1. In your opinion, what is the chance of the RMB to join the SDR basket this year? Has it met all the criteria? What is the biggest barrier preventing it from joining?
The Fallacy of Measurement
By Mark Esposito and Terence Tse
In the past two decades, the number of performance indices has proliferated substantially. There are good reasons why performance indices have blossomed: they catch attention and they make information easily understandable. In this article, Terence Tse and Mark Esposito discuss the abilities of indices and glean insights into how they work by highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.
Regulation and Culture Change in Banks
By John Mellor
Responses from regulators to the failures in bank governance and standards of conduct revealed by the crisis of 2007-2008 will fall short of what is needed to restore credibility and trust in financial services. Besides regulation, a change in bank culture that embeds appropriate values and behaviours is needed. But what does this mean in practice? Research on governance and culture of banks, underway at the University of Leicester, has already identified the several key influences that bear on the “soft” issues, and which will require serious consideration by bank leaders of today and those who will assume governance responsibilities in the future.
Addressing Social Sustainability Must be a Global Priority
As an organisation responsible for developing and installing innovative systems that transport waste underground using vacuum technology, Envac has witnessed first-hand the shift from sustainability as an environmental concept to sustainability as a social concept. In this article, Jonas Törnblom addresses how Envac is leading from the front and playing a pivotal role in engendering the trust of the communities they serve.
On Economic Inequality
Economic inequality is one of the most divisive issues of our time. In this article, Harry Frankfurt, one of the most influential moral philosophers in the world, argues that we are morally obligated to eliminate poverty – not achieve equality or reduce inequality, and how focusing instead on inequality is distracting and alienating.
Building the Best-Practice Engagement Bank
By Brett King, Alex Sion and Michael Degnan
If you were building a bank from scratch today to optimise customer experience and engagement, what would it look like? Is there a set of benchmarks or best-practices that we could bundle together to create the world’s best bank for customers?
Value Creator or Destroyer? Keys to Profitable Outcomes
History is littered with examples, from AOL and Time Warner to Daimler and Chrysler, Kmart and Sears to Bank of America and Countrywide. Although there is a wealth of empirical evidence that shows an 80 percent failure rate for mergers and acquisitions, organizations just can’t seem to stop themselves from trying.
The Role of Ethical Finance in the Well Being of the 21st Century Societies
By Sofia Santos
According to the Report produced by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, chaired by Joseph Stiglitz, it is acknowledged that “…GDP is an inadequate metric to gauge well-being over time particularly in its economic, environmental, and social dimensions, some aspects of which are often referred to as sustainability.” Since Ethical Finance, in the shape of ethical banks or responsible investments, clearly state their lending policy which is related with their mission, which in turn is associated with a set of values that go beyond shareholder maximisation profit, then one can see the ethical finance sector as a tool to promote the new well being defined above. In fact, ethical bank’s values are instead associated with the maximisation of society well being, since economic, social, environmental and cultural aspects are all taken into consideration in a transparent way. Therefore, this article argues that the main role of ethical finance in the 21st century is to be able to promote and improve local well being by providing finance to local entrepreneurs that are able to develop businesses with positive environmental and social impact.
What Does a 21st Century Enterprise Look Like?
By Anant Gupta
What do organisations need to learn to survive and thrive? As Anant Gupta sees it, they have to remodel themselves as a 21st century enterprise (21CE). In this article, Gupta discusses the five distinct characteristics of a 21CE and the core IT/Technology Services that they should provide in order to meet customers’ shifting needs and thrive in an interconnected world.
India’s Lessons for Creating a Digital Business
By Raghav Narsalay and Avnish Sabharwal
As India rapidly moves into the digital era, leading Indian businesses are changing their business models to capture the opportunity.
EDITOR'S PICK OF THE WEEK
The Performance and Transformation Orchestrator: The CFO’s New Mandate in the Age of AI
By Terence Tse
CFOs are evolving into AI-driven transformation orchestrators, balancing finance, technology, and strategy while upskilling teams, managing risks, and driving measurable business value.
A key insight from this year’s AI for CFOs event, organized...
