The Power Shift
In the 70’s the Japanese novelist Yasunari Kawabata proclaimed the 21st century to be the Asian Century.3 In the intervening years the growth of technology and industry across many parts of Asia has created a new level of economic power. Being so populous, half of the largest 10 private employers of the world are from Asia.4 Asia’s foreign... Read more
Sovereign wealth fund responsibility
As the banking crisis deepened, media attention increased on the role and size of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), which played a major role in the multi-billion-dollar bailouts of Western banks such as Citigroup and UBS. Rising energy prices and trade surpluses by exporting nations enabled SWFs to grow to control assets worth an estimated $3 trillion,... Read more
The end of financial triumphalism
Bill Gross: we are all to blame Time will tell what the lessons of the financial crisis really are. One way of exploring the lessons is to look at how people were apportioning the blame at the time. From lenders to investors to regulators, it seemed everyone had blood on their hands. As Bill Gross, chief investment officer at Pimco, the world’s biggest... Read more
Movement East?
Simon Zadek of AccountAbility: challenged conference delegates to engage with emerging economies At the same Net Impact conference, Simon Zadek of AccountAbility encouraged younger delegates to think about why they were interested in the conference. Perhaps in the future being a CSR manager in a company such as Motorola could be an important role to... Read more
Foreign direct corruption
As corruption at home is tackled, attention has turned to the role of Chinese businesses in corruption scandals around the world. In February 2008, the Philippines media and legislators were desperately trying to find one relatively unknown forestry official named Rodolfo Lozada. He was supposed to give a tell-all testimony in a senate investigation... Read more
Importance of Asia
Asia is the most important region of our world for achieving global well-being. One reason is simply the region we call Asia is where most of us live. That has implications for both consumption and creativity. The Asia-Pacific region requires about 40% of the world’s bio-productive capacity. China is the second greatest consumer in the world, using... Read more
From CSR in Asia to Asian CSR
The shift in power from the West to the ‘rest’ indicates a growing role for Asian enterprise, not only within Asia itself but also in the rest of the world. Consequently, the evolution of corporate responsibility concepts, policies, practices and initiatives across the region is important worldwide. In the last quarter of 2008 a flurry of conferences... Read more
Beyond the Western financial crisis
‘The credit crunch is creating a new world order in banking and finance . . . It’s a world in which the Chinese state, if it co-ordinated the investments of its cash-rich institutions, could end up owning more-or-less the entire financial system of the US and the UK.’ That was the view of BBC business editor Robert Peston.44 Although the financial... Read more
Targeting change
In previous years a comprehensive corporate responsibility strategy has typically involved a commitment to continuous improvement, to being near the best in class, and engaging stakeholders. In February 2008, the latest analysis of trends in corporate responsibility from Lifeworth argued this consensus was shifting, as the scale and urgency of social... Read more
The Rise of Asian Responsible Enterprise Challenges
Responsible enterprise challenges are emerging in Asia and in the rest of the world due to the activities of Asian firms. Such challenges arise because of the impacts of economic activity, but also because of changes in society that affect the way people view companies and their ability to engage them. Within Asia, economic development has brought many... Read more
