Business for Better | Doing Well by Doing Good with Harsha James

the event that's launching our series is featuring harsha she studied international relations at sussex between 2000 and 2002. since then she's worked in a variety of both corporate communication roles in the public sector as well as the private sector and she's got 16 years experience as a global communications professional now she's currently the director of for corporate communications for europe the middle east and africa at cfa institute which is an organization who is leading the investment profession globally by creating ethics education and professional excellence for the ultimate benefit of society having worked in both hong kong and the uk harsha has extensive experience in global communications across both the private and public sectors and she's here to talk to you about how working in finance can provide a powerful platform to do good in her talk which she has titled doing well by doing good good afternoon everyone uh just give me a second so i can adjust my uh viewing here so there we are uh thank you ruby for that very kind introduction uh i'm absolutely delighted to be back here at sussex uh and of course it would have been fantastic if i was there with you in person so i could sneak out to brighton for a cheeky fish and chips on the beach but nonetheless i am truly honored to be reconnecting with my alma mater today thank you so very much for the invitation to speak to you and and as this is the first in the series i've taken some liberties as to how i structure my talk to you today so my intention is not to lecture you but to speak to you about my own experience hopefully through this you'll see how i ended up with the belief that business can be a force for good i know that perhaps many of you may be slightly jaded about the idea of business doing good many of you may have matured in an age following the 2008 financial crisis crash reading about businesses failing on the front pages of newspapers and perhaps viewing the financial markets as the root of all evil i hope that my talk today inspires you to think that business can be a catalyst for good not that it always does but certainly that it can so a little about me uh that's a picture of me at sussex 20 years ago experiencing snow for the first time yes that was 20 years ago i grew up in hong kong in a city renowned for its business-centric ethos and as a trading port for the world and as a cindy indian i have an ethnic heritage that is also known for its hard-headed business skills whichever country you go to in the world you're likely to find a cindy entrepreneur trading and adapting to local markets naturally these influences led me to consider a career in business so my bachelor's degree was in business studies i completed that in hong kong during a period of great change around the handover of the city from britain to china that degree and my own personal background then led me to pursue a more conventional career in accountancy where i took up my first job at kpmg as a tax consultant i was lured by the attractive presentations made by the big four companies on campus and it seemed like a great way to start building a solid career i signed up for the acca exams attempting to qualify as a chartered accountant in a few years however after one year at kpmg as wonderful as my colleagues were i realized i was better suited to words than numbers i decided that perhaps accountancy wasn't for me and i started to look around at what else i could do i then thought of doing a master's degree in the uk to reset my mind one fine day i popped into an education fair in hong kong i was very attracted by the backdrop that sussex university had showing a wonderful picture of the beach at brighton with seagulls and bright blue skies and that was it i decided that i wanted to give myself the freedom to pursue studies and something that fired my passion and i chose international relations i've always been fascinated by world politics and how emerging global trends whether that be political economic or social affect our lives and shape the course of history my year at sussex was nothing less than life-changing it made me see the world through a much broader lens and most of all it encouraged me to always ask the question how could things be better we were taught not just to see the world as it is but to think critically of how the world could be and in the immortal words of george bernard shaw some people see things and say why but i dream things that never were and say why not so in 2001 with my freshly minted sussex degree i went back to hong kong to start my career on a clean slate with a deep desire to change the world as the saying goes i still wanted to work in business but i wanted to be in a career that allowed me room for creativity and especially room to make a change or have an impact in the world so let me just flag this here as an example that it's never too late to course correct and change directions and that the decisions you make today do not have to bind you for the rest of your lives so having thrown away my accounting textbooks i stumbled upon an exciting role at the hong kong trade development council in the communications department the hktdc is a statutory non-profit body whose role is to promote trade with hong kong and to make it easier for small and medium enterprises to do business around the world my time at the hkgdc allowed me to see how interconnected the world really was and it gave me an unrivaled opportunity to see firsthand how business was done in all parts of the world that there is a picture of me in saudi arabia in 2005. i was one of the first women from hong kong to have obtained a business visa to the country alongside my colleague here and that was an experience i'll never forget there i was responsible for arranging media interviews for our executives and ensuring that they understood the story that we brought with us similar to this trip i had opportunities to travel to several business destinations helping companies in hong kong find trade partners through exhibitions and business delegations in places as diverse as poland and russia or india and the uae it was truly meaningful to me to be in this unique position helping hong kong companies build trade ties around the world part of my role was inviting journalists from around around the world to hong kong to show them first hand what the city had to offer trade as they say really does make the world a smaller place i still have friendships today in all corners of the world from my time at the hktdc alongside my personal friendships however as a team we helped create thousands of business ties that would never have existed otherwise i strongly believe that there is an argument to be made that trade is a route to shared prosperity and global peace i know that that