Across Asia, business schools are transforming how they prepare graduates, placing real-world relevance at the center of their education.

• Business curricula are aligning more closely with employers’ daily priorities, translating classroom theory into real workplace purpose.
• Regional case studies and industry-tested faculty are reshaping the Asian classroom experience.
• Hands-on simulations and real-world scenarios are turning classrooms into living laboratories that deepen student engagement.

Transcript

Joseph Cherian: [00:12] When individuals, employers, and students question the value of the business degree, they’re questioning everything: the entire model, the value it brings to the table, the relevance to industry (especially employees asking, ‘is this relevant for my workplace?’) and the costs.

[00:33] Fortunately, Asians still value education. The half-life, or the duration for time decay in terms of its relevance, will be longer than in the U.S. or Europe, which are more impatient. But that said, Generation Z is also getting impatient in Asia.

[00:51] They’re asking and questioning: why should I get this degree? How does that add value to my career trajectory or my relevance in society? Many Gen Zers want to do good. They want to give back to the community more than I did—now I do, but in the old days, I did not. As a result, they begin to question, even in Asia.

[01:14] What employers are signaling is that the stuff that you learn in business schools—if we can focus on business schools, since this is what we’re here for—has to be relevant to what we are doing on a daily basis: our vision, our mission, our purpose.

[01:29] The last thing an employer wants is to take in talent from a business school, retrain them, and put them through some kind of rotation program to drink the Kool-Aid.

[01:42] Schools should be doing that. We should make our curriculum and our programs relevant. If you live in Asia, you’d better be using Asian cases. It should be experiential, it should be hands-on.

[01:56] Sometimes it’s good in life that you fail in every aspect of your career. I failed in academics. I failed industry. And I failed in, I don’t know, what’s the last one? Policymaking…Just kidding.

[02:05] What I think is useful is the experience. The blended experience of working in academia, being trained in academia, and then having a career in industry is invaluable. I don’t say it for self-serving purposes. I say it because that’s what a business school is about.

[02:23] It’s like talking to a professor of surgery at the top medical school who says, ‘hypothetically speaking, this is how you perform an incision for a type of surgery.’ You don’t want to go to such a school. You want to make sure you get a surgeon, a professor of surgery who’s performed surgery.

[02:42] Somehow, business schools are exempt from this rule, but we can be straight through from university with no experience, and yet be teaching students how to become professionals. Something doesn’t add up.

[02:55] At the Asia School of Business, we are doing modularized learning. Basically, you can take the education in bite-sized pieces. We call them stackable microcredentials. It’s not the newest concept on Earth. It’s been around for many years; many schools have been doing it.

[03:12] But we’ve made it into a unique form suited to the Asian audience. When students come to my class—I teach finance, particularly portfolio management and investments—they watch my videos asynchronously, and at the end of the week, they can dial in or come in person. Most come in person if they’re in the neighborhood or in that zip code.

[03:34] What happens is we have the jam sessions. I mean, I don’t mean we plug in the guitar, drums, and all that. What we mean is that we run simulations, conduct scenario analyses, and perform what-if situations. So we put students in a thinking-cap mode, and it’s more fun.

[03:52] For the boring theory stuff, you can get it from any textbook or watch videos anytime you want—and you can rerun it as many times as you want, like on Netflix. You watch the series a gazillion times. But when you come to the class, we learn how to apply that theory in the living laboratory.

Originally published by AACSB

Malaysia’s financial center ambitions are gaining traction by leveraging its world-leading Islamic finance strength rather than directly competing with Singapore. To maximize success, economists emphasize uniting its various regional financial hubs into a single, cohesive ecosystem centered in Kuala Lumpur.

For instance, TRX has attracted major financial institutions including HSBC, Prudential and Affin Bank, alongside technology companies such as Ant International, consultants and other professional services firms.

Professor Joseph Cherian, CEO, president and dean of Asia School of Business, noted that physical clustering is only the beginning.

He said at the moment, TRX is a very successful property development, but that alone does not make it an international financial centre.

He said the financial capability has to be deliberately built. Labuan arguably has more of that institutional infrastructure already because it has operated as an offshore financial centre for many years.

“You need intellectual capital. You need people who understand finance, markets, regulation, asset management, capital raising and product development.”

He suggested bringing expertise from institutions including Bank Negara Malaysia, the Securities Commission, Employees Provident Fund, Permodalan Nasional and the Ministry of Finance together at TRX with a mandate to develop the financial ecosystem.

