Successful innovation is never easy, and the fine line between creating the next tech unicorn and the next failed start-up often lies in the founders’ capacity to learn from both their successes and...
Daryl Ng, Deputy Chairman of Hong Kong-based real estate property developer Sino Group, speaks about his ideas and ideals on the built environment, sustainability, and how business and innovation can...
How Southeast Asia’s universities can pave the way.
AI and the revolution of work.
Tata Group’s quest for Open Innovation.
Enhancing value creation for the ecosystem.
Transforming DMK footwear for the next-gen market.
Balancing remote work and face-to-face collaboration in Asia.
Using a stakeholder orientation view to steer infrastructural public-private partnership projects.
Aaron Tan leveraged his computer science education with venture capital experience to build a unicorn.
Funding winter presents opportunities to reboot for the future.
Growing and cultivating soft power is the name of the game.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) could well become the phrase du jour for 2024. For one, ChatGPT, the Generative AI (GenAI) software created by OpenAI, has become arguably the best-known AI-driven app....
Creating trust in digital services is key to building a tech-enabled society. Mrs Josephine Teo, Singapore’s Minister for Communications and Information, and Minister-in-charge of Smart Nation and...
How AI-enabled interactive agents will reshape our workforce of today and tomorrow.
Shaping a collaborative future.
A leadership imperative.
How leaders can make effective decisions in a VUCA world.
Focus on your customers to catapult your company to success. However, leaders must drive a culture change to make it happen.
Singapore’s trailblazer AI algorithm for detecting diabetes-related eye diseases. Can you imagine getting the results of your eye disease screening within minutes rather than days? This capability...
How AI and optimisation models can strengthen supply chain resilience.
Enhancing SME workforce efficiency with chatbots for improved business communication.
For that, the region must narrow the digital divide.
How doctors think can improve business decision-making.
Do elites contribute to a society more than they extract from it? In many countries where populism has surged in tandem with declining trust in elites in the political and other spheres, the answer...
N.R. Narayana Murthy, the founder and former Chairman of Infosys, a global provider of next-generation digital services and consulting, speaks with Havovi Joshi about the Indian growth story,...
Yes, it can make or break a society.
Using environmental and social urban design principles to create future new towns.
Factors to consider when designing communication strategies for diverse nations.
What does it take to decarbonise charter-related shipping?
Innovation managers must learn how to harness AI’s transformative potential.
They need to start preparing for this new role now.
Building dual-agenda innovation capabilities is the way to go.
Jimmy Thai tells us about how the Primer Group has expanded to become the retail giant it is now.
Getting it right secures environmental and economic wins for the present and future.
Non-profits, governments, and businesses need to come together and use a data-driven approach to improve local basic healthcare access.
Charting directions and steadying the ship amidst the storms, waves and currents
Ho Kwon Ping, Founder and Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings, speaks to Havovi Joshi about making sure sustainability is more than just a buzzword, his optimism regarding Asia’s growth in the...
The global economy is showing resilience, despite strong headwinds. Geopolitical uncertainty remains high, while the mounting threats from climate change call for more urgent global action.
The answer might surprise you.
Why start-ups need to speak the language of numbers.
Online banking has delivered financial inclusivity and profits, but has it also created shared value?
The role of the manufacturing executive must be upgraded too.
Rethinking platform businesses in the digital era.
Retaining care workers will become more difficult for Asia’s ageing economies.
Desmond Lim tried, failed, and finally succeeded with Workstream, an app that helps businesses hire and manage hourly workers.
This calls for greater collaboration.
This includes tackling climate change challenges too.
“There is no alternative to digital transformation…[and] those that don’t adapt will fail.” Compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing digitalisation wave has wrought changes that have...
Chartsiri Sophonpanich, President of Bangkok Bank, speaks with Tan Chin Tiong about the future of banking in Thailand and the region as the world slowly emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. How has...
It's more than tech. Digital transformation is a fundamental reality for businesses, given customer expectations of on-demand service and digital access, cloud-enabled cost efficiencies, and...
An effective customer service platform and a strategic communication channel. One of the most successful global social media campaigns is by the cosmetic brand e.l.f. #eyeslipsface on TikTok in 2019...
Board leaders need to keep up with the accelerating rate of change.
