Corporate Social Responsibility….What it Means to Me

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an initiative close to my heart and one I advocate very seriously.

If you’re not entirely sure what it means, it’s a concept where corporations give back to society usually through corporate philanthropy or volunteerism programmes. If done with the right intentions, it’s an admirable movement that can make a big impact to worthwhile causes. However, it is also a sad fact that some organisations do it mainly for the positive publicity it might bring. After the programme ends, beneficiaries are often forgotten. That’s a shame because with their resources, businesses are really in an optimum position to make a huge difference.

Most times, these programmes are aligned to a company’s corporate values which is fine. After all, as long as they do it with pure intentions, the initiatives still help society. However, to make a sustainable change, let’s get to the root of what’s troubling mankind.

You might have heard of the phrase, “What’s the value of saving the clothes of a drowning man but not the man himself?” It simply means it’s better to get to the root of the problem and solve it once and for all.

How does this phrase apply to us? In society, we’re all drowning, not literally, but with diseases, pain and suffering. Financial aid helps in the short term but does not get to the bottom of the issue. Monetary donations, for example, may help a poor family feed themselves for a month but do not eradicate poverty in the long term.

A truly sustainable CSR programme would be education of the spirit. This is going beyond traditional CSR so it might be a foreign concept to some of you. Let me illustrate what I mean.

Rich or poor, there are things everyone goes through. These are birth, disease, old age and death.

I’m extremely thankful to my friends and teachers who inculcated the spirit of charity in me since I was a boy. We spent a lot of time helping people and providing food for the poor. More importantly, we educated people both spiritually about the soul and who they really are, and mentally to help them create a better life for themselves. At the end, the key lesson they walked away with is, material things will not make them happy. They realise the truth – that we’re not the material body but the spirit soul. Suddenly, something trivial like not having enough money to upgrade our car will not matter anymore because you realise materialism is just temporary.

That is true CSR to me. After all, social responsibility means caring for others.

As they say, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life. It’s all about empowering society with the right tools and knowledge to improve their lives. By society, let’s not forget to include the animals we share the world with and the environment we live in.

So let’s all do our part in caring and only then can we make real sustainable change.
Yours sincerely,

Joseph Bismark
Group Managing Director
QI Group

The Story of the ‘One Sack of Rice’

Much is being said in the news lately about the “fiscal cliff” and its potential negative impact on the world economy. Then, there is decreased manufacturing output that may spell the beginning of another recession. A lot of people I’ve spoken to recently have voiced their fears over losing their jobs, or having to scale back. While I understand their worry, my reply to them is there’s really no point in worrying. Good times come and go.

Let me share a story from my childhood that illustrates this really well…

When I was younger and living in an ashram, we had to look for means of livelihood. The best option was farming and selling the harvested crop for money. I remember, vividly, the first year we started farming.

Most of us had no knowledge of farming whatsoever and had to rely on the advice and guidance from our elders. Being first-timers, we started with planting one sack of rice on one hectare of land. We toiled tirelessly to ensure our crop would grow healthily – fertilising, watering our crop, weeding bad growth, and making sure our crop was pest-free. It was back-breaking work but we soldiered on, hoping to get a good harvest. The end result surprised us all. We harvested a record 126 sacks of rice! Of course, we were beyond ourselves with joy, this being our first time.

We had been so excited to farm that we never thought of a plan after harvesting. It never occurred to us that we would need a barn in which to store our rice. Not having built one, we stored the sacks out in the open. We were literally sleeping on the sacks of rice! That’s how much of novices we were.

Rearing to go after our success, we waited for the next harvesting season. Wanting to double our harvest, we put in even more effort this time. With hard work, we had gotten 126 sacks the first time. So, double the effort equals double the gain, right? It doesn’t take a mathematician to come up with that formula. However, that year, the Philippines faced one of its worst typhoons ever. Not only was our growing crop destroyed, the 126 sacks were all washed away since they were not protected in a barn.

We were absolutely devastated and almost gave up. However, as hard as it was, we had to pick ourselves up and continue planting.

You might wonder why I’m telling you this story. The moral is to never give up. After we lost our entire crop, we did not want to plant again. What’s the point, we thought? Do we not think like this at times? The fact is many things in life are beyond our control. We didn’t know what the season will bring but we could control the amount of effort we put in. In fact, that is the only factor we can control.

It’s the same in business – there will be good and bad years but we never know when. The more pertinent question is, should we stop trying? We’re all like farmers – planting seeds of opportunity, weeding out bad growth and continually harvesting. Now the storm may be coming. This might be a bad year economically. However, complaining and worrying isn’t going to get us anywhere. Good and bad times are a part of life, like day and night.