The discussion should focus on three key areas: developing new financial products, attracting asset managers, and internationalising Malaysia’s sukuk market.

He said Malaysia’s strongest opportunity lies in something more difficult for Singapore to replicate: Islamic finance.

He said Malaysia’s decades spent building expertise in sukuk, Islamic banking, takaful, and Shariah governance give it an unrivaled edge in the region.

Rather than trying to replicate a conventional financial centre and adding Islamic products around its edges, Islamic finance should become the organising principle of Malaysia’s IFC strategy.

One opportunity would be to internationalise Malaysia’s sukuk market by encouraging major multinational companies operating in the country to issue US dollar-denominated sukuk and distribute them to global investors.

“If you want an Islamic financial centre, come to Malaysia. We are among the best in the world,” 

The objective should not be to defeat Singapore but to build capabilities that make the two centres valuable to each other.

“Malaysia doesn’t have to defeat Singapore or Hong Kong… It has to develop capabilities that make those centres want to work with Malaysia,” 

Malaysia’s efforts to develop multiple financial centres also present another challenge: whether spreading activity across different locations undermines the concentration that makes financial centres successful.

Malaysia’s efforts to develop multiple financial centres also present another challenge: whether spreading activity across different locations undermines the concentration that makes financial centres successful.

Prof Cherian said Malaysia needs a clearer hierarchy, with Kuala Lumpur and TRX serving as the country’s principal international financial hub and other centres developing specialised roles.

“You cannot have Labuan, Penang, Johor and every other location all saying, ‘We want to be the financial centre.’ You need to choose your main international financial centre,” 

Under his proposed hub-and-spoke model, Labuan could retain its offshore role while developing areas such as Islamic finance and tokenisation, while Johor could specialise in Islamic wealth management and family wealth.

Originally published by Business Times

Kuala Lumpur: Sebuah jawatankuasa bebas akan ditubuhkan bagi meneliti keseluruhan aspek berkaitan pembentukan One Higher Education Act (Akta Pendidikan Tinggi Tunggal) susulan keputusan kerajaan memansuhkan Akta Universiti dan Kolej Universiti 1971 (AUKU).

Menteri Pendidikan Tinggi, Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir, berkata jawatankuasa itu akan melihat pelbagai aspek berkaitan akta baharu bagi memastikan ia memenuhi keperluan pendidikan tinggi semasa dan masa depan.

“Dalam mesyuarat Kabinet semalam, Perdana Menteri memaklumkan bahawa Kabinet mengambil maklum mengenai keputusan untuk memansuhkan AUKU, tetapi pada masa sama perlu ada akta baharu, iaitu One Higher Education Act.

“Justeru, kita akan melaksanakan beberapa langkah. Pertama, menubuhkan satu jawatankuasa bebas untuk melihat keseluruhan aspek akta baharu yang akan kita tubuhkan.

“Kedua, kita akan membabitkan semua pihak berkepentingan dan ketiga, menubuhkan satu kumpulan untuk membangunkan rang undang-undang baharu,” katanya.

Beliau berkata demikian selepas Persidangan Kebolehpasaran Graduan Pendidikan Tinggi (PKGKPT) 2026 dan Peluncuran Pelan Strategik Kebolehpasaran Graduan (PSKG) 2026-2030 di sini, semalam.

Hadir sama Ketua Setiausaha Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi (KPT), Datuk Dr Aminuddin Hassim dan Timbalan Dekan Penyelidikan dan Akademik Asia School of Business, Prof Madya Dr Melati Nungsari.

Pada 15 Ogos lalu, Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim mengumumkan kerajaan akan memansuhkan AUKU bagi memberi ruang kebebasan yang lebih luas kepada mahasiswa.

Laksana Mekanisme Peralihan

Zambry berkata, kerajaan juga akan mewujudkan satu mekanisme peralihan bagi memastikan urusan perundangan institusi pendidikan tinggi tidak terjejas sepanjang proses pemansuhan AUKU dan penggubalan akta baharu berkenaan.

Menurutnya, proses dijangka mengambil masa dan memerlukan penelitian menyeluruh memandangkan AUKU merangkumi pelbagai aspek termasuk kepentingan mahasiswa, penubuhan universiti, tadbir urus, akademik dan kedudukan pensyarah.

“Saya tahu ada desakan supaya ia mesti diumumkan dalam sidang Parlimen tetapi ia bukan perkara yang kecil dan semata-mata melibatkan satu kelompok sahaja.