Advanced fintech lowers barriers to investing.
How digital transformation can be made good for all.
In digital advertising, video ads as a top-of-funnel function have a longer-lasting efect than display and search ads on a consumer's consciousness.
It’s about when, not whether.
N. Edwin Widjonarko, co-founder and Director of Technology of Xurya, speaks about his entrepreneurial journey in Indonesia’s solar power generation space.
This needs an urgent ‘whole-of-society’ approach.
Digital transformation in Singapore’s MICE industry.
The word ‘sustainability’ is thrown around liberally these days. But what does it really mean? At its core, sustainability is a business approach to creating long-term value by considering how an...
Le Minh Hoan, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam, talks about the future of sustainable agriculture in ASEAN. What do you see as the future of agriculture in the Association of...
We need to be quicker.
Harmonising frameworks with the Impact-Weighted Accounts Framework. "How dare you!” These were the words Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg had for world leaders at the 2019 United Nations (UN...
The digital transformation of the industry.
It’s about taking the first steps.
Making the best of the third age. By 2021, Singapore had one of the most rapidly ageing populations among developed nations. One in four Singaporeans would be at least 65 years old by 2030,1 and...
A new perspective on China’s consumer population.
Key ingredients to facilitate the acquisition. Is entrepreneurship a mysterious gift, a burst of random inspiration, or just sheer individual genius at work? Is it a genetic trait that is replicable...
Gibran Huzaifah, founder and CEO of eFishery, speaks about his entrepreneurial journey in the aquaculture space.
A festering issue.
Leadership lessons from Singapore’s pioneer civil servants. He was the understated Undercover Boss, way before the American reality series even hit TV screens. At 30,000 feet up in the air, J. Y....
As COVID-19 infection rates stabilise throughout the world, countries have already begun to prepare for life beyond the pandemic. In this issue, leading academics and seasoned practitioners walk us...
Eddy Kusnadi Sariaatmadja, Founder and President Commissioner of Indonesia’s PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi (Emtek), tells Tan Chin Tiong how the company not only survived, but thrived during the COVID-...
Three recommendations for building system resilience.
Three domain-focused prescriptions.
Overcoming challenges to bring clean water to rural India. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 emphasises the need for access to clean drinking water. Unfortunately, across the...
Opportunities and challenges for the sector.
A game changer in the EV industry?
The Achilles’ heel of digital transformation.
Capitalising on the COVID-driven digitalisation phenomenon. Thailand-based QueQ CEO Rungsun Promprasith, or Khun Joh as he is commonly known, had to act fast when COVID-19 struck in 2020. The value...
A white space for digital banks. The proliferation of financial technology firms (fintechs) has led to several interesting developments, one of which is the growth in the wealth management industry...
Lin Fengru, co-founder of TurtleTree, speaks about her entrepreneurial journey in the biotech space.
Its changing face and evolution.
It’s all math. Really.
Many countries, enabled by the rapid vaccine rollout, experienced some moments of relief from the Covid-19 pandemic as they embarked on their long and winding transition toward normalcy. However,...
Serge Pun, Executive Chairman, Yoma Strategic Holdings and First Myanmar Investment, talks with Tan Chin Tiong about the opportunities and challenges of doing business in Myanmar. Given the recent...
Implications for a nation's human resources and technology policies. The global mobility of people and how it has shaped the characteristics and culture of people living in different parts in the...
The course of their growth and extension never did run smooth.
Finding the right E-Commerce Intelligence solution for your firm. 2020 had been an extraordinary year as the Covid-19 pandemic struck almost all countries in the world and created an extraordinary...
Promoting cashless payments at Singapore’s hawker centres.
Was it politics, greed, or hubris that led to Carlos Ghosn’s downfall?
A leader’s first resort. A Singapore-based food company sees its products listed at a price lower than the agreed rate on an e-commerce site. The listing was posted by a company that is partly owned...
At the forefront of growth in the luxury goods market.
Pair a technical expert with a generalist for successful change management. Organisations globally are experiencing an accelerated pace of change, driven by a combination of digital disruption and...
An interview with Binny Bansal. Binny Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart, and co-founder and executive chairman of xto10x, talks about his entrepreneurial journey in the world of e-commerce. What...
