Sustainability and Entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia: Thailand and Singapore 2026

Course Description

Policy changes and social trends create both challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurs. This course focuses on how the sustainability movement is driving each of these forces. One specific illustration comes from climate change:

While both Singapore and Thailand face substantial climate risk, the policy responses of their respective governments are notably distinct.

Singapore has already budgeted $100 billion to prepare for rising sea levels over the next fifty years and has taken on a more immediate Singapore Green Plan 2030 which includes several aggressive initiatives.

Thailand faces extreme climate risk as the 11 million people in Bangkok live at an average elevation of less than 5 feet above sea level. Despite this and other threats, the Thai government has taken minimal actions towards mitigating climate risk. 

Despite the range of policy responses, the level of sustainability-driven entrepreneurial activity is substantial in both places as you'll discover in-country as we meet with an impressive array of business leaders. A hands-on comparison of these two countries will allow students to see how the specific structural forces established by policy makers, culture, and economic conditions generate unique incentives for businesses and individuals. Entrepreneurial opportunities in each country can be assessed by the degrees to which they will be constrained or enhanced by these structural forces.

To summarize: the objective of this course is to observe how the sustainability movement is creating challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurship in Singapore and Thailand and to identify the extent to which those conditions are transferable to other localities throughout the world.

Faculty Bio

Brett Saraniti received his PhD in Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 1997.  His dissertation chair was Roger Myerson, Nobel Laureate 2007.  He is currently a Clinical Professor of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences at Kellogg.

Brett has taught MBA and executive courses at Kellogg every summer since 1995 where he has been honored with four teaching awards for three different courses.  He has also taught in the Kellogg-Recanati program in Tel Aviv, the Kellogg-Schulich program in Toronto, The Kellogg-Guanghua program in Beijing, and the Kellogg-HKUST program in Hong Kong.  Brett was a visiting professor at INSEAD every year from 2008-17 winning the Best Teacher Award for the Core Classes in September 2008.  He has been a visitor at the Sasin Graduate Institute in Bangkok, Thailand; IESE in Barcelona; the Brisbane Graduate School of Business in Queensland, Australia; the Thunderbird School of Global Management; TECNUN in San Sebastian, Spain; The Bloch School at UMKC; Stanford; UC Davis; and the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration in Finland.  He has also delivered executive management seminars at Seminarium International in both Chile & Costa Rica and Seminarium Mexico.

He has also worked, taught, and/or consulted for McKinsey & Company, Xerox Corporation, Hiscox Insurance, Allianz, Chevron Oil Field Research, LG Electronics, Cantor Fitzgerald/Hollywood Stock Exchange, Inigo Insurance, Alstom, Swire, FEMSA, EVRAZ N.A., HP, UNext, Love & Kirschenbaum LLC (expert witness), Maclean-Fogg, Trunk Club, MRJ Technologies, Suncloud Health, Chipin.com, Carddomains.com, Lee Ceramics, and Surflight Hawaii.   He is on the corporate advisory board of Sprint Milestone, a data analytics consultancy based in Hong Kong.

Brett spends most of his time with his wife Samantha and their three children Francesca, Carlo & Enzo who enjoy beating him at pretty much everything.