“AUKU ini akta induk bagi institusi pendidikan tinggi. Daripada 44 seksyen, ada yang menyentuh mengenai soal mahasiswa, penubuhan universiti, tadbir urus, akademik, kebebasan akademik dan kedudukan pensyarah.

“Jadi, apabila kita mahu menggantikannya, kita perlu melihat keseluruhan perkara itu dan bukan sekadar meletakkan nama akta sedangkan perkara lama masih ada,” katanya.

Mengenai garis masa proses berkenaan, beliau berkata, KPT telah memulakan pelaksanaan kerja di peringkat dasar bagi membangunkan One Higher Education Act.

“Kita perlu melihat keperluan masa kini dan juga masa hadapan sebelum merangka sebuah akta baharu. Saya harap semua boleh bersabar kerana dalam proses untuk mewujudkan akta yang baharu ini,” katanya.

Originally published by Berita Harian.

In today’s rapidly changing business environment, senior executives need to do more than accumulate experience—they must continuously update their knowledge and perspectives. Asia School of Business (ASB) has introduced its Mandarin Executive Education Programme to help Chinese-speaking senior executives strengthen their business insights, leadership capabilities, and decision-making skills. 

Conducted entirely in Mandarin, the programme is led by experienced faculty and industry practitioners. It equips participants with a systematic understanding of business trends across Asia and the global market, while enhancing their ability to lead and make decisions effectively in a cross-cultural environment.  

Staying Ahead in a Rapidly Changing Business Environment 

The business landscape is evolving at an unprecedented pace, and senior executives cannot afford to stop learning simply because they have reached the top of their careers. In recent years, a growing number of executive education programmes have emerged, covering areas such as leadership, digital transformation and strategic thinking. These programmes are designed to help business leaders refresh their knowledge and make more forward-looking decisions in an increasingly complex environment. 

Among these areas, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as one of the most sought-after topics. According to Huang Su Ling, Executive Director of the Executive Education Centre at ASB, the school’s AI-related programmes are consistently fully subscribed. 

“Senior executives want to understand how to lead their people in the age of AI, as well as what kind of talent they should be hiring,” she said.  

Leadership programmes are also highly popular among executives. In contrast, sustainability—which was once a major business buzzword—has attracted less attention in recent years amid changing geopolitical developments and global trends.  

A Business School with Strong Foundations 

ASB has a distinguished background. It was established through a collaboration between Bank Negara Malaysia and the MIT Sloan School of Management, and offers MBA, EMBA and Executive Education programmes. 

Its Executive Education portfolio covers areas including leadership and management, sustainability, corporate governance and technology, catering to managers at different levels, senior business leaders and board members. 

In the Financial Times Executive Education Ranking 2026, ASB was ranked 94th globally, making it the first business school in Malaysia to break into the global top 100.  

While empathy and work-life balance are increasingly valued in today’s workplace, Huang believes certain principles remain fundamental regardless of how the business environment changes. Ethics and integrity, for example, remain essential qualities for every senior executive.  

ASB’s Executive Education programmes are generally short-term in nature, with some designed as one-day programmes. However, learning does not end when a course is completed. Participants can continue their development by enrolling in advanced or other specialised programmes offered by ASB.  

ASB also offers micro-credential programmes, covering areas such as financial accounting and managerial economics. These programmes are designed to be concise and focused on specific professional skills, with credits that may be transferable towards formal degree programmes.  

Practical and Customised Learning 

ASB also provides customised executive education programmes for government agencies and corporations. 

Huang explained that companies can share their specific challenges with ASB’s team, after which the school will develop a customised programme tailored to address those needs.  

The school’s Executive Education programmes place strong emphasis on practical application, enabling participants to apply what they learn directly to real-world business situations. More importantly, the programmes aim not merely to impart knowledge, but to encourage executives to embrace change and actively seek new opportunities. 

Because these programmes are designed for experienced business leaders, the teaching approach goes beyond traditional textbooks and classroom lectures. ASB incorporates interactive learning methods such as business simulations and even virtual reality technology. The school also maintains a rigorous selection process for its faculty.  

Mandarin Executive Education Programme (MEEP) 

ASB currently offers the Mandarin Executive Education Programme (MEEP). One of the upcoming programmes is a one-day course scheduled for 26 August 2026, titled: 

“Key Responsibilities of a CEO: Leadership, Management and the 4R Management Model” 

The programme will be conducted by Dato’ Dr Chang Tong Kwee.  

With more than 30 years of cross-industry experience, Dato’ Dr Chang’s career spans the financial, manufacturing, property and investment management sectors. He spent more than 20 years in senior management roles with the Hong Leong Group.  

