Published works
Three published books spanning personal performance, regional geopolitical intelligence, and leadership identity under pressure. Two doctoral research programmes that produced the first academic studies of their kind in ASEAN. And an ongoing record of strategic publications for international business audiences across ASEAN-EU corridors.
The Happy Life Blueprint
Published 2020
The Happy Life Blueprint
The first book in the trilogy addresses the question that precedes all leadership performance: how do you sustain the psychological foundation that everything else depends on? Written before burnout became the word every organisation was misusing, this book builds a framework for performance, meaning, and wellbeing that is grounded in clinical psychology — not motivational theory.
For leaders who want to sustain their capability and effectiveness across a full career — not sprint to exhaustion in the first decade of serious responsibility.
What reading this book changes
The relationship between performance and rest. The distinction between the psychological drivers of meaning and the psychological drivers of pleasure. The specific habits and conditions that sustain high-performance over decades rather than years. And the clinical recognition of when a leader is carrying something that deserves more than a weekend.
ASEAN Unbound
Published 2022
ASEAN Unbound
Southeast Asia's economic architecture, geopolitical dynamics, and the hidden rules that determine business success in the region — written by someone who has spent 21 years inside the policy systems that produce those rules. This is not an outsider's guide to ASEAN. It is an insider's account of how the region actually works, why Western business frameworks consistently misread it, and what the leaders who operate successfully in ASEAN understand that those who fail do not.
For international business leaders entering or expanding within Southeast Asia, regional C-suite leaders navigating multilateral trade complexity, and policy practitioners who want a practitioner's perspective on ASEAN's actual operating logic.
What reading this book changes
The understanding of why the relationship always precedes the transaction in ASEAN — and what the relationship actually requires. The recognition of how face-saving dynamics shape decision-making at every level of ASEAN's business culture. And the geopolitical intelligence to understand which of ASEAN's current trade and policy dynamics are structural and which are negotiable.
The Identity Collapse
Published 2025 · Most recent
The Identity Collapse
What happens to a leader's sense of self when the role, the organisation, or the social context they were built around disappears — or changes in ways they did not choose? The third book examines the psychological architecture of leadership identity, what makes it stable or brittle, and what the leaders who navigate major identity disruptions without losing themselves actually do differently. Written for the Bridge Generation navigating the largest leadership identity disruption in ASEAN's modern history.
For leaders navigating career transitions, organisational restructuring, post-merger leadership change, succession transitions, or any period where who they are professionally is genuinely in question.
What reading this book changes
The distinction between role identity and core identity — and why conflating them is the structural cause of most leadership identity collapse events. The specific psychological patterns that predict whether a leader will navigate a major disruption with their judgment intact or in a compromised state. And a framework for rebuilding an identity architecture that is more resilient to the next disruption.
Doctoral research
The two doctoral programmes produce the primary research base that underpins both the books and the advisory work. Both are summarised here. Full research documents are available through Mahat Advisory's Intelligence Hub.
Doctoral research 01
PhD in Crisis Economy — Leadership in Volatile Economic Environments
Manipal GlobalNxt · 2023
This doctoral research examines how leaders make decisions under conditions of economic crisis and regional volatility — mapping the specific decision-making patterns that distinguish leaders who navigate crisis with organizational integrity intact from those whose organizations emerge from crisis in a depleted state. The research draws on ASEAN's specific experience of financial shock, trade disruption, and political uncertainty.
Underpins: The Happy Life Blueprint · ASEAN Unbound · Mahat Advisory primary research program
Doctoral research 02 · First in ASEAN
The AI-Augmented Leader: Redefining Decision-Making and Emotional Intelligence in Hybrid Human-Machine Teams
First doctoral study in ASEAN on this subject
This research is the first rigorous academic study in Southeast Asia examining how agentic AI changes the emotional and cognitive demands on human leaders. It identifies the specific leadership behaviors that distinguish successful AI integration from failed adoption, the new emotional intelligence competencies that AI-augmented environments require, and the governance architecture that makes human-machine team leadership defensible at board level.
Underpins: AI-Augmented Leadership keynote · Mahat AI Trust Firewall · The Identity Collapse
Strategic publications
Strategic publications · 2024 – present
Dutch Business Council Malaysia (MDBC) — ASEAN-EU Market Intelligence
Market insights and strategic analysis papers produced for regional and international business audiences — shaping policy insights and business positioning across ASEAN-EU corridors. Circulated across ASEAN and Europe, supporting corporate diplomacy, regional business alliances, and bilateral trade narratives.
Circulation: ASEAN and European business networks · MDBC membership
Research foundation · 2025
Mahat Advisory Primary Research — N=22 ASEAN C-Suite Leadership Study
Primary research with 22 ASEAN C-suite leaders managing organizations of 800–25,000 staff across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand — producing the data base for the four Firewall frameworks and the Stagility Paradox™ concept. The full dataset underpins Mahat Advisory's white papers and Intelligence Hub.
Available: Mahat Advisory Intelligence Hub · mahatadvisory.com/intelligence
Publisher and media enquiries
Publishers, editors, and journalists enquiring about serialisation rights, interview requests related to the books, or academic citation permissions — please reach out directly. The author page on the personal website is the correct starting point for all publishing-related conversations.
success@manjuappathurai.com