LIVING

TOMORROWS
COMPANY
Rediscovering The Human Purposes Of Business
MARK GOYDER
Praise for LIVING TOMORROWS COMPANY
For twenty years, Mark Goyder has been a visionary but also very practical thinker, who has championed
inclusive business, stewardship investment, better corporate governance and transparency. This latest
contribution should interest current and tomorrows managers - and those who aspire to teach those managers.
He synthesises some of the latest global thinking, with ancient Indian spiritual teaching. As such, it should be of
especial interest to business students from Asia - but actually anyone who aspires to be a successful manager,
wherever they come from, should read and apply this book.
David Grayson CBE
Director: The Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility, Craneld School of Management.
As a professor for many decades of what is now called Corporate Social Responsibility,and a former trade union
leader, company director, and advisor to governments all over the world I strongly recommend this book. Many
of the challenges facing our Society tomorrow will be met or inuenced through the changes that Mark Goyder
proposes. He asks searching questions based upon his analysis and experiences of corporate behaviour. He
also challenges companies to dene their own more detailed plans to suit individual circumstances, sectors
and markets. This book will appeal to company directors, managers, employees, unions, governments and
investors. Governance is an overused word that is rarely explained but in this thoughtful account Mark gets to
the heart of its meaning.
Professor John Fyfe, International Strategic Development Specialist and Advisor to Government
Praise for LIVING TOMORROWS COMPANY
Living Tomorrows Company is a remarkable and learned tome which is bound to become a standard text
book in the MBA programmes of enlightened business schools around the world and a must read for all
businessmen who wish to be successful the right way!
This is the rst time that I have seen a serious and comprehensive discussion, with documentation and analyses
of leading business enterprises around the world that are guided by Dharma as their principal and essential
driving force.
Farrokh K. Kavarana, Director, Tata Sons
This book explores many of the critical issues that business needs to face up to. Of course businesses need to
make a prot, but during the second half of the last century and at the beginning of this the focus on prot and
short termism at the expense of all else led to the nancial crisis of 2008. Some lessons are being learned but
not fast enough. If not addressed the sustainability of business is at risk.
Businesses cannot exist in a bubble. Apart from making an acceptable return for the providers of nancial
capital, they must act as good corporate citizens if they are to have a sustainable future. This is how the best
companies are acting with a genuine customer focus and a critical understanding of the external environment
in which they operate and so shepherding the resources they need for long term success.
Mark Goyder explores both the importance of the positioning of business in the wider society and the importance
of having a long term focus as well as providing practical advice on purpose, values, relationships, the licence
to operate, and as you would expect from the master, governance and ownership. A must read for anyone with
an interest in building resilient businesses.
Charles Tilley, CEO, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)
Mark Goyder 2013
All Rights Reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior
permission of the publisher.
Published By
403, Prerana, Vasant Leela,
Waghbil, GB Road, Thane 400615
www.kp-india.com
ISBN 978-819-2-81631-3
Printed & Bound at
Jayant Printery, Mumbai
Dedicated
To grandchildren of East and West
Table of Contents
Prologue 1-2
Preface 3-9
From East and West
The Companies that will shape our future
Chapter 1 11-15
Introduction - The Choice Ahead

PART I - PHILOSOPHY
Chapter 2 19-24
Looking Back from the Future
How history didnt end
And the economy was not so new!
Free market capitalism - the high water mark
The $20 hamburger
Digital detox
Chapter 3 25-35
The Thinking that Led to the Mistakes of the West
Motivation money or more
Markets master or servant
Business part of or apart from society
Value scarce or abundant
People whole or in part

Conclusion to Part One: Choosing an Inclusive approach

PART II PRACTICE
Chapter 4 39-59
Introducing an inclusive approach why purpose,
values and relationships are key to enduring success
A Stakeholder Approach?
Helping a company nd its unique personality
Purpose and Values
Relationships
A licence to operate
Success model
Chapter 5 61-82
An inclusive approach in practice from setting the course
to measuring and rewarding progress.
The Two Surfaces of Success
The importance of integration
A unique purpose and clear values
Co-creating value through relationships
A clear success model
Reward performance and reinforce the right behaviour
Toolkit the board mandate an agenda for board discussions.