is a slightly controversial statement we have just gone through four years of a u.s presidency committed to america first and protectionism and nationalism seem to be growing around the world the backlash against globalization is one of the defining hallmarks of recent world politics and economics call me still a child of the 90s however the age of fukuyama's end of history and a clintonian optimism in the face of the free market but i still believe strongly in the canteen premise that trade independent interdependence and free markets lead to development and peace between nations so in that broader context i found myself playing a role making the world a smaller more prosperous and peaceful place through trade and business and i was a storyteller for hong kong businesses after eight years in that role i had the itch again to work in the private sector at the heart of business and finance the opportunity came up for me to join the british insurer prudential which was growing very quickly in asia i still held on to my desire to make a positive impact in the world what i didn't expect however was how much i still had to learn about the role business could play in society while there i was fortunate to work very closely with our asia ceo barry stowe here is a picture of me with him and our malaysia ceo philip shear at an art exhibition we sponsored in kuala lumpur the title of my talk today doing well by doing good is something i have brazenly stolen from barry who was so passionate about this concept that in every speech that i wrote for him he wanted to ensure that this ethos was brought to life throughout the company so what does it mean to say doing well by doing good it means we can all do well for ourselves prosper enjoy economic growth and the fruits of our labor and still be doing good for the world the two are not polar opposites in fact they are very much entwined most people would not see insurance as a product that makes much of an impact on society in fact insurance salesmans are often seen as a nuisance but the way barry saw it we were making a huge difference to communities in asia helping to provide financial security when they needed it most and building wealth in asia's fast-growing middle-class populations we were genuinely helping families have a secure financial future ensuring that they would not slip back into poverty if their chief breadwinner was injured or killed this was where a leader brought his personal beliefs and values in driving a business towards a higher purpose while keeping the shareholder in mind the other arm of insurance is asset management of course and through that arm now called espring investments we reinvested our insurance revenues to asian economies supporting infrastructure projects from roads and bridges to schools and hospitals at one point if i can recall correctly there was a statistic quoted about how prudential had invested at almost 20 percent of vietnam's highways while many companies do this as a matter of course the difference was our leader who ensured that our purpose was front and center and that every employee felt that they were part of a larger mission to serve society this higher purpose is what truly drove the business forward and informed the culture of the company and it was this culture that built a sense of service and pride in each employee and it is the same culture that also resulted in fantastic financial success for the company with all that success prudential was one of the few companies that also reinvested roughly one percent of its profits back into community projects in each of the countries we were operated this type of commitment from a multinational company was significant even amongst its peers in asia i was part of the team that helped set up the prudence foundation a non-profit entity that initiated projects in expanding education supporting children and boosting disaster preparedness here is a picture of me volunteering to rebuild a school that was damaged by severe floods in vietnam in 2016.

the foundation would regularly gather volunteers from amongst its asian employees to help with disaster rebuilding efforts from japan to the philippines it also ran a series of educational programs called safe steps to help children understand the importance of road safety for example or to help families take steps to be prepared for when natural disasters struck so who is better placed than an insurance company to help prevent lives being lost in accidents the foundation also ran a series of cartoons in cooperation with cartoon network called cha-ching to bring financial literacy to the fore educating children about the concepts of earning saving spending and donating money in the philippines this program became part of the primary school curriculum as the education department saw so much value in it so the foundation was an overt form of investing back into societies and communities one can call it corporate social responsibility while initially the word csr was being bandied about as a trendy concept today this has become a core aspect of many businesses some may argue that csr is a public relations exercise to make companies look good in the eyes of consumers but i would argue that if csr brings real benefit to societies alongside a bit of pr benefit for the companies involved there's nothing to say that there's anything negative about that so what is important here is to note the motivation of companies that invest in projects such as these when a leader truly brings their values to bear and combines that with the skills available within its workforce this will shine through in their work and the positive results will be visible for all to see it is no coincidence that prudential is seen as a very valuable company in asia and their investments are truly welcomed by governments across the region in turn means that prudential does better business makes more profit and therefore has more to invest back into its communities it really is a win-win for all so if i could distill that philosophy of doing well by doing good i would say three key ingredients are essential corporate leadership a strong set of values and a purpose-driven organization the course of my career has taken me to many companies from blue chip insurers in hong kong to data analytics firms and recruiters but in all those different roles i've always found it useful to look for those three aspects in a company in order to best fulfill my own desire to continue to make a positive difference in 2017 i made the move from hong kong to london and i now work for the cfa institute an organization which is overtly driven by a higher purpose to benefit society here i've put up the mission of the cfa institute which is to lead the investment profession globally by promoting the high standards of ethics education and professional excellence for