Chen Chunhua: Heart Power
May 31-2020
Prof. Chen Chunhua, Dean of BiMBA Business School, participated in the launching ceremony of the Chinese version of a book by management guru Inamori Kazuo on May 27th and shared her thoughts on the duties of leaders in time of crisis. She urged leaders to garner inner strengths and make good on their own.
The world economy has been gripped by the New Normal and is highly likely to go into a recession, said Prof. Chen. Changes are happening to the global economic and governance patterns and will continue into mid and long-term, impacting on value chains and manufacturing relocations, among others. It will take systematic improvement in capabilities for enterprises to survive the uncertainties.
Choices must be weighed and made. Prof. Chen advised that entrepreneurs should opt to pursue inner strengths and lead employees to seek new growth opportunities. She used some cases to demonstrate the possibilities for companies to emerge stronger out of crisis, including Toyota’s rise out of the second oil crisis in late 1970s, Samsung’s cost-cutting feats in the financial crisis in 1997, and Alibaba’s ascendance in the SARS in 2003. Referring to the new book by Inamori Kazuo, she said that the path of life is painted in one’s heart where pessimism should be banished in even the toughest situations.
It’s time that leaders draw on their inner strengths and become a compass for their companies in four ways: fulfilling their duties, taking effective actions, demonstrating management will, and shouldering corporate social responsibilities. A true leader, she said, possesses the charisma to motivate his employees to strive for the common goals and the ability to bring everyone together and generate collective strengths through effective connections.