Chapter 6 83-102
An inclusive approach in practice communication,
engagement and learning from dialogue
Communication : Reporting and dialogue in all relationships
Inclusive Reporting
Dialogue - an opportunity for learning
Deepening dialogue (1) institutional investors
Deepening dialogue (2) other stakeholders
Deepening dialogue (3) the Annual General
Meeting of the Future
How can we learn to improve
Toolkit - how inclusive is your website/annual report
Conclusion to Part Two: The global business as a force for good
PART III OWNERSHIP
Chapter 7 105-124
Trusteeship and Stewardship reasserting the duties
that go with the rights of ownership
Trusteeship and Stewardship in Tata
Trusteeship and Stewardship in Toyota
An anchor of continuity
Trusteeship and Stewardship their common origins
The four principles of Stewardship
Setting the course clarity of purpose, roles and relationships
Driving performance attention to continuous improvement
Sensing and shaping the landscape
Planting for the future coherence over time
Toolkit Stewardship questions for owners and the board
Chapter 8 125-132
Stewardship in listed companies
The Stewardship responsibilities of shareholders
Future potential
Present reality
Chapter 9 133-150
Putting the long term interests of the listed company
ahead of the short term interests of shareholders
ve problems to solve
Boards misunderstand duciary duty
Institutional investors misunderstand duciary duty
Tomorrows value - achieving sustainable nancial returns
Agency theory vs. Stewardship theory
The election of directors
Shares as commodities trading and takeovers
Chapter 10 151-160
Stewardship - the golden thread that links ordinary
citizens with the ownership of companies
Encouraging concentrated ownership
Shareholders are citizens too
How to square the circle between citizens and shareholders
The stewardship value chain
PART IV SANSKAR
Chapter 11 163-170
Frameworks that promote an inclusive approach
Why society needs an inclusive approach to business
Sanskar for companies - the role of government -
Entrepreneurship and business diversity
Well stewarded companies.
Investor stewardship and trusteeship
Chapter 12 171-173
Living Tomorrows Company
Niyat and the inner convictions that can humanise our capitalism
Acknowledgements 175-178

Tomorrows Company Publications 179-182
1
Prologue
Unfortunately or otherwise, I am a member of an Endangered Species- a person who has only worked for one
organisation throughout his career TELCO, which is known as Tata Motors today. I had the good fortune of
being mentored by such eminent business leaders as J.R.D. Tata, Sumant Moolgaokar and therefore my values
and norms of business reect those that they espoused from a high order of their exemplary leadership.
We were in a meeting, several years ago with Moolgaokar, the then Chairman and Managing Director of
TELCO, arguing about the need to increase prices of our trucks because the bottom line was shrinking. He
simply asked, Imagine you are Trustees of the Transport Industry. Would you be justied in increasing prices
without giving anything new to your customers? Moolgaokar said this at a time when TELCO trucks were in a
monopoly market!
It is refreshing that Mark Goyder has chosen to focus on the importance of Trusteeship and Stewardship in the
creation of tomorrows companies, because they are the essential foundations on which organisations can grow
and remain sustainable.
Mark starts the rst chapter of this book with two very telling sentences The world is in a mess. A mess of
OUR own making. How true!! The primary focus of TOO MANY businessmen today and their businesses is
greed. Amassing as much wealth as possible, at whatever cost, for only their benet. Just think back to 2008!
The global nancial crisis occurred because of the greed of the inuential few who wanted to maximise prots
for their own gains.
Making prots is not a bad thing. In fact, it is essential. If you dont, it is difcult for a company to grow,
modernise and develop the products that the customer demands. The deciding factor is How are these prots
used? Jamsetji N. Tata, the founder of the Tata Group of Companies, in dening the purpose of business said,
In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in business but is, in fact, the very purpose
for its existence. J.R.D. Tata, in summarising Jamsetji Tatas business philosophy in later years said, The
wealth gathered by Jamsetji and his sons in half a century of Industrial pioneering, formed but a small fraction
of the amount by which they enriched the nation. The whole of that wealth is held in trust for the people and
used exclusively for their benet. The cycle is thus complete, what came from the people has gone back to the
people, many times over.
Professor Haruo Funabashi, founder of the Sirius Institute in Japan, whose research is cited in the later part of
this book, carried out a very interesting survey about seven years ago. He was trying to determine if there was
a common thread in the business philosophies of long-living business organisations. When he also happened
to meet me in India on the same subject, I was surprised to know that in Japan there are 20,000 companies
which are over 100 years old; 1200 that are over 200 years old; 30 over 500 years old and 5 that are older than
1000 years!
