Shape the World Summit 2022: Future Resilience by Design demonstrated resilience is the consequence of clarity about one’s cause and more

Over 150 leaders from businesses, non-profits and social enterprises from 12 countries convened in person at The Swissotel, The Stamford for Shape the World Summit 2022 on 21st June. Organized by global innovation by design firm Consulus, this summit which began in 2005 served as a platform to share personal experiences and ideas on how to shape a resilient future. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) July 02, 2022 - Singapore - The panel of 17 speakers from different industries comes from the United States of America, Europe and Asia. They spoke about shaping resilient enterprises, infrastructure and places, startups and social enterprises and leadership. The experiences shared demonstrated resilience is the consequence of being clear about one’s cause, how one shapes a culture of trust, and whether one has the vision to see the road ahead to rally people together.

In his opening keynote, Mr. Stanislav Lencz, Country Director of Consulus Slovakia and Regional Director of Consulus Europe shared “Resilience in business and social life means having the ability to courageously face the reality. Do it together, as a team, giving a name to what we are going through and what is driving us forward”.

With her experience of having served 17 social enterprises over 2 years, Ms. Helena Pham, Partner at Consulus Global, and Managing Director at Consulus Vietnam shared the importance of looking at data to shape approaches for future resilience. Out of the 4 components of corporate resilient vaccine to handle future turbulence & disruption, she mentioned “the 1st C - Cause driven is considered given. For social enterprises, to become resilient, they need to cultivate the other 3Cs: Culture of trust, Creative vision and Competent pivot. Using data, we worked with business owners to prioritize the implementation plan and as a result, the social enterprises managed to overcome their situation, achieve 10% increase in revenue quarterly, 48% increase in social impact and 6% increase in workforce retainment in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic.”

Talking about Building Resilience through Digitalisation, Mr. Stephen Raj, Partner at NCS emphasized “Business Resilience is not about size and assets but innovation and adaptability”

Mr. Dzung Do Nguyen, Co-founder and CEO at enCity Urban Solutions presented 4 steps of the resilience journey in shaping places of resilience for a nation; protection, integration, adaptation and preparedness. He also shared some project examples in which enCity has adopted these 4 steps to deliver transformative solutions.

“Signs that ESG investing is rising at an increasing rate due to Investor and consumer appetite. However, in competitive labor markets and product markets, corporate managers trying to maximize long-term shareholder value should of their own accord pay attention to employee, customer, community, and environmental interests. Companies have to seek the most efficient operating parameters to maximize long-term shareholder value,” Mr. Melvin Tan, Group Managing Director of Cyclect said as he shared his experiences and how ESG has shaped decisions at Cyclect over the last few years.

Mr. Melvin Tan mentioned that the pandemic sharpened this focus by highlighting the importance of metrics such as employee health and well-being, safety protocols, cybersecurity and business continuity amongst others.

Many speakers emphasized the need for a cause and vision as the key to resilience to bring their organizations through tough times. Ms. Rebecca Teo, Deputy Head for Strategic Perspectives at Consulus Global highlighted “the need for purpose to steer and navigate through waves of disruption.” Purpose is used for startups and social enterprises to continually renew themselves and their value to society. They exist to challenge the status quo. An organization’s purpose should define what the world will lack if the organization ceased to exist and by aligning influence, differentiation and ability, an organization’s value can be renewed to build sustainable resilience.

Mr. Sean Tan, Founder and CEO at Insect Feed Technologies shared that it was a greater vision and purpose-driven mission that brought him and the team through the difficulties and challenges to be one of the leading insect technology companies in Southeast Asia, “Vision always precedes money, people, and direction.”

In his presentation, Mr. Ang Feng Yao, Business Development Manager of One Heart Cleaning, shared “many a time, being a social enterprise means going beyond the focus on revenue and profit and clearly understanding that we operate in an ecosystem.” As such, One Heart Cleaning is committed to building a viable business to provide a sustainable livelihood for those who come from vulnerable backgrounds amidst rising inequality.

To enable the most successful changes, purposeful leaders have to inspire resilience in their people. Ms. Gwendolyn Thong, CEO and Co-founder of Chatty Caterpillar imparted the “3Ms of Shaping Resilient Mindset”. Leaders have to “Model the Way of Self Care, Make Self Care Explicit in their HR Policy and make More time for Self Care”. By starting with oneself, a ripple effect will shape positive change within the organization.

Ms. Janet Ang, Nominated Member of Parliament and Former Managing Director of IBM Singapore shared her own experience as a Woman Leader. Through her presentation, she encouraged all to chase their dreams with her lessons of Resilience, Adaptability and Purpose. “Leadership at Work and Life is my Vocation. I don’t wake up every morning dreading to go do what I have to do. I believe that life is too short for that. I believe in waking up each day to enjoy and be passionate about what I get to do, whether it’s work or whether it’s simply living.”, she said. She invited delegates to rethink the purpose of corporations and believe that purpose and profit can go hand-in-hand, “profit is important in helping companies achieve its purpose but profit is not its purpose.”

About Shape the World Summit 2022
Consulus is the convener for Shape the World Summit (STWS), a creative thought-leadership event aimed at providing design-led strategies to inspire companies to transform their business and organizational models to shape a better world. More than 7,000 delegates have participated in STWS from around the region since 2005. The conference was launched in Singapore and has been held in the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Myanmar.

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