International Business Guest Speaker Series: Quintin Lake
Quintin Lake joined management school students as part of the international business guest speaker series.
The focus of Quintin's talk was on the Modern Slavery Bill currently being debated in parliament. This legislation has considerable implications for UK firms and supply chain management.
Quintin leads UK based Fifty Eight, a business developing innovative ways for companies to manage their supply chains in ways that produce a greater quality of life for everyone. Quintin left school aged 15 to found one of New Zealand’s fastest growing tech firms – award-winning Internet Service Provider Maxnet.
He worked for a number of years helping train and develop young leaders with an international NGO, and co-founded Ugandan family focused charity Orphans Know More. Quintin holds an MBA from Ashridge Business School, and consults with companies on CSR, Sustainability, Integrated Reporting and Ethical Trade. He works with leading organisations in Technology, Tourism, Financial Services, Education and the NGO sector.
Quintin spoke about business ethics, particularly amongst global firms, exploring the issue of modern slavery which is still prevalent in many large businesses. Quintin described this as “a broad issue which can be difficult to encapsulate. It is being employed with no choice to walk away”.
The modern slavery bill will ask corporations to look closer at their supply chain, further down the tiers which often go unnoticed by company bosses. This will increase ethical practice within supply chain management.
Students who attended took part in an open discussion on this topic which was relevant to their studies. One management school student said:
“The topics discussed in the session were extremely relevant in regards to some of the material that I study whilst undertaking my degree. Quintin's consultancy and what it has set out to achieve resonates strongly with me as it is an area of business that I personally have a great deal of interest in. It was most certainly a unique opportunity to converse with a business owner in this way and I really enjoyed the experience”.