During the programme, he will explore the fundamental differences between leadership and management, and how senior executives can effectively master both capabilities. 

Many professionals are promoted into senior management because they excel in a particular area, such as sales, research and development, or production. However, some struggle after stepping into executive roles because their mindset remains rooted in their previous responsibilities and they have yet to develop the broader perspective and decisiveness required of a leader. 

“This is why my course will examine the difference between leadership and management—what management does and what leadership does,” he explained.  

The 4R Management Model 

The course will also introduce the 4R Management Model, which focuses on four critical elements for sustainable business growth: 

• Right People  
• Right Product  
• Right Cost  
• Right Return  

The framework provides business leaders with a practical approach to building a management system that supports sustainable growth.  

In addition, Dato’ Dr Chang will introduce the concept of “Ambidextrous Leadership”, which forms part of his doctoral research. 

In simple terms, ambidextrous leadership means managing today’s business effectively while simultaneously exploring opportunities for the future. This may involve strategic upgrades, organisational innovation and business transformation. 

Through real-world cases and classroom interaction, participants will learn how to improve operational efficiency while simultaneously driving strategic renewal.  

Combining Real-World Experience with Academic Knowledge 

Drawing on his extensive management experience, Dato’ Dr Chang will bring practical insights from his years with the Hong Leong Group into the classroom, allowing participants to better understand how leadership and management work in real business situations. 

Beyond his extensive professional experience, he also has a strong academic background. In 2015, at the age of 58, he enrolled in a Doctor of Management programme jointly awarded by Peking University’s National School of Development and Fordham University. 

At the time, some people questioned whether pursuing a doctorate after the age of 50 was too late. For him, however, one of the main motivations was to experience university life properly. During his undergraduate years, he had been busy working to finance his education and never had the opportunity to fully experience campus life—something he had always considered a personal regret. 

Another important motivation was his desire to integrate his extensive practical experience with management theory and use this knowledge in his doctoral research. He also had a long-standing ambition to become a university professor and pass on the knowledge and expertise he had gained through years of practical experience to the next generation of business leaders.  

As the saying goes, “Your perspective determines the scale of your vision.” 

But Dato’ Dr Chang adds: “What connects perspective and vision? It is management, execution and leadership.” 

Through this programme, he hopes to provide participants with more than a deeper understanding of management. His goal is to equip them with a practical management framework that can be directly applied to real-world business situations. 

Originally published by Sin Chew Daily.

THERE are journeys where the destination is not what stays with you. It is what you notice along the way.

Years ago, I often travelled to visit my company’s plantation in Sugut, Sabah.

On the return journey towards Telupid, the road passed one smallholding after another. Some plots were neat and well-tended, their palms almost standing to attention.

Others looked as though palms and owners were negotiating daily with weeds, uncertain weather and limited means.

What often caught my eye were fertiliser bags stacked by the roadside, tucked beneath zinc-roofed sheds or resting against an oil palm.

I wondered about their story. Had they just been delivered? Was the farmer waiting for labour? Had rain interrupted the work? Or had cash flow allowed the fertiliser to be bought, but not yet applied?

Whatever the reason, the image stayed with me.

A fertiliser bag may contain everything a palm needs, yet it will never produce a single additional bunch on its own.

Someone must first afford it, choose the right formulation,carry it into the field, apply it correctly and wait for biology to reward good stewardship.

It struck me that the greatest challenge was never the fertiliser itself. It was everything that had to happen before the bag was opened.

The longer I reflected on that roadside image, the more I realised the bag was never the real story. The smallholder was.

For years, I regarded the yield gap largely as an agronomic puzzle.

Like many in the industry, I looked towards better planting materials, balanced nutrition, timely harvesting and stronger field management.

If yields disappointed, surely better agronomy was the answer.

The more smallholders I met, however, the more that conviction changed.

Their conversations rarely began with potassium rates or harvesting intervals. They began with life.

One worried about school fees. Another wondered whether his son would return to the farm or remain in town driving an e-hailing car.

One spoke of rising fertiliser prices; another of finding harvesters before overripe bunches shed valuable loose fruits.

As kopi-O cooled beneath modest verandas, the real stories emerged: resilience rather than complaint, quiet ambition rather than grand dreams, and difficult choices made with almost no margin for error.

Smallholders seldom make isolated farming decisions. Every fertiliser application competes with household expenses. Every decision to replant competes with several years of reduced income. Every investment carries the weight of family responsibility.

