Global Catalyst Advisory: Revolutionizing Evolving Business Models with Sustainability and Social Responsibility

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Many businesses struggle to adapt to a rapidly changing and disruptive world. Traditional capitalist models often prioritize short-term profits over long-term sustainability, leading to environmental degradation and widening cap of social inequality. Global Catalyst Advisory (GCA) helps businesses innovate and thrive in this new era. The company believes in the “triple bottom line” – achieving success by considering the needs of people, the planet, and profit. It combines cutting-edge technology, strategic thinking, and academic rigor to develop innovative solutions for clients across public, private, and non-profit sectors.

Global Catalyst Advisory, a boutique strategic advisory firm, headquartered in Singapore has carved a niche in blending strategic advisory with innovative technologies, thought leadership, and academic rigor. Founded on scientific and evidence-based analysis principles, the firm addresses complex challenges its clients face by proposing sustainable solutions. Operating across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas, Global Catalyst Advisory has made significant strides in public, private, and NGO sectors, living up to its motto: “Resolving World’s Issues.”

“Triple Bottom Line” Philosophy

Global Catalyst Advisory (GCA) is a forward-thinking consultancy built on the belief that business success is inextricably linked to social responsibility and environmental well-being. The company’s core philosophy revolves around the “triple bottom line” – achieving profitability while serving society and safeguarding the planet. GCA’s team boasts a unique blend of experience, drawing expertise from consulting firms, business chambers, economic agencies, and prestigious universities like Oxford, Harvard, and Kellogg. This diverse background allows them to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical business needs. Furthermore, GCA seamlessly integrates the principles of the UN Global Compact with a focus on empowering vulnerable groups. Its areas of expertise encompass critical issues shaping today’s world, including:

Government Policies and Economic Development Advisory
Disruptive Technologies
Digital Transformation
Evolving Business Models
Capital Raising Strategies for Non-Profits and Social Enterprises
Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions
Sustainable Development and Climate Change
Impact Investing

A Data-Driven Approach to Problem-Solving

GCA prioritizes a rigorous approach, combining academic thought leadership with in-depth research. They leverage data analytics and evidence-based solutions to tackle complex business challenges. Their services encompass:

Strategic Consulting
Capacity Building Programs
Sustainability Solutions
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Investment Facilitation

By embracing this comprehensive strategy, GCA positions itself as a catalyst for positive change, tackling international issues on economic, social, and enterprise levels.

Under the stewardship of Victor Tay, the CEO, Global Catalyst Advisory has garnered international acclaim, securing several awards, such as the “Green Asia Innovation Leadership Awards”, ‘Brands for Good Awards‘ from Singapore, “Most Influential Sustainable Business CEO in South East Asia” from UK, “Financial Excellence Leadership Awards” from Dubai, “Top 30 Innovative Leaders to watch in 2023” from US, reflecting the firm’s ability to transform industries like social enterprises and agriculture through advanced technologies like Web3, blockchain, and tokenization. Victor, recognized as “The Most Influential Sustainability CEO in Southeast Asia,” has dedicated his career to enhancing the capabilities of small-medium enterprises and non-profits through astute financial and strategic advisory.

Revolutionizing Agriculture and Breaking the Poverty Cycle

One of the firm’s flagship projects targeted the plight of small-hold farmers in Southeast Asia. These farmers, often marginalized by intermediaries and landlords, found themselves trapped in a relentless poverty cycle. Global Catalyst Advisory introduced a revolutionary closed-loop, zero-carbon footprint agricultural system called multiphonics, which integrated vertical farm with containerized aquatic farming and organic waste recycling from poultry to rejuvenate infertile lands and reduce environmental impact.

Victor Tay explained, “We innovated this system when we learned about the challenges faced by nomadic farmers in the Philippines. our technology make productivity usage of barren lands but also circumvents the traditional agricultural challenges.” The initiative, “Plenitude,” aims to disrupt traditional farming constraints and directly connect farmers to markets, bypassing exploitative middlemen and thus aligning with the nine Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Web3 and Metaverse for Environmental Sustainability

Victor’s leadership extends into his role as the United Nations Global Compact NS chair, where he champions SDGs and ESG issues. He critiques the inefficacies of international agreements like the Kyoto and Paris Protocols, highlighting inequitable burden placed on developing nations which carbon-intensive activities were outsourced. “To address the issues, Global Catalyst Advisory leverages monitoring, reporting, and validation (DMRV) technologies to ensure the traceability and permanence of afforestation projects, enhancing the integrity of carbon trading markets”.

