Community Business

Empowering LGBT+ Equality: Insights from Jerome Yau | Hong Kong Marriage Equality & AIDS Concern “Corporates can play a role in elevating and improving employees’ wellbeing... It’s important for leadership to [demonstrate] that as a company, we care, it’s beyond a slogan or a piece of policy.” -Jerome Yau, Co-Founder, Hong Kong Marriage Equality This episode of Up for Discussion features Jerom...

"At some point, it would be more efficient, if we were to be focusing on how to design our businesses and our processes in a universal way, much like architects or interior designers do universal design... How do we make how we do business more inclusive for everyone without having to go back and then put on these Band-Aids? - Noelle Sinclair, Founder, Diverse Minds Noelle founded Diverse Minds an...

Our CEO Janet Ledger recently joined our GIDA partners for a presentation on Centring Marginalised Voices at Work at the NGO CSW68, a forum run in parallel to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Janet provided an Asian perspective, reflecting that, "the research we do at Community Business equally advocates for engagement with and listening to those with lived experiences to shap...

Struck by the slow progress on gender equality in her industry, Nasrine co-founded the Hong Kong Board Directors Investor’s Initiative in 2018 with the goal of influencing the investor/investee sphere to act on the important topic of board diversity. She is passionate about driving change at the top levels in Hong Kong when it comes to board diversity, using both her day job to highlight the corpo...

“Humanising difference is important, because when we start to humanise difference, people start to realise actually we’re all the same.” -Shalini Mahtani, Founder and CEO of The Zubin Foundation, Founder of Community Business Shalini Mahtani, the founder of Community Business, is a pioneering and much sought-after voice for good in the DE&I, CSR and wellbeing space. Her accolades speak for the...

“There are so many amazing skillsets and the more you harness that and the more you bring that together, it will bring even more change, social justice, social impact for so many more people.”  - Catherine Husted, Head of Social Impact, Allen & Overy  Our first Up for Discussion episode features our CEO Janet Ledger interviewing Catherine Husted on the power of partnerships between c...

In recent years, Hong Kong has seen its status as a global economic player decline, with companies and individuals choosing to relocate elsewhere in the face of geopolitical turmoil, the fallout from the 2019 protest movement and a slow recovery from strict COVID-19 measures. Considering these challenges, as well as growing competition from other regional and global players, organisations in Hong...

Through our networks and campaigns, we at Community Business have been exploring the concepts of intersectionality and multiple identities for several years with our members and clients. Our DIAN India network explored Intersectionality & Multiple Identities to great success back in 2017. The session, which tackled the concepts in detail as well as giving some examples of practical application...

Global Wellness Day brings to light the age-old question: “How can I live a healthier and better life?”. This day of celebration aims to direct thoughts of both individuals and society towards “living well” not just for today, or in June, but all year round. It is important to first understand what we mean when we use terms like wellness and wellbeing. Read More:  bitly.ws/Ivx7

April is Stress Awareness Month and its aim is to raise awareness of the impact of stress. When we think of the word stress, it can trigger a lot of negative feelings. These can be physical, such as an increased heart rate, stomach turning into knots, sweaty palms, fast breathing and they can also be mental and emotional, such as feeling overwhelmed, anxious, racing thoughts, lack of enjoyment in...

As we celebrate International Womens’ Day in 2023, we continue to reflect on the centuries of cemented biases, to injustices, to discrimination, that women have been and go through. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) states that women are paid 20% less than men, with the ILO calling for state and organisational level reforms for systemic change in order to bridge the gap. Within Asia, eff...

Welcome to the This Is Me in Asia Podcast Series brought to you by Community Business in partnership with Bloomberg and the Lord Mayor’s Appeal. This storytelling campaign aims to normalise mental health conversations in the workplace and tackle the stigma associated with mental health conditions and disability. Telling a story is not just about creating awareness, it is also an act of catharsis f...