A decade ago, everyone was sceptical about cryptocurrency. Today, Asian governments are harnessing its technology to raise payment efficiency and improve financial inclusion. Initially, the...
Not just a rebound, it is set to flourish in the coming decade.
Two topics that have consistently cropped up in conversations among business leaders during the pandemic are technology, in the context of the pervasiveness and quickening pace of digital...
Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Chairman of Ayala Corporation, talks about learning and recovering from Covid-19’s impact with Tan Chin Tiong. The Ayala Corporation has been in existence for more than...
Capitalising on the silver linings of the pandemic. You may not realise it, but the boardroom Zoom call you took in your pyjama pants this morning was part of the new industrial revolution.
Insights on the future of work.
How to build and manage multinationals across Asia. Asia is the global sweet spot for multinationals (MNCs) looking to generate revenue and, over the mid-term, sustained profits. It is in Asia’s...
De-risking solar energy projects.
Lessons learnt from Singapore’s Qian Hu Fish Farm.
Using social media to promote a herbal tea brand. In July 2019, Evangeline Leong, co-founder and CEO of Kobe, a Singapore-based start-up providing influencer marketing services, had a challenging...
A win-win-win model for the post-pandemic business landscape. There is one and only one social responsibility of business—to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its...
Elevate your brand’s prestige–even during crises. The Great Recession of 2008 was a time of foreclosures, insolvencies, and investment catastrophes across the globe. Companies were going bankrupt....
A meditation toolkit for business leaders.
An interview with Steve Johanns. Steve Johanns, founder and former Chairman of Veriown Global, is now taking smart villages into Sub-Saharan Africa through his company Villedge Solutions. He talks...
Revamping formal education for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
How businesses can align with their country's branding in a Covid-19-plagued world. As the world gets a better grip on the Covid-19 pandemic, one outcome is becoming clear: Place branding—in...
The Covid-19 pandemic will likely end when a vaccine can be made available to everyone, or when we have achieved some measure of herd immunity. Unfortunately, both are as yet nowhere in sight. In the...
An interview with Dr Victor Fung, Group Chairman of the Fung Group, on the future of global supply chains. What are some of the key changes taking place in global supply chains?
The pandemic is likely to make long term changes to deglobalisation and medium-term inflation.
Hedge funds offer numerous possible outcomes for investors and fund managers, but there is just no way the future can be predicted consistently during these uncertain times.
Boosting creativity and innovation in family firms.
Looking at the current state of the global economy and the extent of financial market hedonism through the lens of Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray”.
A case study on how Pinduoduo's dedicated portal has helped farmers during the Covid-19 outbreak.
How Singapore’s Tan Tock Seng Hospital had to strike a balance between reducing business-as-usual services and increasing outbreak-coping capacity when Covid-19 broke out.
Vibrant cross-generational interactions can result in strong relationships being formed, as demonstrated in the case of Tata Steel Ltd.
Organisations can implement long-term policies that would make working from home a win-win situation for both employers and employees. The prolonged lockdown across countries due to the Covid-19...
Jeff Tung, Founder, Chairman and Executive Director at Sheng Ye Capital Limited, shares his entrepreneurship journey in the world of supply chain and financial services. What made you want to become...
On the promises and perils of domestic tourism during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Moving away from using debt to tackle economic downturns.
How technology is driving business change.
An interview with Piyush Gupta, Chief Executive Officer and Director of DBS Group, about the Asia growth story and the future of banking. What are some of the secular drivers of growth in Asia today?
Digital technology, including e-commerce and e-market exchanges, has been the most significant disruptive force for the retail industry in the last two decades.
'Silver tech' allows for a scalable and sustainable solution for intelligent monitoring, detection and notification of anomalous events, and collaborative support for seniors living alone.
Manoeuvring infrastructure and digitisation challenges on a massive track network that runs nearly 70,000 route kilometres.
Improving predictions and allocations to determine the optimal matching of demand and supply in a dynamic, uncertain future.
How Starbucks faces the emergence of ‘new retail’, or the seamless integration of offline and online retail.
Building scale and volume rapidly is key to surviving the roller-coaster journey and staying the course for a digital entrepreneur. Industry pundits have long prophesised that the days of brick-and-...
Understanding cultural signals by exploring the ‘hidden part of the iceberg’ and communicating the benefits of change to team members.
