The FINANCIAL — In his free inaugural lecture, Could small and medium sized organisations be both lean and green?, Professor Prasanta Dey, will explore the challenges faced in improving the sustainability of SMEs in both developed and developing countries and the research currently being carried out to address this issue through better supply change management.
Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) make up around 90% of the world’s businesses and they employ 50-60% of the world’s population. SMEs are commonly recognised as making large contributions to the global economy and result in many social benefits. However, they also exert considerable pressure on the environment, not individually, but collectively. Available research suggests that SMEs are responsible for more than 50% of the industrial pollution in the Asia-Pacific region. Hence, sustainability of SMEs supply chain in both developed and developing countries is questionable.
Prasanta specialises in supply chain management and project management. He has published more than hundred research papers in leading international refereed journals. He has accomplished several research projects in supply chain optimisation and project management maturity studies in manufacturing, services and construction globally covering both small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and large sectors.
His industry clients include Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls Royce, JCB, L’Oreal, NHS, Britons Carpet, Cemex, General Dynamics, Unocal, and several organisations in SMEs in the UK and abroad. He has delivered long term executive development programs and facilitated numerous workshops for executives in Barbados Government, the healthcare professionals in Maltese hospital and National Health Services in the UK, the project executives in JCB, Jaguar and Land Rover, Atkins and the Country and HR managers in L’Oreal.
Furthermore, Prasanta has developed several decision support systems that include supplier performance evaluation, supply chain performance measurement, sustainability performance framework, risk management and currently engaged in developing decision support systems for optimising bioenergy (including waste to energy) supply chain design and operations. His work helped numerous SMEs in the developing countries like India, Bangladesh and Thailand to deal with their sustainability issues and challenge. He helps many city councils in the UK and municipalities in India for developing strategies and policies for solid waste management. He is the editor in chief of International Journal of Energy Sector Management.
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