YCM CEO Series 34: Mohd Nur Ismal, Chief Executive Officer of the Land Public Transport Commission
22nd June 2011
Writing credits: Farhana Roslan

The below is the live-blog write-up on the CEO Series 34 session with Mr Mohd Nor Ismal, Chief Executive Officer of the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD).

Mr Mohd Nor (MN) started off with outlining the three main items he was asked to come speak to YCM about; the journey of his career, SPAD and of course, the MRT.

When he graduated from university in the US, he took the path every graduate wanted to during the time, which was to become an investment banker. He decided Wall Street was too competitive, and so decided on Chicago. He started his career in CNA Financial Corporation, in an investment-banking job and spent 10 years of his career there, though he claims he made the mistake of staying in the place for too long. He did miss Malaysia and had the idea of returning home at the back of his mind, but he knew if he did, the hit on the compensation was going to be too much.

He decided the best way to go about this problem was to go back to business school. He went to Kellogg for his MBA. Upon leaving business school, there was a shift in the trend from investment banking to management consulting. So he went on from what he called a steady desk job to a career of talking to clients. MN claims this was a challenging experience, but a very fulfilling one; where people “look at you, pour their hearts out and expect you to solve their problems”. He calls it satisfying.

MN knew he had to return to Malaysia, so he did. Upon finding out that AT Kearney, the top tier management consulting firm he works for was expanding into Asia, he took the job offer without even thinking. He spent 3 years in Singapore serving a variety of clients from the Financial Services sector and even microelectronics. Most of the time he was in Singapore and Bangkok, too much so that the apartment in Bangsar that he had, was only stayed in 12 days in a year.

After sometime, MN resigned, and took 1 year off. He spent 6 months in Las Vegas, spending his time deciding whether he wants to return to Malaysia. Las Vegas didn’t work out, and so he returned home. He did not know what to do after, and so joined Accenture, only because they were the ones with most contracts in Malaysia at the time. Malaysia was going through a difficult time, and so he had had to travel, as far as even South Korea.

This was when several leaders on the DRB Hicom board asked MN to come on board. He claims this was the first time; he was playing a “defense” type role, joining a GLC corporation. He also joked that his experience was usually the “offence” player, but now he is playing defense for the government. This was when MN realized that he is already making good money, lived a comfortable life, and could afford to buy anything he wanted, but wanted something more out of his career.

Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, who was then the Minister of Higher Education, asked MN to join him. He jokes “What did I know about education!?” But at the point of time, they were releasing a strategic plan for higher education. MN highlighted that he thought the contents of the master plan was less than what Malaysians deserve. He convinced the ministry to redo the whole plan, but also became extremely unpopular within the ministry along the way. The revised plan didn’t work out either. The minister than asked him to redo it again. That was when, with him on board, the MOHE came up with the National Action Plan for universities, which involved doing away with egalitarianism amongst universities and release institutions to chart their own paths.

MN then joined the team of Ministry of Transport, under Datuk Seri Ong Tee Kiat, where he claimed he “jumped into” the role. Again, he jokes, “What do I know about transport?” That was also when Datuk Seri Idris Jala was transferred onto his role at PEMANDU, and MN again was sourced into the team for 5 short months, to work on the urban transportation NKRA. Datuk Seri Idris Jala offered him a position in PEMANDU but MN was made to understand that that was against the PM’s wishes. He jokes “Oh, so the PM really does hate me that much.” It turns out that the PM had another job waiting for him. A job he claims, that “no one else wants.” MN knew from the start that this was going to be an impossible mission; there is little chance that everyone will be satisfied.

MN decided, whatever it is that is to happen during the period of his contract as SPAD chief, he told himself he wouldn’t care, as long as he can make at least a little change. This was when he admitted it was his colleague Annafi telling him that the commission was in need of manpower and personnel that he was here talking to YCM tonight. He says he thinks this is a good idea, standing in front of the brightest young Malaysians, sharing his story in hope that some of them would be moved by SPAD’s efforts and would want to find “higher meaning” to their career. He jokes, “so this is the end of my sales speech for today.”

The MRT
MN started off rekindling how popular public transport was back in the 1980’s, before Malaysia started going through fantastic economic growth. People earned more and hence were able to afford their own cars. There were investments in the LRT, monorail, and the Intrakota buses (now Rapid KL). But, nothing has really changed since the 1990’s. We were back to the problem (inaccessibility) and dread blocks, which MN claims was starting to impair economic growth in the affected areas and the city. MN showed that the modal share of people using public transport declined significantly, with 34% usage in 1985, 20% in 1997 and 10-12% in 2008.

Because things were really bad, our beloved PM saw an opportunity, and agreed to include land public transport and MRT as one of the NKRA under the ETP, where the target modal share of users is 25% by 2012. MN was glad that we are on track with 17% modal share achieved last year.

