Sustainability and Leadership in Transformation

I'm currently working on a project to understand the decision making behavior of firms as it related to sustainability performance, and what I am finding is that the key drivers of success are the ability of leaders to understand their stakeholders, how an issue is tangible to their stakeholders, and then be able to develop strategies that effectively address issues of sustainability. Transform…

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Practically Engaging the Firm’s Externalities to Reduce Risk

While meeting with 10 partners from one of the world's leading consulting firms, I engaged in a conversation where I spoke about how foreign firms in China would seemingly do all they could to look away from obvious risk, and then find themselves in crisis mode when things went south. JCI and Apple were my two examples.  Particularly as BOTH believed (and fought for) they were within legal para…

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Managing Responsible Business: The Future of Ethics

While not an expert in business ethics, one of the most frequent discussions I have is the role of ethics as it relates to firms looking to roll out effective and engaging program, particularly in business critical areas, and the correlation between ethical foundations and program success (or failure). Far more practical in Asia, discussions of ethics is traditionally tied to a place that q…

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Play Your Own Ball

Years back while discussing with a good friend how I was unable to work out where I stood in comparison to others, and how then what steps to take going forward, my friend old me to play my own ball. Imagine I'm golf course. Don't look around a how others are doing, or be intimidated by others, just focus on your own ball. Just hit the ball as hard as I can, get the ball into the cup, and let the…

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Moving Blended Investing to Investing as Usual

While speaking with the investment head of a family recently, the concept of blended investing came up in the conversation. A theory put forward by Jed Emerson , blended investing is defined as: a conceptual framework for advancing a vision of value creation which is not based upon a bifurcated understanding of the nature of value (either/or), but rather a unified, holistic understanding of va…

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Upcoming Workshop: PolyU Social Entrepreneurship

If you are aspired to build a successful career as Social Entrepreneur, don’t miss the chance to attend the one-day intensive workshops conducted by Mr Richard Brubaker, one of one of Asia’s most prominent speakers on the issues of CSR, Sustainability, and Social Entrepreneurship. The workshop is exclusively opened for PolyU students and alumni. Content Highlights: Global trend in Social E…

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Event: Getting Beyond Business as Usual

Can conventional “Business as Usual” practice guarantee your business success? How can we capture the growing opportunity for doing “good business”, which means not only achieving your business objectives, but also going beyond to contribute to social missions, sustainability, and environmental preservation? Good business is about going beyond expectations, seeking out and addressing externalit…

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Equivalency Versus Expediency

For many CSR managers, one of the more challenging (mind numbing) aspects of transacting an international donation can be the regulatory hurdles, and for U.S. firms there are two IRS channels whereby this can be accomplished: 1. Equivalency Determination: Involves gathering a significant amount of background information and documentation from the foreign charity, and then having a US Based law fi…

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Developing a Sustainable and Responsible Supply Chain

Developing the business case for sustainability is growing easier by the day, and many executives are now identifying areas where their firm is exposed. It is a process that for many, even those with seemingly small operations, can be a difficult and complex one, and in our recent series of articles for Supply Chain Magazine we have identified a number of areas where firms can take immediate actio…

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