Agronomy is easy to prescribe from an office. It becomes far harder when every ringgit or rupiah already has several claimants. The oil palm itself began to look different to me.

For many smallholders, it was no longer merely a crop, but a companion through uncertainty: a bank account rooted in soil, a source of school fees, a retirement fund, a gamble against weather and markets and, sometimes, a green promise that next year might be better.

Those roadside conversations stayed with me long after the journeys ended.

They eventually sent me back, not to another plantation, but to the research.

I wanted to know whether what I had heard over countless cups of kopi had also been observed in careful studies.

It had. The research explained what was happening. The conversations helped explain why.

Together, they revealed a picture that neither could have painted alone.

A deeper truth emerged: the real yield gap is not simply the difference between what a palm can produce and what it actually produces.

It is often the gap between knowing what should be done and having enough confidence to do it.

That confidence is not created by encouragement alone.

It is built through trusted advice, protection from exploitation, affordable inputs, sensible financing, dependable labour, fair markets and institutions that reduce uncertainty rather than deepen it.

The crop is there, but the yield is missing

One major study of Indonesian independent smallholders examined nearly a thousand fields and reached a sobering conclusion.

On average, farmers harvested only about 42% of what their palms could realistically produce under comparable conditions. More than half the attainable crop was missing. At first glance, the remedy appears obvious. Apply more fertiliser. Harvest more regularly. Control weeds. Prune correctly. But every recommendation carries a cost.

The studies found that many smallholders could not apply enough fertiliser.

Others used what they could afford rather than what the palms most needed. Potassium and magnesium, both important to palm growth and bunch formation, were frequently inadequate.

It is easy to say, “Apply more fertiliser.”

It is harder to ask who pays, who advises, who carries the risk and who absorbs the loss if the recommendation proves unsuitable. A plantation company spreads risk across thousands of hectares. A smallholder farming two or three hectares cannot.

One poor purchase, one weak-price season or one medical bill can consume years of savings.

When that happens, caution is not laziness. It is survival. The limiting nutrient may be potassium. The limiting factor is often confidence.

Harvesting tells a similar story. Oil palm rewards rhythm. Harvest regularly and the crop responds. Delay too long and loose fruits are lost, bunches become overripe and quality declines.

Yet regular rounds require workers, transport and buyers willing to collect fruit on time. When any link breaks, biology does not wait.

Perhaps the most sobering finding was that many of the widest yield gaps occurred when palms should have been at their biological peak.

Those should have been the years when families accumulated savings, invested in education and prepared for replanting.

Instead, many palms spent their prime underfed or poorly managed. Lost youth, in palms as in people, is never recovered.

For years, the industry has looked towards replanting as the principal solution. Better genetics undoubtedly matter. Certified planting materials raise the crop’s potential.

But better seedlings cannot compensate for chronic underfeeding, irregular harvesting or weak field management. High-performing genetics planted into weak systems become talented palms trapped by their circumstances.

The encouraging news is that the research also points towards hope. When ordinary good farming was applied consistently – balanced fertiliser, regular harvesting, sensible pruning, proper frond placement and better weed management – yields rose by about 40%.

There was no miracle technology, expensive machinery or expansion into new land. Just ordinary agronomy, practised consistently.

That may be the most encouraging lesson of all. The science is largely known. The challenge is helping farmers sustain good practice long enough for nature to respond.

Costs rise first; benefits come later. Oil palm has a long biological memory.

A farmer may know what should be done and still hesitate because the household must survive before the crop repays the investment.

A loan can be approved on paper and still fail in the field. Finance, too, must respect biology. Oil palm does not answer to a twelve-month banking calendar.

When organisation changes behaviour

Across the Straits of Malacca, another smallholder story emerges. The palms look familiar. The support systems do not.

Malaysia’s independent smallholders face many of the same pressures: ageing palms, rising input costs, labour shortages, uncertain succession and increasingly demanding sustainability requirements.

Many still rely on contractors. Records may be incomplete. Fertiliser may be applied by habit rather than analysis.

Yet the Johor experience under the P&G Smallholder Programme shows what becomes possible when farmers are supported not only with technical advice but also with organisation, certification, traceability and structured access to inputs and markets.

Participating farmers reported yield gains of about 20% to 25% over two to three years, with some longer-participating farms reaching 35%.

The figures matter. But the deeper transformation was behavioural.

Farmers who once estimated began to measure. Those who relied on memory began keeping records.

Fertiliser moved from guesswork to planning. Harvests became something analysed rather than remembered. Audits became less a visit by strangers and more a checkpoint for better management.