MN highlights the current issues we face. If we are lucky enough to live near the LRT rail network, we could use it. It was made better slightly with the 4 train car sets introduced. KTM, he points out, is still a problem, but expects this to be better when the new longer train car sets are delivered. Buses, are highly unpredictable, taxis are “as you know…” he claims. Networks are unplanned, ad hoc and driven mainly by suppliers and players. The root cause; the way we govern public transport. MN claims that public transport has always been merely an afterthought. DBKL was much more concerned about structural planning, while the MOT did not have much jurisdiction over local councils. We need a holistic approach to address this; this was how the idea of a single authority to address all this issues, came about (SPAD). For those who might be swayed, MN tells the crowd how he only hear one of two things every time he meets people; either “I feel sorry for you I don’t envy you,” or “Great! You are in the hottest team in the government.”

Public transport is a key NKRA. ETP has a few mega projects under it, and the MRT is evidently at the center stage. Even though they were relatively new kids on the block, people tend to listen to them. Although, MN claims that they did not get much power until January this year, although they were formed more than a year ago. SPAD is to act as a centre of planning, enforcing, regulating. They didn’t have as much power as their Singaporean counterpart; because of the constitution, SPAD does not have jurisdiction over local governments. However, the minister in charge is the PM himself, and so SPAD ten to have a lot of influence. MN shares some of the SPAD’s job scope; from broad planning and drawing up the NPT policy framework and the public transport masterplan, enforcement on operators, “boring stuff” like standard setting, and operating call centers for consumer relations purposes, to the project management of the MRT itself. SPAD, he says, is data driven, and builds up its research capabilities as together with the public transport associations. MN disclaims that he does not want to sound too ambitious. Their biggest issue is they are still fighting for next year’s budget, resulting in them having to narrow down their targets next year. Safety, he notes, is a key area that SPAD needs to show major improvement in.

MN assures us that he knows our careers may have involved us having some very low days. He shares that, in his time since SPAD, when it was low, it was really low. He notes the recent NST article blaming the SPAD for the return of taxi touts, as another very low point in his time as CEO. However, the highs are also very high, he claims.

MN moves on talking about how the MRT is the biggest infrastructure project since Malaysian independence. With lesser intensity, is the public transport outside the city. They are playing this down a bit, since this part revolves about of money. He notes that the SPAD wants to be lead by data. They will not be moved, until the data tells them to. Also, they want to publish the data, so the public knows what they are doing. The SPAD also absorbed two government agencies; the department of railway from the MOT and the commercial vehicle licensing board. In terms of number, the SPAD dwarfs them. Now the SPAD is trying to operationalize their operations under it. Other aspects of include, the national framework, investments and allocation of them so that it would be an equitable manner. Right now, the main focus of SPAD is the Klang Valley, and then they will go region by region, starting from Johor, Penang and then Perak.

SPAD is also about to release the Urban Railway Transformation Plan, then taxis, buses, and terminals and networks. They are targeting to release all this by September 2012. MRT will be their centerpiece. MN shows a picture of the current situation of traffic in Malaysia. Part of the map shows read areas, which represents 300minutes of travel time to get into the city centre. If we do not do anything, the situation will reach a point where the whole map turns red (MN shows another photo of what it will be like in few years time).

But Why Is MRT So Exciting?
This is for what it is going to do to the economy. MN highlights Greater KL as the largest NKEA in the ETP; expected to contribute to GNI by US$12billion. What is central to the Greater KL in turn is the issue of mobility. If the picture is as the 2nd scenario (he refers to second photo, where the map turns all red), this US$12billion is not going to happen for Malaysia.

On its own merit, the MRT alone is expected to contribute US$3 to 4 billion in GNI in 10 years, creating 130,000 new jobs, and will multiply via multiplier effect into US$8 to 12billion in a year. The second major advantage is the effects it will have on property price appreciation. Increase in GDV is expected at RM300million a year. MN thinks even this is understated. A third advantage and the most exciting is the 20billion in time savings it will create, which will translate into a total of RM21billion a year that it will create in productivity, according to PEMANDU estimates. MN adds that we are banking on the success of ETP to generate knowledge workers. This is the point where he shows that 1 MRT coach is to carry enough people that 3 buses or 177 cars will carry, to illustrate the tremendous help the MRT will create.

MN takes a step back and disclaims that it is not that they are just too obsessed with the MRT. It is because of sheer distance and the capacity required. He claims that we need the biggest capacity, of more than 25000 people per hour per day (PPHPD). Secondary transport plans include the Bus rapid Transit (BRT).

