Bombay, the city of my birth is a phenomenal site of intellectual production by anthropologists and historians alike as there is so much nuance to unravel and connected histories with the Indian Ocean World. This literature review on a shadow archive popular with scholars of the global south yielded 25 odd titles in an hour.

Mumbai, does deserve a deep reading list and a graduate school course to itself.

Excellent labor related webinar by the Spring University of Myanmar, a transnational diaspora based post coup engagement to train this generation of Burmese youth. The diaspora remittance angle from Singapore was critical as when the home is in a crisis, the diaspora ups it’s game to feed mouths back home.

Excellent work by my dashing friend Anders on this series as he puts his time where his heart is in.

Teachers are found everywhere, in the classroom, seminar hall or the conference room or the boss’s office. I have been fortunate to have learnt under the shadow of generous teachers who have opened doors, given second chances where I deserved none and hence I am still around. Not the best student at all, but a person who had eclectic interests, I have learnt more by osmosis from watching leaders around me then in the classroom.

Dazzling teachers such as Dr K or Prof Sidaway at NUS stand out, in the recent past. All my consulting bosses have been great teachers. Salaam to all of them.

Bakhour.

ESG is the sharp end of stakeholder/responsible capitalism, as metrics, although limited does drive performance. The imperative of quantification, the technology of global governance called indicators works well for carbon as instrumentation sensors and software do the trick. For social metrics, quantification is partial at best. The social indicators operationalize with dignity in the everyday, and ESG is about risk abatement for the investor community as the money makers coined it.

There is always the story behind the data, and real resilience is when professionals think with culture and the entanglements between the various indicators, which amplify/accentuate/attenuate the metrics regard risk.

ESG data looks below the bonnet of a car called the enterprise. But the mechanics of why the firm is not zooming on the growth highway, is in the story.

What is your ESG Story? Think about your social metrics to begin with.

Sustainability Professionals, like every other subject matter expert, think that doing good is the purpose of a business, it is a priority, but the purpose of a business is to serve the customer in the best way so that the customer comes back.

The real bottom line is financial, the companies in the climate zeitgeist think about ESG as its better access to capital and markets. As Sustainability folks let us not delude ourselves, and in turn incapacitate us in helping organizations in the ‘responsible capitalism turn’.