CBI 25th Anniversary Booklet

Prelude BALANCE VIDEO

Preface ANNIVERSARY THEME ORIGIN

It’s the spirit that defines CBI. Since day one, and after more than 25 years, we are still searching for trusted information with countless attempts and efforts.

The art of Stone Balancing has never been known to me until a year ago. When I saw a balanced stone sculpture for the first time, I was in awe and exclaimed “Wow! It’s such a spectacular piece of art!” thinking it was an art piece made with stones of different shapes and sizes glued together. Little did I know then that it was a recreation of stones balanced on top of one another without any adhesives. With such realization, I was drawn deeper into the beauty of the seemingly straightforward yet profoundly intricate art form.

Stone balancing requires creativity, vision, coordination, and most importantly, perseverance in order to build an extraordinary art piece.

Who would’ve thought a pandemic could fundamentally change the way we live and work? Who would’ve imagined that years of hard work and exploration could lead us to where we are today? Reaching to the 25th year of its operation, CBI has been living the spirit shared with Stone Balancing. It all comes down to us, all together, with our unceasing passion in the pursuit of truth.

With truth, there is trust; with solid foundation, there is infinite potential.

Ray Chan Founder & President

In this anniversary celebration, we have our own team members, those who worked with you side-by-side to take part in Stone Balancing, in our offices and in the nature across different countries. We would like to share our firsthand experience from the challenging and fun undertaking.

25th Anniversary STONE BALANCING

PROLOGUE

Twenty-five years at CBI have gone by in a flash; it’s hard to notice how much time has gone by with myself being here every day. During these 25 years, CBI has grown from a team of two to a team of over 300 professionals, with six established offices and presence in 13 cities, operating 24 hours a day across the globe. All these were unimaginable to me, but yet, here we are.

Just as I was surprised when I first saw the image of stone balancing artists’ work, I thought, “Is that even possible?” It turns out that such spectacular art piece is created with bare hands and nothing else. There are things that may seem inconceivable, but there they are before your eyes! It is often said that you can go as far as your imagination takes you. We have come a long way along this incredible path, and we are now on a new journey from China, Hong Kong, and Asia to the world; there is no limit to the future of CBI as long as we keep our imagination alive.

RAY CHAN

Founder & President CBI GROUP

I remember a comment I made to the team when CBI was still in its early days. I said, It’s hard to start a business because you need passion to sustain it. But what is passion? Like climbing Mount Tai, we are all excited and enthusiastic at the beginning of the climb. When we reach midway and lose our interest in the scenery and chit-chatting with our teammates, how then are we able to reach the summit? Passion means perseverance from the start to the middle of the climb, and all the way to finally seeing the sunrise at the peak with unwavering belief and determination. That is how CBI has walked through 25 years of development, arriving to where we are today.

What we need to do from now on is to adjust our mentality. When CBI was still a startup, we were very aggressive and believed we could achieve many things overnight. As time passed with our experience accumulated, we realized that certain plans and goals, such as developing products and nurturing talents, require time in order for us to build a strong business. Only in this way can the company grow steadily. Whilst working at CBI, the happiest thing to me was witnessing the growth and emergence of new talent. Without these talents, there would not be the present and future CBI.

JERRY LIU

Founder & Chairman CBI (CHINA)

Prologue

TABLE OF CONTENTS

25th Anniversary – Stone Balancing Anniversary Calendar Window Sticker We Poster Your Caring Partner Mask Anniversary T-shirt “Draw a Balance” Stone Stacking Contest CBI Development – The Past 25 Our Business Our People Our Passion Our Recognition Our Future The Next 25 – What’s Next?

Anniversary Events JOURNEY OF BALANCING

ANNIVERSARY CALENDAR

2021 Summer14 team members have gone into the wildstacking beautiful stone cairns

WINDOW STICKER

We bring balance into our workplace, visualizing our team spirit in our daily operations and making the year of our 25th Anniversary.

WE POSTER

In the fusion of corporate environment and artistic build-in, our We Poster brings our work attitude to life – we learn from failure, we build trust; we attain balance, we thrive for succeess.

YOUR CARING PARTNER MASK

CBI

X

Raze - We care about your wellbeing as much as achieving our mutual success, the Caring Partner Mask by CBI X Raze is one of the ways we show our solicitude for our esteemed clients and our cherished staffs around the world, blessing you with good health and a prosperous future.