MN explains that the MRT is expected to carry 1.2million people within the city centre, with daily ridership of 400,000. The alignment will be as long as 51.0km, with 9.5km of it is underground. There will be 35 stations, of which 8 is underground. There will also be park n’ rides, which will consist of 13 floor car parks. The first of 3 lines will be completed in 2016, and commissioned in 2017. He adds that the status of the alignment is sitting on the PM’s desk as he speaks and pending discussions with him, for the PM to make his final decisions, especially in areas where MN claims “people are very loud.” The details of these will be announced end of June 2011, and further details can be obtained at the SPAD website.

MN then went on to explain the people involved. They have been entrusted as the agency to supervise. Syarikat Prasarana Negara will be the asset owner, and will be doing the heavy lifting. He highlights that SPAD is the one with the ultimate authority, and to put simply, he jokes “If the government knocks my head 1st, and if I am alive after that, I will knock on Prasarana’s head.”

He then shares what they are doing; parking space will be ample, during construction traffic management will also be managed, it will not be hassle free he admits, but it will be minimized. Touch n’ Go will be like Oyster and Octopus and can be used across modes of transports and across operators. They will be developing a fantastic feeder service, to take people to the MRT stations, so that people who really need it will use the parking space. All in all, he assures that there is comprehensive effort to make sure that this is going to be a success.

MN then exhibits a slide on the stakeholders; MoF will be the funding co, there will be value management consultants but notes they will be using as little public money as possible on them, independent checking engineers. Meanwhile, SPAD will play the role of supervising agency, while Prasarana is the infrastructure co. Project Development Partners, the term coined to describe MMC-Garuda partnership that went under public scrutiny, is explained to be chosen for their experience in project management, track record, and financial capacity, above just execution. They will be made responsible for and incentivized to deliver earlier than expected or cheaper than budgeted. SPAD has also compared this project to the likes of Crossrail London, ODA Olympics, the Qatar Civil Aviation Centre, and the Korean High Speed Rail project.

MN notes that in the past, the government has tended to have a narrow view of just cost. If they could afford it, they went ahead with it. Now, they are looking at other aspects such as whether the project will present opportunities to further create value. They focus not only on rail but also property. They have looked at Hong Kong and predicted the values in dollar terms receivable from the project. The appreciation of the land will pay for the shortfall in development costs. There is a 5- 38% chance of increased value, when there are MRT facilities nearby. Because the lives are not initially interconnected, when they are, it will create tremendous values, he notes.

MN points out that these values are being looked at to offset the cost of development. He gives the example of how the Docklands Railway Network, and the Kowloon Station created value for the Canary Wharf development and Hong Kong Kowloon district respectively. MN finishes by suggesting the use of these values, to compensate the public money, and not just benefit the private developers, riding on these value creations.

YCM CEO Series 32: Sajith Sivanandan, Country Head of Google Malaysia
19th April 2011
Writing credits: Aiman Syed Jaafar

Live blogging of event, done in point form:

• Sajith started by stating that Google started in a garage.  YCM is not that different because its CEO Series started with humble beginnings in an old bungalow.
• Sajith stated that YCM, like Google was and is still worth doing as “It is better to be part of something than be a bystander”
• The presentation revolved around Google’s Mission statement, and the emphasis of its words. Google’s Mission statement is “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”
  • Eric Schmidt, Google’s former CEO and current Chairman, said that this is a 300 year goal
  • Sajith showed a 2D map of the world, showing volume of Google searches in 2000. Key areas were US, Europe and Japan
  • Through Google’s 20 pc time, a Google Engineer developed a tool that showed it in 3D
  • Sajith demonstrated Google Instinct, where by playing the Beatles’ Hey Jude, as playing and typing the lyrics, Google search is able to predict what you are looking for
  • Sajith demonstrated the integration of Google Maps with Google Streetview and stated that this is among the things Google Malaysia is planning to bring to Malaysia
  • • Sajith demonstrated Streetview at New York, and even Antartica!
• He then demonstrated Google Art Project, Google is bringing Streetview into museums, as he demonstrated Vincent van Gogh’s painting zoomed to the tiniest details
• Sajith then spoke of Google’s book scanning project. They estimated that there are (arguably) 129 million books in the world, of which Google has scanned 5.2 million books. That is equivalent to 500 billion words!
  • Sajith then spoke of the uses of having scanned 500 billion words. Sajith demonstrated Googles Books Ngram Viewer (accessible here: http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/), able to scan particular words in books from any time.
  • He asked, in the books from 1800 to 2000, what is the pattern of mentions of “Men” versus “Women”? Results showed more men than women, but mentions of men declined starting 1920 and women mentions overtook men mid-1980s.

  

  Are the words “money”, “love” or “power” more popular? Unfortunately, its Power.