RedMart’s co-founder and former CTO shares his entrepreneurship journey of continuous learning. Rajesh Lingappa, co-founder and former chief technology officer of RedMart, talks about his...
Have a more robust and effective corporate governance framework that includes a focus on environmental sustainability and social impact.
An unflinching take on the negative effects on growth from both demand and supply channels.
Redefining corporate strategies and functions.
Dr K. V. Subramanian emphasises the importance of higher investment rates, good quality loans, and structural reforms for boosting India’s economic growth.
Digitisation of innovation management allows organisations to spend less time managing innovation and more time on things that really matter.
Rethink brand building through the concept of platform brands. Their key tenets—participation, personalisation and shared purpose—lay the foundation for transforming a brand.
Organisations must learn to detect, discern and develop untapped talent through inclusive hiring practices.
Leaders of large organisations need to strike a balance between speed and thoroughness, centralisation and decentralisation, and technology and the human touch.
Education and innovation are not only the engines of economic growth in an increasingly knowledge-based global economy, but they also lead us to the solutions of the crises we face today.
The success of any intervention is achieved by winning over the support of staff and aligning team members who are driven by different professional agendas.
Iuiga, a lifestyle retailer, has a curated range of high quality products at transparent, affordable prices, effectively leveraging the original design manufacturers’ model and an online retail...
One crucial factor that would differentiate winning businesses from the others is the equity of a strong brand. They must learn to compete globally, sustain competitiveness, and master customer...
In the context of the current FinTech revolution, it remains to be seen how the wealth of knowledge on new technologies and business models in the area of finance can effectively and efficiently...
While the urgency to build and improve infrastructure is always imminent, investing in it is a high stakes game for emerging countries. Investments these countries make should be well-prioritised to...
As the memory of the 2008 financial crash fades, there are cautionary thoughts on why we tend to overshoot in our optimism, and why even genius comes to grief in the face of capricious, mercurial...
On behalf of the Editorial Board of Asian Management Insights, its authors and readers, I would like to thank our outgoing Editor-in-Chief, Dr Philip Zerrillo, who founded the magazine and invested...
Lise Kingo, CEO and Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact, talks about building awareness for corporate sustainability in Asia, in this interview with Havovi Joshi. How does the UN...
Ranked as the best airport for seven consecutive years, Singapore’s Changi Airport is lauded the world over for the efficient, safe, pleasurable and seamless service it offers the millions of...
Digital giants such as Alibaba and Amazon, and online luxury specialists like Farfetch, Yoox and Net-a-Porter are thriving in Southeast Asia. Yet, even as online commerce sales is rising five times...
Asian food and beverage (F&B) brands are exploding in popularity all over the world. Since 1999, Asian fast food restaurants have grown by 500 percent globally, making it the single fastest-...
According to Jen Boynton, vice president of member engagement at 3BL Media, “Corporate responsibility is simply a way for companies to take responsibility for the social and environmental impacts of...
William Heinecke, the founder and Chairman of Minor International, a Bangkok-based multinational company operating in hospitality, restaurants and lifestyle brands distribution, shares his journey as...
Family-controlled businesses are the dominant form of business organisation across the world, and particularly so in many Asian countries. A major challenge that family businesses face is the lack of...
Across many countries in Asia, we are witnessing local leaders rise to the level of country leader or managing director in their home country. However, when it comes to taking on regional roles in...
An array of scandals has rocked the world in recent times, such as financial malpractices (Arthur Andersen, Lehman Brothers, the LIBOR scam), unethical practices (FIFA mismanagement), and...
The street scene of honking cycle rickshaws, jaywalking pedestrians and precariously tilting buses in crowded Dhaka was an easy distraction. It was December 2017 when Matteo Chiampo, an advisor to...
In September 2015, the UN General Assembly approved the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), one of which, the SDG-4, focuses on the educational goal of ensuring free, equitable and quality primary...
Ask who has contributed the most to innovation over the past five centuries and you might get very different answers. On one end, you would have to consider Sir Isaac Newton, who was one of the most...
The air was still, and I was going nowhere with the session until I asked the participants about their kids instead of talking more about the bank. The conversations soon turned chirpy as the mothers...
