Kong would be witnessing the kind of catastrophic engineering failures we see today, I wouldn't have believed you. Even as a naturally pessimistic person, I had an unshakable faith in Hong Kong's industrial and construction standards.
In my youth, studying engineering, my teachers drilled one fact into us: Hong Kong's adherence to British engineering standards gave us a "safety coefficient" 20% higher than our neighbors. This wasn't just national pride; it was the reason our buildings withstood typhoons and fires while others crumbled. We were taught that safety was not a suggestion, but a religion. You cut your hair short in the workshop. You checked the emergency stop button before you even turned on a lathe. You never, ever skipped a step.
Back then, as Hong Kong's manufacturing base moved to mainland China, we were often told our costs were too high because of this obsession with safety and procedure. We wore that as a badge of honor. Hong Kong wasn't a "lucky land" because of feng shui; it was lucky because we paid the premium for rigor.
The Erosion of Fear: When Safety Becomes "Red Tape"
I grew up with a healthy, instilled fear of industrial accidents. I knew that a momentary lapse at a band saw meant a severed hand. I knew that a wet floor could mean a life-altering injury for a family's breadwinner, plunging an entire household into poverty for a generation.
This fear bred a culture of meticulousness. Safety wasn't a hassle; it was the firewall between life and ruin.
But somewhere in the last decade, that firewall began to crack. The lead-in-water scandal was the first tremor. But what truly terrified me wasn't the incident itself, but the systemic response: the search for a scapegoat, not a solution.
We all know the playbook. A disaster happens. A "breakpoint" is identified—a low-level contractor or a specific faulty part. The legal hammer comes down on that breakpoint, the public anger is assuaged, and the system that allowed the failure to happen remains untouched.
This is the definition of Systemic Rot.
When a university sports hall roof collapses in broad daylight—without an earthquake, without a typhoon—and the subsequent investigation concludes that no one is criminally liable, the message sent to the industry is chillingly clear: Competence is optional. Accountability is a myth.
The False Economy of "Efficiency"
In business, we often talk about "cutting red tape" to increase efficiency. But we must distinguish between bureaucratic bloat and structural safeguards.
In the engineering world, every safety inspector, every redundant check, and every refusal to use the cheapest material is a "cost." But it is a cost we pay to avoid the infinite cost of a destroyed life or a collapsed building.
When we start viewing these safeguards as inefficiencies to be optimized away, we are not innovating; we are gambling. And unlike a casino, we are gambling with other people's lives.
The rise in fatal industrial accidents in Hong Kong—the falling gates, the plummeting elevators, the crushed workers—is not a series of unfortunate, isolated events. It is a statistical trendline screaming that the system has degraded. We have allowed the "profit motive" to override the "safety motive," creating a race to the bottom where the most reckless players win the bid.
The Corruption of the Operating System
This reminds me of the corruption that plagued the Hong Kong police force in the 1960s. Back then, corruption wasn't an act of a few "bad apples"; it was the operating system of the entire force. Catching a few low-level officers did nothing because the syndicate simply sacrificed them as the cost of doing business.
It took a radical, external intervention—the creation of the ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) and the draconian "Unexplained Wealth Orders"—to break the system. They didn't just catch the criminals; they changed the rules of the game so that the old way of operating became impossible.
Today, we face a similar, albeit more subtle, corruption in the construction and engineering sectors. It's not necessarily envelopes of cash, but a corruption of standards. It's the "look the other way" culture. It's the leaking of inspection schedules. It's the endless warnings with zero enforcement action.
This is the "bureaucratic shield" that interest groups use to protect their margins at the expense of public safety.
Conclusion: Compliance is Your Only Moat
For leaders in any industry, the lesson is stark.
If you allow a culture where cutting corners is rewarded, where "getting it done" is valued over "getting it done right," you are building your own catastrophe.
The interest groups—whether they are corrupt police syndicates of the past or the profit-maximizing construction giants of today—will always try to optimize the system for their own benefit. They are like mold; they will naturally infiltrate any damp, dark corner of your organization.
Your job as a leader is to be the bleach.
You must shine a relentless light on the process. You must punish the process failure, not just the outcome failure. You must realize that your internal compliance—your rigorous adherence to your own standards—is not a burden. It is the only moat that protects your reputation, your people, and your future from the inevitable collapse that follows compromise.
The next disaster is already baked into the system. The only question is: are you doing everything in your power to engineer it out?