  

  • Sajith demonstrated the pattern of SMS at New Year where the spikes of one day, are tremendous
  • Information is one thing, how and what is Useful? His context is a question: What time of the year do most men propose to their girlfriends?
    • You only search for something when you have a need. He demonstrated Google Insights for Search (accessible here: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#) and searched, “engagement rings”. It shows the pattern when people search for the word. It shows that the spike is in December. And unsurprisingly, the search for “wedding dresses” spike in January. How is this useful? As a business, why not have a marketing campaign for a ring near December?
    • Next question: When is the highest peak for movie goers? Its December. The highest grossing film of all time is first Avatar then Titanic, both launch in December and both released by James Cameron!
    • Question: When do people care about their weight? The spike is in the 1^st week of January.
    • Question: Consumer insights for laptop purchases. Do people want long battery laptop or light weight laptop? Searches reveal that people search for long battery laptop. This information is useful as manufacturers can know what laptop to design for.
    • What can we do to make information universally accessible?
      • Sajith demonstrated a Google graph of mobile penetration. In Y2000, China has 10 million phones, a single digit percentage of its population. Past 2000, it boomed to 50% penetration with 600 milion phones in 2008, a tremendous growth. Its an indicator how fast business change.
      • In Google’s opinion, Indonesia will have more queries on mobile than PC. More people are searching Google on mobile.
      • The kind of person Google is looking for is one who is able to adjust to the fast pace of change.
      • Sajith noted that the new generation is introduced to the internet first through mobile than through desktop. Mobile searches actually spike during weekends, when we are not in office.
      • More and more media content, TV content, are available online. How much media is uploaded on YouTube every minute? Every minute, 35 hours worth of content is uploaded on YouTube! People do not consume TV content anymore, they consume Internet media.
      • He demonstrated a YouTube video Double Rainbow, which someone then made a reply and made a song out of it. Go YouTube Double Rainbow Song!
        • Original video: (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI)
        • Double Rainbow song: (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX0D4oZwCsA)
        • How is this information useful? Windows Live Photo’s advert was out of the Double Rainbow! (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jXz7NrfzsI)
        • Overall Malaysian searches in Google:
          • Queries on mobile phones went up 10 times the last 5 years.
          • Queries on financial and insurance information went up 6-7 times the last 5 years.
          • Queries on travel went up 3-4 times the last 5 years.

Q&A

Vishal (Question 1): Does Google earn financially with such projects like the Art Project?

Sajith: Google’s philosophy is that if the product is good and user uses it, revenue will come in. As a company, they allow customers to define how applicable and how useful a product is. Google wants to make a difference in people’s lives.

Helmy (Question2): What is Google going to do about Facebook? Is it seen as a rival or a partner?

Sajith: We want more and more companies to encourage people to surf online. Such moves enrich the ecosystem. It is not a zero sum game. The more companies encourage people online, everybody benefits.
Sajith hopes that in 5 years time, there will be 3 local internet companies in Malaysia.

Question 3: When is a movie about Google gonna come out?

Sajith: Let’s ask James Cameron.

Brendan (Question 4): What kind of person are you looking for?

Sajith: We are looking for people with the X-factor, beyond just good grades. People who have demonstrated they can do something else. With all that has been shown (the product demonstration), you need to have more than just good grades.

Question 5: Why did Google hire you Sajith?

Sajith: It helped that I had a couple of Masters. It helped I played sport, I played cricket for Singapore. I debated, I have worked in 4 different industries. It helps I speak 3 languages. Do you do something at work over and above the usual call? We are not looking for someone with just online experience.

Eric (Question 6): Why does Google set up an office in Malaysia?

Sajith: Hey, are you Malaysian? With 30 million people, more and more people choosing to be connected online. Malaysia has the highest number of average friends on Facebook. Malaysia is the first Google office in 3 years in Asia Pacific.

Guru (Question 7): What is Google +1?

Sajith: The second largest search engine is YouTube, owned too by Google. When we search, there is a social element that we have missed. Such as the question of “How does Siti feel about this event when she speaks to Alia?”. Google +1 adds an additional layer of social signal to make searches more meaningful.

Guru (Question 8): How do you determine 20% time in the 80:20 time concept? How do you quantify?

Sajith: Trust is implicit in all we do at Google. We don’t have timesheets. What Google is most interested in is the outcome. You are intelligent enough to be trusted with what you do with the time. You are surrounded by intelligent and driven people so we don’t need to answer how to ensure people to work 80% of the time. They just do. It’s a desire to make a difference and we hope it would inspire people.

YCM CEO SERIES 31: NATASHA KAMALUDDIN, MANAGING PARTNER OF ETHOS & Co
Writing Credits: Farhana Roslan

The below is the write up from the session with Natasha Kamaluddin, Managing Partner of Ethos and Company.
Natasha began the session assuring the crowd that she had only a maximum of 15 slides.
Natasha then informed the crowd that she has decided to talk about Malaysia, making a slight comment of her favourite topic; political economy. She joked that most of us in the room at the time were either too young or were not even born yet, to really understand the NEP and its justifications. She did not discount the fact that she was standing where she is today, as a result of the NEP.

