With a human population of over seven billion, the Earth is facing a rapid depletion of resources, unemployment is on the rise, and climate change is impacting all facets of life — damaging economies, increasing resource scarcity, and dramatically impacting the cost of doing business. For both humanitarian and business reasons, it is imperative that companies of all sizes take action.
The QI Group, a diversified multinational conglomerate with interests in education, e-commerce, retail, travel and leisure, and direct selling, among others, understands that in order to build for the long term, they must integrate sustainability into their every move.
QI Group’s commitment to sustainability is reflected in their unique corporate ethos of RYTHM – Raise Yourself To Help Mankind.
Explaining the philosophy, QI Group’s Founder and Executive Chairman Vijay Eswaran says, “It may sound like a catchy buzzword, but to us RYTHM is interwoven into the fabric of the organisation. In its simplest form it means empowering yourself, before you can help someone else. And this philosophy has held us in good stead for over two decades because it is the driving force of everything we do and how we grew from a small Asian start-up born at the height of the economic crisis in the region to a global multinational that today runs more than 10 businesses and employs over 2,000 people around the world.”
The QI Group follows three pillars of sustainability for its business.
1. Empowering people
2. Transforming communities
3. Safeguarding the environment
The company has incorporated a meat-free and plastic-free policy globally in all their offices to reduce their environmental impact. Additionally, employees of the group have donated over 100,000 volunteer hours to more than 750 environmental and social causes in over ten countries in the last five years.
QI’s flagship business, the e-commerce-powered direct-selling company, QNet, has a global footprint stretching from Asia to Europe, which has provided people with the opportunity to become micro-entrepreneurs by promoting and selling the company’s products to earn commissions.
“When we talk about empowering entrepreneurs at QNet we are not just referring to the great products or the business opportunity we give them. There is an entire support system that goes into the making of the entrepreneur. It involves coaching and mentoring, leadership training, personal development programmes and so much more,” says JR Mayer, the company’s Director of International.
The group is also heavily involved in education reform through its university in Malaysia.
“Many of the traditional ways of teaching, learning, and skills development are no longer suitable for the millennials and the world of work today. In fact, students might find that what they learn from books is obsolete by the time they complete their degree. Through our Quest International University, we aim to redefine teaching methods as well as the learning process so that the gap between the real world industry needs and academic learning can be narrowed,” says Kuna Senathirajah, the Group’s MD.
The company is also deeply involved in giving back to the community through its social impact initiative, the RYTHM Foundation, and with youth development through its investment in the PJ City Football Club.
“Our aim is making a sustainable social impact on everything that we are involved in, be it business, philanthropy, investments, or sponsorships,” says Vijay Eswaran.
To learn more about the QI Group, visit Qigroup.com
