LEADERSHIP essay
Chevening is looking for people who will be future leaders or influencers in their home countries. Explain how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your own leadership and influencing skills to support your answer
In my opinion, leadership is about inspiring and motivating people to work towards achieving a common goal. A leader is someone who is brave to take initiative, dedicated to work, adaptive with the situation, and resilient through challenges to achieve the determined goal.
Prior to my employment at XXX, a Vietnamese private equity firm, XXX didn't prioritize Environmental, Social, and Governance practices (ESG). The company perceived ESG as a compulsory requirement imposed by the Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) investors, thus, they only did the bare minimum and often underlooked ESG in the investment process. In 2020, when a new fund launched with more ESG requirements from DFIs, XXX offered me a position to fulfill the new minimum standards.
In diligently learning about ESG, I realized that ESG is not just about mitigating risks for an investor, but also adds value to investee companies through many means, such as retaining talents, saving cost from resource efficiency, communicating social responsibilities, and building sustainable brands. Therefore, if XXX keeps doing the minimum in terms of ESG, not only would the company face more risks but also lose opportunities to help investee companies optimize their businesses. As the first full-time ESG officer, I used this challenge as an opportunity to lead and raise the bar in implementing ESG. In particular, I led my company to go through a radical change in mindset and action.
I started by developing solutions for new actions. As I observed that financial aspects were successfully incorporated in investment decisions through quantified metrics, I created the first quantified ESG metrics system, to ease the adoption. To change the mindsets of others, I created a roadmap leading to the new ESG vision with clear milestones. I designed and conducted training sessions about the new practices. By sharing real life case studies where ESG is valuable, many of my colleagues are enrolled to join the new ESG era. For those who were not yet convinced by the examples that I shared, I dedicated my time to listen to the challenges they foresee in adopting the new ESG standards. I also enroll them to connect their personal goals to the mission of ESG so they can own the reason behind implementing ESG. Moreover, I went the extra mile to work directly with investee companies, helping them find the resources and coaching them to optimize their business through ESG practices.
After 2 years of my work, the new ESG model was implemented with a clear vision and roadmap. ESG became a core criteria for assessing new investments and is scored regularly post investment using the new metric system. People at XXX are aware of the risk and impact that ESG presents to each investment. I successfully motivated Mekong Capital to evolve from a Responsible Investor who only mitigates risks to protect investment value to a Sustainable Investor who adopts progressive ESG practices that enhances investment value.
Looking at the future, I want to lead Vietnamese businesses to become more sustainable and focus more on the long term environmental and social impact. I believe that Chevening will support me in widening my influence through access to new knowledge and connection to a diverse global network of talents.