Back when the NEP was originated, 60% of Malaysians were in poverty. Up to the year 2000, the NEP was largely successful. Economic growth was ranging between 5 to 10%. It was only after 2000 that we have come to realize and find that our growth prospects weakened considerably. Natasha notes that this was probably attributed to the two major economic recessions Malaysia suffered from (Late 90’s and 2008). She asserts that the cost was too high (cost of recovering the economy), for an economy like Malaysia (to sustain incredible growth we enjoyed in the past).

Then Natasha went on with the stimulus packages that Malaysia has had. Malaysian government debt grew (CAGR) more than 12% (federal government debt as a % of GDP). She informed the crowd that we are now at an (alarming) 74% level. However, she notes that this is true if we use national income as denominator. Arguably, the experienced economist that Natasha is, she would prefer using government income instead, which would bring the debt level to 26%. In both cases, she notes that the government debt is still considered very high.

Natasha went on to explain a chart showing that Malaysia is still very much a resource based economy; with crude oil only is making up 73% of our GDP. But, Natasha points out that investment and consumption (private investment as a share of GDP) is very low. This will one way or another translate into very low productivity growth in Malaysia, suggesting that fundamentals is very concerning.
Because productivity growth is a problem, Natasha points out that the aim for Malaysia to be a high income nation is going to be a tough pursuit. She pointed out that the middle and bottom 40% income is stagnated. Talent in Malaysia is so scarce, that there is so much room for the slightly skilled labour force to demand higher wage levels. Natasha supports with some statistics that only 5% of the Malaysian labour force earns more than RM5,000 per month. She jokingly congratulates any members of the audience earning RM 5,000 or more per month, saying they would be the top 5% of Malaysia’s income earners. Referring to these arguments, we are, she says, in deep trouble (as an economy).

REASON NUMBER 1: Execution

Natasha proposes that the ONE single most important reason this is, is execution problems.
She recollects 1970’s Malaysia, where we started off with a commodity-based economy, however most of the plantation estates and mines were still majority owned by the British colonial masters. She highlights government initiatives, citing the example of PNB, as some of the organistaions who made a considerable effort to acquire back these assets so that Malaysians will start to actually own these resources ourselves.

But then we went on to still having Multi National Companies (MNCs) develop and establish their presence in Malaysia. She poses a question to the crowd, asking us what sort of MNC-type of companies were based in Malaysia; mostly resource-based organizations and hence, there really weren’t much competition.

She supports this with another alarming statistic; 28% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into South East Asia went into Malaysia in the 1970’s. Now it is 11%. Natasha began explaining why this is.

Most value chains of services start with R&D then component and ingredient and manufacturing, assembly, final assembly, and then marketing.

Essentially, however thriving with FDI Malaysia was back then (being the electronics hub), we were sadly but true, only mainly the final assembly hub. The FDIs were resource seeking (namely cheap cost of semi skilled labour) and not as many value or technological know-how and substances were actually imparted onto us. This translates to only 15% value-add.
So essentially, Natasha claims that our failure was to develop ENOUGH backward linkages in the value chain of services and products. So that we had all these FDI come in and go with not enough knowledge transfer onto us.

She provided the example of Palm Oil. Palm Oil was THE Malaysian thing; most major FDIs were coming in under the pretext of Palm Oil development. This was when the government imposed rules on how each FDI must operate in the form of JV with Malaysian home-grown partners in the ratio of 50:50. This saw the establishment of major Malaysian based Palm Oil developers. Natasha uses the example of P&G, Felda, Cognaise, Golden Hope.

Natasha claims that this is quite counterproductive, because the FDI sides were the ones to design their processes so as to ensure minimal transfer of technology.

What we could have done instead, was to collaborate with MPOB/ PORIM, do collaborative research products, and impose the Malaysian ownership of the end legal entity since we had a hand in the development of the end product.
As a result, Malaysians high end technical skills were not created, which brings to exactly why now, there is no reason for any FDI to come into Malaysia and establish value-added services in Malaysia!

REASON NUMBER 2: Privatization of Government Linked Conglomerates

Natasha recalled the era of this privatization of conglomerates back in the 80’s to 90’s period. She explains that this was the time when the experimentation of the creation of mega entrepreneurs such as the likes of Tan Sri Halim Saad and Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli.
The government had these major entrepreneurs buy these entities in order to privatize them. But, Natasha points out again, that because of breakdown (between government ran organizations and privatization, corporate governance and ability to establish economic relevance as a private company), almost all these organizations had to had the government come back in to re-nationalize those assets.

