As China companies emerge on the world stage and join the global economy, The HEAD Foundation featured Prof Fu Ping Ping from the Chinese University of Hong Kong to share her research and insights on the leadership and organisational philosophies behind some of China’s most successful companies.
To a fully packed lecture hall, Prof Fu shared that in her research, values and corporate success need not be conflicting nor mutually exclusive but is complementary and go hand in hand. To demonstrate this, she provided a list of outstanding Chinese corporations who have embraced Confucian values such as compassion, diligence and integrity and how these values permeated the entire company, from leadership to front-line operations. Her research showed that by focusing on compassion and happiness (not only that of customers but also employees), rather than only on corporate profits, it led to greater positive outcomes, ranging from better quality products and services to stronger employee motivation and loyal customers.
Given how in recent years Western corporations have been searching for a higher purpose and focusing more on CSR, Prof Fu’s lecture offered invaluable wisdom on how alternative leadership and organisational models, geared towards humanistic outcomes such as happiness, can also lead to sustainable corporate success.