What happens is not in our hands but one thing we can’t do is sit around and speculate. Just as farmers don’t stop planting, businessmen shouldn’t stop investing in an idea just because they’ve lost once.

Happy New Year!

Yours sincerely,

Joseph Bismark
Group Managing Director
QI Group

The Importance of Innovation

Innovate or die. I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase. It’s advice I agree wholeheartedly with. Why is it so important though?

The market now is constantly evolving. Not only do businesses need to survive and thrive with advanced technology, they need to ensure they are always ahead of the pack.

An example of a good innovator is Steve Jobs. He did not invent the computer or the mobile phone but he definitely revolutionised technology. It’s almost like being a chef. You mix and match raw ingredients and invent a brand new dish. That’s my mantra in business. I don’t think it’s necessary to create something new, but rather reinvent something that is unique and fresh.

When we founded QNET, there were similar companies around. However we took on the very powerful concept of Network Marketing and adapted it. QNET’s offering initially was just a few simple products. We increased and refined our product range every year, adding one or two products each time. Every six years, we conduct a thorough market analysis and trend forecast to ensure QNET remains ahead of the curve. Before we take one product off the market, we produce new and innovative products as new offerings. In terms of marketing, our team is proactively seeking ways to engage with our customers.

An example of that is V-Con. Would you believe that our first V-Con had only 98 participants? Compare that with V-Indonesia this year which attracted 10,000 of our distributors. Throughout the years, V-Con has gone through many changes. It has grown to become an all-encompassing entertainment extravaganza with an adjoining product exhibition area and musical performances. In 2010, we decided to leverage on social media and technology, and bring the V-Con action to all our customers who couldn’t attend. Anyone from the furthest ends of the world can keep abreast with the goings-on at V-Con as long as they have access to the Internet through the QNET blog and social media sites. I see this development as part of innovating.

No one knows what the future holds but we keep looking for things that would excite our customers. Most times, it’s based on a gut feel. There are no experts in business, in this day and age. There are products that did not do as well as expected. On the other end of the spectrum, there have also been products that I didn’t like, that ended up being really successful. Hence, I’ve learned the key is to have an open mind. It’s all about trial and error.

Isn’t that the way most things in life are?

Yours sincerely,

Joseph Bismark
Group Managing Director
QI Group

The Mark of a Leader

What makes a good leader? Are leaders born or made?

I get asked these questions often.

My reply is, “Everyone has the potential to be a leader.”

There are many opportunities to lead. It’s all about taking responsibility.

These opportunities are not only found at work, but also at home. As a spouse, we lead our significant other. As parents, we lead our children. If you’re a stay-at-home mother, your children look to you for guidance. You would also be responsible for leading your domestic helper.

The question really to ponder is, “Are you taking on the responsibility to lead?”

To be a good leader, there are two things you need to know and understand.

1.      Know your end destination

The first rule of leadership is to know where you’re heading, and ensure that is the right path. The right path would be the path of goodness, morality, kindness and compassion. A good leader would not lead people to danger.

2.     Walk the talk

Secondly, good leaders practise what they preach. For example, we would advise our children not to pick up smoking because we know it’s harmful. For them to take us seriously, we shouldn’t be smokers ourselves.

True leaders don’t contradict themselves. People choose to follow a leader if they trust and believe in that person’s mission.

A modern example of a common leader is Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft. He has always espoused the importance of hard work and passion in achieving success. Gates is one of the richest men in the world but has donated a significant amount of his wealth to charitable causes. Who can forget his pledge to donate all of his fortune to charity? His passion in contributing positively to the world led him to start the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is the world’s largest private foundation.

“If you want to become a leader that people admire and respect, you must become a person of significance. People don’t follow you because you take from them; they follow you because you give to them,” he says.

His passion in giving back to society compels people to respect his leadership.

Let’s ask ourselves if we are that kind of leader. Would we want to follow our own leadership? If the honest answer is no, let’s change that. If we do not have faith in ourselves as leaders, others would find it hard to have faith in us.

Leadership is about doing what needs to be done. Responsibility comes when you truly care about something. That sense of ownership and responsibility is the mark of a true leader.

Yours sincerely,

Joseph Bismark
Group Managing Director
QI Group

 

Criticism

“Let the dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.”

This phrase is one that I heard often during my childhood.

Criticism is part and parcel of life. There will always be dogs barking at us but we shouldn’t let them affect us. Like the caravan, we should move on, instead of trying to stop them. Continue reading

Simplicity in Change

Things were simpler in the past. Global warming wasn’t as pressing an issue as now, the air wasn’t as polluted and life wasn’t as hectic.

