ICDM Corporate Social Impact Initiative 

Leading for Growth & Sustainability in Startups 

Startups are often building the plane while flying it, but the most successful ones are those who focused on delivering value to their stakeholders. Corporate governance provides a good framework to allow a company to grow and sustain by balancing and addressing the vested interest of stakeholders, including customers, employees and shareholders. 

George Mallory became famous over the mystery as to whether he was the first man to summit Mount Everest. He was last seen in 1924 (Sir Edmund Hillary reached the summit in 1953) and just 245m from the summit when he disappeared. Although his body was found 75 years later, the mystery was never solved. 

But perhaps Mallory is more known for his memorable response to the question “Why did you want to climb Mount Everest?” “Because it’s there” has been called the most famous three words in mountaineering. The tone at the top was clear to George Mallory.