Should we be cheering or jeering? The U.S. trade policy and its impact on Asia are under the spotlight. In ‘Pride and Protectionism’, Mark Zandi, Steve Cochrane, Ryan Sweet, Ruth Stroppiana and...
The seventh President of Singapore, Dr Tony Tan, talks about the challenges and opportunities for the island-state, in this interview with Philip Zerrillo. What is the best position Singapore can...
Wouldn’t it be scary if captains of ships were hired at random, instead of through a careful selection process? Selecting leaders for critical roles requires an understanding of the competencies...
Much has been said both for and against using incentives to drive business results—be it revenue and profit, or market share. Despite this, there is surprisingly little research, particularly in Asia...
In boardrooms all over the world today a scenario is played out again and again: Chief Learning Officers (CLOs) enthusiastically pitch the strategy of eLearning while chief executives remain...
Men and beauty seem to be two contradictory domains because we often rely on an outdated assumption that men only want to appear manly and nothing more. The reality for modern men, however, is...
Among the map of forces that shape a business environment, one of the permanent, pertinent and powerful factors is a nation’s demographics. Policymakers can outrun a lot of things to support...
Many of the trade policies of the United States President Donald Trump’s administration are aimed at addressing the perceived adverse impact of trade on the country’s manufacturing employment, and...
Globe Telecom—a major telecommunications service provider in the Philippines—had a long, pioneering history in the communications business. Incorporated in 1935, it was the first international...
In this edition, we are introducing a new section called ‘The Entrepreneur’s Corner’, in which we will present Asia’s entrepreneurs and their journeys, complete with the ups and downs, and twists and...
Winning the annual Coupe du Monde de Boulangerie, the most prestigious baking competition in the world, was no mean feat for South Korea’s Paris Baguette, a relatively new kid on the global baking...
As one of the untapped frontiers of newly emerging markets, Myanmar is rich in natural resources, underpopulated but with growing purchasing power, and an easy place to do business. From the outside...
The take-up of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled systems in organisations is expanding rapidly. Integrating AI-enabled automation with people into workplace processes and societal systems is a...
Long-time readers of these pages are more than familiar with disruption, and the current shift in the world’s economic and political tectonic plates is assuming even greater interest for many of us....
2018 is shaping up to be an interesting year for global economics. How do the coming months look for China and India, the world’s most populous countries? 2017 was a pretty good year, a lot of...
The economic growth and development that has taken place in Vietnam over the last three decades has been quite remarkable and has helped lift the nation out of extreme poverty. The country’s GDP has...
Times are changing for family businesses around the world. It is no longer business as usual–at least not as far as the next generation is concerned. Increasingly, next-generation leaders are leading...
Between 2004 and 2012, investment in public-private partnerships (PPPs) in developing countries increased nearly six-fold, from US$24.4 billion to US$144 billion, after which, there was a dip for two...
Economists disagree about almost everything. The exception to this rule is when they extol the virtues of productivity…as long as one does not dig deeper to find out what it is and how it works....
The inability of an impoverished community in Muntigunung to earn a livelihood in the arid lands of northern Bali, Indonesia, has reduced residents to begging in the crowded tourist hubs of the...
Since the bursting of the asset-price bubble in the early 1990s, Japan has faced the formidable challenge of boosting growth, ending deflation, maintaining financial and exchange rate stability, and...
Inside any successful business, you’ll find talented people front and centre, and India is no exception. Anyone in India on the hiring side of business can see the critical difference that talent can...
Financial inclusion or providing access to and enabling active usage of affordable financial products and services, is a global and pressing issue that, over the last 30 years, has received a lot of...
Why do organisations engage in business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) activities? This seems such a mundane question when BI&A is one of the most talked about practices in the last decade...
One may ask: What is a thought piece on legal systems doing in a business magazine? The fact is, as one begins to look at the legal and regulatory systems across the world, one quickly finds that...
In the last few years, the world has witnessed dramatic geopolitical activity, and ongoing technological progress is producing equally dramatic changes around the globe. While the pace of change is...
Thailand 4.0 will need a new toolkit, if it is to transition out of being a middle-income country.
As technology and capital become abundantly available, the use of resources in this region will accelerate, and naturally raise environmental concerns for Asia.
Meaningful value is derived when a company is an active participant in shaping the environment to its own strategic advantage.
