By NUR SHAZREENA ALI & NUR ASHIKIN LOUIS
KUCHING: A new book entitled “Rethinking Asia 5: Realities and Aspirations of the New Eurasia” was launched in conjunction with a half-day seminar organised by Leadership Institute at a hotel here yesterday.
Through the seminar, participants learned about the best leadership practices to be applied in their respective organisations along with current leadership trends and competencies.
Participants also acquired new ideas to empower the transformation process in their respective organisations and strengthen cooperation and networks among civil servants as well as between civil servants and officials in statutory bodies or government-linked companies and the private sector.
On the book, Centre for Asia Leadership (CAL) president Samuel Kim said it had10 chapters covering a wide range of topics from governance, political and institutional reforms, corruption, innovation, entrepreneurship and education.
According to Kim, they spent about a year working on the book.
“This is the 2018 version and 12 people took part in this book. There are many countries involved from Northeast Asia to Southeast Asia as well as South Asia and all the way to the Caucasus,” he said after the book launching event.
He further stated that Harvard University offers a programme whereby its students are brought to various parts of Asia.
“When we go to Asian countries, we want to meet with the leaders and talk to the people. Through this engagement, we will have a better understanding of what’s happening in the country.
“Through these interactions, we tried to document what we learned and picked up from our time in Asia. We have been doing this for the past five years,” said Kim.
When asked on the process in finishing the book, he said the first part of writing was done in early 2018 while the second part took up the rest of the year and they only managed to complete the book in March this year.
Kim continued, “The printing was done recently in South Korea but we are happy to release this book here first.
“We have sold copies of the book in the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea and Peninsular Malaysia. But we have not distributed any copies of the book elsewhere and Kuching is the very first place to do so.
“In this very occasion, this is the first batch of hard copies to be shared with Sarawakians.”
He said the reason for this was because he had high respect for Kuching where he spent most of his time to complete the book.
“When I was here, with the wonderful nature, I didn’t get distracted and felt so much at peace. So, I actually worked on the workload here.
“Therefore, I want to give the credit (to Kuching) for giving me that inspiration at the time to finish the book,” he stressed.
Kim also revealed that he was currently working on the sixth book and planned to spend more time at the State Library to finish some of his important work.
The second batch of the book launch will take place in Kuala Lumpur. Some of the previous books by CAL are also sold at the bookstor
es of Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Amazon.
Passionate about nurturing and empowering talents in Asia, Kim has been actively engaging various stakeholders in developing and running over 42 programmes annually in more than 29 countries in Asia to help emerging leaders explore opportunities to be socially responsible in facing the region’s complex challenges.
His areas of research and training, among others, include “Negotiation and Mediation”, “Adaptive Leadership”, “Persuasion and Influence”, and “Systems Thinking and Creative Confidence”.
To date, some 35,000 burgeoning and established leaders from the government, non-profits, and corporate world in Asia have benefited from these programmes. Prior to establishing the centre, Samuel worked for 14 years in varying sectors from strategy consulting and social entrepreneurship to international development, politics and government.
He is the editor of eight books, namely “Rethinking Asia 1: Education and Innovation”, “Rethinking Asia 2: Entrepreneurship and Economic Development”, “Rethinking Asia 3: Social and Political Change”, “Rethinking Asia 4: Why Asia is Hopeful”, “Finding the Leaders in US”, “Redefining Success: Learning to Lead for Change”, “Next Generation Leadership: Empower Youth to Shape the Future of Asia” and “Leaders in Development: Enhancing Your Leadership Effectiveness.”
