Early Praise for “Leadership in Disruptive Times: Negotiating the New Balance” (2023)

“Organizational crises present complex financial, social, and ethical issues and challenges as any emotionally charged situation that, once brought to public notice, invites negative stakeholder reaction and thereby has the potential to threaten the financial well-being, reputation, or survival of the firm or some portion thereof. A crisis occurs suddenly without warning and in an unprecedented manner, as with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Crises can overwhelm even the most experienced leaders, presenting unexpected, complex scenarios that develop rapidly and in several directions. Even when contingency plans have been prepared, those plans need to be adapted to rapidly changing circumstances. Fortunately, there are best practices tools, competencies to be adopted, and perspectives that leaders can use to steer their organizations during these difficult times, and these are found in Prof Sattar Bawany’s book ‘Leadership in Disruptive Times: Negotiating the New Balance’. The ” “𝑪.𝑹.𝑰.𝑺.𝑰.𝑺.” 𝑳𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝑴𝒐𝒅𝒆𝒍 provides businesses with the strategies to navigate the unprecedented challenges while operating in a global environment that is highly disruptive and increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). A must-read for leaders across diverse organizations.”

Bill Lang ,Executive Director, Small Business Australia, Chairman, Bill Lang International, Executive Chairman, Human Performance Company

“Organizational crises such as those brought on by the recent global pandemic present complex financial, social, and ethical issues and challenges that have the potential to threaten the financial well-being, reputation, and survival of companies due to a lack of preparedness.

As a crisis is often the pivotal point at which the success or failure of an organization is determined, leaders need to be mindful to adopt a “business as unusual” rather than “business as usual” approach. In his latest book, Sattar Bawany has built the case that when faced with these disruptive events, business leaders are finding it challenging to navigate the insurmountable challenges, reinvent their businesses, and ensure their survival.

His “C.R.I.S.I.S” leadership model provides tools in a best practice framework for a comprehensive approach to building organizational resilience when facing emergencies including those related to pandemics, financial crises, cybersecurity, supply chain disruptions, and climate change.”

David Chan
Regional Director, Material Sales
Boeing Global Services

“Having been a leadership consultant and coach in crisis communications for 25 years, I am familiar with the literature in this space. Quality hasn’t quite kept up with the quantity. Theories and regurgitations are aplenty. Sattar’s ‘Leadership in Disruptive Times: Negotiating the New Balance’ stands out. The ideas are fresh, the counsel is practical, insights are researched, and the articulation is refreshingly bold. My biggest takeaway is the timely emphasis on ‘values’ and ‘soft skills’ in building crisis resiliency. Call it the ‘digital paradox’ where people have once again become the centre of gravity spurred by unrelenting digitalisation. The book provokes thought, invokes introspection and gives hope. I recommend it.”

Viswa Sadasivan
CEO, Strategic Moves Pte Ltd
Former Nominated Member of Parliament, Singapore
Retired Colonel (NS) in the Singapore Armed Forces.

“The latest book on ‘Leadership in Disruptive Times: Negotiating a New Balance’ by Prof Sattar Bawany is a must-read for leaders looking into insights about leading in a ‘new normal’ way. Professor Sattar has always been engaged and passionate in his work. He provides great advice and new perspectives for leaders who aspire to innovate, grow and transform the next generation of “disruptive digital leaders.”.

For HR leaders, our top priority is to create an engaged workforce and ensure employee wellness initiatives are integrated into the hybrid way of working. This book gives further insights, case studies and examples of innovative ways of doing things. It is very inspiring and a pleasure to read. He reiterates and reminds us to continue to reinvent ourselves with the right tools and frameworks so we can continue to lead, inspire and create a high-performance organization.”

Janet Quek (Ms)
Global Human Resource Business Partner (HRBP)
FrieslandCampina AMEA

“A digital transformation strategy gives a company a competitive edge in Industry 4.0. Digitally mature companies are fundamentally more efficient and responsive to customer demands. Successful employee attraction and retention are rewards of companies with a realized digital transformation strategy.

“The second edition of this book is a great and tireless effort by Sattar to distil and capture the importance of various aspects and attributes of leaders/leadership during these disruptive times (including the Covid pandemic). This second edition provides insights and quick references for the reader to navigate these ‘VUCA’ times and respond in a ‘VUCA’ way. Kudos for painstakingly putting together the second edition of this book ‘Leadership in Disruptive Times: Negotiating the New Balance’ despite the various exacting challenges over the past two years!”

