INTRODUCTION             

The current global economic meltdown has been a burning topic these days. A day would not go by without news reports on closed down companies, failing banks and laid off workers. Businesses are struggling to stay afloat while governments are scrambling to get their acts together to mitigate the impact of economic meltdowns and revive their economy. Why are these happening? Have businesses failed to anticipate changes surrounding us? Have they not managed changes properly?

Managing change is a very important factor in the sustainability and hence the success of every business organizations, as nothing is as important to the survival of an organization as change. Change management is a systematic approach to transition individuals and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. Managing change for sustainability is an advocacy for making social and ecological considerations part of corporate thought and action, and ultimately building competitive advantage through social and ecological sustainability, without sacrificing the business motives. Deliberate foresight in conceptualizing and implementing sustainable business practices can significantly enhance social equity, reduce ecological harm and raise business value.

On the other hand, managing critical environments through disaster management, managing international control systems, strategic preparation, and infrastructure and environment focusing on different dimensions of comprehensiveness are ways forward to combat unseemly events that affect businesses are prerequisite for managing such changes. In light of global and domestic investment initiatives are damping, re-strategising is time-honored; retooling and rebranding is essential and risks management is a prerequisite for sustainable development of organizations.

The role of banks, government, private sectors, non-governmental agencies and businesses in preparation for future is needed in the midst of crisis.  Action can be taken depending upon ones sensitivity and how actively institution reacts to such exhilaration phenomenon.  Leadership courage and firmness are essence to a thriving accomplishment that share, cooperate and solidify during hard and bad time.  The sense of solidarity from within that drives the individual and organization to strive for betterment. 

This 8^th edition of the Asian Academy of Management Conference (AAMC) thus, aims at bringing together academics and practitioners who are concern with managing change for sustainability. Through the presentations and discussion of the current and leading edge researches, this conference hopes that recommendations and solutions could be offered to help businesses to face the looming economic meltdown the world is currently facing.

OBJECTIVES

• To encourage collaborative researches and projects amongst institutions of higher learning and industries in addressing the issues of global economic meltdown in order to manage change for sustainability.
• To develop networking and relations among the academicians, government officials and business leaders and community.
• To contribute to the new and expanding research ideas from various areas.
• To provide opportunities to policy makers to get feedback from the research, ideas and findings presented at the conference.