In East Asia, the quintessential roadmap for progressing from third world to first, and its approach towards development, has yet to catapult would-be tigers in other emerging markets to the same...
It is not an easy task for middle management to be prepared for today’s challenges.
As mobile phones and other electronic gadgets become more affordable, with its large populations, Asia now generates the most waste.
Ayala Group created a bank, BPI Globe BanKo, which went on to disrupt the Philippines’ traditional banking system.
To increase performance, individuals and teams need to experience the ‘discomfort of adaptation’—as opposed to the ‘comfort of learning’.
The reach and quality of regional healthcare remains a considerable challenge.
A discussion on studies that reveal those on part-time work arrangements are voluntarily working either longer hours or more intensively.
Unique challenges faced by ASEAN countries and their equally unique solutions. In his novel, Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden wrote, “Water can carve its way even through stone. And when trapped,...
Observations on the US economy in the 1930s and the Chicago Plan, the then-radical idea of sustainable debt and its modern relevance.
Probably every generation considers itself as living within a vortex of change, but these last few months must be particularly challenging, even for futurists, let alone CEOs and business...
The greatest opportunity and challenge for the Philippines is in the technology space, with a particular challenge being the maintenance of policy continuity.
Despite the newfangled business models and market game changers, the old axiom of industry continues to ring true: leadership matters.
How Asia can take advantage of its changing age composition.
Advancements in technology are being used to transform our cities into smart cities, but the process is not without its risks.
Policymakers need to be equipped with tools to analyse economic developments and make sound policy decisions. Asia is the most dynamic region of the global economy. High rates of economic growth are...
Companies need to ensure that they are ready to embrace disruptions and fend off potential skills gaps and talent shortages.
In order to compete in Asia Pacific’s one-stop travel market, Skyscanner reinvented itself from the inside out.
Today, unlike the marketing or supply chain tasks, the negotiation task remains unstructured, sporadic, often improvised, and rarely analysed critically in the post-deal stage.
‘Doing good’ requires execution of sound strategies that effectively engage stakeholders.
Is a distinctive African management education model possible, achievable, or even advisable?
What do successful managers have in common? The truth is—apart from being great in their jobs, many successful managers often credit their success to someone, somewhere along the way—who not only...
Be prepared for tectonic shifts. Heralded as the next big economic partnership, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) received a setback when U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact on his...
Although it is true that learning never stops, the way we learn is changing every day. The time has come, says Dipak C. Jain, for an Asian model of management education that focuses on Asia-based...
Future generations should constantly adapt and learn as, in 40 years, the world will be a very different place.
Schools should cross-pollinate and create Asian case studies that can be taught in both western and Asian schools. Global trends
Great inventions will not be born in the absence of the will and intent to embrace change and solve wide-ranging societal problems.
How to make your brand priceless?
Transforming industries, enriching lives and propelling progress.
How do Japanese corporate groups manage their subsidiaries? As companies grow in size and diversify their operations either in domestic markets or overseas, the number of subsidiaries tends to...
A drive for growth in the sharing economy. In mid-2016, Anthony Tan, the CEO of Grab, an on-demand transportation-app company serving Southeast Asia, was locked in a high stakes struggle to win the...
Can blockchain address non-performing loan-related issues in the Indian banking system? Indian banks are currently experiencing poor performance when it comes to debt risk. Burdened with high non-...
Culture’s impact on creativity and ways to boost it.
Rethinking the linear economy.
Efforts to promote financial inclusion in Cambodia are paying dividends economically, and unlocking opportunity. Recently the National Bank of Cambodia, the country’s central bank, hosted the First...
The brave new world of digital media.
Earlier this month I watched Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko touch down after nearly a year in space, 340 days to be precise. During their stay they managed to tweet the most spectacular photos of...
The former President of Nigeria (1999 to 2007), Olusegun Obasanjo, talks about the nation’s evolving transformation in this interview with Philip Zerrillo. Africa is quite an unknown continent for...
Emerging nations need national champions, and national champions need strong support from the state.
New models are undermining the traditional views of intellectual property.
Is China moving to a new normal? In recent years, there have been concerns about the slowing down of the Chinese economy. One question frequently asked by economists, analysts and business leaders...
Opening up a bold new world for Vietnam’s trade and industry may not be so easy.
