Genashtim 2021
Genashtim in 2021

It has taken more than a decade for our remote-work model, focussing on eLearning and digital services, to finally bear fruit. Accelerated by the onset of COVID-19, the “new normal” is how our business has been operating since 2008. Additionally, our primary purpose of providing gainful and sustainable employment for the disadvantaged has continued to create additional opportunities for growth. Genashtim has shown that “Business as a force for good, is good for business”.

For 2021, we are pleased to report that our revenues grew by 95% from the previous year, and with the 50% growth in 2020, means that our revenues are now 3 times that of 2019. With this, we are seeing significant profits for the first time. We distributed one-third of this to our employees, as they are the ones who made all this happen. Many of them have toiled long and hard to bring Genashtim to this point.

Furthermore, we are pleased to announce that Genashtim is now carbon negative as a business.

New Clients and Environment, Social & Governance (ESG) Offerings

New corporate clients include Star Energy (the largest Geothermal power company in Indonesia and #3 in the world), Bukalapak (one of the Indonesian Unicorns), Central Bank of Malaysia, and Google Philippines.

However, our biggest win was a multi-year contract with B Lab , to provide 24 Verification Analysts (in 11 countries, speaking 11 different languages) to help review companies applying for B Corp certification.

This makes our ESG Services Dept (which is just over a year old) the largest in Genashtim. In a few short years, our ESG profile has grown from being internal (starting with our own B Corp certification), to national (SBF, raiSE), to regional (Lestari Academy, ARAIBA), and now global with B Lab.

This has given us the confidence and credibility to:

  • Set up the ESG Business Institute, which will launch its first ESG Certificate in February 2022. Please click here to register your interest.
  • Launch a Sustainability Reporting Service. We have already put more than 10 of our employees through GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) training.

Awards and Recognition

We continue to win multiple international awards, and we have also been featured in a number of international publications. Of specific significance, we were again among the ranks of Best-for-the-World among B Corps. This makes it every consecutive year since we were certified in 2015. And we now have two Best-for-the-World companies, as Genashtim Malaysia which was independently certified in 2020, also made it for this category.

As usual, our CEO was invited to speak on numerous occasions – YPO, Ashoka, Rotary, MaGIC, Project Zero (Latin America), to name a few. And he was recruited as one of the Founding Global Advisors for Knowledge Impact Network. Please check the news pages on our website for more details and information.

Our Social Impact

The primary purpose for Genasthim’s existence is to provide employment for the disadvantaged. This growth in our business has enabled us to increase our headcount from 90 in 2019 to approximately 150 in 2021, and we are still hiring. Persons with Disabilities, Refugees and Seniors still make up about 70% of our workforce, and we will be working on getting this back to 85 to 90% with further growth in our business.

However, we are still a small company. In trying to try to find other ways to scale our social innovation and social impact, we are pleased to announce that we will launch JEDI in February 2022. JEDI (an acronym for Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) is a remote jobs portal (www.jedi-jobs.com), focussing on preparing and connecting job-seekers from disadvantaged communities to employers anywhere in the world.

We continue to build our philanthropic initiatives via DG-Bridge Ltd, a registered charitable foundation in Hong Kong. Among them are:

  • Vaccination for refugees in Indonesia, and helping some of the most vulnerable families in Afghanistan survive the winter – watch this video to learn more about these initiatives.
  • Mentors4Good will be launched soon. Business leaders donate their time to mentor start-ups and SMEs, with 100% of proceeds going to charity.

Appreciation

We feel very fortunate and privileged to have thrived during these very trying times for so many people and businesses all over the world.

This is in no small part due to the outstanding efforts and teamwork from Genashtim’s employees. We’d also like to thank our clients, and the organisations and Government institutions who have helped and continue to support us.

We look forward to doing even better for ourselves and doing more for the less fortunate.