History
It all began in the beautiful remote township and Industrial hub
Hosur, Tamil Nadu when Dr Mohanakrishnan, Mr Vasudevan and Prof
Udai Pareek met at a dinner. The conversation dwelled on the practice
of OD in India and Asia and span off the concerns of OD practitioners
in the continent. The need for a knowledge sharing and, for that
purpose, networking was strongly felt; there should be a permanent
platform. To further deliberate and promote this idea collectively
with pertinent stakeholders, the thought of hosting an OD conference
was born. Vasu, who always looks for avenues to help the clients,
elevated the idea of conference to summit and that of regional
to global. Global Organization Development Summit (GODS) emerged.
A team was formed to make the summit a successful one. Mohan assumed
the leadership role as the Summit Chair with the mentoring of
Udai. SDM Institute for Management Development (SDM-IMD), Mysore,
Karnataka became the host and provided the seed money for initial
expenses. Vasu assumed the role of networking and bringing into
association the Indian Society for Applied Behavior Science (ISABS),
a premier organization in the field of OD affiliated to National
Training Laboratory (NTL). Thereby Mr Sankarasubramanian, the
President of ISABS joined the team. Mohan, Vasu and Sankar together
brainstormed and designed the summit model (www.odsummitindia.org).
Udai at the right time introduced Roland Sullivan (Roland) from
USA to the GODS team. Roland assumed the task of getting the big
names in the field of OD as keynote speakers. He succeeded in
enrolling Prof. Peter Kostanbaum, Prof. Micheal Beer of Harvard
Business School and Dr David Bradford of Stanford University as
keynote speakers. Vasu brought in Ms. Anne Litwin, the past president
of NTL. Mohan gained the partnership of Infosys, the leader in
the IT industry, and mobilized corporate sponsorships.
As everything started to fall in place for GODS 2006, the team
simultaneously worked on creating a permanent platform for networking
to bring together OD professionals, practicing managers and the
academics. Hence, in the summit design six hours were allotted
to have a brainstorming on the formation of Asia OD Network (AODN).
The summit, a grand success with about 200 delegates representing
seven countries, witnessed a serious and thoughtful deliberation
of the forming of AODN through intensive brainstorming and created
a white paper.
In the mid course of the summit Dr Lee Shing Lu (Lee Lu) came
forward to host the next GODS of 2007 in China and Mr. Douglas
(Dough) proposed to host it in Singapore in 2008. Lee spearheaded
the effort of organizing the second GODS (2007) and brought more
networking and affiliations with popular OD educational organizations
like Benedictine University. With the help of Benedictine University
and SDMIMD as knowledge partners and sponsors GODS 2007 will be
conducted in Shenyang city in China with Shenyang Jian Zhu University
as the host.
The Asia OD Network (AODN) was formed in 2006 by a group of OD
scholars and practitioners based in Asia and the US, is a not-for-profit
organization, officially registered in the US and in India in
May and June respectively.
Vision & Mission
We envision Asian business, nonprofit, and government organizations
that promote and practice economic, social and environmental performance
with sustainability.
Our mission is to create and provide an environment that continuously
fuels the passion and search for excellence in Organization Development
and to provide a venue for all OD professionals to network with
each other and to share knowledge and best practices with special
emphasis on the unique needs of the dynamic Asian region.
Goals & Objectives
1. To connect and network OD practitioners in the Asian
region and around the world.
2. To co-create conceptual and theoretical frameworks for OD that
are relevant to the emerging economic, social, cultural and technological
contexts in the Asian region.
3. To promote OD and Institutional Building practice among all
sectors of society.
4. To set standards for professional behavior and practice.
AODN Summits in the Past
The 1st Global OD Summit was
conceived by Prof. Udai Pareek, Mr. Vasudevan and Dr R
Mohanakrishnan in Mysore India, understanding the need for OD
teachers and professionals to have a platform to share and learn
OD in Asia. Hence the Summit was organized with the slogan and
logo of "Networking for Knowledge Sharing". The summit was held in
the historical city Mysore, India in collaboration with leading IT
Services Company Infosys and Indian Applied Behavioral Science (ISABS).
The AODN was launched on the 21st of September 2006 in the Infosys
campus in Mysore, announced by Mr. Vasudevan, paving the way for
first ever Asian Network for OD professionals. The OD Guru, Prof.
Udai Pareek, inaugurated the summit and was the Summit Mentor. The
industry leaders Mr. Mohandas Pai, Venu Srinivasan were on the
panel discussions. Rane Group Chairman Mr. Lakshman was the
keynote speaker on the day one and John Cook from US shared his
view on Philanthropy. Dr Mohanakrishnan assumed the role of
Founder President of Asia OD Network.