Patrick Tay Teck Guan
Assistant Secretary-General, National Trade Union Congress (NTUC)
Member of Parliament for Pioneer SMC, Singapore

“The latest book by Prof Sattar Bawany, ‘Leadership in Disruptive Times: Negotiating the New Balance’. is a testimony of his in-depth knowledge and understanding of the subject matter. Disruptive Leadership is a new age tool every leader from policymakers, politicians, corporate leaders and community leaders needs in the day-to-day management and decision making. It is a well-researched book with extensive references including articles from business and academic publications such as the Harvard Business Review to provide case centred best in class organizations’ experience. Disruptive Leadership is new, its current happening and it’s the result of a twist of the norm.

No economic nor management gurus in the past have presented or even talked about the theme of “Leadership in Disruptive Times.” In this regard, we would like to thank Professor Sattar Bawany for sharing his thought leadership from his extensive research, knowledge and understanding of the subject matter. The world will surely benefit from his wisdom in making it a better world.”

Thayalan Nathan
Founder & Principal
HELP International Business School of Wealth Management, Malaysia

“Shocks that affect global production are growing more frequent and more severe. Companies face a range of disruptions, from pandemics to natural disasters to geopolitical uncertainties and cyberattacks on their digital systems. Research has shown that the financial toll associated with the most extreme disruptive events has been climbing. These events can be distinguished by whether they can be anticipated, how frequently they occur, the breadth of impact across industries and geographies, and the magnitude of impact on supply and demand.

Prof Sattar Bawany’s latest book on ‘Leadership in Disruptive Times: Negotiating the New Balance’ provides the playbook on how organization and business leaders could mitigate these risks by preparing and ensuring the leadership readiness to take these challenges head-on.” A must-read for all leaders across all types of organizations and industries.”

Chew Heng Ching
Chairman, RHT G.R.A.C.E. Institute
Founding Chairman, Singapore Institute of Directors
Former Deputy Speaker and Member of Parliament of Singapore (1984 to 2006)

“Prof. Sattar Bawany is a much sought-after and exemplary thought leader, being visionary and futuristic in outlook. The world order and business landscape have seen frequent disruptions arising from volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA), exacerbated by the global COVID-19 pandemic and the Omicron and Delta variants, and the steep escalation of the Russia-Ukrainian war on 24th February 2022 which started in 2014, among other things.

Prof. Bawany’s book ‘Leadership in Disruptive Times: Negotiating a New Balance’ (2023) provides useful and critical insights for a strategy map and thought-provoking leadership that reminds leaders to readily anticipate and provide sound and effective responses to disruptions arising from intense competition, IR 4.0 and increasing sustainability requirements to preserve the world order. An excellent book which should be on the reading list of every futuristic leader.”

Dato’ Dr. Lim Weng Khuan
Director People Quest Sdn Bhd
Council Member, Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF)

“This book gave birth at the right time when we, the HR Leaders are in the spotlight to navigate our organizations with our compelling and challenging new role in response to the COVID-19 as well as the post-COVID-induced digital acceleration. To survive, businesses must adopt the future of work, and the capability to move with speed and agility is a critical capability HR can influence.

The book provides a guide and framework for the HR Leaders, which are in arguably the best position to see the overall organizational perspective and offer a systemic viewpoint, ensuring coordination, communication and collaboration across units, functions, and business groups in terms of leadership development intervention. This book also helps HR facilitate meaningful dialogues that help ensure the right amounts of reinvention, re-proportioning and re-prioritizing to adapt to shifting customer demands and markets in response to the crisis created by the pandemic. This is a mandatory read for all the C-Suites in my organization. Looking forward to the next book by Prof Bawany!”

Puan Rina Sarif
Chief Human Capital Officer,
Lembaga Tabung Haji, Malaysia

“As the world recovers from a global pandemic, CEOs and business leaders face an unprecedented challenge: to identify what works for a new and evolving today and what will be required to thrive tomorrow. Businesses have seen their operations disrupted during the global COVID-19 pandemic while digital adoption has accelerated at the same time to meet the myriad of organizational challenges related to Safe Management Measures (SMMs). Now is the time to capitalize on changes and seize the future in a post-pandemic era of the new world of work. Companies stand to benefit from being forward-thinking. Research has shown that organizations that invest in digital transformation are more likely to be among tomorrow’s strongest-performing businesses.

This Second Edition of the book ‘Leadership in Disruptive Times’ provides the best practices approaches and strategies by some of the world’s leading companies on how to be successful in implementing a digital-driven culture and developing the leadership pool of ‘disruptive digital leaders’ that are most critical for organizations to shape successful futures and reinvent for a profoundly different tomorrow. Decisions made in the coming months could determine the difference between thriving and struggling to survive in the next five to ten years.”

