Business leadership in Central Asia

by Robert Robertson

How does private enterprise work in a world where there is no longer any disagreement over its necessity? How do the investor, the manager, the career-maker, the employee, and the customer react to the fact that their existence, and that of free trade and competition, are no longer being questioned but also no longer being required by political warmongers/ And last but not least; where does all this leave the law. The disappearance of “socialism” and “capitalism” requires practical solutions to fill the gap left behind by ideological conflicts. New thoughts about utility and viability in enterprise emerge, this time no longer subject to “systems” but independently, purely utility- and viability-oriented for the sake of their own practicality. The collection of papers, written by foreign teachers and local students of the Almaty-based Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research (KIMEP) is meant to help people old and young in opening their eyes to new challenges in the world in terms of entrepreneurial initiative, corporate responsibility and responsiveness and other questions the answers to which have become a lot less obvious than they used to be until not that so long ago. Today, the individual no longer hides behind political Potemkin facades in order not to bother. It is time he starts bothering himself in order to succeed, and help others succeed in life on a planet where both politicians and tradesmen are at a loss.