2
Prof. Funabashi did, indeed, nd several common threads in the business philosophies of these long- living
companies. He found that: i) Their core purpose for starting the business was not to make money and amass
wealth but to serve the communities in which they were established; ii) Their vision was largely long-term
and focused on generating wealth for the community and improving the quality of life of employees and their
families; iii) Their thoughts were tempered by religion to emphasise and develop co-existence, co-creation
and co-prosperity. Mark has brought in this aspect very well in his thoughts on the creation of tomorrows
company.
Prof. Funabashis research resonates well with the business philosophy of Jamsetji Tata, who always said, I
am trying to pay back to my country what my country has given to me. He set up his rst textile mill in Nagpur;
he set up a steel plant because he knew that India could not grow otherwise; he set up the Taj Mahal Hotel
because in those years an Indian could not get a room in a 5-star hotel in Bombay; and he wanted to set up an
Institute of Science because he knew that to grow, India had to produce its own scientists. When he was denied
permission to do so during his lifetime, he willed a third of his estate for what is known as the Indian Institute of
Science in Bangalore.
It is common experience that many of us may be good managers but we are no good when it comes to leadership.
We try to manage our people rather than to lead them. So Marks emphasis on Trusteeship, Stewardship and
Leadership are therefore so essential for building tomorrows companies.
Importantly, the common thread that runs throughout the book is about actually living and practicing ones
personal beliefs and convictions on how business can truly serve the society at large. This deeply resonates
with the Gandhian principle of being the change you want to see in the world, and it also forms the core principle
of the Caux Initiatives of Business. This book could not have been timed better and I recommend it to every
genuine student of business, authentic business leaders of today and all those who are concerned in making
the market economy work for all.
I am especially happy that Mark found it t to use the experience of Anant Nadkarni and his able team at the Tata
Council for Community Initiatives. They have done some very innovative work in maintaining and enhancing the
standards of community initiatives drawn from the practices among the Tata Companies.
Sarosh J. Ghandy
29
th
July 2013 Director, Caux Initiatives for Business
Sarosh Ghandy led TATA Motors, Jamshedpur and was Resident Director. He was Managing Director of TELCON, which has collaborated
with Hitachi to make earth moving equipment in India. Since his superannuation, he is leading the CAUX Initiatives of Business (India)
which encourages business and industry to be ethical while being competitive.
3
PREFACE
From East and West
Do you work in business or with business ? Do you teach, study or advise on business? Do you, like me, think
business will be decisive in shaping the world we live in tomorrow? How many of the businesses that you come
across represent the best in human potential? Are you worried about some of the values that are dominant in
business and investment today, and would you like to see a more human approach to business tomorrow? Would
you like to play your part in achieving that? If so, this book is for you. There is something you can do to help shape
the future of business and so shape the future of our world.
Business is in my blood. My grandfather ran away to sea when he was 14 and started many businesses, not all of
them successful. His abilities as a retailer prompted Gordon Selfridge to invite him to be the rst manager of the
new Selfridges store that was being built in London. (His wife commented that in the rst 20 years of their marriage
they had moved house 21 times!). My father worked in the newsprint business all his life, and his experiences
prompted him to write a series of books, including, in 1961, The Responsible Company in which he became the
rst person to suggest the idea of a social audit for business
For the rst twenty years of my working life I worked with all kinds of people in business, and people affected by
business. I have worked as a machine operator in a saw making factory. I have worked in a trade union. I have
knocked on doors interviewing people about their debts and their treatment by moneylenders. I have worked as
an HR manager in a factory where there was no trust between the union and management, and where my most
important contribution was to spend the rst hour of every day walking round the shop oor listening to people.
I have been a production manager in paper and board manufacturing, where even on my days off I knew that
the phone would go if the machine came to a stop. I have been a warehouse manager, a quality manager, a
health and safety manager, and a sales and marketing director. I have seen and felt the frustration of people at
the receiving end of distant and often ill-judged decision-making. I have also had the experience of working for
inspiring managers, whose impact is like a breath of fresh air once people around them discover that their work has
a purpose and their contribution is valued.