Natasha however, does not discount how Khazanah Nasional, for example, had done a successful transformation to some of these assets. This brings us to today, where we allow entrepreneurs to manage these assets again.
Natasha then digresses, stating that she acknowledges that the intention to rejuvenate corporate Malaysia was not wrong; it was again back to the execution issue.

Natasha said that the government of Malaysia actually does care about Malaysia a lot, proposing a less cliché outlook than what is probably on most of the Gen-Y minds sitting in this room today. This brought grins amongst the audience.

She simplifies this concern of our government with a few illustrations:

Foreigners taking our resources

Foreigners steal our jobs

Infant industries not getting a level playing field to grow

Consumers’ rights are not protected

These were all fears which justified the protectionist policies that the government establishes.
Hence, Natasha says, these brought about the forced JVs (that the government imposed on FDIs), control of expatriates, and the need for JPPD to sign off assuring the job given to this expatriate employee absolutely cannot be done by any Malaysian, as well as trade barriers, citing the case of Proton as the typical example.
This, she says, is where the government “failed”.

These coupled with of course, the usual inconsistency, corruption, lack of financial discipline, Natasha mentions briefly.

Tun Razak, she says, was the era where the government was deemed to know best and where government protectionist policies were needed to protect the rakyat. Through time, the private sector capabilities become better, leaving the government policies being left in the hands of people with comparatively (arguably) less capabilities.

Natasha compared (simplistically) that the Singapore approach was simple and effective- “Hey, actually we just want to create growth, an environment that supports (incoming and creation of) talent, and an environment for businesses to thrive.”

This is in contrast with the Malaysian approach; we take the approach of jump starting a few industries which we think is the next big bet. She lists down a few examples of our previous attempts and big investment themes; steel, Proton, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Biotechnology, and then of course, there was the Halal industry.

By the way, Natasha does not discount that these could (individually) have been right, but we (Malaysia) just wanted to kill too many birds with one stone.

What should we have done instead?

(1) Use top-down approach
But be efficient, minimum level is only this size. She illustrates by giving an analogy; If, for example, we need only 3 why create 13? (referring to capital expenditure (CAPEX) orders of National Oil Integrated producer, Petronas). This is why as a result; Petronas gives licenses to about 300 companies, when only 30 are needed.

(2) Innovation
The Innovation Ecosystem in Malaysia is very very weak, Natasha argues. This means that only very projects translate into executable projects from idea generation stage. And this is referring to the best government projects funded!
Natasha points out another statistic; Only 10% of the ideas made it to commercialization stage and only 3% managed to reach profit-generation stage.

She then rhetorically asks the audience: What do we need to create a conducive environment for innovation?
She names deal flow as one of it. She uses the example of the U.S. where high quality scientists are able to come up with a solid market value adding product to sell. More importantly, they have a strong fund management expertise, which can really tell the value of a firm and its projects.

This makes it easy to consummate a deal.

In our case, Natasha says, we have very poor quality deal flow. (One reason is probably the fact that) only 8% of entrepreneurs have degrees in Malaysia.

(On the asset management side), the major institutional players in Malaysia are really only essentially the involvement of pension funds. She points out that of course, these funds generally like the dividend story, not so private equity and “growth-type” stories.
Furthermore, Natasha informs us that in Malaysia one would struggle to get a 10- to 20 times return on your investment (ROI), whereas other countries can churn out more than 1000 times returns for investors. Again, she explains, this is why there is no reason (for FDIs) to want to come to Malaysia, for her lack of scale and ability to generate these kind of (return) multiples.
Natasha points out that specialization needs scale and generalists cannot really come up with a value proposition. Malaysia lacks content, depth, competitiveness have traditionally been anchored on cost. As liberalization of prices and markets intensifies, it is going to be even harder for Malaysian industries to compete. She also notes that although our trade deficit is still positive, it is declining.

There is Good News!

Since 2004, Natasha notes that there has been a concerted effort to transform Malaysia (by various parties).
Phase 1, she notes, was the revamping of GLCTs, with names like Khalid and Wahid Omar taking leadership. These leadership positions also, she says with subtle hint of gladness, are contract-based. This means that these top positions are well governed with KPIs, paid well but possibility of being replaced is always there in case of non performance. She quotes that between 2004 and 2006, most senior management positions (in corporate Malaysia) were converted to contractual based positions.

These makes salaries become more adjusted to the market. Also, because of this move, it is (more likely) that these companies have the right people (at helm) which allowed the company-level sort of transformation (that Malaysia so badly needs to complement industry and country level transformation plans). This is done through proper rationalization and execution of strategy.
This then allows for the not only domestic but also international growth of these companies! Why? Natasha says that this because economies of scale in these growth sectors have been exhausted, so now it’s about finding economies elsewhere, which brings Malaysian companies to the strategy of expansion abroad.

