Chandran Nair, profile
Chandran Nair describes his thinking behind leaving a successful business career and establishing his own organisation, in this profile that appeared in Best Practice Management.

Chandran Nair is a seasoned and successful businessman. He’s also an avid field hockey player (with seven years as manager and coach of Hong Kong’s most successful international sport); Asia-Pacific advisor to the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum since 1992; director of the landmark project, Sustainable Development in Hong Kong for the 21st Century; visiting scholar with the Kellogg-HKUST MBA programme, running a course entitled “Leading in Asia for the Future”; and jazz musician (including three years managing a band in Swaziland).

For 13 years he ran a highly profitable international consulting company (Environmental Resources Management -- ERM), growing it to the leading position in its field with 20 offices in the Asia-Pacific region, during the course of which he became recognised as being an international expert and a leading Asian advisor to multinationals, government agencies and development agencies such as the UN and Asian Development Bank on a vast range of issues including the challenges of globalisation, investment geo-politics, environmental management, sustainable development, stakeholder rights, privatisation of infrastructure projects and corporate social responsibility. Then, in 2004, he decided to give it all up to found a not-for-profit think tank. Why?

Simply put, he “felt it was time to do something else.” And that something else is the establishment of GIFT (Global Institute For Tomorrow), an Asia-based international think tank and institute focusing on the inter-related issues of globalisation, the role of business in society, governance and ethics, leadership development and the development needs of Asia.

He was at the top of his profession, but has always believed that “it is a terrible tyranny that successful people are so scared of moving on”. As he would say to his staff, the greatest freedom is the freedom of not being tied to a wage, and “when you have the luxury of options you must exercise them.”

Ultimately, he says, “it’s about making a contribution, the quality of work, life-long learning and what you believe in.”

Chandran’s personal and business philosophies are perfectly in tune with each other. As someone who is full of common sense, it has always made perfect sense to do business ethically. Highly competitive and thriving on challenges (both intellectual and physical), early on in his career, while working with an NGO in Southern Africa, he discovered his inherent management and leadership skills. Since that time he has put into practice the knowledge that to create a working atmosphere that was fun, to keep his staff’s best interests at heart, and to hire and retain the best people available who shared the same sense of values, and then allow them to contribute, ensures a company’s success.

His career achievements are a result of this practising what he has always preached. He believes business is about “embracing change, strengthening human potential and liberating people”. He is not prepared to subscribe to “some of the nonsense of management hubris purely because someone has written an award-winning new book but never grown or run a company”; rather, he advocates behaviour defined as the core values and principles that govern a company – “What you believe in, act, behave.” In the process, he has gained the respect and trust of all those whom he has encountered.

On occasion, his approach has necessitated swimming against the tide (but “you never get anywhere by following it”, he notes) and he describes himself as being “fearless” – unafraid of asking the “tough questions” he believes have to be asked, particularly at board level. A modest man, nevertheless he holds strong opinions, particularly on issues such as governance, social responsibility, and the need for transparency, commenting that forward-looking companies should have “nothing to hide.”

Refreshingly, yet quietly, outspoken (and never confrontational), he conveys his ideas in English that is moderate and as immaculate as his personal and professional presentation. He is extremely self-aware and self-assured and possesses a tremendous ability to focus, identify issues, and accept the realities of business. He freely acknowledges that his is often a contrarian view, but he always felt that, were he to get fired for something he believed was right, then “so be it”. His track record could speak for itself.

And the track record is impressive. He went into environmental consulting because he believed in it, initially working in research and development in pure water systems for nuclear reactors with a consulting engineering firm in London to pay off his student loan after being awarded his BSc in bio-chemical engineering. He then went back to the “low-tech” side, spending 3 years as an NGO volunteer with the Rural Water and Sanitation Board in Swaziland, Southern Africa. It was during his stay in Swaziland that he started becoming involved politically (this was at the time of apartheid in South Africa).

He decided to return to Asia in order to make his contribution to society and return to the private sector, having realised that the NGO world “tends to be dominated by people with good intentions but often lacking in competencies.” He took his Master’s degree at the Asia Institute of Technology in Bangkok and worked as director of operations with a leading Thai-American consultancy providing environmental and engineering services prior to arriving in Hong Kong in 1991 to run Environmental Resources Management.

Over the course of the following 13 years Chandran built ERM from a single office of 10 people to a network of companies in 12 countries in Asia Pacific employing 500 people and enjoying the reputation of being the unrivalled leader in the environmental consulting field. He positioned ERM as “thought leaders” because he took the ideals he believed in and that led the company to being in the number one position.

He is driven by the belief that we are living in very exciting times but increasingly troubled ones. He believes there are many “simple” things that can be done to alleviate poverty and environmental destruction but all is couched in language that is a deterrent rather than an encouragement. As an outstanding communicator who utilises his considerable abilities of articulation at all levels, and combines them with his background of business and voluntary work, Chandran feels he is uniquely positioned to be able to contribute in the arena of social environment and poverty reduction issues in the region through improving the quality of international discourse.