Victor previously chaired the United Nations Global Compact NS advocating multinationals to adopt SDG initiatives like ethical sourcing, integration of sustainable product, alternative energy adoption and developing countries workforce development. He further explained the state of affairs of sustainability challenges, “While globally, 37 industrialized countries ratified Kyoto Protocol in 1992 to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, it did not reduce the overall greenhouse emission. Subsequently, the movement extended towards 196 countries that ratified the Paris Protocol in 2015 to ensure a great push towards climate change. However, most developing economies highlighted climate justice when developed economies outsourced the most pollutive industries to these nations, saddled with escalating carbon emissions from advanced countries. Concurrently, with the advent of carbon credits and trading, the multinationals were monetizing on the credits the farmers engaged in the afforestation activities with nature-based solutions were inequitably incentivized.

Tokenization, DMRV technologies, and Carbon Credits

With this, Global Catalyst Advisory leverages dynamic monitoring, reporting, and validation technologies (DNRV), a combination of web3 blockchain technologies, to ensure the traceability of this nature-based afforestation. The company leverages IOT, satellite, drones, and blockchain to ensure the afforestation projects’ permanence and immutability. Upon pledging to a carbon reduction projection and credits, these projects will be securitized by blockchain to ensure the trees are protected. Satellite and IOT images have also helped monitor these trees against illegal logging.

With these technologies, GCA has moved towards unleashing consumerism to participate in carbon reduction projects, which are usually an institutional play. “Current carbon credits were merited and traded based on a full tonnage. The advent of web3 technologies allows fractionalizing the tonnage of carbon credits, empowering consumers to participate. In this aspect, consumers may aggregate the credits and generate greater liquidity in the carbon credit market. Concurrently, we provided full transparency and traceability to every carbon certificate to authenticate the carbon value chain against greenwashing“, Victor explained. With Victor’s advocacy, carbon credits can be frationalized to an astounding granularity of a gram for trading in which concerned sustainable consumers can participate.

People, Planet, and Profit

In their latest endeavor, Global Catalyst Advisory is collaborating with a 50,000-acre durian plantation to link consumer participation through growing digital trees in the metaverse while linking to growing real trees at the plantation. This allows carbon credits to be accrued to all parties. In this regard, Victor emphasized that the farmers involved in the plantation would have their carbon credit interests safeguarded through blockchain. This fulfills his ideology of balancing the triple bottom line of “People, Planet, and Profit.”

Victor emphasized that Global Catalyst Advisory, like Oxford and Oxfam, aims to “Resolve the World’s Problems” while offering client solutions on a strategic long-term basis. He explained that the firm only picks projects which will fulfil the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit. Victor chaired regular business fora at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policies at the National University of Singapore, focusing on business and regulatory issues. He was also the Honorary Advisor and Governing Council at the Singapore Digital Chamber of Commerce and the ASEAN Business Alliance. He believes in overlaying digitalization solutions, innovative mindset, and regulatory forces to effect industry and business transformation.

Victor elaborated philosophically, “I have learned where God uses the most unlikely, everyday hero, like David, a shepherd, to defeat the monstrosity and towering problems like Goliath. Daily, I reminded myself to search for small prints left by God as solutions to ready societal challenges. While chairing Global Compact at the United Nations, I learned about natural pairing by housing retired villages with childcare centers that provide a symbiotic effect of senior citizens’ love, attention, and care with affection yearning for children. Also, in agriculture, I learned that farm discharge and wastes can be treated as closed-loop resources to resolve water, fertilizer, and energy issues. It is usually when humans abuse nature’s pairing that results in environmental abuse and resource wastage“. He pointed out that many business intelligence and data mining had revealed systematic patterns and affinity pairing in solution implementation. “It is not unusual that many innovators and scientists have drawn creative solutions from nature’s system and harmony,” concludes Victor.

Quote:

“Many businesses were disrupted as they overly emphasized financial gain that it ceased to provide value. We believe that all successful and sustainable businesses must fulfill the equilibrium of preserving the planet, fulfilling people’s expectation while generating profit as a synergized outcome.”