Robb Report Singapore Thought Leader: Frederick Tsao, Founder and CEO of Octave Institute and Sangha Retreat

Meet Frederick Tsao, fourth generation steward of family conglomerate IMC Pan Asia Alliance Group and member of the Robb Report Singapore Thought Leaders community

Even as we factor in the broad diversity of business thought in the world, Frederick Tsao’s ideas about sustainable and successful business lies outside regular programming. As the fourth generation steward of family conglomerate IMC Pan Asia Alliance Group, Tsao’s business is in industry and logistics, moving toward well-being businesses and impact investments.

He is also the founder of Octave Institute – which provides training in quantum leadership for business leaders seeking to reinvent their businesses starting with themselves and their consciousness – and Sangha Retreat, which allows Octave Institute attendees to discover, learn, grow and evolve their relationships with themselves, others and nature.

Drawing threads from the emerging science of consciousness and ancient Eastern philosophy, quantum leadership takes a holistic worldview of business that is predicated on a harmonious or beneficial impact on the environment and wellbeing of the individual: in other words, a serious and systematic attempt at defining and practising environmental, social and governance that has very much become a buzz phrase along the corridors of power.

Tsao explains: “We live in a new era where business is driving the world. The market economy is a proven concept, but Adam Smith’s idea of moral sentiments – that people making rational choices will eventually lead to good – is just an assumption. If it were true, we would not have the problem of sustainability today. People are not enlightened, we are not rational but always rationalising.”

Tsao’s quantum leadership is expounded in Quantum Leadership: New Consciousness in Business published in 2019. He has also a new book to be published in spring 2023, on the “rise of the well-being and happiness economy”.

Editor’s note: Get to know the full Thought Leaders community here.

Photography by Sayher Heffernan
Styling by Wei Lun Tok
Hair & Makeup by Benedict Choo
Credit: MAC Cosmetics