ANNIVERSARY T-SHIRT

Power of One is the core of building CBI, every colleague, no matter where we are, has a unique place in the contribution to our success. The Anniversary T-Shirt serves more than a highlight of the celebration, but a symbol of unity and shared wisdom in our spirit of balance.

CBI DEVELOPMENT

OUR BUSINESS OUR PEOPLE OUR PASSION OUR RECOGNITION OUR FUTURE

CBI Development THE PAST 25 25

Pursuing Truth Building Trust

Building CBI from the ground up for 25 years, there were failures and there were challenges, but none of them were neglectable in building what we have here and now. In the spirit of “Pursuing Truth, Building Trust”, we strive for improvements, pushing our limits, giving our clients a peace of mind and giving back to the society. Here is the development of our Past 25.

PREFACE

A Leap of Faith

The development of a company is closely related to the prospects of the industry and the market. CBI has grown over the years and is no longer confined to one place or one industry but has room to grow all over the world. I always keep an eye on market news, even on the status of our competitors, to gain insight of what we are doing well and what we are not, in order to become better. Enduring the financial tsunami, the dot-com crash and many other economic turmoils, and now the COVID-19 pandemic, CBI has not only survived but thrived in the market, which proves that the future of CBI is full of potential and merits more investments for the future.

A better future requires the use of advancing technologies and the continuous improvement of the professionalism and service standards of our colleagues. When we are well equipped for growth, we can aspire to achieve better and higher goals. I have always held the belief that with aspirations and good work, comes prosperity.

Ray Chan Founder & President

Survive in an

Competitive Market Ever-changing and

It has been 25 years since CBI was founded. I am fortunate to have joined the company soon after the establishment of CBI Beijing, and it has been nearly 14 years since then. I have witnessed the development of the company from the beginning, in particular the expansion of the company from one area in Beijing to four cities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xi’an. CBI has been able to thrive in various environments, even during the most challenging times of the pandemic in the past three years.

The advent of the information age and the volatility of the post-epidemic era have left many companies in a stalemate with uncertainty of growth. Besides the necessary trade-offs, a company’s survival in such a difficult time depends on its ability to reflect on changes. If we want to adapt to the changing environment, then we must make changes to everything we are used to, including those which we once thought was brilliant.

Under the development of the megatrend, our clients have also fallen into the quandary of vigorous cost saving due to various restrictions. Does having severe budget constraints mean clients will neglect the importance of compliance and due diligence and background investigations? The answer is clearly no. Clients cannot sacrifice risk mitigation merely due to the lack of budget, so what can we do for our clients? With that question in mind, it has become our keen focus to bring low-cost but high-value services to our clients.

Changing our product framework and our service model is the only way to reflect our value in a changing and competitive market. The greatest benefit of customization is that it allows clients to choose the modules they need according to their own priorities, highlighting the relevant content and eliminating the irrelevant ones. This way our clients can maximize their benefits, and in turn gives us a stronger position in the market. In the employee risk control area, we officially launched “Sky Screener” last year which takes into account the time sensitivity of background search by giving access to our clients to view the order progress at anytime and anywhere, and simultaneously receiving search results as our research consultants do. With this new feature, our clients are able to provide timely feedback and gain more control over the entire process. By incorporating more flexibility into our products and services, we have drawn closer to our clients than ever.

As we move forward into the future, we will continue to tread on the path of reflection with respect to changes.

Nikki Yi Vice President CBI (Beijing) Business Information Limited | Beijing

Customers, Teams, and Companies Balancing Each Other

Clients, the team, and the company are part of the socio-economic relationship. Clients need the company to help them mitigate risks and tackle problems, the company needs the team to complete the work and build up wealth, and the team needs the company’s support to achieve their own growth and development. While all three parties have their own needs and want to benefit from the other parties, whose benefit is more important and how can balance be achieved?

Let’s reason it out:

• Team satisfaction can generate more returns for the company, which in turn will lead to higher client satisfaction.

• Client satisfaction can bring more orders to the company, which in turn will reflect higher employee achievement.

• A satisfied company can give better benefits to employees, and a satisfied company can also bring more value to clients.

• Reciprocal causation is evident amongst the three roles of client, the team and the company.

