Dr Peter Lorange, president of Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD), draws inspiration from both Eastern and Western approaches to management as he steers the renowned executive training powerhouse into the 21st century.

Lorange, 63, has been with IMD for the past 14 years.

He says Asian approaches to global management have taken an increasingly prominent role in the world of business and finance. IMD now has two management-research centres in Asia, one in Shanghai and the other in Bombay.

The Shanghai centre was set up about two years ago while the one Bombay opened a year ago. They produce research papers on the latest management ideas from Asia, which are then discussed at the IMD's annual global executive meeting in Switzerland. The last meeting took place in June and drew over 500 top executives from around the world.

Lorange, a Norwegian who took his master's degree in applied mathematics at Yale and his PhD in management at Harvard, was in Bangkok last week to promote IMD's executive-training programmes to large Thai corporations and organisations.

There are about 400 alumni of IMD's executive-training programmes in Thailand. IMD is probably best known in Thailand for its World Competitiveness Yearbook, which ranks over 100 nations' international competitiveness every year.

"About 30 per cent of our business comes from Asia. In Malaysia we have about 600 alumni, 300 in Indonesia and about 800 in Singapore. China is coming up. Now there are about 100 Chinese students," says Lorange.

PTT, Charoen Pokphand Group, Siam Cement Group and Siam City Cement are among IMD's top supporters in Thailand.

Lorange said one of Asia's strengths in modern management lay in what he called "social entrepreneurship". This is when business and industry are really integrated with their society. This is distinct from the Western notion of corporate social responsibility, which Lorange said is a less realistic approach to business and, more often than not, a one-off affair.

"Social entrepreneurship involves not only doing business but also coexisting with society. For example, Nestle's operation in Thailand has long been part of Thai culture, so it's a win-win [for both business and society]," he said, adding that social entrepreneurship was not something that a CEO did just one time by launching a campaign and then never talked about it again.

"For instance, community relations that are casual and short-term are not enough to build trust in the minds of consumers. This only reflects the stockholders' short-term interest. However, you need more trust to sell coffee or a newspaper. Japan has a few good examples in Toyota, Matsushita, Canon or Ajinomoto," he says.

Lorange cited Toyota's hybrid vehicle, which is capable of running on both petrol and electricity, more than 10 years ago as an example of the company's social entrepreneurship. The car is environmentally friendly even though the market was still very small at the time of the launch. Now Toyota is clearly ahead of all other auto-makers, as demand for hybrid vehicles has risen sharply due to high oil prices.

"So it isn't just PR. It is also the product [that protects the environment and saves the energy]. It's both," he said. Team efforts are another area where companies from around the world can learn from Asia.

Lorange said employees at the Four Seasons Hotel in Shanghai sang a corporate song to boost team bonding and corporate unity. In addition he said he believed that corporations should foster a longer-term management mind set in order to improve the quality of their products and services.

The US auto industry is a good example, he said. It has failed because American executives have not placed enough emphasis on teamwork or taken a long-term management perspective. The latter problem he attributed to the pressures that the capital market exerted on management to deliver short-term financial results.

Lorange also said corporations that under-invested in their people, research and development and brand-building tended to fail in the longer run. He cited the examples of Canon in Japan and Xerox in the US, which he said had suffered because they had failed to predict market response to new technologies like digital cameras.

"I plan to retire within the next year and a half. I hope IMD will be more Asiatic and flexible, with better quality," he said.

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

nop1122@yahoo.com