1. Introduction

Tse Ka Kui (born 10 September 1948) is an active social entrepreneur in Hong Kong. Tse has held senior executive positions in Shui on Group for ten years before setting up his own management consulting company, K K Tse & Associates in 1992. He was a co-founder Dialogue in the Dark (Hong Kong) Ltd., which brought Dialogue in the Dark to Hong Kong and China in 2008. In 2012, he found Education for Good CIC Limited with the social cause to "inspire everyone to become a changemaker and enable every business to become a social business”. In 2020, KK set up and co-chair B Lab Hong Kong & Macau to promote B Corp Movement in the region. In Aug 2020, he also found a new origanization, Impact Partners HK, a learning and acting community for ever-expanding change makers.

2. Early Career

Tse graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong with double majors in Sociology and Economics. He held a PhD degree in sociology from The University of Manchester. Tse began his working career as Personnel Manager of the Lam Soon Group in Hong Kong. He then went to United Kingdom to study for an MBA degree which he obtained in 1981. While studying there, he wrote the book "Marks & Spencer: Anatomy of Britain's Most Efficiently Managed Company" (Oxford: Pergamon Press1985), which was also published in Chinese and Russian.

Upon his return to Hong Kong, Tse joined Shui On Group. He left employment in 1992 to set up his own consultancy firm K K Tse & Associates. His clients included such well-known business names as CLP Group, VTech, Dah Chong Hong and Lenovo Group.

3. Social Entrepreneurship

After retiring in 2000, Dr. K K Tse came in touch with Vivian Hutchinson, a renowned social entrepreneur from New Zealand. Inspired by Hutchinson's vision in social innovation, Tse returned to Hong Kong and dedicated his efforts to push forward social change and promote social entrepreneurship. 

Tse was the first person in Hong Kong to become a member of Ashoka Support Network in September 2007. He founded Dialogue in the Dark with Patrick Cheung in Hong Kong in 2008 .

In 2007, Tse published the first social entrepreneurship book in Hong Kong-- "新愚公移山: 十個社企創業者的故事".^[1] It is one of the top 10 books on social entrepreneurship recommended by Hong Kong Social Entrepreneurship Forum. In June 2007, he started to write a bi-weekly newsletter called "Social Entrepreneurs Newsletter." Each newsletter is three-pages long, in which he discusses the fundamentals of social enterprises and the development of social entrepreneurship around the world.

Since 2008, Tse has been an active Organising Committee member of the Social Enterprise Summit,^[2] one of the most representative annual conferences on social innovation in the APAC region.

In 2008, along with others who are passionate to make a difference in the society, Tse founded the Social Entrepreneurship Forum. He took the Chairman of the Forum before being superseded by Mr. Patrick Cheung.

In 2012, Tse founded Education for Good with Mrs. Rebecca Yung to promote social entrepreneurship and social innovation in Hong Kong.

Tse had been a part-time lecturer at the University of Hong Kong and HKU Space.^[3] In 2014, the Hong Kong Baptist University School of Business conferred an Honorary Professorship on Dr. Tse Ka-kui in recognition of his significant contribution to the development of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship in Hong Kong. In his acceptance speech entitled "Why the Lean Startup Changes Everything – even for Business Schools and Social Enterprises", Dr Tse introduced Eric Ries's impactful Lean Startup concepts and methodology, and envisaged a transformation in the role of business schools in the future – from teaching things relevant to "business as usual" to inspiring students to create social businesses that change the world for the better.^[4]

In 2014– 2016, Tse From 2014–16, Tse has been the Honorary Adviser of the Business and Service Development of the Hong Kong Young Women's Christian Association.

From 2015 to 2016, Tse was the Honorary Adviser of Hong Kong Specific Administrative Region Outstanding Students' Union.

4. Dialogue in the Dark

Dialogue in the Dark (Hong Kong) Limited was jointly found by Tse and Patrick Cheung. The successful launch of the social enterprise was a pivotal milestone in Hong Kong's social business development. It was established with and still operates on private investment, without any subsidies from the government. The company achieved financial breakeven in the seventh month of its operation, and started to generate profits in its second year.

Dialogue in the Dark (Hong Kong) Limited has demonstrated to Hong Kong social enterprises a novel method of raising investment capital. HKD$5,600,000 start-up capital was collected from 20 private individuals who identified themselves with the objectives and mission of the company. No loans or donations were obtained from other parties and charities, which has been the traditional way of getting funding for local social enterprises.

The company has a clear set of guidelines regarding the distribution of profits. Not less than one-third of the profits is reinvested into the company for sustainable development. One-third would be allocated to the newly established Dialogue in the Dark Foundation which supports visually and aurally challenged persons in pursuit of their ambitions and subsidises low-income persons for participating in events organised by Dialogue in the Dark (Hong Kong) Limited. Last but not least, not more than one-third would be distributed as dividends to shareholders.^[5] Dividends have been distributed starting from the third year of operation. Currently, Dialogue in the Dark Foundation is endowed with more than HKD1 million in funds. In its fourth year of operation, the company was endorsed by TripAdvisoras the most popular and best valued tourist site in Hong Kong amongst hundreds of other local tourist attractions.^[6]

5. Education for Good CIC Ltd.

In 2012, Dr. K K Tse and Rebecca Choy established Education for Good CIC Limited. Tse is the Founding Chair and Chief Education Officer of Education for Good CIC Ltd. The institute aims at nurturing the future generations of social entrepreneurs. Financial breakeven was achieved within two years of operation.^[7]

6. Impact Partners HK

Impact Partners HK is devoted to enabling and empowering movement building with new power and new values. The organization makes available free of charge the knowledge, experience, resources, networks, of its founder to individuals and groups who are keen to create a positive impact on society and inspire a new generation of change-makers in Hong Kong. Some of the movements it is working on include the following: a B Corp movement, to transform mainstream businesses as a force for good; a Master’s for Business Impact to displace the MBA programs; ReWirement to displace the outdated idea and practice of retirement, sustainable and responsible tourism, online-merge-offline learning - to challenge the conventional online learning mode, and movement building to popularize the art and science of building movement for social impact

7. Awards

In 2020, he received the award - Social Innovation Thought Leader of the Year 2020 by Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.^[8]

In 2017, the National Geographic Magazine named Dr. KK Tse as the “Pioneer of Hong Kong Social Entrepreneurship Movement”.^[9]

He was also the first person in Hong Kong to become a member of the Ashoka Support Network in September 2007.

8. Public Service

Tse has been a member of the Government-appointed Social Enterprise Advisory Committee since 2010.

From 2014–16, Tse has been the Honorary Adviser of the Business and Service Development of the Hong Kong Young Women's Christian Association.^[10]

From 2015 to 2016, Tse was the Honorary Adviser of Hong Kong Specific Administrative Region Outstanding Students' Union.

In 2015, Tse was appointed as the Advisor of Our Hong Kong Foundation.^[11]

9. Publications

Dr. K K Tse has been actively working on social entrepreneurship publications and is the Editor for several books on social entrepreneurship, including《新愚公移山: 十個社會企業創業者的故事》(2007) and Everyday Legends: Stories of 20 Great UK Social Entrepreneurs《社會企業妙點子》(2008) and《公益創業: 青年創業與中年轉業的新選擇》(2009). He has been the Founding Editor of the biweekly Social Entrepreneurs Newsletter, published electronically since June 2007.^[12]

10. Experience