• Which role do we set as the starting point then? We have chosen the team.

The team is at the core of the company’s ability to generate wealth. When client needs are translated into employees’ goals, management personnel need to exercise good faith and fully recognize the importance of employees’ work. Employees are the first “clients” of the company, and as active members of the company, they need to be managed and this requires tremendous effort. The most important task of managers is to manage these employees well by putting themselves in the shoes of employees, paying attention to the physical and mental health of colleagues, affirming their work achievements, creating a good working environment for them, respecting their personal differences, and providing good service to employees. When employees are treated well, they can serve customers at their optimal state, and thereby bringing in more business from satisfied clients.

We see the relationship between CBI and our clients as friends with mutual benefits; CBI provides excellent services and clients pay the corresponding fees with trust being built in the process. When clients require assistance, CBI will come first to their minds, and this relationship will continue to grow and strengthen.

Sarah Zhang General Manager Employment Risk Management | Shanghai

OUR BUSINESS

OUR PRODUCTS

From Simple Search To Forensic Due Diligence

Since CBI’s establishment, our product suite has continued to evolve and expand, from selling simple searches as its sole service, to offering additional value-added services including integrated investigation with insights. We strive to provide you with the answers you need to manage your regulatory, business, and reputational risks.

When others are giving you raw data without business context, we offer a holistic approach to background search with carefully designed scopes which are tailored to your needs and objectives. By partnering with us, you will have the control and flexibility in dictating the breadth and depth of background search and investigation suitable for your targets. Additionally, we advise on potential red flags with a risk-based approach along with industry and country insights to help you make better decisions.

While the pandemic poses unprecedented challenges to the economy, we understand that business must go on and that our clients count on us for their business continuity. In response to the significant impact of travel restrictions on businesses, we have developed Remote Due Diligence, a pioneer Site Visit enhancement service. This service allows our clients to virtually visit any place around the globe with ease, while letting us handle the logistics and administrative burdens. With our extensive network of professional partners, we are able to mobilize a team of experts within a short turnaround time to provide on-the-ground support to professional services from compliance interview to audit work with real time monitoring by our clients to ensure smooth execution.

We aim to be responsive to clients’ needs and be adaptive to the dynamic economic and regulatory landscape. CBI’s success in sustaining its growth throughout the years is attributed to it being an agile and client-focused organization.

Pauline Leung Associate Director Product Development Division | Hong Kong

OUR PRODUCTS

A Team Effort

I was privileged to join CBI as a fresh graduate back in 2013 and participated in the development of our Site Investigation Department from the ground up.

I can still remember back in the days, there were only three site investigators stationed in our Guangzhou branch, myself included. Our professionalism is the result of on-the-job training and countless daily trials.

In 2016, CBI developed a new product line to address compliance needs. Even though we had no prior experience in compliance check, we relied on our accumulated site investigation experiences through the years, as well as our adaptability, and were able to rapidly complete our tasks.

Our product developments did not stop there. We introduced an in-depth Factory Inspection Service in 2017, previously performed only by world renowned certification bodies. To ensure good project execution, we gathered the latest information and status of the corresponding industry from the Internet, trade journals, historic project items etc., and ran simulations before executions.

Our site investigation service coverage grew to covering the entire China by early 2019, whereby over 70% of the cities are stationed with our own representatives. To advance our response rate, we have built a strong network of long-term strategic partners, continuously refining our workflow and operation structure.

Under the pandemic in 2020, we persisted in the Site Investigation development, added customized reports, standard operating procedures, and virtual operations, further improving user experience.

At present, the Site Investigation Department offers the following products: business status verification, remote due diligence investigation, in-depth factory inspection, inventory check, business certificate verification, compliance due diligence, meeting inspection, consumer surveys, etc. I believe under the joint effort of all CBI staff, we will be able to develop more products with higher market value to help our clients prevent risks.

Wu Manager

Tom

South China Field Certification Division | Guangzhou

Comply in Risk Prevention

In the past, credit report was our major service offering for business background investigations. However, with the increased regulations around compliance and governance introduced by national governing authorities, the company’s credit report alone can no longer fulfil the needs of our clients. In recent years, the objectives of business background investigations have shifted towards compliance and risk management, and we have developed various integrated products to accommodate the emerging trends.