The third AODN
Summit held on 1st to 4th October 2008, on
the theme “Creating triple-bottom line value: leveraging Asian
wisdom and organizational development strategies for sustained
success”, at Assumption University of Thailand, at Suvarnabhumi
Campus. Chaired by Dr. Kitti Photikitti (Dean, Graduate School of
Business) assisted by Dr. Perla Rizalina M. Tayko, one of IODA’s
most active members in Asia, is the Program Director of Masters-
and Doctor of Management in OD at the Assumption University.
Hundred and thirty five participants,
from 17 different countries, were welcomed by Rev. Bro. Bancha
Saenghiran (President of Assumption University); Rev. Bro. Martin
Komolmas (President Emeritus of AU and IODA member); Mr. Wirat
(President of the Assumption Business and Administration College
Alumni Association); and by Mohan and Perla themselves. The
Conference Chair was Dr. Kitti Photikitti.
Two videos were presented, one by
John Scherer (also IODA member) on the theme ‘The organizational
tree: roots to the fruits… On the shoulders of giants;’ the other
by Marvin Weisbord on the theme ‘The past, present and future of
OD in the World.’ Some of the long list of speakers were Dr.
Sandra Janoff from Future Search; Dr. Nitaya Neranartkomol ; Mr
Fred Miller; Dr Pauline Arneberg; Mr. Roland Sullivan with his
MMOD Students of ABAC, Mr Douglas O’Lgoughlin, Mr Jumbhot Chuasai
and Dr. Rosalina O. Fuentes, together with doctoral graduates from
the the Southeast Asia Interdisciplinary Development Institute (SAIDI).
Finally the plenary sessions were
interspersed with concurrent sessions on the subthemes Capability,
Leadership and Transformation. Only a few of its facilitators can
be mentioned: Dr. Lee Lu from China; Dr. Aiay Nangalia from
India; Dr Sandra L. Gill from the USA and Dr. Regina Hechanova
from the Philippines.
The 4th AODN summit was held between
August 19 and 22, 2009 at the Center for Leadership, Innovation
and Creativity (CLIC) of the Indian School of Business organized
by Foundation for Research, Education and Development (FRED). The
theme of the Summit was “Fusion of Eastern and Western Principles
- Creating Sustainable Development benefiting OD”. Delegates from
33countries approximately numbering 140 have participated in the
Summit. The Summit was organized by FRED in collaboration with
International OD Association (IODA) and Asia OD Network (AODN).
Prof. Udai Pareek the Chairman of FRED gave an introduction on the
history of OD in India. The first day Keynote speaker was O. P.
Bhatt, Chairman State Bank of India (SBI), in his presentation
titled, ‘SBI- The Transformation Story’, recounted how change
management transformed a PSU into an exemplary banking
institution. In another keynote address, Professor Ram Tenkasi,
spoke about the role of contextualization in the effective
implementation of large scale planned change. Professor Kaipa gave
a keynote address on the topic, ‘Wisdom approaches to igniting the
genius within’. Other keynote speeches included “Transformation at
the grass root level”, “Building leadership pipeline”, “Corporate
lifecycles”, etc. This Summit quests future OD for sustainable
development including fusion of cultures, changes in leadership
and organization structure, etc. Dr Mohanakrishnan was the Summit
Chair and Ms. Vinaya Shetty was the Co- Chair of the summit. Dr
Lee Lu succeeded Dr Mohanakrishnan as a President during the
summit.
The fifth AODN summit
was held between
October 27 and 29, 2010
in Ateneo De Manila University, Quezon City of
Philippines. The
theme of this Summit was "Transforming Asian
Organizations towards Global Competitiveness and Sustainability". The
conference included skill building workshops, as well as thematic
sessions that feature research and practice of OD in Asia. The
conferences also feature interactive sessions designed to allow
exchange of ideas and experiences across organizations, sectors
and cultures. The keynote speaker is Dr. Christopher Worley.
The Summit focuses on difficulties
and challenges in OD, cross-cultural influence in Asian
organizations, changes in management roles, etc. The concurrent
session had 7 topics, they were: Transforming the academe,
Transforming the MNC, Transforming government, Transforming
non-profit organizations, Transforming the family business, The
individual and change, building communities. The Summit also
conducted site visits as part of action learning process, these
sites are the Accenture, Gawad Kalinga, IBM, Miriam College, PLDT,
Quezon City Hall, and St. Luke’s Medical Center.
Board of Trustees (Interim)
Mr.
Douglas O’Lgouhlin
Dr Lee Lu
Ms.
Michelle Tapia
Dr. R Mohanakrishnan
Prof.
Udai Pareek
Mr. Vasudevan
Ms Vinaya Shetty
*Please note that the Annual Board Meeting, Planning & Elections
will be held during the summit on September 10, 2007 from 9am
to 5pm at the Shenyang Jianzhu University in Shenyang, China.
Office Staff
We currently do not have any full time office staff.
Webmaster:
Peng (Leo) Liu
*We are looking for the following volunteer staff and
professional services to help us organize the AODN and GODS.
Executive Director
Membership Assistant
Communications Assistant
Bookkeeper
Editor - Newsletter
Forum/Blog Facilitator