All these inheritances and experiences have helped to shape me. For the last twenty years I have worked with
others to rediscover the human purposes of business. A turning point in my life came when Charles Handy, the
business philosopher and former London Business School Professor persuaded me to change career. My new job
was to get businesses more involved in the work of the London-based Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts,
Manufactures and Commerce (the RSA). The RSA had been asking difcult questions since its foundation in the
eighteenth century. Charles Handy was just retiring as its chair. He then asked me if I thought it would be a good
idea if he gave a lecture entitled What is a Company for? I promised to bring business people together to answer
4
his question. We created a business-led inquiry, led by Sir Anthony Cleaver, at the time chairman of IBM UK, and
formed of leading people from 20 businesses who worked together to develop the idea of an inclusive approach
to business success. Starting with this inquiry team, it has been my privilege, over the two decades since to work
alongside many business leaders, owners and advisors on a journey of discovery. They have educated me, and
successive colleagues of mine, just as we have challenged them. Without their engagement, vision, and support,
Tomorrows Company would never have taken off or been sustained as an idea and an organisation. I wish more
people could experience the energy, imagination, and practical determination that are to be found among many of
the people who are entrusted with starting, running and owning businesses around the world.
The Tomorrows Company Inquiry of 1995 had many impacts. It laid the foundations for a fresh and inclusive
denition of Directors duties in the UK. It helped stimulate a new interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
but, as I argued in 2002, a CSR based on conviction, not compliance. It also led to the creation of Tomorrows
Company as an independent, not-for-prot organisation dedicated to the advancement of an inclusive approach
to business, and chaired by a resourceful entrepreneur called Allan Willett. Among its founding trustees was Philip
Sadler who had built up Ashridge Business School to be one of the leading business schools in the world, and who
is still to this day working with Tomorrows Company as its Senior Fellow and has been responsible for developing
some of its key concepts.
The business leaders involved in the original 1995 Tomorrows Company inquiry made a simple case. Business
is rst and foremost a human activity. A business stands or falls by the health of its relationships, and by the trust,
energy, and commitment that its leaders create in those relationships. by the way they communicate and then live
the purpose and values of the organisation. This is what Tomorrows Company has described ever since as an
inclusive approach to sustainable success, and this is what, in a more personal way, I set out to describe in the
original version of this book Living Tomorrows Company published in 1998 and aimed at a western audience. In it
I described what I called the virtuous circle of governance which companies need to follow in order to put purpose,
values and relationships at the heart of success. We also did some early work on the idea of an inclusive annual
report, which was a precursor for more recent moves towards integrated reporting by companies.
In 2004 Tomorrows Company went on to develop a fresh business-led inquiry on Restoring Trust nancial
services in the twenty-rst century. The inquiry team was chaired by Sir Richard Sykes, formerly CEO and then
chairman of GSK. We were joined in the endeavour by a new Director of Research, Pat Cleverly who has also
been with us ever since and been central to the shaping of our agenda-setting research and publications. Had
the Restoring Trust inquiry teams ideas about a Hippocratic Oath for bankers and investors been adopted, we all
might have been better protected from some of the worst excesses of sub-prime! Before and since the nancial
crisis of 2008, Tomorrows Company has continued to develop the agenda for capital markets. It has re-introduced
into widespread use the concept of stewardship as the basis by which all boards and investors and indeed leaders
need to operate.
5
The next inquiry was a response to the global scale of the issues that Tomorrows Company had raised. In the
early years of this century we enlisted and challenged a group of leaders of global businesses including ABB,
Alcan, Anglo-American, BP, Dr Reddys, Ford, Infosys Technologies, KPMG, McKinsey, Standard Chartered Bank
and Suez (now GDF Suez). This inquiry team was co-chaired by John Manzoni of BP and Nandan Nilekani, then
Chairman of Infosys. Mark Moody-Stuart, then Chairman of Anglo-American, and former chairman of Shell, played
a particularly crucial part. The Tomorrows Global Company report was published in 2007. Its main conclusions are
described at the end of Part Two of this book. In their opening statement the business leaders said
we believe we are entering a period of history in which it is becoming clear that the operation of the current system
is unsustainable and that to progress further, tomorrows global companies need to redene success and help to
create better frameworks for the working of the market
They described the three distinct but interdependent global sub-systems environmental, socio-political and
economic which, interacting constantly in a dynamic way were generating the opportunities and threats for
business. They spelled out both the need and the opportunity for businesses to understand, anticipate and
inuence these changes and so combine protable economic activity with acting as a force for good.
Tomorrows Company now describes this dynamic interaction as theTriple Context.