Business Due Diligence: Through comprehensive research and data analysis, on-site investigations, existence and operations verification, we help clients to identify risks and ensure the safety of transactions. To date, we are able to offer various objective-driven Due Diligence products, including M&A Due Diligence, Pre-IPO Due Diligence, Customer Due Diligence, and Supplier and Distributor Due Diligence.

Other than Business Due Diligence, we are also aware of the increasing needs for customized on-site investigations to address the needs of different industries, types of business outlets and models. In order to comply with the compliance regulatory requirements for academic conferences of pharmaceutical companies and corporate employee behaviors in general, we have developed new methodologies such as on-site meetings and suspicious restaurants investigations in order to assist our clients in multidimensional risk management.

Over the 25 years of development, CBI has been serving businesses in Mainland China, Hong Kong China, and more than 200 countries around the globe. Our mission was, is, and will continue to be Pursuing Truth, Building Trust; we are committed to helping our clients make well-informed decisions and prevent potential transaction risks by providing them with the latest, accurate and most comprehensive information.

Miao Assistant Manager

Catharine

of East China Business Hub | Shanghai

OUR GROWTH Expansion in Width And Depth

Incorporated in 1996, CBI is now celebrating its silver jubilee. In this informative generation with big data, our business has expanded from Hong Kong to Mainland China, with our Shanghai Branch and Beijing Branch established in 2009, Guangzhou Branch in 2013, and our Xi’an Branch in 2015. We have now expanded to the overseas market, having our own representatives in the Philippines, Malaysia, United Kingdom, etc., as well as a global service coverage of over 200 countries and regions, encouraging cultural diversity, putting our mission of “Value Creation, Problem Solving, and Risks Prevention for our Clients” into motion.

In my six years of experience in CBI, I have seen infinite potential in the industry of business information and background investigation. Here, we have all the support for our improvements and promotion, from being an awardee of Best New Joiner, to Team Leader, and as a Division Head now, there is one fact stands out for me – the more our business grows, the more space and support our company can offer for our own explorations.

We are reaching more clients as well. Whether it be the luxury goods industry, pharmaceutical or the telecommunication industry, the size and scale of our clients today is incomparable to the time when I first joined CBI. We are now partnering with leading corporations in various industries to support their due diligence work as we continue to expand our client base and diversify cooperation with clients.

Lucy Yang Manager

Background Screening Division (East China) | Shanghai

INFO

SERVICES & CLIENTS

From Local Services To Global Coverage

INTEGRITY

We build and maintain rapport with honesty and loyalty.

INDEPENDENCE

We stand for independence from interference.

COMMITMENT

We are dedicated to preventing risks and building trust for clients.

INNOVATION

We deliver strategic insights with innovative approaches and practical solutions.

INSIGHT

We listen to understand and resolve with creative solutions.

PASSION

We strive for excellence in all we do.

OUR DEDICATION

Business Hub Bridging Communication

I was transferred from the Background Check team to Business Hub upon its establishment in 2018. I had to start from scratch as I took on this new role. When Business Hub started back then, as there was not much problem-solving experience accumulated from previous cases, we had to spend hours until late night tackling one single issue with clients. This happened on a daily basis. Under such circumstances, we had to work together and share our encountered problems and problem-solving experiences, and only then Business Hub was able to gradually grow and progress.

2019 was a remarkable year of growth. After liaising with a leading telecommunication corporation in China, I have come to realize the rigorousness and importance of Employment Screening. After familiarizing myself with the client’s needs and having multiple meetings with the their team, we were able to assist the client with a higher autonomous background checking rate and shorter report delivery timeframe to allow buffer in our client’s timeline, which were in accordance with our client’s needs. When clients have particular requests or questions, I would communicate with the investigator personally to find solutions in ensuring a promising execution plan. I would also collaborate with our investigation team and conduct big data analysis to fulfil the high number of data retrieval requests by clients. Throughout the process, I noticed our clients had fewer questions and the cooperation became more tacit. Clients had begun to trust us and praised us for our professionalism, and it was very rewarding to receive such recognition from clients.

In the three years since 2020, CBI has been rapidly growing with clients spreading across various regions and client industry coverage expanding. As the bridge between our clients and the investigation team, Business Hub will continue to pursue its mission and support CBI’s development.

