平等機會委員會

搜尋

講辭

Online Training for South-South Entrepreneurship Academy 2021 2nd Cohort “Beauty in Mind and Actions for Sustainable Business”
Co-organised by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) and the Centre for Business/Social Sustainability and Innovations, School of Business, Gratia Christian College

平等機會委員會主席朱敏健先生致歡迎辭(只備英文版)

27/11/2021

Ms Wang (Xiaojun Grace WANG, UNOSSC Deputy Director),

Mr Nkala (Denis NKALA, UNOSSC Regional Coordinator and Representative for Asia and the Pacific),

Dr Yeung (Shirley YEUNG, Head, School of Business, Gratia Christian College),

Honourable guests and friends,

Good afternoon. I would like to thank the UNOSCC and Gratia Christian College for inviting me to speak today. It is always a pleasure to meet young aspiring entrepreneurs who are passionate not only about starting a business, but also making a positive impact on the world.

But innovation cannot thrive in isolation, which is why occasions like today and programmes like the South-South Entrepreneurship Academy are so valuable. They facilitate the exchange of ideas, perspectives and experiences across regions, and provide an opportunity for young people to get inspiration from business leaders and industry experts – people who are truly in the game, so to speak.

As you are aware, the training workshops today and tomorrow revolve around the theme, “Beauty in Mind and Actions for Sustainable Business”. According to statistics the organisers have kindly shared with me, the value of the global beauty industry is set to exceed 716 billion in USD by the year 2025. Notably, Asia Pacific currently accounts for more than 46% of the worldwide market. In short, business opportunities abound. Of course, COVID-19 has dealt a heavy blow to the industry, but thanks to growing trends of digitalisation like e-commerce and social media marketing, the beauty business has proved to be resilient, adaptable and strong.

Now, at first glance, the idea of beauty appears to have a remote relationship with the Equal Opportunities Commission, or EOC in short. As a statutory body in Hong Kong, we are most commonly known for our work in enforcing the city’s anti-discrimination laws, specifically handling complaints lodged under the legislation. So how exactly do beauty products fit into the picture?   

To begin with, we at the EOC believe that everyone should have an equal right to participate in all areas of life, regardless of their differences. And surely, access to beauty products and services should be part of it. The chance to look beautiful and feel empowered should not be limited to a select few.

Can people with disabilities, for example, enjoy the same variety of cosmetic products as others do? Go do some quick desktop research, and you will discover nail polish designed specifically to be used independently by people with mobility difficulty; eyeshadow palettes with distinctive scents that people with visual challenges can rely on to better identify products; as well as many other fascinating ideas that make beauty accessible and inclusive.

Beyond product design, the principle of accessibility should apply to your marketing efforts as well. As the world increasingly embraces e-commerce, online product listings have become a trusted way to generate leads. But have you thought about how blind people can get a sense of the content in your product shots, or how the deaf community can understand voiceover explanations in your product videos? Those of you who are familiar with the concept of web accessibility would know that the answers lie in providing alternative text for images and captions for videos – two examples of good and important practices to make an online business more inclusive.

Speaking of the online world, it needs no repeating that more and more beauty brands are using Instagram to sell their products, either through influencers or their own accounts. However, just two months ago, the Wall Street Journal ran a high-profile, widely-reported story, suggesting that Instagram might have a far-reaching negative impact on the mental health of its users, especially teenage girls. The logic seems simple enough. When a photo of a skinny, glamorous-looking model or friend goes viral, it puts intense pressure on those who see it and struggle to attain that exclusive, unrealistic, often artificial standard of beauty. The result is a constant cycle of envy, anxiety and depression.

To be fair, body image issues have haunted many of us for years. But because of social media algorithms and advancements in photo-editing technology, they may be getting worse. To reverse the spiral, we need more diverse representations of beauty. We need to redefine what it means. The beauty business needs to include people of different body shapes, people with disabilities, people of different ethnicities, and people with different gender identities in everything from Instagram stories to billboard ads, not as a one-off campaign or a gesture of goodwill, but with a sustained commitment to change.

To conclude, I hope that the budding entrepreneurs in the latest cohort of the Academy will be pitching ideas that contribute to the vision of inclusion I just presented to you. And I am certain that there is a lot to learn from our distinguished speakers. Once again, a big thank-you to the organisers for having me today. I wish you all an enjoyable afternoon, and every success with the competition in December. Thank you very much.

頁頂