the ultimate benefit of society those last few words in that statement are the ones that truly inspire our work across 164 markets worldwide we aim to educate financial professionals and create an environment where investors interests come first markets function at their best and economies are on a path to growth many of you will be familiar with the cfa charter a program that qualifies financial professionals for their roles and instills in them a solid understanding of ethics and professional standards our charter holders are expected to sign up to our codes and standards every year in order to refresh their commitment to acting ethically and generating trust in the financial system we also invest our resources into original research to help the financial profession developments into advocacy for better functioning capital markets and into championing diversity and inclusion in the traditionally male-centric financial profession my own focus is on that somewhat peculiar acronym of emea europe the middle east and africa a geographically and culturally diverse slice of the globe in the course of a working day i can be helping to craft cfa institute's messages and engagement strategies from abu dhabi to zurich working with a variety of media all the while however fundamentally pursuing the same objective of raising and extending standards of excellence in financial markets now financial professionals are in a unique position to help businesses grow help lift people up economically and invest in growing markets finance dictates the direction of investment flows and these flows dictate which companies prosper with an increasing demand from investors both retail and institutional for companies that are both profitable and socially responsible we know that esg investing is here to stay and earlier you would have remembered that i mentioned to you a three-letter acronym csr that in the course of my career has gone from sidelines to the center of how businesses operate today this other three-letter acronym is similarly going from the periphery of how we do business and edging towards the center of investment flows in recent years the movement towards sustainable finance and esg is gaining an irreversible momentum and shaping the way that businesses operate in the 21st century businesses including the financial services sector are no longer immune from the debates on climate change social impact and governance challenges as more investors demand to see companies manage their esg better more companies are actually rising to the challenge and disclosing their efforts in both reducing their negative impacts on society and also how they're improving their positive contributions this is a trend that's here to stay the current coronavirus pandemic has only exposed those companies with weak strategies proving that a concern for sustainability and the way we live our lives is not simply a nice to have but an integral part of success in business so to wrap this up i'm really fortunate to work in such a meaningful role but the truth is that meaning in our roles comes from what we believe and in what we pursue business can be a force for good or for bad at its most simple level a business provides jobs for individuals and it provides products and services that may enrich our lives on the other hand business done badly is also in a position to destroy our environment engender greed and foster inequality but the difference is in the leadership it is in the values that these leaders hold and it is in the purpose that drives their organizations businesses are not impersonal concepts they are an amalgamation of people ideas and systems people can pursue short-term profits driven by avarice or people again can lead businesses to their highest purpose mindful of their long-term impact on society what i have experienced throughout my career is that it is the ethos that leaders infuse into their companies which can elevate businesses into forces for good all of you here today are one day going to become leaders of these very companies or perhaps of ones that you'll set up yourselves i'd like to leave you today with this thought that as leaders the values you take with you today are what will shape the future of our world and as you're all at sussex i'm quite certain that these values are bound to push you to always find those opportunities where you can make a positive difference and to always ask how can i do well by doing good so thank you very much and i look forward to your questions thank you harsha i'm sure we'd all give you a round of applause if we could um but that was a really great talk and interesting to see your career journey and the values you've carried with you from your time at university of sussex um i personally found it really insightful how you mentioned there's a top-down integration of the doing well by doing well by doing good ethos through which the owner or ceo embeds these attitudes into the company culture and there's a sort of reciprocation of these values throughout the organization i think it's really important for myself and others when searching for new jobs if we want to start or work for a new purpose their business to do our due diligence so the company's executives to ensure that the business of better values are shared um yeah so thank you for that thank you it's my pleasure um so i'm going to be conducting a brief interview of you now harsha so my first question uh where do you think the trend towards business for better or business so the positive impact stems from uh for example it could be a natural progression of a developing economy or maybe the idea that having a positive impact supersedes the motivation of money well that's a great question chandlee thank you um yes it is partly an evolution as economies prosper and societies evolve um businesses realize that by having a healthy society around them they actually benefit themselves um so you know from the industrial revolution where it was very much about the profit motive and sort of just generating value for shareholders i think we've now come full circle to realize that societies you know happy societies mean happy businesses and therefore more profitable businesses and i think now that businesses have clocked onto that it's definitely you know a trend that's here to stay and i mean there could be many influences towards this there have been environmental activists that have made an impact you know that have kind of raised and shaken up um our awareness of these issues you know you we have to credit the likes of greta sundberg uh you know who's really kind of very passionate about these topics but my my contention is that a well-run business is one that is conscious of its impact um and is uh you know and and nurtures its consumers and its stakeholders by being mindful of how they're impacting their own