Chew Kwee Tiang (Mrs)
Senior Director, Wellness, National Healthcare Group (NHG)
Senior Advisor, NHG Board of Advisors
Former CEO, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital

“Prof. Sattar Bawany’s Second Edition of ‘Leadership in Disruptive Times’ is a seminal masterpiece in understanding the interrelated and interconnected issues related to the disruptions that are currently confronting humanity. Not every disruption is driven by advances in technology, as we have seen in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic since early 2020, where organizations all over the world face an uncertain future in a global business environment that is highly disruptive and increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (collectively known as VUCA).

He built upon his earlier insights into an understanding of disruptive leadership and provides the case for organizations to revisit and, at times, reinvent their people strategy, internal systems, and processes, and deploy the technologies that would suit disruptive times. Furthermore, in this latest book replete with case studies, he lucidly analyzes the challenges, risks, and opportunities of a world continuing to reel from the COVID-19 pandemic overhang and other geostrategic threats. A must-read for strategic thinking CEOs and policymakers and indeed those aspiring to leadership roles in both private and public sectors.”

Ambassador Dato’ Thanarajasingam Subramaniam
Member of Ambassadorial Advisory Panel, InvestKL, Malaysia
Senior Independent Non-Executive Director, OSK Holdings Berhad.
Deputy Secretary-General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malaysia (2004 – 2006)
Chief of Staff, President of the United Nations General Assembly (1997)

“We have seen how technology has changed business across diverse industries in fundamental ways, especially during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Many businesses have been leveraging digital technologies to create new products and services, enter new markets, and improve operations enabling them not only to survive but thrive during those disruptive times. To keep up with the competition, many of these businesses realized the importance of the leadership role in executing the digital strategy and ultimately, drive value in their organizations by reinventing their traditional business strategy models in light of current disruptive, digital technologies.

How can we learn from these experiences to create a pipeline of ‘disruptive digital leaders’? How should we define leadership in such an environment? Are the current leadership practices and competencies still relevant in the face of such disruption? How can leaders set themselves up not only to survive but also to thrive as they navigate the challenges of future disruptive events and crises? What factors have helped organizations successfully manage the disruptive challenges when implementing digital transformation at the workplace? The answer to these questions is found in the book ‘Leadership in Disruptive Times: Negotiating the New Balance’. Sattar Bawany’s professional leadership journey and consulting experiences shared in the book make the reading all the more valuable and enriching. I would recommend this book for all leaders from both the private and public sector organizations.”

Zainul Abidin Rasheed
Ambassador (Non-Resident) to Kuwait, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore
Member of Board of Trustees, Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Member of Board of Directors, MediaCorp and Temasek Foundation Cares
Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Singapore (2006 to 2011)

“Many treatments of digital disruption regard the rapid pace of technological innovation as the key problem facing organizations. Technological innovation is indeed happening at a faster rate than ever before. Computers continue to become smaller, cheaper, more powerful, better connected, and embedded everywhere. Yet while the increasing rate of technological innovation is a significant part of the digital disruption challenge facing companies, it is not the problem in and of itself. The true key problem facing organizations for digital disruption is people — specifically, the different rates at which people, organizations, and policy respond to technological advances.

Technology changes faster than individuals can adopt it, individuals adapt more quickly to that change than organizations can, and organizations adjust more quickly than legal and societal institutions can. How can organizations ensure their preparedness to meet these challenges? Research by Prof Sattar Bawany and the Disruptive Leadership Institute (DLI) as published in this book, has identified and developed the “𝑳.𝑬.𝑨.𝑹.” 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 which outlines the key factors that are crucial for the organizations to navigate successfully the disruptive challenges and take concrete steps to dramatically improve their capacity to anticipate, respond to and capitalize on the disruptive forces heading their way and at the same time mitigate the risks of the disruptive challenges ahead that could threaten the organization’s sustainability.”

John Mattone
Bestselling Author and the World’s Top Executive Coach (2019 to 2021)
Founder/Co-Founder of Four Exceptional Coaching and Leadership Development Companies

“We had already been living in a highly complex and fast-paced environment which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses and leaders don’t have the luxury of time to experiment if they want to stay relevant and will need to transform with agility and embrace bold actions with courage.

Sattar Bawany has very candidly highlighted these in his latest book and he offers global best practices, practical and proven frameworks, and approaches to realign the organization’s digital agenda for acceleration ahead. The book also highlights the trusted role of a mentor and mentee as they together navigate unchartered territories leaning on the experience and help in building the next generation of leaders.”

Sanjay Prabhakaran
Co-Founder, Asia Mentors Circle
Former President – Asia Pacific, Hologic, Inc. and Baxter International Inc.