Corporate Sustainability and Legacy Building in Business through the GNH Framework

Abstract

Research studies on sustainability have primarily focused on developments that meet the needs of present without compromising the opportunities of the future generations. These analyses however put emphases on external material factors such as financial and natural resources, environmental conditions, and so forth with limited attention on intangible values such as culture, social norms, and religion. The concept and implementation of the Gross National Happiness (GNH), pioneered by the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a multidimensional and essential response to address this need for a balance between material and non-material conditions. Among the nine domains of GNH, (1) living standards, (2) health, (3) ecological diversity and resilience, (4) time use, are primarily tangible and material; while (5) education, (6) good governance, (7) psychological wellbeing, (8) cultural diversity and resilience, (9) community vitality, are primarily intangible values beyond material factors. This multidimensional approach has significant application for nations as well as for corporates. This paper reiterates that the balance between material and intangible factors is an important contribution of GNH in business. On the one hand, this paper reviews how the principles of GNH could be integrated to enhance the overall competitiveness and vitality of business by focusing on the well-being of all stakeholders involved—in line with the triple-bottom line of social, environmental and financial; on the other hand, it looks into details how some of the GNH domains: (1) education, (2) good governance, (3) cultural diversity and resilience, (4) community vitality can be applied in business. In particular, it will explore how these domains could facilitate the promotion and assessment of some core components of corporate sustainability and legacy building: namely (1) corporate culture (such as vision, mission and values), (2) training, mentorship and apprenticeship, as well as (3) creative process and change management. This research will also look into how incorporating GNH framework in business could empower the management to cope with short-term pressure without losing sight of the long-term strategic vision critical to sustainable development of a business.