Young Leaders Programme: Pingzhang project
Perched high in Yunnan’s precipitous mountains, the people of Pingzhang village harbour some big dreams. Among them, they wish for homes with straight walls and dressed floors, and they would like to send their children to school.

In the “zone”, participants in the Young Leaders Programme thrash out details of a plan for Pingzhang village. Dr Horst Weyerhaeuser, senior scientist at NGO partner World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), is on hand to help, right . Photo: Law Kit-fong

In spite of their daily toils, they remain among China’s poorest people, and their desires far out of reach.

Yet there is a glimmer of hope. It comes from an unusual quarter: business executives on a course aimed at providing critical leadership training needed for our quick-fire changing global world.

Executives from the MTR Corporation, Shell China Exploration and Production, Jurong Port, Hewlett-Packard, V.S. Dempo, and the Danish Commerce and Companies Agency went to Pingzhang with individual entrepreneurs, MBA candidates, and some of Hong Kong’s best and brightest university students to work with villagers to find practicable solutions to the hurdles that have been preventing them from living the full promise of their dreams. Some participants were sponsored by Jebsen & Co.

They were taking part in the third Global Young Leaders Programme (YLP), the most international so far: a rich mix of nationalities from Denmark, Britain, India, Singapore, Germany, the Chinese Mainland as well as Hong Kong professionals. The YLP is designed by the Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT).

Each YLP works towards an outcome – a plan for the project community that lets it take control of its future. The plan that came from the week’s intense interaction in Pingzhang was fully endorsed by its new Chief, Bi Guan. It also resulted in a spontaneous pledge by Mr Bi and the chief of Haitang Administrative Village – the focus of the first YLP – to co-operate, exchange and build ties.

For the MTR Corporation’s Ben Lui, the YLP introduced new and different perspectives: “We can learn a lot from the people of Pingzhang – especially their dignity and courage. Their chief is patient – and this is something that influenced me in my role as a team leader: communication and mutual respect are what makes things work.”

Sandy Hu, of Shell, said: “I saw how people living in totally different worlds came to understand each other. I enjoyed working with a diverse team, their different backgrounds and cultures – especially the different corporate backgrounds.”

Lokanadham TV, of Hewlett-Packard, recognised the strength of the YLP process in developing a plan for Pingzhang: “I learnt a lot … [especially] identifying potential areas for livelihood improvements, and finalising them in a plan.”

A vital aspect of the YLP is the absence of charity: “It’s one of the critical ideas of the field project aspect of the programme,” Chandran Nair, GIFT’s founder and chief executive, said.

“What impressed us on this project was the willingness of the village heads to work together; Mr Bi is not yet thirty, while the Haitang Chief, Yang Dehe, is older and has years of experience. They saw the value in working together to build better futures for both their communities. It was an elegant expression of one of the less tangible aims of the YLP, and GIFT – to help play a role in making connexions that contribute to a better tomorrow,” Nair said.

Basic needs yield life changes
Thomas Tang, GIFT’s managing director, said: “We learned that much for Pingzhang hinges on building basic infrastructure: there are some critical hurdles that can be overcome just by putting in a road that vehicles can use, a water supply system, a bio-gas plant for each house … these things not only make life less of a struggle, they provide villagers with the ability to change from subsistence and improving their socio-economic status.”

The Pingzhang field project followed and built on an earlier YLP module that introduced participants to examine issues in ways that often are omitted from management training courses and books, but critical to both everyday and long-term decision making. Leaders must understand the impacts of globalisation, issues of governance, business ethics, the role of civil society, corporate social responsibility, and diversity, among many others, to be effective in our global community.

With hands across cultures, villagers greet an international team of executives to their rural home at Pingzhang village in rural Yunnan province. Though they are some of China’s poorest, the villagers will help the executives learn and work with them to help themselves to a brighter future. Photo: Zhou Zejiang

They took this new knowledge to Pingzhang, providing them with new context to recognise how decisions made in one part of the world can have real impacts in others. This is a key component of how the YLP addresses critical leadership needs for future decision makers, and influences a fundamental shift in their understanding of business and its influences and impacts.

Nair said: “This is what we call the ‘life-changing experience’ that the YLP gives – and, we believe, makes it the first programme of its kind in Asia.”

In Pingzhang, the participants quickly realised that seven key, simple improvements could afford the villagers improvements to their homes, their income, and their quality of life. These would also set the foundations for the socio-economic shift.

Providing some inspiration to Mr Bi and Pingzhang is the progress of neighbouring Haitang Administrative Village. In 2006, Haitang was the focus of the inaugural YLP; an update visit by participants was included as part of the third project.

Building on partnerships
In working to formalise Pingzhang villagers’ visions into a plan, GIFT is building on work that non-governmental agencies have been carrying out with Pingzhang villagers. The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) is working with farmers to reduce poverty and raise incomes through using natural resources sustainably, in particular providing advice and technical support on non-timber forest products, medicinal plants, and other crops, and on bio-gas installation. Heifer Project International (China)’s approach to working against hunger and poverty while conserving natural resources, is by developing animal husbandry.

The YLP team drew these elements together with their own expertise: sharp business knowledge. The plan drawn up with the villagers recommends turning basic problems with simple, easily understood ideas: by tackling basic problems poor rainfall with dedicated water supply systems; a lack of cooking fuel with domestic bio-gas plants; and soil erosion and resultant degradation with a managed, long-term return of farmland to forests, which would also enhance the general ecology.

It recommends warehousing and packaging for cash crops, in particular walnuts and medicinal plants that can yield high returns, which would allow farmers to meet seasonal variations to maximise profits. Related efforts to secure international certification for Pingzhang, involving organic and NTFP recognition, may be a China first. A focus on promoting distinctive handicrafts as souvenirs has another – arguably more fundamental – aspect: to raise the status of Pingzhang’s women.

These first steps can contribute towards Pingzhang realising wishes for better homes – as can an annual scholarship instituted over and above the plan: this is a start for three children of high school age to live another dream.

About GIFT
GIFT is a private non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing understanding of the challenges of globalisation.