Roy Xu Northern District Assistant Manager Business Hub | Beijing

Professionally Yours

I joined CBI in 2014, focusing on the sales of our Employment Screening product. I was deeply impressed by Ray’s professional charisma during my interview and could vividly experience CBI’s stability, professionalism, and trustworthiness.

I signed on my first client not long after my orientation, and it was precisely due to the professionalism, stability and reliability that I showed throughout the process. With the rapid growth of CBI in China, I have grown from being a sales “rookie” to becoming an independent person-in-charge. All clients that I signed on are still our current business partners, and the longest collaboration time to date is eight years.

CBI’s brand image has been deeply rooted in the minds of our clients throughout the years. One client once commented “you (CBI) are a downto-earth, stable, and professional service provider, but I feel that you are very mysterious and are not good with promoting yourself. I look forward to seeing the day when CBI would be an influential company in this industry.” There was affirmation in our service quality in the client’s evaluation, but there was also a tone of surprise that such excellent services were unknown within the industry.

In 2019, we established a Marketing Operation Center to promote and publicize our brand, products, and services, and I was fortunate to be part of the team. The Marketing Department increased our frequency of market exposure; through online media and offline activities, we widened the publicity window of CBI to the outside world and produced richer promotional materials. At the same time, we continue to innovate and keep up with market trends in accordance with the rapid economic development in China and the ever-changing personalized needs of clients.

CBI has now established a unique and reliable image in the Mainland market by upholding professionalism. At the same time, we have demonstrated to clients that we are an up-to-date and vibrant brand.

Martin Ma Director Business Development Division | Beijing INFO

OUR PEOPLE

Our People TEAM MEMBERS

One thing I always tried to do before the pandemic was to memorize the names of every colleague so that I could address them by name when I saw them. I would also review the resumes of new colleagues, so that I could become familiar with their background before their first day at the company. I try my very best to get to know everyone at CBI and create an ideal platform for all my colleagues to shine.

Tight-knit relationships are evident amongst CBI’s employees. I, for example, maintain regular communications with members of the management team, engaging in conversation topics relating to work as well as their life outside of work. When it comes to the relationship amongst colleagues at CBI, I wouldn’t describe it as likened a “professional sports team” or “big family” relationship, but rather a state of balance; balance amongst colleagues, balance between us and our business partners or even our competitors in the market. In order to grow as a business, we need to pass on our talents. Therefore, in recent years, I have also explored different approaches to management and delegated more authority to my subordinates in order to create more development opportunities for our younger members, so as to nurture a new generation of successors for the sustainable development of CBI.

Ray Chan Founder & President

CANADA

Our People PERSISTENCY & LOYALTY

Devotion at your service

One principle we have been upholding when serving our clients is our enthusiasm in fulfilling clients’ requirements. In the past, the demand was only providing facts in a timely and accurate manner, with less judgements and comments; gradually, clients wanted insights and advice, to pinpoint the value that matters and what is a red flag.

This requires experience and familiarity. With the years of collaboration in fighting frauds together, we know what the ultimate goal and objectives that our clients want to achieve are. We can customize our search, reports, even work out a brand new way to verify a piece of information from different perspectives, just to get a little bit closer to the truth and building trust. No matter how seemingly impossible the requirements are, we can work around those.

To take a step further for our clients, we introduced the Executive Summary and “Summary of Findings” section in our reports to provide alerts and recommendations to our clients. To enhance our “research procedures”, we save routine search time through the application of technologies, allowing our researchers to pursue deeper with the “3Cs”:

* Conducting follow-up searches feasible to further confirm the relevance;

* Cross-checking with other official sources available for additional highlights; and

* Chasing after any developments / results for a particular event.

It is important that you’re working with people sharing the same mentality and persistency, doing whatever it takes to make your life easier.

Jensen Chan General Manager

Central Business Information Limited | Hong Kong

Our

CALL FOR ADVANCEMENT

Balance in Talents

Human resource management has been one of our major challenges since 2021. It is very difficult to maintain absolute balance with the impact on business performance resulting from the pandemic, especially from a hierarchical structure perspective. A company cannot achieve its potential with an imbalanced structure, such as the overstaffing in some divisions and understaffing in others.

