Michael H. Wanandi (Courtesy of MORS Group)

Transformational leadership inspires employees to do their best not only for their employers, but also society, practitioners believe.

American marketing guru Philip Kotler says in his 2010 book Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit, cowritten with Indonesian marketing practitioners Hermawan Kartajaya and Iwan Setiawan, that brands’ contribution to the welfare of their ecosystem now goes beyond a mere public relations stunt — it is a key to their survival.

To honor companies with the best practices on transformative leadership, societal contribution and sustainability amid the disruptive changes brought by the digital revolution, Malaysia-based management consultancy company MORS Group, with a clientele across Asia, organized the fifth edition of its annual Asia Corporate Excellence and Sustainability Awards on Oct. 11 in Fairmont Singapore.

In its official press release, the group stated that the awards “is a platform of non-competition, with winning leaders and companies coming together to make connections, share insights and exchange ideas on ways to make businesses both revenue-generating and socially responsible”.

“Not only limited to fiscal success, the awards also take into account the quality organizations and its management personnel bring to society via the contributions of their individual companies,” the statement continued.

The awards comprise leadership accolades in three different categories: individual, enterprise and sustainability, which the group broke down further into specific business categories accommodating entrepreneurs, small-to-medium enterprises and startups, among others.

In total, 48 companies were honored for their achievements. On the sidelines of the award ceremony, the group also hosted a gala dinner and cocktail party for the companies’ representatives to share their insights and form networks with each other to take their enterprises further.

“We reached out to 13 countries, with newcomers from Laos and Myanmar winning our awards this year. We measure their business performances beyond just profit and prosperity; we also look into their social and environmental impacts and sustainability,” MORS Group CEO Shanggari Balakrishnan said.

Balakrishnan added that the awards also sought to celebrate good news in the corporate sector, to make people hopeful about the business landscape, which would always be in flux.

“People tend to pick on negativity faster; during review meetings, for example, we almost always talk about only what went wrong, while success is happening all around us. Today, we would like to highlight what goes right [in business practices] to motivate people to do more,” she explained during her remarks at the opening ceremony.

Jayanthi Desan, a business practitioner and member of the awards panel of judges, said that to survive tough times brought on by the ever-changing business landscape, companies also had to make deeper connections with partners beyond just the corporate realm, working in a multistakeholder context to play bigger parts in solving society’s problems.

Balakrishnan added that transformational leadership was also part of the judges’ consideration in assessing the corporations nominating themselves for the awards, since sound leadership played a big role in motivating and engaging their employees to unleash their competitiveness and creativity, not only to benefit themselves and the company but also their society.

“Nowadays, people become increasingly aware that people are companies’ real assets and the cost of mismanaging them can be a disaster,” she explained.

“[In our awards], we are always looking for leaders who are truly engaged every day in conversations with their employees, who are constantly learning to have great understanding of the people around them and what motivates these people,” she continued.

Indonesia’s beacons of hope

The awards also honored Indonesian companies with the best transformational leaders and community engagements.

Logistics company PT Samudera Indonesia president director and chairman Shanti Lasminingsih Poesposoetjipto won the women’s entrepreneur of the year title, while agribusiness company PT Syngenta Indonesia country head Parveen Kathuria earned the title of one of Asia’s outstanding leaders.

Infrastructure financing firm PT Sarana Multi Infrastruktur got the Asia’s most influential companies accolade, while pharmaceutical firm PT Combiphar was called one of Asia’s leading small-to-medium enterprises for its ability to transform itself from a small company to a market leader. Electronics manufacturer PT Sharp Indonesia, meanwhile, earned the top green companies title for its development of energy-efficient products.

PT Combiphar president director Michael Haryono Wanandi said that the company’s success in transforming itself from just a generic drug manufacturer into a general healthcare brand lied in its employees’ willingness to constantly change their mind-sets along with changing business contexts.

“To motivate our employees, we always communicate our business strategies in dealing with new trends, which keep evolving rapidly every five years; we have to communicate these strategies in plain and simple language to our employees,” he told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the awards ceremony.

“For instance, once a month we hold discussions with our employees to talk about current business trends and whether we can still apply the same business strategy taking current situations into consideration,” he added.

Shanti, meanwhile, said she liked to engage her employees, especially the young ones, through one-on-one dialogue, while honoring them by paying attention to their personal lives as well.

“Youngsters, as you know, tend to be defensive when criticized. Therefore, I’d ask them: What makes you feel stuck in your career? How can your personal interests match those of the company? We would also like them to learn how our business system fundamentally works so when it changes, we can communicate it to them more easily,” she told the Post.

“I also encourage employees to reflect on their strategies on the field: Why doesn’t this strategy work? Is this employee ready to apply this new approach or not? We have to develop trust and strategize together with our employees while challenging them to always boost their performance to attain their highest potential,” she added.

Her conversations with her employees often went beyond professional issues, she said: When someone got married she said supervisors would always make an effort to attend the ceremony, or when someone had their first baby they would ask them whether it was stressful to take care of a baby.

Michael, meanwhile, said that his company’s success could also be attributed to their regular public health awareness campaigns.

“Within the last three years, we have been sponsoring various sports events, such as tennis or running. We also groom young athletes, in the hope that they can perform on the international stage,” he said.

“We have also been conducting campaigns on high school students; we are concerned to see teenagers start smoking cigarettes from such a young age. We strive to help people avoid non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular ones. As a whole, we would like to encourage people to take preventive measures to reduce their healthcare spending,” he continued.

Shanti, meanwhile, said that her company strove to make Indonesia better by helping the country’s logistics sector adopt automation and management systems, which would boost its economic multiplier effects.

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