2
2 First published in Tomorrows Company report Tomorrows Global Talent,
The TripIe context
The sociaI
and poIiticaI
system
The
naturaI
environment
'Force
for
good'
The gIobaI
economy
6
The twenty years since I rst wrote Living Tomorrows Company have been accompanied by the onward rush
of globalisation, and the information revolution, and accompanying both, the rise of an increasingly transactional
view of business. Too many businesses are seen by their owners as machines for making money, and traded on
capital markets as commodities. Their success is judged by their share price, which in turn is heavily inuenced by
earnings prospects. CEOs of listed companies, or of companies which aspire to a listing, complain privately that
they are under increasing pressure to sacrice the long term health of the business in order to attain short term
targets. Governments too face pressures to enrich todays generation and leave the bills to tomorrows. Yet is
this truly serving the needs of the human beings whose savings are being invested and indirectly traded in these
markets?
This has led Tomorrows Company to make the case for stewardship as an underlying principle to guide the actions
of companies, investors and governments. Stewardship is about the willingness to be accountable for the present
and future wellbeing of an organisation, a community or assets with which we have been entrusted. It is about
putting service above self-interest. Good stewards husband the resources, natural, nancial and societal, that have
been entrusted to them and are conscious of their own legacy. They understand the concept of the triple context.
They know that to achieve enduring success they will need to understand and respond to the links between the
economic, social and environmental systems on which we all depend, and the opportunities this brings. It is this
deep understanding of the interdependence which exists between an organisation and its dynamic environment
which enables leaders to contribute to the development of an inspiring yet achievable vision of the organisations
future.
At the end of the Tomorrows Global Company inquiry, I handed over to Tony Manwaring who became the
rst CEO of Tomorrows Company. Under Tonys leadership the organisation has thrived and increased its
outreach around the world. Tomorrows Company also began to ask what value means, particularly long term
sustainable value and how it is created, especially in view of changes in the world around us. This leads to other
questions. How far can we rely on markets to reward people in ways which reect the cost of their activities to
others, including future generations? How can we better value scarce or irreplaceable resources - clean air,
fresh water, tigers or elephants? How can we put a proper priority on ethics and behaviours?
Tomorrows Company has also championed its inclusive view of talent, arguing that talent is abundant not
rare. The word is, after all, an anagram of latent; underlining the Tomorrows Company view that much talent
remains undiscovered. There is a wider pool of talent for companies to work with, if they know how to unlock it,
as is illustrated in the examples later in this book from Dr Reddys, and others.
Tomorrows Company also developed a partnership designed to build up its presence in India, and through
Tony I was introduced to Anant Nadkarni of Tata, a special Indian with a distinguished record as Vice President,
Corporate Sustainability for the Tata Group. The idea for an Indian edition of this book came from conversations
7
with Anant whose retirement from Tata coincides with its completion. Anant had read my earlier book Living
Tomorrows Company. After reading it he urged me to revisit its content because he felt it was so important that
the philosophy and practice which it described were shared with rst Indian and ultimately an Asian audience. This
edition is my response to that challenge, and owes much to the continuing conversations Anant and I have enjoyed.
In preparing it I have drawn heavily on the later work of Tomorrows Company, especially around the growing
importance of stewardship which is a concept and an agenda in which I have been most closely involved. I have
drawn on many examples from India, some provided by Anant, some by Mike Smith of Initiatives for Change, and
some by other colleagues whom I have listed in the acknowledgements.
In spite of all this invaluable help and stimulus this remains an account of my personal journey to discover the human
purposes of business. It is in no sense a manual or encyclopaedia covering everything Tomorrows Company has
done over the last two decades! Nor does it claim to show deep knowledge of all the issues facing India and other
Asian countries. Writing the book has been the continuation of a journey of discovery and I hope to learn much
more by hearing from those who pay me the compliment of reading it. The responsibility for any errors is entirely
mine.
As we talked, Anant and I discovered that while we might have had different spiritual and philosophical upbringings,
our beliefs are very closely aligned. For example, in an article in The Times of India, which is summarised in the
textbox at the end of Part One of the book, Anant refers to the work of Amartya Sen, whose recent book An
Uncertain Glory - India and its Contradictions focuses on the gap between the democratic intent of the country, and
what he sees as the failure to address poverty. In his earlier writing Sen, has suggested that we need to go back to
the ancient Hindu thought which examines the concept of Niti and Nyaya. Niti in Sanskrit legal thinking deals with
just rules and institutions, while Nyaya is about their realization. Business has seen plenty of focus on Niti. Anant
and I agree that it is time that we gave more attention to Nyaya to moral behaviour in the marketplace, to living,
not talking Tomorrows Company. And to achieve Nyaya we need to start with Niyat - our behaviour, practice, and
habits. Niyat is the outcome of inner convictions. Niyat is central to the message of the book.
