Pedal Power – we will meet again

Last Saturday, Covid-19 saw the postponement of another event, Pedal Power. I thought this might be a good moment to share what Pedal Power is, and to express my deep gratitude to everyone who has supported the event over the years. 

Pedal Power started in 2011 as a CSR event led by the HKEX Listing Committee when I was chair. At that time, the Listing Committee undertook the first ever review of Hong Kong’s Code of Corporate Governance. Requiring one third of directors on a board (or at least 3) to be independent was one of the result of the review. We also introduced our first ESG Reporting Guide, one aspect of which is “community investment” which included “focus areas of contribution (e.g. education, environmental concerns, labour needs, health, culture, sport).”

Over an informal lunch of committee members, we thought we should lead by example to encourage more Hong Kong-listed companies to lead CSR activities. We also thought we should do more than just reading papers and attending hearings! One outdoor enthusiast suggested cycling, to which I responded with a resounding “yes”. Another suggested we ask Outward Bound to help organise the event and Pedal Power was born. 

I didn't get much sleep the night before our first event. I needn’t have worried as our first cycling event went exceedingly well. We had perfect weather and (much to my relief), there were no accidents. Whether the participants chose to cycle 18km (as I did) or 30km (called the elite route – hard to resist for some!) everyone enjoyed the ride (or race), had fun with the mystery games we planned along the way and felt a proud sense of mission accomplished when we all finished. We also handed out medals for everyone and small prizes to those who cycled fastest. There were loud cheers at the social gathering at the end of the event. To top it all, we raised nearly HK$1 million (about US$130,000) for all our efforts from our first event.

On the back of that high-spirited first event, Pedal Power has continued for nine years with strong support from subsequent chairs of the Listing Committee, namely Carmelo Lee, Stephen Taylor and of course, the current chair Andrew Weir. 

The stars for all nine events were the participants who cycled – past and present Listing Committee members, members of the Listing Department as well as representation from the board of HKEX and the SFC and their family members, not to mention the support from Freshfields' partners and colleagues. 

Over the years, Charles Li (Chief Executive of HKEX), Bill Kwok (past HKEX Board Director), Ashley Alder (Chief Executive Officer of SFC), Julia Leung (Deputy Chief Executive Officer of SFC) and Tom Atkinson (Executive Director of SFC) have joined as well as many heads and senior colleagues from the Listing Department, too many to name.

Our highest number of participants was 97, at last year’s event. I am still amazed by the energy and competitive spirit of the young (our youngest was 5) and our senior riders (most senior was 70+ years) . We also have riders come with their own very shiny and professional looking bikes! Many more supported by fund raising and making generous donations and/or coming along to cheer us on (one past Listing committee member came on roller blades) or joining us for a bite to eat at the end of the morning. 

The highlight of each event was always the sharing by a few past year’s students who benefited from the Outward Bound programme. All spoke of the challenges they had to face, how they overcame them and how much they had learned from the course leaders and each other. 

We also heard of how the five days away from family and friends (without much mobile access) gave them time to reflect, how one student became motivated to try to go to university (which he eventually did) and how one decided make peace with her mother by writing her a letter. 

Over the years, I have been lucky enough to stay in touch with some from the first and second cohorts of students who came to share their reflections. They were teenagers then but have now settled into their first jobs and whenever we meet, they still speak fondly of their time together and how much the course has helped them with the challenges they have since had to face and helped charter their own course. 

Since its inception, Pedal Power has raised over HK$8.5 million (almost US$1.1 million) and over 3,000 students have benefited. Feedback from schools has been very positive. In a post-course research study which measured the “effect size” or impactfulness of a programme, Pedal Power programmes measured 0.72 in terms of compassion, 0.9 for resilience and 0.87 for self-responsibility, which is much higher than the International benchmark for outdoor adventure education at 0.43 .

Some schools are also finding their own ways to match our donations so more students can benefit from the programme. We also have a small committee of past and present committee members who meet each year to make decisions on grants of awards and set guidelines as to who may benefit. In particular, we hope the quiet girl or boy in the corner will be given the opportunity to realise that “there is more in him or her than he or she thinks”. 

For making this experience possible for the students, we really have to thank all the course trainers and all the staff at Outward Bound who have supported Pedal Power over the years. Outward Bound is an international network of experience-based learning and leadership programmes for youth and adult. Its motto is “to serve, to strive and not to yield”. The current chair of Outward Bound Hong Kong, Richard Winter happens to be the Listing Committee member who suggested using them to organise Pedal Power nine years ago. 

More interestingly, Outward Bound was born during a time of extreme world upheaval. Founder Kurt Hahn identified and saw the decline of fitness, initiative, imagination, craftsmanship, self-discipline, and compassion around the time of World War II. His training programme was designed to help participants overcome adversity and to support and trust each other (in fact, he was enlisted to try to increase the survival rates of merchant marines whose ships where being sunk by German U-boats in the North Sea).

Ironically we are all tackling the challenges of being inward bound at the moment. There is no outward bound beyond the four walls for many who are in self-isolation or in locked down areas around the world. I hope those who have been involved in Pedal Power or attended Outward Bound courses will remember the skills learned and the experiences gained. These will hopefully help us stay resilient, compassionate, disciplined, and use the power of imagination to help us innovate. The qualities Kurt Hahan identified have never been more relevant to us as we see the unprecedented disruptions in the world around us.

2020 is Outward Bound’s 50th anniversary in Hong Kong and Pedal Power’s 10th anniversary. We have much to celebrate. Outward Bounders (or inward bounders for the time being) where ever you are – stay positive, well and healthy. 

Pedal Power 10, not only will we meet again, but we will hug, we will high five and we will also cycle together again. 

Pedal Power participants group photo in 2019