consumers um so yeah there are several influences but i think that's that's a big one um i think businesses have come to that realization themselves yeah great thank you um so my second question do you believe that work of a pro-social nature aids motivation and fulfillment of a role well i can certainly speak for myself um yes i mean to me to work in a company that had a higher purpose you know that was very conscious of its social impact uh that you know that was highly motivating for me um i can't speak for everyone everyone's you know people are different that some people are quite happy to go to work and just come back and uh you know enough to pay the bills um that you know there's nothing to be uh there's nothing bad about that but um i think you know it's there is a growing sense that uh if companies are more conscious of you know their social impact employees are genuinely more motivated and you know that leads as i said to the cycle of a profitable company and then more to invest back into society um so yeah it is a motivating factor for me anyway um and and what one point that i want to make here is that i haven't only been motivated by social impact um if i wanted that i could have just joined a charity organization or a non-profit or an ngo i did want to prosper and do well for myself um and there's absolutely no embarrassment and saying that you know that the pursuit of financial growth and financial wealth is a positive one but it is the you know it's the means to the end and you have to be conscious of how you're getting to that end um and and it's the values that you bring yourself into any job is where you get the meaning from it someone can work for an ngo and still feel that it's just a nine to five and some people can really um sort of take that mission to heart and live that mission and breathe it day in and day out and that becomes more meaningful to them so it's really down to individuals as to what they do with their roles uh yeah so it's sort of the idea that once the financial needs of the individual met then they sort of go on to do the business for better so the third question do you think that every business can have a positive impact do you think there'll be a time in which every business incorporates this into their model well i don't think every business um will have a positive impact i mean we are obviously seeing some of those businesses uh disappearing you know they're becoming extinct because they haven't been conscious of their social impact um and perhaps there are some businesses that are inherently producing a product that is uh perhaps bad for society but what's good or bad is to be decided by society itself it's not for us um so i you know i think every business can think for itself you know how does my product or service help society and enrich itself and and by and by elevating that narrative and by elevating that purpose um any business can actually become a much more positively sort of structured business and a long i'm much more one that's much more focused on the long term um so an example is the tobacco industry i mean classically you'd say how can that business ever do good right i mean if you stand on the opposite side of the tobacco um industry and you don't smoke but then there you know there are a set of consumers um who feel that tobacco has a role to play in their lives it helps them relax or you know there's something that they gain out of it so it's then down to the company to make sure that their product is as much as possible not damaging their customers health and by making sure that their customers are staying alive for longer obviously they have a longer longer life and they have longer to to buy their their product so it you know it makes sense that it makes good business sense um for companies to start thinking through you know how they can become a force for good and just to follow up to that um do you think that these companies with a negative impact can negate this through doing stuff like charity work well you see that that's where the cynic the cynics come in because you can't uh sort of do bad with one hand and do good on the other and say that one negates the other i don't i don't think that's uh that has much integrity or much honesty in its approach i think what is important is that companies are conscious of the impact they're having they disclose those impacts they take steps um through perhaps incorporating technology or innovative solutions to reduce the impact uh that negative impact and on the other hand also see where they can sort of have a positive impact so yeah i i don't think it's just you know giving away to charities and i think that's something that i learned at prudential it wasn't about giving a check it was about gathering the skills that we had within the company and putting that to use um for projects that meant a lot to us as a company so you know as an insurance company we have a west you know we had a western vested interest in people living longer people having a healthier lifestyle children gaining education you know economies becoming wealthier so that you know the more wealth there is the more there is to manage and invest and you know so we we invested our efforts into those projects uh and it wasn't just about giving a check it was about uh skills-based volunteering so what are the skills that we had and what could we do um you know to offer what could we offer society in particular so um i think that that's a very um good way of of giving back yeah i agree thank you so the last question i had was what advice would you give to someone wanting to start a purpose-led business for example a social enterprise well that's a great question chandlee um the way i see it um a purpose-led business isn't just a social enterprise i mean as i've explained to you a large corporate like the multinational that i worked for felt to me like a purpose-led business and that came from the narrative that was infused in the company and the values of the leader that was that was brought into it so i would say if you're looking to set up a purpose-led business um you have to have that purpose very clear in your mind um you have to communicate that purpose a lot and i'm obviously i'm from the communications teams and i really believe that um whether you're a small startup or a large multinational that repetition of that purpose and consistent repetition and uh sort of really embedding that into the dna of the business is is the way to make sure that you succeed and you as a leader i mean as as the owner or a leader of a business you have to stay true to your own values it it may sound um perhaps it may lead to short-term losses but it always always leads to long-term gain thank you um so yeah that concludes the interview thank you

2021-03-16 18:26

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