In India, there is as I write this preface a particular irony of timing. The Indian government has enacted legislation
that will require companies with prots over 50 million rupees in the last three years to spend at least two percent
of their prots on CSR. It is too early to say what the impact will be. But the danger is that this legislation will
prove to be too much Niti at the expense of precious Niyat. It risks encouraging an exclusive, rather than an
inclusive mind-set, in which people in Indian businesses create compartments in their minds between the real
business and CSR activity. It is vital that this compulsion to donate money does not undermine the vital principle
that all business is conducted responsibly as part of society, and that the best denition of CSR is that it is
simply a reection of the values of a company in all its relationships.
8
As this book goes to press Indias leaders nd themselves challenged on all fronts to stimulate growth while also
reducing inequality and addressing the needs and the aspirations of its billion plus people. The rst foundation
for this is a strong company sector. India needs trustworthy businesses which pursue a purpose beyond prot
and put relationships at the heart of success, while showing a proper respect for the changing social and
environmental landscape around them. Underpinning this comes a regulatory framework that makes companies
accountable, and imposes clear and steadily rising minimum standards of behaviour. But the businesses which
full their potential role as a force for good in society are those which see their CSR activities in terms of
conviction, not compliance.
We need to release the energy of businesses and inspire their leaders to live up to their ideals. We need them
to move beyond the equally limiting rhetoric of shareholder value or CSR. We need them to see themselves as
trustees of the future, as stewards entrusted with precious assets and owing obligations to those who invest
in them, and all those on whom they have impact, but especially the poor and disadvantaged, and the next
generation. This will not often be achieved by compelling them to spend money on some charitable purpose
that lies outside of the scope of their core business.
In this spirit,we all in East and West need companies that live by their principles and not just pay lip service to them.
Only if we do so can business play its full and necessary part in generating wealth with justice in countries like India.
We can learn much of what we need by listening to Mahatma Gandhi who famously said .my life is my message.
We need to start with ourselves, our own businesses, our own investments, our own management decisions, and
our own engagement with our communities. We need to be the change that we want to see in the world. And we
need businesses which understand their potential to be a force for good. That is what this book is about.
THE COMPANIES THAT WILL SHAPE OUR FUTURE
In contrast to the impression given by news coverage, most business is not conducted by millionaires or oligarchs
living in penthouse suites, and moving between private yachts, fast cars and casinos. There are millions of
businesses in the world. All of them start and many of them remain quite small. Most are privately or family- owned,
and many of these may not be hugely ambitious. Some are content to provide their owners with a living. Others
would like to grow. Nearly all of them have customers whose needs they must meet, employees whose hearts and
minds they must win, suppliers whose creativity they must mobilise, communities which they are inextricably linked,
and investors whose capital they must deploy to best effect. In all these relationships they are trustees, custodians,
stewards entrusted with assets and dedicated to deploying them to best advantage.
There is a huge bio-diversity of different species of business. Within each species the weak die and the strong
prosper. Among them some new and very different species are emerging.
9
Some are growing fast and facing new choices and options. A minority of these have the potential to become the
really powerful businesses which will help to shape our future.
Whether it be the state capitalist enterprises of China, the promoter-controlled businesses of India, or the rich
variety of family businesses that are found all across South East Asia, these emerging giants will play a large part
in dening our world. It is of vital importance to our future that these businesses in particular develop with a strong
sense of humanity at their core. The danger is that they will develop as the clones of the failed businesses of the
west, over-inuenced by the narrow, money-driven, transactional approaches promoted by people who have lost
sight of the real meaning of value.
This book is intended to inuence entrepreneurs and business people around the world, as well as all those whose
work can inuence business, in other words people who will have the greatest impact on the future health of our
planet as it goes through a time of great danger.
Its particular focus is on people in and around businesses in India, China and other parts of Asia. How do business
leaders, investors, policymakers, and business educators create, lead and inuence companies that we can all
have trust in and be proud of? How can we build businesses that, at one and the same time, create jobs, offer
nancial returns to those who invest in them, but also play their part in making our world better and safer? In doing
so, what can people in Asia learn from the mistakes of the west?