Perhaps most importantly, farmers stopped learning alone.

Through organisations such as Pertaniaga, they became members, mentors and ambassadors. Experienced growers shared practical knowledge.

Learning farms allowed neighbours to see improvements with their own eyes.

Women assumed leadership roles. Experience began to circulate rather than remain isolated.

There is quiet dignity in that transformation. The smallholder is no longer merely the smallest supplier at the end of a long value chain. He – and increasingly she – becomes a recognised participant with records, identity, responsibilities and a voice.

Traceability is often discussed as though it exists only to satisfy distant regulators or overseas buyers. But it can also serve the farmer. A smallholder whose land is mapped, production recorded and practices known becomes easier to advise, finance, reward and include.

Anonymity may shield a farmer from scrutiny. It can also exclude that farmer from opportunity.

None of this means Malaysia has solved the smallholder question, nor that one successful programme can simply be transplanted elsewhere.

Indonesia’s sector is larger and more diverse. Malaysia itself differs greatly between Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak, and between organised and independent growers.

The comparison must therefore be made with humility.

Yet one lesson travels well. Risk must be shared if improvement is to endure.

Beyond technology: The confidence gap

The real comparison is between two ways of thinking about development.

One focuses primarily on technology. The other asks what enables people to use technology consistently.

Better planting materials matter. Balanced fertiliser matters. Mechanisation matters. Digital agriculture, drones and artificial intelligence will all play useful roles.

But technology alone cannot persuade a hesitant farmer to invest scarce savings.

Confidence can. And confidence is built by institutions. Governance is often misunderstood as little more than regulations, meetings and paperwork.

That is not the governance I mean.

In the field, governance has a simpler and more human meaning.

It is everything that allows an ordinary farmer to make an extraordinary decision with confidence.

It is trusted extension advice, affordable inputs secured through cooperation, financing that respects crop biology, prompt and transparent mill payments, protection from exploitation, secure land tenure and the confidence that comes from belonging to a community rather than standing alone.

Together, they determine whether bunches are produced consistently.Governance does not replace biology. It enables biology.

Too often, smallholders are treated either as technical problems to be corrected or as voters to be appeased, rather than as economic partners to be equipped and strengthened.

We distribute manuals without fixing access to suitable inputs, preach sustainability without addressing cash flow, promote replanting without bridging the years of reduced income, and set yield targets without ensuring labour, transport or reliable markets.

Then we wonder why adoption is slow. Perhaps the problem is not that farmers refuse to fish. Perhaps we keep giving them instructions while leaving them without a boat.

A farmer cannot absorb technology if the institutional soil around him is saturated with uncertainty. When governance is weak, fertiliser remains a risky expense, training a passing event, certification paperwork and replanting postponement.

When governance is strong, fertiliser becomes investment, data a management tool, certification market access, organisation bargaining power and confidence productivity.

Stewardship: Creating the conditions to flourish

The deeper leadership question is not whether smallholders can improve. The evidence suggests they can.

The question is whether our institutions make good decisions affordable, visible and worth sustaining.

Leadership is not simply about making decisions for people. It is about creating conditions in which people feel secure enough to make good decisions themselves. That, to me, is stewardship: not doing everything for farmers, but building systems that allow them to flourish through their own effort.

I still think about those fertiliser bags beside the road between Sugut and Telupid. Years ago, I saw only bags waiting to be opened. Today, I see families weighing today’s sacrifice against tomorrow’s harvest.

Perhaps the real yield gap has never been only about what the palm can produce. Perhaps it has always been about whether we build systems that give ordinary farmers the confidence to unlock what the palm already knows how to give.

Joseph Tek Choon Yee has over 30 years of experience in the plantation industry, with a strong background in oil palm research and development, C-suite leadership and industry advocacy. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.

Originally published by The Star.

（吉隆坡6日讯）亚洲商学院（ASB）与顶级手套（TOPGLOV，7113，主板工业股）创办人兼执行主席丹斯里林伟才博士联合宣布，正式设立总额100万令吉的“丹斯里林伟才东盟未来领袖奖学金”。

这是一项长期的慈善倡议，旨在培育卓越的未来领袖，为马来西亚及东盟地区的持续增长与繁荣作出贡献。

这笔100万令吉的捐款将在亚洲商学院设立一项永久基金。该基金将保留本金并进行投资，以产生可持续的资金，为未来世世代代提供奖学金和领导力发展项目。

Originally published by ⁠Nanyang.