Welcome to the This Is Me in Asia Podcast Series brought to you by Community Business and in partnership with Bloomberg and the Lord Mayor’s Appeal. This storytelling campaign aims to normalise mental health conversations in the workplace and tackle the stigma associated with mental health conditions and disability. This is Me was first pioneered by Barclays in the UK in 2014 and is now led by the...

Welcome to the This Is Me in Asia Podcast Series brought to you by Community Business and in partnership with Bloomberg and the Lord Mayor’s Appeal. This storytelling campaign aims to normalise mental health conversations in the workplace and tackle the stigma associated with mental health conditions and disability. This is Me was first pioneered by Barclays in the UK in 2014 and is now led by the...

Marking a landmark moment for LGBT+ campaigners in Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong gave an address on Sunday, 21 August 2022 during the National Day rally to confirm the decision to repeal the colonial-era law – Section 377A – which criminalised sex between consenting male adults. The archaic law had not been enforced for decades; in fact, back in February of 2022, the Court of Appeal in...

Welcome to the This Is Me in Asia Podcast Series brought to you by Community Business and in partnership with Bloomberg and the Lord Mayor’s Appeal. This storytelling campaign aims to normalise mental health conversations in the workplace and tackle the stigma associated with mental health conditions and disability. This is Me was first pioneered by Barclays in the UK in 2014 and is now led by the...

In order to promote inclusion, the creation of diverse workplaces is vital and although conversations are well underway in regard to many diversity dimensions, discussions around Neurodiversity are still in their infancy. Global estimates predict that neurodiverse conditions affect one in eight people. From a workplace perspective, this translates to more than one in every ten job applicants, empl...

Having joined Community Business in April, my first introduction to the company and the members/clients of this organisation through our conference “What’s Race Got to Do with It?.” We spent three days attempting to narrow down what race and racial discrimination consisted of in Asia, and how we should approach it individually and within organisations. We walked through our research which demonstr...

Welcome to the This Is Me in Asia Podcast Series brought to you by Community Business and in partnership with Bloomberg and the Lord Mayor’s Appeal. This storytelling campaign aims to normalise mental health conversations in the workplace and tackle the stigma associated with mental health conditions and disability. This is Me was first pioneered by Barclays in the UK in 2014 and is now led by the...

With the COVID-19 pandemic overwhelming media, policy and governmental resources and the prominence of online work and communication, many in the transgender community have voiced the crucial need to reconnect face to face. The largely online environment of the last two years has left people feeling more isolated and vulnerable than ever before. For those who feel uncomfortable using online platfo...

It was in my early teenage years that I first listened to Sting’s “Englishman in New York” and the lyrics chimed a sentiment that was all too familiar for me - the need to belong, to be accepted and to be valued in places that I visited, lived or called my own. For me, this was the need to fit into my own culture, be part of an insider group of kids at school or be able to relate to my cousins or...

In recent years we have seen the global narrative around women’s advancement, protection and equality accelerate. Women’s wellbeing and security is being placed at the forefront of public debate and corporations must ensure that they are not excluded from these conversations. In marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on 24 November we would like to take this op...

When I was clinically diagnosed with severe Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), it was so debilitating that I was bed-ridden and unable to lead a normal life. I was told by my psychiatrist that there was a chance I could never return to work. It was devastating because I was young with a whole life ahead of me.

Women face different challenges on their health and wellbeing issues at different stages of their lives - from reproductive health and gynaecological conditions to the fatigue caused by care responsibilities and in unfortunate case, domestic abuse. Despite many women struggling with these issues, most of them keep it in silence as these topics are seen as taboo in society and the workplace, especi...

Considerable attention is being given to many aspects of the diversity and inclusion agenda, including gender, generations, disability and even sexual orientation and gender identity. However, few companies to date have broached the evidently ‘taboo’ subject of religion. Yet religion is such a central part of identity, particularly in markets in Asia, most notably India and Singapore, that it coul...