Tuesday, 11 September 2007High fiveGIFT in the News, Chandran Nair: Shanghai Business Review
Chandran Nair takes a broad brush to speak to the Shanghai Business Review about GIFT, business, sustainability, globalisation and developing leaders able to handle them all.By a Shanghai Business Review staff writer
If business makes the globalised world go ’round, then Chandran Nair is helping to redefine how it turns. The former Asia-Pacific chairman of global consultancy Environmental Resources Management left the corporate world to establish the Global Institute for Tomorrow (GIFT) in 2004. “My goal is to create an intellectual forum for the next generation of Asian business leaders,” says Nair.
Through the Global Young Leaders Programme, the HK-based not-for-profit think tank aims to apply the practical business skills of executives and students to help developing communities. Hebei Province was selected as this year’s programme because “it is directly linked to globalisation issues and has a real bearing on business and public-sector policies,” says Nair. Participants in Hebei will work, for example, with the Jingxian Pig Raising Association to turn pig waste into bio-gas energy and to produce organically farmed pork.
“MBA programmes are great and provide real value, but there’s a need to go beyond teaching functional skills in a classroom,” says Nair, who spoke at the 2nd Annual Being Globally Responsible Conference held in May by the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS). Nair engages businesses, particularly in Asia, by urging their leaders to comply with local laws and stop “exploitative practices.” Nair answers the following question:
If you could dictate how businesses operate in a globalised world, what are the key ways you would like to see them transformed?
1. Learning through others’ eyes. Businesses must encourage young leaders to expose themselves to other cultures, stakeholders and future customers.
2. Transparency is key. Asian leaders need to set an example and show that businesses can be successful while obeying the laws of the land.
3. Asia must learn how to rely on itself. Asian businesses leaders can help ensure that Asia turns its own capital into opportunities within its own boundaries. When Asians invest in their own development, interaction between Western and Asian interests can be as among equals.
4. Sustainable development, beyond just rhetoric. Companies must understand the core principles of sustainability, how they apply to their core business activities and bring intellectual rigour and honesty to their understanding and actions.
5. Look beyond growth. Wealth creation, corporate efficiency, development needs and good intentions are too often in different orbits. Businesses can play a distinct role in bringing these elements together for positive outcomes.
This report appears in the September 2007 issue of Shanghai Business Review.
Chandran Nair spoke at the 2nd Annual Being Globally Responsible Conference held in May 2007.
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