In this special edition of the Knowledge newsletter, you'll find a range of articles and video interviews from the INSEAD Leadership Summit Asia 2008, which has just been held at the school's Asia campus in Singapore. We look at how US President-elect Barack Obama may tackle the financial crisis and examine the impact of the economic downturn on the region. We also speak to Anson Chan, Hong Kong's former chief secretary, on the prospects for reforms in China.

At the Leadership Summit Asia, the school's Dean, Frank Brown, announced the launch of INSEAD Knowledge in Chinese. If you'd like to find out more about the website, go to http://www.inseadknowledge.com.cn. We look forward to getting your feedback.

Regards,
Stuart Pallister
Editor, INSEAD Knowledge

Blueprint for a new international financial order

Politicians have acted decisively to restore confidence and liquidity in the banking sector through the injection of capital and guarantees on interbank loans. The UK, continental EU countries, the US and Switzerland, have injected new capital into their home banks, increasing capital ratios.

Political leaders are now calling an international conference for a new international financial order to discuss the creation of a supranational supervisory body, Bretton Woods II.

Political change in China is ‘almost inevitable’ but Beijing has ‘nothing to fear’: Anson Chan

Asian pro-democracy advocate Anson Chan says China has ‘nothing to fear’ in allowing Hong Kong full democracy.

Asia feels the pain caused by the crisis but could be poised for rapid recovery

Asia can’t escape the financial and economic crisis that is battering the rest of the world, but the region may be poised for a more rapid recovery if leaders in business and government work together and show leadership.

Tackling the financial crisis by changing tack

China, one of Asia’s economic powerhouses, is not immune to the global financial crisis despite enjoying double-digit growth in the last five years and being poised to achieve nine per cent growth this year. Share prices in Shanghai have fallen 72 per cent and house prices have come down 55 per cent. Demand has plummeted and thousands of factories have closed because of cancelled or delayed export orders.

When social innovation makes good business sense

With the international community galvanised to look for ways to solve the current financial crisis, it appears that other problems have been relegated to the backburner. That could have dire consequences in the long term, especially if the problem is that of climate change, says Rob Routs, Executive Director Downstream, Royal Dutch Shell.

The Obama effect

The latest US election, and Barack Obama’s campaign in particular, was unprecedented in more ways than one, having set new standards for future elections. “This campaign will change all campaigns going forward,” says Steve Okun, who worked on transportation issues in the Clinton administration and is currently chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore.

Business schools and the crisis

---- by Frank Brown, INSEAD Dean ----

I have heard from a lot of people in the past month. Many of them ask me about the job market for our MBAs, our endowment, our executive education business and about our alumni whose jobs are at risk. But there are some who ask what are you doing about this? What is your role now and in the future as a business school?

Australian banks well positioned to weather the financial crisis

In comparison to the battered banks elsewhere, Australia’s ‘big four’ banks have been “holding up very well” relative to their counterparts in the US and Europe, which have either filed for bankruptcy or have sought government bailouts, says John Schubert, chairman of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the country’s biggest lender by market capitalisation.

Islamic finance: funding the ‘real economy’

The global financial crisis presents an opportunity for the Islamic finance industry to show its credentials, say several practitioners in the field. Speaking to INSEAD Knowledge at the 6th International Islamic Finance Conference here, Daud Vicary Abdullah, COO of Asian Finance Bank, says “the biggest opportunity really is around getting the messages across about the value-proposition of Islamic products and the way in which Islamic finance is done.”

Not by drugs alone but by partnership

Nearly eradicated 20 years ago, tuberculosis has since re-emerged at the top of the world’s most deadly infectious diseases list.

“Drugs are not enough to combat TB,” says Patrizia Carlevaro, the head of Eli Lilly’s international aid unit speaking to INSEAD Knowledge. “We have all the tools we need to defeat the disease – the challenge rests in effectively linking private sector resources and skills to the needs of local healthcare providers.”

Creative destruction in the digital media age

Creative destruction often ensues in the wake of technological advances, futurists claim. In today’s age of the digital media, this phenomenon, says one such forecaster of the future, will see the slow ‘death’ of CDs, DVDs, watches and print media such as newspapers.

Surfing on rocks with ‘Miss Daisy’

‘A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step,’ goes the ancient Chinese proverb. The modern-day, Peter Schindler version goes: ‘A journey of 21,000 kilometers in a yellow sports car starts with a slightly eccentric Swiss national, driven to explore the Chinese countryside.’

The summer of 2007 was an unusual one for Schindler. After nearly three years of planning, the INSEAD alumnus (MBA 1993) started a “driving holiday” that would take him from Shanghai to Tibet and back to Beijing, tracing both the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers to their source.