|
Showing 1 - 3 of
3 matches in All Departments
Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) has become the noun, verb,
and adjective of the modern business era. Faced with societal and
regulatory pressure, big business in America, Asia, and Europe has
been forced to define and articulate ESG goals to combat climate
change and save the planet. The only problem is that ESG has been
captured by the PR hype machine as a few prominent business leaders
make bold promises to save the planet but are vague about how they
propose to achieve this. Eager to showcase their green credentials,
companies are making all kinds of promises to reduce their carbon
footprint and to play their part in reducing global warming and
improving social outcomes. How to separate fact from fiction and
exaggerated commitments from realistic goals? Vasuki Shastry spent
several years at the coal face itself – running ESG for a major
international bank in the City of London – and argues that
corporate cultures are too focused on the profit motive and
quarterly business targets. Change can only really come through a
paradigm shift for business which aligns business with social
purpose. Getting there will require a corporate revolution which
will disrupt and dislodge the ancien régime and usher in a new age
of sustainable business. The author offers a solution in the form
of a Climate Manifesto for Business that will Make Our Planet Great
Again!
''Shastry's polemic cites extensive research from experts and
exploits the author's knowledge of Asia and his connections to the
region's elite, with whom he rubs shoulders at Davos and other
summits. What shows through in the book though is Shastry's
compassion for the continent's ordinary people.'IMF F&D
MagazineAsia has been the greatest show on earth since Japan's rise
from the ashes of World War II, accompanied in successive decades
with the emergence of the Asian tigers, and eventually the two
giants China and India. The Asian miracle has few precedents in the
modern era, with billions lifted from poverty in a generation. The
region's openness to trade and investment aligned perfectly with
the tailwinds of globalisation. However, in recent years Asia has
become a victim of its own success with commentators not
differentiating between a utopian high-income Asia and a dystopian
middle- and low-income Asia, where a significant majority of the
region's population live. Asia today can be divided into countries
which have a lot, have a little, and have none. The continent's
dream run is also coming to an end as Covid-19 exposes sharp
weaknesses in state capacity and structural challenges like the
U.S.-China trade war is putting globalisation into reverse gear,
jeopardising the region's hard-earned economic success. Asia's
growth-obsessed policymakers have also ignored social pressures
from the impact of technology on jobs, rising inequality, fabulous
wealth accumulation by a favoured billionaire class, a deepening
demographic divide, climate distress, and gender disparity, which
threaten to destabilise the region's famed cohesiveness. In his
penetrating new book, well-known Asia expert Vasuki Shastry argues
that while Asia's reckoning may have been the subject of
speculation before the pandemic, Covid-19 has made that inevitable.
Inspired by Dante's Inferno, Shastry takes readers on a journey
through modern Asia's eight circles of hell where we encounter
urban cowboys and cowgirls fleeing rural areas to live in
increasingly uninhabitable cities, disadvantaged teenage girls
unable to meet their aspirations due to social strictures, internal
mutiny, messy geopolitics from the rise of China, and a political
and business class whose interests are in conflict with a majority
of the population. Shastry challenges conventional thinking about
Asia's place in the world and the book is essential reading for
those with an interest in the continent's future.Related Link(s)
''Shastry's polemic cites extensive research from experts and
exploits the author's knowledge of Asia and his connections to the
region's elite, with whom he rubs shoulders at Davos and other
summits. What shows through in the book though is Shastry's
compassion for the continent's ordinary people.'IMF F&D
MagazineAsia has been the greatest show on earth since Japan's rise
from the ashes of World War II, accompanied in successive decades
with the emergence of the Asian tigers, and eventually the two
giants China and India. The Asian miracle has few precedents in the
modern era, with billions lifted from poverty in a generation. The
region's openness to trade and investment aligned perfectly with
the tailwinds of globalisation. However, in recent years Asia has
become a victim of its own success with commentators not
differentiating between a utopian high-income Asia and a dystopian
middle- and low-income Asia, where a significant majority of the
region's population live. Asia today can be divided into countries
which have a lot, have a little, and have none. The continent's
dream run is also coming to an end as Covid-19 exposes sharp
weaknesses in state capacity and structural challenges like the
U.S.-China trade war is putting globalisation into reverse gear,
jeopardising the region's hard-earned economic success. Asia's
growth-obsessed policymakers have also ignored social pressures
from the impact of technology on jobs, rising inequality, fabulous
wealth accumulation by a favoured billionaire class, a deepening
demographic divide, climate distress, and gender disparity, which
threaten to destabilise the region's famed cohesiveness. In his
penetrating new book, well-known Asia expert Vasuki Shastry argues
that while Asia's reckoning may have been the subject of
speculation before the pandemic, Covid-19 has made that inevitable.
Inspired by Dante's Inferno, Shastry takes readers on a journey
through modern Asia's eight circles of hell where we encounter
urban cowboys and cowgirls fleeing rural areas to live in
increasingly uninhabitable cities, disadvantaged teenage girls
unable to meet their aspirations due to social strictures, internal
mutiny, messy geopolitics from the rise of China, and a political
and business class whose interests are in conflict with a majority
of the population. Shastry challenges conventional thinking about
Asia's place in the world and the book is essential reading for
those with an interest in the continent's future.Related Link(s)
|
|