The multinational conglomerate QI Group was founded in 1998, as much of Asia was still absorbing the aftermath of one of the region’s worst financial crises. For the company’s founders, building something during a period of widespread economic contraction required a clear sense of what the company should actually stand for, not just what it sold.
Twenty-seven years later, QI Group operates across 30 countries in sectors spanning direct commerce, travel and hospitality, education, retail operations, and luxury products. Its workforce of over 2,000 people represents nearly 50 nationalities and speaks more than 50 languages. Its philanthropic arm, RYTHM Foundation, has reached over 1 million beneficiaries across more than 15 countries.
Three qualities run through the company’s history in ways that are visible in its actual operations: the capability it builds in its people, the compassion it has embedded in its structure, and the courage it has repeatedly exercised in building differently from the prevailing model.
Building Capability
QI Group’s approach to capability starts with an argument about what is required to help others. Its RYTHM philosophy — Raise Yourself To Help Mankind — is drawn from the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. RYTHM frames self-improvement as the precondition for meaningful contribution to others. That sequence runs through every internal development program the company operates.
The learning architecture spans from Qi LEARN, the company’s proprietary e-learning platform with roughly 90 courses open to every employee, up through The Zone — a four-day purpose-finding intensive led personally by the company’s founders. In between sit the Foundation of Management program for new managers, the Manager Series for experienced people leaders, QI Rising for next-generation leadership candidates, and the 2E Programme (Second Echelon) in which the founders personally mentor employees identified as the organization’s future core.
Across all of it, the stated goal isn’t competence alone — it’s ownership. QI Rising explicitly aims to build in participants “a spirit of ownership for the company’s vision.” Co-founder Joseph Bismark leads STEER, a training program whose acronym expands to Service, Teamwork, Enrichment, Excellence, and Resolve.
Compassion as Structure
The RYTHM Foundation has committed to directing 10% of revenues toward community causes. This commitment was formalized into the foundation’s incorporation in 2005.
Since then, RYTHM Foundation has partnered with over 115 organizations, and implemented more than 200 projects aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Its 2025 programs ran across India, Nepal, Malaysia, Ghana, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia — spanning literacy for marginalized children, language preservation for indigenous communities, inclusive youth football, and vocational training for women. Its Taarana School in Petaling Jaya, opened in 2011, serves approximately 50 children with special needs and won Malaysia’s Best Special Education Centre of the Year at the 2024 PEEAM EduAwards.
Internally, the Employee Community Impact (ECI) program asks every employee to dedicate at least 12 hours a year to community causes. The cumulative total since 2013: over 125,000 volunteer hours.
The Long Argument
There’s a particular form of institutional courage involved in building a company on principles that run against prevailing business assumptions — and then spending decades making the public case for those principles.
The company’s internal composition reflects the same orientation. With employees representing nearly 50 nationalities, roughly 47% of them women, and approximately 44% of management positions held by women, QI Group has built an organization whose structure is consistent with what its programs and public commitments claim.
What holds capability, compassion, and courage together is less a philosophy than a set of operational choices made repeatedly over time. A company that embeds social responsibility into performance and has directed 10% of revenues to community causes for two decades has done something harder than announcing values. It has made them observable. For a company founded during a financial crisis on a philosophy borrowed from Gandhi, that consistency is itself worth noting.