Under such circumstances, we have been attempting to strike a balance between the supply and demand of human resources by conducting a comprehensive assessment in each division of all branches since last year. Through recruitment, control of staffing and internal repositioning, we were able to retain elites with less operational costs while maintaining our service quality. With our intentional and targeted efforts during this challenging time, we were able to resolve the issue of resource imbalance.

A famous artist Michael Grab once said, “You’ll be able to stack stones of different shapes and sizes together just by relying on gravity and making minor adjustments.” We can never imagine the overall impact of the position and power each stone has, and the same is true in finding the balance in the management of human resource. Our ultimate goal is to find the most suited position for every colleague to fully maximize their potential; this is also the vision and mission of CBI for all colleagues.

Joanna Wang Manager Personnel Administration Division | Xi’an

Embrace Changes for Improvements

Our Xi’an Branch is undergoing an “all round” job rotation, with switches between business operation professionals and human resources personnel, and the business permuting to research and development, sales and other roles. The job rotation system has been a means to cultivate comprehensive talents, and many top tier corporations in China such as Alibaba and Huawei have adopted such systems as well.

Whilst staying long in a role allows for the building of one’s professionalism, boredom and mundaneness remain a risk in such situations. We need challenges and excitements at work, which is exactly what job rotation can offer.

In the process of gaining new knowledge, not only do we carry out our work with a comprehensive outlook, we also apply new perspectives and logic to analyze a new field of work, and thereby generating creativity. It can broaden our business knowledge and promote the mastery of competencies in various departments and encourage the acquisition of additional skills.

There are different perspectives in viewpoints, especially from a product development point-of-view and a business point-of-view due to each respective differing experiences; therefore conflicts are inevitable. In fact, individuals often face difficulties in knowing exactly what they want (from a system), which means there will be times when their wants are not satisfied accordingly. That is why the integration of business and technologies is important, improving productivity and efficiency with fewer communication barriers, bringing us closer to what is needed.

Change is hard, and status quo always build a comfort zone; whilst job rotation is a modern and forward-looking management system, it may generate not few problems in the process and work efficiency may be reduced in the short term. Everyone wishes to laze about and not be controlled by others, but we must ask ourselves: are we willing to be eliminated by others? NO! Since it is a ‘no’, we would need to accept change for it is change that would ensure survival.

Nick Hao Director Product, Data & Operation | Xi’an

OUR PASSION

Our Passion CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

At our annual dinner four years ago, I deliberately refrained from speaking about the company’s business development as I have done in previous years. Instead, I gave a speech on CSR, focusing on the number of CSR activities we participated in during the past year and introduced several CSR activities organized by the company. Other than generating profits, what is the value of the existence of a business? It is about using its influence to motivate more people to engage in activities that contribute to the good of society, such as helping the underprivileged or the needy, so as to harness the power of each and every one of our colleagues.

I recall that when we first initiated the promotion of CSR activities seven or eight years ago, many of our colleagues were resistant to the idea. Gradually they began to embrace it, and today they have become more and more proactive to the point of participating in self-initiated volunteer work. This sense of commitment and enthusiasm to CSR has created a synergy that has brought changes to our colleagues and a bond within the team, ultimately allowing CBI to find its true value in the commercial market, leading the way to its future.

Ray Chan Founder & President

Partnering with the Community

OUR RECOGNITION

Our Recognition BUSINESS & PRODUCT

ISO9001:2015 CertificationQuality Management Systems Standard

Certified by International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

ISO/IEC 27001:2013 Certification - Information technology Standard

Certified by International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

2018 HKMA Quality Award –Special Award for Established and Medium Enterprises

Awarded by Hong Kong Management Association

DHL/SCMP Hong Kong Business Awards 2017 – SME Award

Awarded by Hong Kong Business Awards

Caring Company 2016-2022

Awarded by The Hong Kong Council of Social Service

Equal Opportunity Employer Recognition Scheme 2021

Awarded by Equal Opportunities Commission

Good MPF Employer 2014 - 2022

Awarded by Mandatory Provident Fund Scheme

Family-friendly Employers 2017-2018

Awarded by Family Council

Family-friendly Employers 2015-2016

Awarded by Family Council

ERB Manpower Developer Award Scheme 2019 - 2020

Awarded by The Employees Retraining Board (ERB)

Hong Kong Volunteer Award 2022 – Outstanding Corporation Awarded by Agency for Volunteer Service

Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Award (APEA) 2017 Awarded by Enterprise Asia

Best HR Service Providers in Greater China 2018-2019 Awarded by HRoot Inc.