Now, Natasha points out, it’s about the government using legislation to actually force rationalization and liberalization. This PM, she assures, has made some efforts to address key enablers which did not happen before.

She points out the NEM reform initiatives which included Talent Corp. Natasha says in all seriousness, there has been a demonstration of some form of success. We have seen a number of sectors which have undergone and seen industry consolidation, enabling building blocks for this industry to move forward.

Parting thought

Essentially what we were doing, Natasha says, that a few years ago we compared ourself against giants like Singapore, Japan and the west. Now we are struggling to compare (our competitiveness) against the likes of Vietnam.

Natasha speaks about her the subscale fabrication industry, which happen to be a subject she’s passionate about.
First it’s the labs. Then move forward. When it is more rational to consolidate, Malaysia says OK, we consolidate.

But she says there are no economies of scale. For example, how do we consolidate one north plant and another one down south? She points out the problem with merging 2 players with similar capabilities is that it is hard to extract consolidation benefits and economies of scale when these assets were not in the first place created strategically and holistically looked at in the country wide perspective.
Also, Natasha highlights the fragmented delivery system, on the government side. She asks rhetorically how it is possible for the government, when the delivery system is so fragmented, say want to support a company. She points out (based on experience) one to go through 22 different government agencies to coordinate across just to set up a business in Malaysia. This does not only apply to foreign ventures, but also for Malaysian initiatives.

The problem with government bodies is that nobody wants to give up their power for all these processes. So the idea of a one stop centre cannot happen.

What in the NEP started off with pure objectives, Natasha points out, over time became a Bumiputera agenda. She acknowledges that however this may be debated; she does not believe that this is the true spirit of the NEP. She claims that (arguably) the NEP now has been widely misunderstood. (Unfortunately), some members of the citizen have tended to believe they are entitled to different privileges just because they are Bumiputeras.

Natasha recalls that when we had the 30% equity allocation for bumiputera ruling, it started from the intention of transferring ownership from foreigners to locals. Now, these resources are owned in joint by Malaysians, so that the transfer now can only go from non bumiputeras to bumiputeras (which were not the intention).

Natasha then touched on the topic of the Malaysian education system. The difference is that we are so content driven (that we have forgone method of gaining the knowledge itself). She asserts that the point (of education) is not to cram content into a few years of education).

She cites the example of a British example, where only 2 things are meant to be achieved at the end of a 2-year learning period. (She recollects her experience undergoing her A-Levels in the UK).

These two are the aims to impart students with the knowledge of how to learn by themselves, and the love or learning.
She rekindles her deciding to take a History paper in her A-Levels (she was the only Malaysian to, as pointed out by her course advisor).

To illustrate how she as a Malaysian has been taught to concentrate too much on content and text; she recalls an examination question: The Wars of the Roses between the York and Lancasterians. The question was “Why did the duke of York become king of England?” She laughed while telling the audience how she tried looking for the answers to that question frantically.
She couldn’t find the answers.

Upon realizing that the answers really are not there, she then points out that the British system is a system that forces you to find the answer for yourself, instead of memorizing.

Natasha explains that only 0.4% students are sponsored to study abroad every year. This translates to only a few of the currently High-performing Bumiputeras (who earn RM20,000 to RM40,000 a month). These, she pointed out are foreign graduates (which makes it unfortunate, given the earlier statistic).

The sad thing is that such a small minority gets a foreign education. She recalls recruiting for clients, a national cause that attracted 900 resumes (all local grads), and they only made 1 hire for the client.

Natasha then claims that we are only improving because we are an open economy. This means, we improve as the world improves. In 15 years time, which country will be comparing ourselves to?
End.

Her Journey

When I was in Accenture there were a bunch of women managers, the sad thing is that, I was kind of the only one left. All decided to part time, then not to work at all, but work in an environment and consciously allowed their careers to plateau. 8 years later there are still managers, so my journey is very relevant to all of you here. (That’s why I want to share with you my story).
Only 13% of women in Malaysia are in professional and managerial positions.

Where I am, it is lonely. They are all men. I even find that the women at my level, do not have kids.
I went to boarding school, got a Petronas scholarship to study at Millhill High Barnet for 2 years. I learned absolutely nothing but it was good fun. Got into Cambridge, and learned a lot of things.

In 3rd year in Cambridge, I decided that they wanted to further mankind’s knowledge and have PhD and work for World Bank. I missed the application deadline.

Accenture, which was then Anderson tracked me down and had an offer. I spent my time in Accenture for 8 years. I was fortunate that was the time when people were willing to pay a premium for Accenture–type skills.