It’s no doubt that creature comforts like modern technology and cars have made life more comfortable. It’s very easy now to keep in touch with loved ones, or drive anywhere you fancy.

However, to every positive, there has to be a negative. Modernisation and industrialisation has brought about adverse change to the environment. The more modern the world becomes, the more polluted it also becomes. Continue reading

Self-esteem

It’s often said that self-esteem is the key to happiness and success. In fact, so much has been said about the importance of building self-worth. However, how does one do that?

Why do people have low self-esteem? It stems from a lack of self-awareness – not knowing who they really are. Continue reading

Journey to Happiness Starts from Understanding the Truth

This world is temporary – a place of misery.

There seems to be tragedy everywhere we look. Sometimes, it hits close to home when a loved one gets ill and eventually passes away. On a larger scale, war, pestilence, drought, famine or a disaster of some kind can also cause suffering. Sadly, tragedies come despite us not wanting them. But this is the very nature of this world.

As spirit-souls, we are perfect by nature, so it’s natural for us to seek perfection. However, the material world is full of imperfections and these imperfections are very frustrating for the perfect soul. It’s in this conflict that we remain always unhappy. Trying to find happiness in the temporary world is a futile attempt for the soul who thinks that he is the material body.

There is a greater need for us to understand our true identities as spirit soul and not the material body. This understanding will free us from the anxieties and miseries that our bodies are subjected to. Birth, disease, old age and death are all stages of suffering that the soul goes through while inside a temporary body. The body is bound to get sick and old. The mind, the subtle body of the soul, is also not free from anxieties.

Miseries can also be caused by other living entities. For example, a sting from a tiny insect such as the mosquito can cause illness. Then, like I mentioned earlier, Mother Nature can wreak havoc on our lives. We just have to look at the recent typhoon in the Philippines that has taken so many lives and destroyed homes.

Is there a way to prevent such miseries? Sadly, there isn’t. Misery is part and parcel of this material world. Living in an imperfect world, we can’t expect to have perfect lives.

There is one thing we can control though, and that is the way we deal with these miseries – by first acknowledging the reality of the situation, that you cannot change the nature of this world.

Take prison as an analogy. Prisons are depressing places, and they are that way to rehabilitate criminals. After all, you should not expect 5-star lodgings in a prison as they are meant for those who have broken the law. I’m sure no one dreams of being imprisoned but if you’ve done wrong and have been jailed, what would you rather do? Sit in your cell and complain all day, or focus your energy on getting out of there?

I don’t know about you but I would choose the latter.

It is the same in life. It’s important that we take a good look at the nature of this world; it is like a prison house, not really our home. The soul’s real home is in the spiritual world, a place where there is no birth, disease, old age and death. A perfect place that is full of bliss, knowledge and eternity. Life inside these material bodies may be full of miseries, but the understanding of the truth about our real identity is what will set us free.

If we understand that simple truth about the soul, then this is the beginning of a journey towards real happiness.

Societal Equality… What Does It Really Mean?

In society, everyone has a role to play. We all have a prescribed duty. Are some duties more important than others? Certainly. But in terms of function, every role is equally important to contribute to the sustained survival of society. We need the street sweepers and we need the heads of Government. We need the school teachers and we need the students. The individual importance of each is not the same, but the importance placed on each function when considered as part of a whole society is indeed equal to the well-being of society.

The concept of ‘equality’ has been misconstrued over the years. For example, women’s liberation activists will petition that women and men are equal. This is correct in terms of function, but not in terms of ability and purpose – because ‘equal’ does not mean ‘the same’. Men cannot give birth. Women are much more poorly equipped, physically and biologically, for heavy manual labour, than men. Yet, we need the functions of both men and women. There is a reason that men and women are built differently, both physically and mentally.

Similarly, the concept of equality in society has been misunderstood and distorted.

Consider the physical body. We have legs for walking, a stomach for eating, arms for administrative work and to protect the body, and we have a head to do our thinking. All this bodily division acts according to its function and, when each part works as per its function, you have a body that is efficient and effective.

On a whole, if you look at society, the different divisions or inclinations of people in general can be akin to the body. In society, the legs are the labourer class. They are the ones doing the street work and our construction. That’s their function in society. The stomach of society is the mercantile class who engage themselves in business. They ‘feed’ society. The labourers would not have work without them. In society, the hands are the administrators. They do the admin work, police work, government duties, and general management of society. They set and enforce taxes, laws, and guidelines for daily life. Finally, the head of society are the thinkers, the philosophers, the priests, the monks, the scientists, the philanthropists, etc. The head protects the morality, ethics, and religiosity of society. They influence the administration class to enforce guidelines that would make this world a better place. We need all four ‘classes’ to have a fully functional society, but certainly there is an inherent hierarchical system.

