By Chandran Nair: "Close Up", South China Morning Post
I have always found it difficult not to ask questions. Often, they have landed me in hot water. But there are times that they have proved to be the key to opening a door of discovery – and, on rare occasions, that has been the genesis of something wonderful.

Three questions led me on a long journey from my home in Malaysia more than 20 years ago to find answers when I was restless, naïve and full of the kind of energy and blind self-belief that comes only with a passion for new cultures and a hunger to understand world geopolitics.

Those three questions were: Why are some nations rich and others poor? Why does it seem that some people treat others unfairly? Why do some people appear not to try to understand the plight of others when they have the capacity to do something to help?

When I set out, there was never any question in my mind (pardon the pun) that I would not find the answers. They lead me to the UK, across Europe and to Africa, where I sought my own answers to apartheid. Having been brought up in Malaysia, with its colonial history, diversity and harmony, it puzzled me – and eventually troubled me deeply – that such a condition could exist. And yet, it did, and was by no means restricted to South Africa. And it wasn’t – and isn’t – about just race. It is as much about economic power.

While apartheid has since ended, there are still many difficulties in South Africa that have their roots in that period. Not least of these is the deep poverty that many people still find themselves struggling with – and these struggles are by no means unique to South Africa. Many of these issues are close to home, still playing out in Asia, in the Middle East.

It raised more questions in my mind. What is missing in today's world of such ingenuity, opportunity, entrepreneurship and wealth that there can be still so much disharmony? What is it that will unlock a future in which people with different perspectives want to learn from, and better understand, each other? Can this future be one in which they would seek to develop long-term beneficial partnerships, rooted in respect?

The journey has brought me back to Asia. Now, after 15 years of building a business in 12 Asian countries, I have realised what one of those keys is and it has developed a new restlessness, raised new questions, and prompted me to move on again.

Business stands astride the globe. Now more so than ever before, its pervasive reach gives it unprecedented influence for change. Shouldn’t that be harnessed to find novel ways to share wealth more equally while still creating it?

Today, these and other questions are the core of a fledgling think-tank, the Global Institute For Tomorrow (Gift). It is Asian-based but globally focused, independent but building connections, not for profit but working for the big pay out.

Hong Kong seemed the right place to start the quest for change: a hybrid place for a hybrid idea built around searching questions about the role of business in society. It is the right place to make corporate Asia see civil society in a different light – not as a militant, subversive threat to profits.

Gift’s answer is its own programme for young leaders, which gets young executive managers out of the classroom and into the real word for a life-changing experience that will open their eyes and their minds to the real needs of tomorrow.

Of course, the questions will never stop. So, as they keep coming, perhaps Gift can play a small part in the genesis of something wonderful.

Chandran Nair is founder and chief executive of the Global Institute For Tomorrow, a pan-Asian, Hong Kong-based think tank.