China BOLE Outstanding Human Resources Award 2019 Awarded by Enfovia

China HR Pioneer Awards 2019 Awarded by TopHR Media

2022 China Recruiting and Staffing Solution Provider Value Awards

Awarded by Human Resource Excellence Center (HREC)

Best Collaboration Award Awarded by HR Kuaishou

INNOVATION

Continuous Evolvement Precision and Convenience

Technology is undoubtedly the trend in the world, and we can go far beyond with our imagination and innovation. We position ourselves as pioneers in CBI to change the ways of working through technology.

From system development, with various technology, we are now constructing a centralized platform to streamline our internal process and an internal database to provide further insights and analysis to our research. With all these fundamental enhancements, an online client portal is going to be launched which offers a brand new experience to our valuable clients.

Apart from system development, we keep a close eye on the latest technology and existing tools available on the market. By applying these to our existing operations, we aim to reduce redundant efforts and release more resources for value-added services. These quick wins have quick returns and allowing for higher efficiency and productivity, which in turn generate more business opportunities.

Let’s look forward to the evolvement of CBI.

Brandon Chan Manager Innovation Division | Hong Kong INFO

Our Future TECHNOLOGY Enhancement with Precision

Technology leads into improvement. This is the statement we always study for every project. To clients who receive our reports, TDD strives to support CBI in achieving faster delivery, higher accuracy, and deeper record-tracking visibility. To internal management and operational members who are users of our applications, TDD delivers quick, case dependent and reliable services to boast up specified operations.

TDD values data-based management and collaboration with different Divisions. We provide services to strengthen data visualization, aggerate data to display the healthiness of different components, and conduct regular reviews based on processed data. With the insights from analyzed data generated from our services, opportunities are created for Divisions to identify areas of continuous improvements for their operations and processes.

Robotic Process Automation, Business Process Re-engineering and AI applications are common topics we adopted to strengthen our services. With the rapid growth of these advanced technologies, we are confident in the potential of bigger and greater improvements. Within these two and a half years, TDD had accomplished the saving of roughly 18,000 man-hours in total across various Divisions, thus, enhancing CBI’s competitive advantages.

Leo Ngan Senior IT Manager Technology Development Division | Hong Kong INFO

24/7 OPERATION

Your Constant And Instant Support

When some HK companies are worrying about the shortage of talent due to the recent emigration wave, CBI finds the employees stationed abroad could benefit its business operation.

Setting up a client servicing team across HK and the UK is an effective way to level up our reliable services. As we all know, there are multiple steps in an IPO life cycle and the right timing is always critical e.g. specific time period required on the financial statements for an IPO filing, deadline to reply regulators’ queries, right moment to begin trading in the market, etc. Now our clients can contact us at their convenient time whenever issues emerge, even if it happens outside of usual business hours. Our UK team can provide consultation services to the clients and prepare for urgent services requested. This definitely helps shorten our response time and the time required to resolve their issues.

In this way, skilled migrant staff can be retained (everyone knows the loss of experienced staff takes years to replenish) and they can continue to provide excellent services to our client while they work remotely. Besides that the employee’s well-being can also be improved due to the reduction of overtime working. Our HK team would hand off work at the end of their workday to our UK team, who are only starting their workday at the other side of the world.

Joan Ngai Project Coordination Manager Business Development Division | United Kingdom

Our Future GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE

In today’s world where information is abundant and sometimes overbearing, it would be tempting to assume that investigations done by anyone, or any firm, is more or less similar. The truth, however, is often more complex than that.

Oftentimes, many would tout having a global reach and local subject matter expertise but at CBI we are proud to be the trusted partner of industry leaders who use our services and have commended us repeatedly on our on-the-ground capabilities and agility. For us, there is no greater compliment than the returning orders from our valued clients, most of which have been with us for years.

CBI also understands that what is good can be greater and this spirit drives us to further expand on our global reach including expanding our operations to Malaysia and the United Kingdom to secure more local experts.

