Many professionals, young or jaded, usually ask me about the mechanics and the magic of networking. The why behind the networking is sets the pace of the how. Networking is not a silver bullet for a job when one is about to be fired. It is an ongoing conversation about mutual interests and a learning journey. Meet people with an open mind and gauge shared commonalities. There are two kinds of networks:

– Networks of Interest

– Networks of Aspiration

Networks of Interest are communities of practice, for example history writing or sustainability where notes can be shared. Aspiration networks only work where there is an inherent brand in place and people connect as a potential lead.

Building a value proposition is fundamental to effective networking and giving more and freely is key real connections. Effective online networks are effective openings into offline connect, trust is only built offline.

Interesting people build networks more easily than people who are just focused on cracking the next job. Building credibility through a blog or YouTube channel which are touch points for a dialogue. One does not need a blue-chip qualification any more as distribution is freer through the digital realm.

#networkingtips

#startupadvice

The Politics of Accounting Standards.

A similar study on sustainability standards must be done, will be an interesting read.

President Tharman of the Republic of Singapore ❤️🇸🇬

Technocratic meritocracy at its best.

Majulah!

A few entrepreneurial venture building interventions since 2010:

1. Run a one person global from below ‘think tank’ on sustainability, impact, and development since December 2010

2. Co-Founder in an E&S Consulting firm in a Gulf Capital

3. Scale Up Catalyst for a transnational migration/BHR CSO in Malaysia from three people to twenty-five people since 2019

4. Scale Up Catalyst for a Migrant Cultural Hub in Singapore since 2015

The fifth journey again in the ESG space has built upon these powerful learning and listening journeys in my birth city of Mumbai at the current juncture over the past year.

At the heart of the advisory business is pragmatic problem solving with the best of actionable ideas undergirded by the best of class research (which usually consultants snigger with this is as ‘too academic’). The key is imagination to help the client through the poly crisis, which is dynamic and complex. Thinking about solving it rather than the scope of work will make consultants indispensable in the multiple transitions that confront us.

Knowledge ecosystems for impact, sustainability and impact communities of practice are blurred where scientific research, academia, public sector regulators, investors, think tanks and corporates collaborate in often non compartmentalised manner as the issue at hand of the transition is wicked and no linear SOPs exist.

Each of the stakeholders have their own incentive architecture but survival bias led to a just and purpose led transformation is a layered process. No clean contours will lead the cartographies of transition, h-index hegemony will lead to open access science and hopefully consultants will embrace the critical thinking of academics and academics the cost pragmatic approach of the private sector.

ESG is essentially a layer of non financial risk data to aid better understanding of investments and will not save the world itself unless linked to the larger purpose of a meaningful transition. The next explosive asset class for the investor tribe are transition linked businesses and financing the transition needs a new Marshall Plan of a new scale. As the leading climate finance leader in a Bloomberg Zero Podcast (Avinash Persaud) said that climate change is a finance problem, I would go a step further, the transition is not a multiple PE opportunity yet. It is not a retail business yet, such as digital which took a quarter of a century, cheap phones and even cheaper data to transform culture.

ESG is seeping into regulatory culture and business as usual which is a welcome change. Paying customers particularly the elites need to think of the transition as a must need product, then the cultural shift will occur and an opportunity to be attractive to the retail investor.

Fascinating study by the King Fahd Center for Research and Islamic Studies on Saudi policies towards migrants and refugees.

Saudi has been home to many refugee communities from the world over since the Cold War.