Are Chinese Internet companies eclipsing American inventiveness?
How Sunlabob went from providing affordable, sustainable energy in rural Laos to becoming an international turnkey operator and co-developer.
When good strategies fail in execution, it’s time to consider some uncommon practices. Strategy execution is a relatively new management subject that started to gain traction as a unique field in...
How large organisations can leverage the digital advantage for innovation.
Creating change on a shoestring budget the frugal innovator.
Thinking big, starting small and scaling fast.
Searching for unicorns. The year 2015 was definitely the year of Thai start-ups; the number of companies set up surged eightfold to more than 2,500 in 2015 from just 300 in 2014.1 This is...
The evolution of the word ‘innovation’ is an interesting one. It has gone from a description of any number of unique selling propositions for dishwashers and door locks to the whole change in mindset...
From 1975 to 1999, almost a quarter of a century, you were exiled from your country and lived overseas, fighting for its independence. Then in 2002, Timor-Leste gained independence, and you were...
The rise of modern organised retailing and e-commerce has seen India’s traditional retailers, known as ‘kirana’, and other small businesses take a major hit. But while the lack of IT-based systems in...
When e-commerce giant Alibaba went public on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2014, its market capitalisation rocketed to roughly US$219 billion—a sum greater than any record previously set...
While some see real estate as an opportunity for making large financial gains, others find the hefty capital outlay, long-term outlook, high transactional costs and market volatility quite a...
One out of every 28 people lives in a country that they were not born in. As migrants, they are estimated by The World Bank to send home US$636 billion in 2017, with three-quarters remitted to...
Many prognosticators and pundits have extolled the virtues and concerns of the impending ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). The blending of markets and the reduction of trade and entry barriers are...
In 2011, Bangkok, and most of Thailand, witnessed one of the worst floods in over 60 years. Heavy rainfall in the last quarter of the year caused much damage to property and left millions of Thais...
Imagine a city that has enough information about you such that it adapts to you in real time. The city’s billboards change as you walk past, displaying advertisements based on your recent shopping...
The increasing career risks associated with global volatility and shifting personal desires, as well as the reduced career rewards that come from specialisation and lower social mobility, threaten an...
We live on the cusp of a new age in machine intelligence. At no point in history has data processing been so affordable and algorithms, formulated years ago, so readily applicable to day-to-day...
All global business and technology trends point in the same direction: there is a need for more proactive and far- sighted management of innovation. Innovation for business reinforcement and growth,...
Accelerating technological advancement in computerisation, communication and automation will increasingly displace jobs faster than labour markets can adapt. The result is persistent long-term...
On the AEC, economic miracles and leadership I was reading the tributes to the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew the other day, and came across this comment from Henry Kissinger, an astute strategist and a man of...
What are some of the measures that the Indonesian government implemented after the Global Financial Crisis of 2008? Have these measures achieved their goals?
The year 2015 is only symbolic for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), as the region has been moving towards economic integration for some time. Tariffs for most manufacturing goods have already...
ASEAN has been enjoying solid growth rates over the last few decades. Since 1980, growth has averaged 5.4 percent, well above the global average of 3.4 percent over the same time period. Growth in...
Vietnam—with its coast line extending over 3,400 kilometres and comprising thousands of islands—has high development potential. The nation enjoys strong national cohesion and social stability....
In 2015, among a sample of 130 countries, Singapore ranked a s the tenth most entrepreneurial, based on an aggregate index accounting for entrepreneurial attitude, ability and aspiration.1 The island...
Human Resources (HR) is often regarded as a support function of an organisation—rarely invited to sit at the strategic table. But restricting HR to administrative tasks and a cost-saving role is...
By October 2007, it had become apparent that competition in the laundry products segment in Vietnam was heating up rapidly. Huyen Bui, the senior brand manager for Comfort at Unilever Vietnam, was...
The primary purpose of a nation’s healthcare system is to provide easy and high quality access to healthcare, and deliver it at an affordable price to its citizens. This is amid an onslaught of...
Educators have had to answer criticism that business schools have failed to keep their ‘eye on the ball’, that is, the very core, purpose and value of management education. In pursuing academic...
Following the opening of the Vietnamese economy to foreign direct investment (FDI) in 1986, Vietnam became an exciting, albeit difficult, place to do business in the 1990s. Then came the Asian...