CBI believes in aiming global but focusing on local, as the quality of any investigations often lies with how much local knowledge, customs, and nuances one is aware of. For example, we once came across a Malaysian LinkedIn profile where the individual’s position was listed as “PSPH”. If one does not have local insights, this would be presented as it is (which does not provide much meaning to the client) but because we do have local insights, as we have Malaysian team members, we know that PSPH is highly likely an acronym for “Pau Sua Pau Hai”, which literally translates to “Cover Mountain Cover Sea” in Hokkien, one of the dialects in Malaysia normally spoken in the state of Penang. From this, we can guess that the individual should have some links to the state of Penang and likely is a senior person in a small to medium size firm. We also can hazard a guess that the person has a good sense of humor too! Clearly, these insights are preferred over a four-letter PSPH presented into the report, which is why real local subject matter expertise matters.

Jeffrey Choong Head of Enhanced Due Diligence Enhanced Due Diligence Division | Penang

SYSTEMS Set Base For Enhancement

There’s a saying in Chinese, “stacking stones as mountains”, which, in ancient military context, is referred to using stacked up stones to lay out the mountain topography in order to make war plans.

In present day China where we are marching through the deep ravines and high valleys of the post-pandemic economic “frozen age”, we continue to invest in technology and research as before, demonstrating the company’s determination to utilize technology as our weapon.

Looking back, the company’s investment has somewhat paid off.

Around two years ago, our internal data management system was broken. Even after the application of hundreds or thousands of debugs, it seemed impossible to achieve the results we wanted. Users were starting to lose confidence with the development team. At the time, each of our colleagues were like a printer, constantly printing never-ending complaints. In such a chaotic work environment, the development team was continuously feeling overwhelmed with the piled-up jobs, as well as experiencing physical and mental exhaustion.

As we entered 2021, there was a breakthrough and our development team managed to change the way we carry out our daily work. A brand new BR system was launched, demonstrating excellent performance with consistency. There were fewer complaints and a lot more praises from the users.

In mid-late 2021, the big data team was established. With the framework for Data Platform and CBI STOCK set up, a network amongst all systems and databases was built, laying down the foundation for future possibilities.

The year 2022 marked the establishment of CMT and Workflow platforms, which aimed to build a powerful online production system for Hong Kong and overseas users. Employees, translators and on-site systems have also steadily progressed in these two years, enjoying the technical benefits brought by the new systems.

In the past two years, the R&D team of CBI is likened to mighty heroes, expanding their territories in different fields. We understand that powerful technology is the foundation for CBI’s future development. As the Chinese saying goes, “ it takes a good blacksmith to make good steel, a fine horse can dash without the need of a horsewhip “. With technology as our weapon, only then can we be invincible.

Paul Wu Associate Director Research & Development Center | Xi’an

Our Future TECHNOLOGY

True International Support

Forming an international IT support network connecting Hong Kong to Asia, and to the globe around the clock could put the 24/7 service into practice. Our overseas IT colleague can support staffs in different time zones, provide flexible service hours for all staff around the world.

Ever since the pandemic, tools are implemented to break physical limitations and we have been able to live in a new “online norm”. Our IT systems have been virtualized to maximize the capacity and minimize the need for physical maintenance. The additional use of Cloud services brought about convenience and allowed internal and external support anytime anywhere.

As our overseas IT colleague works during off-Asian office hours, most of the system maintenance tasks can be performed then, which helps to minimize the risk of impacting normal business hours in Asia. The international IT support network can also ensure timely efficiency, as tasks can be passed on between the internal and external support teams.

Peter Lam IT Officer Technology Development Division | United Kingdom INFO

WHAT’S NEXT? WITHOUT BOUNDARIES

Without Boundaries

24 hours make a day. 12 months make a calendar year. And CBI goes beyond.

CBI’s team from 13 locations of operations goes beyond boundaries and brings you through an exciting 13-month calendar journey.

Setting off from a Hong Kong-based solid 25-year foundation, CBI exceeds boundaries and excels in service, leaving footprints in 214 countries across the globe, embracing different cultures, offering integrated 360-degree professional due diligence service to multinational and multicultural clients.

Our established local teams are equipped with experienced multilingual staff, our global mindset and local insights empower us to overcome obstacles and complete every truth-seeking journey. In the world of CBI, there is no boundaries to pursue truth and trust.

CBI goes beyond limit. CBI goes beyond boundaries. In our next milestone, join hands with CBI to explore a world full of possibilities and WITHOUT BOUNDARIES.