Still not convinced? Think of a bee colony. There are workers, drones, and a Queen.  Individually, the Queen is obviously the most ‘important’. But if each worker bee and drone bee did not fulfil their function, the whole colony would fail and die, including the Queen.

We need each function in society, just like we need each body part. But one thing that is often forgotten is that a person becomes a member of each ‘class’, not because of birth, but because of qualification. This is where the caste system in India began to be severely misunderstood. Just because a person is born into a family of labourers, does not preclude that person from raising themselves through education, determination, and generally qualifying themselves to complete the function of a ‘higher class’. A person’s prescribed duty depends on a person’s values, upbringing, and set of inclinations.

According to our inclinations, we all have different work. The point is that whatever our calling is, we should fulfil it to the very best of our ability. If your job is to serve at a restaurant, then give the best service you possibly can. If your job is to run a company, then be the most professional, ethical, hard-working director that you can possibly be.

If today you are a mommy, then be the best mommy. Don’t complain about staying home; what type of society would we have if every single child was raised by a maid, rather than his/her parents? If you are a boss, don’t complain about having to go to work every day. Set a good example; this is your prescribed duty and it is you who aspired to be in this position.

One last thing to remember, is that in life, we all have multiple roles to play. A CEO is not just a CEO, but also a husband, a father, a friend, a son. When you go home, take off your CEO hat… Don’t start setting KPIs for your four-year-old child.

Yours sincerely,

Joseph Bismark
Group Managing Director, QI Ltd

All Wrapped Up in Christmas

Once upon a time, three kings followed a star in the night sky in search of a newborn boy who was prophesised as the Son of God. With them, they bore gifts as an expression of their love and respect for the one who would come to be known as the Son of Man.

On this day, Christ was born. And so was Christmas.

More than 2,000 years later, this concept of giving gifts at Christmas first set by the three kings has prevailed, even if the true meaning of Christmas has been somewhat lost amongst the mountains of discarded wrapping paper and quick-fix presents.

From where has this pressure to give presents at Christmas come? From department stores with their glittering window displays and ‘Christmas Sales’? Money-hungry business people capitalising on the commercialisation of an ancient tradition held close to the hearts of many? From social norms, that say those who don’t give presents during Christmas are frowned upon as being thoughtless and uncaring? Whatever happened to ‘it’s the thought that counts’?

Before I go on, I should state that I am not a Scrooge and I certainly do not say ‘bah humbug’ whenever someone offers me Christmas cheer. I think Christmas brings out the best in people and today, even atheists will wish their friends and family a ‘Happy Christmas’ during this festive season. This is great, but do they know what they are saying? Do they know the meaning of Christmas? Whether we’re talking about the word or the holiday, you simply cannot have Christmas without Christ.

The very thing about Christmas is that it should be a time to remember Christ and give him thanks. The giving of gifts should be to express our love and respect for the people we hold dear. It is, after all, the season of giving. But let’s think about why we are giving the gift in the first place. Did you wander aimlessly around the shopping centre with a list of names, trying to find something – anything – that you could buy so in order to cross off another name on the list? This is not the meaning of giving. In essence, this type of present is nothing but gift-wrapped emptiness, devoid of meaning and emotion.

The best gift I have received this year was from my mother. She gave me a beautiful card with even more beautiful words inside. She said that she couldn’t think of anything to ‘buy’ for me that would bring me happiness; but she knew without a doubt what to ‘give’ me that would make me truly happy. She wrote in her card that her gift to me was that she would continue to meditate and devote herself to her prayers. She said she would give thanks to the Lord. She said she knew that this would please me more than anything else, and so this is what she was giving to me for Christmas.

What my mother gave me was something lasting. Something that was only for me and something that showed just how much she loves and cares for me. What my mother gave me made me happy, far more than a set of matching socks, a new alarm clock, or a new car. For Christmas, my mother gave me love.

There is nothing wrong with buying gifts for people at Christmastime. But ask yourself what the gift means – to you and to the person you are giving it to. The focus should not be on the gift, but on the expression of love and care for another human being that the gift represents. The gift doesn’t have to be expensive or elaborate. But it must have meaning.

To each and all of my readers, my gift to you is this Gem. May you take just a few moments to ponder the question of what the people around you mean to you, and by doing so, may you give them a gift that truly matters this year.
Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and successful new year to you all.

Sincerely,
Joseph Bismark

Group Managing Director, QI Ltd