Significant investment and cooperation between ASEAN members is required to shore up reliable and affordable access to petroleum1.
Asia is a diverse continent in terms of political regimes, demographic trends, economic development, and religious and cultural richness. At one end of the spectrum are established regional powers...
Uncertainty. Volatility. Risk. The mere mention of these words can unnerve the most stoic of corporate leaders to assume a defensive posture and ready themselves for the inevitable storm ahead. The...
The sixth president of the Republic of Singapore, S.R. nathan, talks about leadership and innovation as the key foundation stones in Singapore’s growth story in this interview with Rajendra...
Certain events leave an indelible mark on our lives. For people working in the area of finance, Lehman Brothers going into Chapter 11 on 15 September, 2008 clearly falls into this category. The...
A closer look at the relatively little understood issue of how and why emerging market MNCs manage their senior talent for international growth leads us to question the conventional wisdom on talent...
Global private financial wealth grew by 15 percent in 2013 to reach a total of US$152 trillion, compared to a growth of 8.7 percent in 2012.
Today’s dynamic and ultra-competitive environments require managers to deal with volatile markets and minimise vulnerability to competitor inroads.
Infosys, one of India’s largest information technology (IT) consulting firms, developed the Campus Connect programme in response to the growing belief among India’s IT industry majors that fresh...
Growing Asian stock exchanges, such as the Singapore Exchange, create economic value for businesses and investors, while helping to reduce volatility by offering a diversified basket of investment...
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has set an ambitious goal to integrate the economies of its ten members by 2015, a move that is aimed at boosting the bloc’s competitiveness and...
How do leading firms with global operations extend their success in today’s context of business environments, geo-political uncertainty and demanding customers that threaten to switch loyalty...
Equity markets typically ascribe a discount to the valuation of conglomerates, where the market value of a conglomerate is lower than the sum of the values of the individual businesses, due to lower...
Many studies have shown that organisational reputation and performance have a strong and positive correlation. When an organisation’s reputation grows, it not only reduces the stakeholders...
Japan is known globally for its meticulous attention to quality standards and consumer standards, often offering the most differentiated and intricate products. In no industry is this more apparent...
With India and China’s economic ties no longer de ned only by trade, the countries’ convergence is opening up new opportunities and challenges for businesses on either side seeking to...
Much has been written about the megatrends in all aspects of management that have taken place over the last decade or so, but rarely, if ever, do they include Asian examples, and certainly not Asia-...
Ratan Tata zeroes in on ethics and values as part of the science of management, and India’s current economic journey, in this interview with Philip Zerrillo.
Business schools have been among the great success stories in higher education over the last 50 years. At a time when many university systems around the world are struggling financially, there...
This article explains how individuals can improve cross-cultural creativity.
Family-owned businesses (FOBs) are the backbone of the economic systems in most countries. A 2012 Ernst and Young report disclosed that family businesses make up more than 60 percent of all companies...
To have a conversation, the appropriate language is needed. The language is just starting to emerge in both Asia and the West for one of the most important conversations the world is now having—the...
The talent agenda remains a top priority for business leaders in an increasingly competitive business environment—even for employers not facing an immediate talent crunch.
In late 2005, Shawn Warren, head of biscuits, Asia Pacific for Kraft, was in desperate need of a quick turnaround strategy. Oreo, after nearly 10 years in the China market was facing the imminent...
The information they generate provides a basis for smarter cities and more sustainable urban living.
Active management of upstream sourcing is often said to add great value to a firm’s supply chain. When a firm brings its suppliers and suppliers’ suppliers together, value is created by...
Mondelēz International is one of the world’s largest snack manufacturers and distributors and makes some of the world’s favourite brands such as Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolates, Oreo biscuits and Halls...
Do commodity super cycles exist, or are we simply seeing patterns in randomness? More importantly, are we in the middle of one that is showing signs of going bust?
Private wealth continues to grow rapidly across the globe, with 2012 recording new highs in terms of high net worth individuals (HNWIs), defined as those with investible wealth over US$1 million, and...
Innovation, almost by definition, is a risky business. But the returns that banks generate are almost exclusively for managing risk (prudently), rather than for staying away from it altogether. A...