Now there is Tatas and the other IT consultant Indian companies (which costs much less). On top of that, the lack of competition afforded new people like me, time. What now is sold for 3 months, was sold for a year.

American firms are good at documenting their knowledge capital. Most companies were at the time to automate a lot of things, so consultants get a good overview of how the company works. Nowadays, we’re only working for very specific solutions you don’t get the end-to-end picture.

Because I am the type to put myself into what I’m doing passionately, I got my PhD plan canceled.
After a while I got bored, I met the partners of the then start-up Ethos. It had lovely red carper in 900 sq feet office. I liked the people, they had a journey in mind, not a destination. I knew after a few minutes into the conversation that they could not afford me. I proposed to them ok, I didn’t mind being paid 5000 a month but compensate me when you land big deals.
Ethos itself has been an interesting journey. We were struggling to find meaningful work.

In the GLC transformation phase, we were lucky to get our big break, Nor Yaakob awarded contracts to start up Malaysian consultants: Bina Fikir took MAS, and Ethos was given the MAB contract.

That’s how we built the firm. We were ambitious, in 2006 we wanted to venture into finance and started Ethos Capital. Since then, were happy that it has come to a point that the same clients employing BCG and mc Kinsey giving us the same work. We’re now at time where even companies would want to buy us. Our aspirations grew us by 5 fold in 5 years, and it was all through hard honest work which was fulfilling.

Back to life story- 2006 had my 2nd child boy in the middle of project. In 2009-while we were working on PEMANDU and EQUINAS, my 3rd child is born so now I have a 13 year old, 4 year old and 1 year old. My advice:
Have kids early, get married early (you meet no one)
Always do what you’re over qualified for

To succeed as a woman:

1) Emulate male behavior
2) Be a woman, use charm and influence and getting your way all the time
Always realize the male ego is most important- must be willing to use that to your advantage
Always have options, always be prepared to walk away (career and relationships)
Financially independent, so I can move out of my marriage. I know I am there for the right reasons. It’s because I love my husband and my family, and not because I am there for the financial support.

CEO SERIES 30: AZRAN OSMAN-RANI, CEO OF AIR ASIA X
Writing Credits: Farhana Roslan

The below is the live-blog from the session with CEO of Air Asia X, Azran Osman Rani on the 21st of March 2011. Today, Azran decided to go for the casual look and do without the signature red Air Asia cap. The Master of Ceremony started off with a brief background of his alma matter; Azran graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Management Sciences.

He started by answering questions asked to him prior to his presentation. How does he manage risks? He doesn’t. How did he come about the many different paths he went down in his career? Random.

Azran then went on to how traditional corporate planning takes up a company’s valuable time citing the example of how the company has gone through 5 iterations in 2011 and that it’s only March, which goes to show how we can’t really plan about the future. He believes that living in this time, running a business, is not so much more about planning and budgets. Especially in the sort career he had in the aviation industry; H1N1, Volcanic Ash, the catastrophic winter in Europe as well as the latest earthquake and Tsunami tragedy hitting Japan.

For a business, he claims, it’s all about being nimble, knowing where we make mistakes and turning the problems around and changing the one’s direction.

Azran rekindles the challenges Air Asia X faced: how history proved that the idea of a long haul budget carrier was not possible- giving a few examples including the British attempt in the 1970’s. He recalls that all he had to start was, rather than a flow chart and spreadsheets, a presentation Tony (Dato’ Seri Tony Fernandes) gave him back then; a picture of London with a tagline which said ”London for RM9.99.” That kind of challenge was what drove Azran to go through with Air Asia X.

What’s interesting about aviation is that it is AMAZINGLY HOMOGENOUS globally. Azran says that he knows not of any other industry other than the airline business where one does EXACTLY the same business lines and same processes as the direct competitor, just with different colors and marketing façade. This is where he saw the chance that things may be done in another way!
On the other hand, he also realizes enthusiasm alone is not enough. To “Just keep trying!” is pointless when not coupled with substance. He clarifies that with enthusiasm, passion and boldness, substance and ability was also crucial.
What AAX Did Differently

Azran shared the breakthrough moment for Air Asia X: He highlights that the airline business traditionally is time, class and price-sensitive. What Air Asia X leveraged on was really just a chance to start anew with a blank sheet and not have to succumb to the traditional ways of conducting the airline business. The whole airline industry was built on serving a certain customer segment. These (he calls) “legacy” companies were running 50% of their assets, their airplanes 11 ½ – 12 hours a day. He stresses that for 50- 60 years, airlines have been serving this prestigious class of customers, where people who flew international with certain dress codes and expected fancy beverages, and where the plane serves and suits its flying time to the customers. To illustrate he uses the example of an airplane sitting idle, paying expensive parking charges in Heathrow, simply waiting for a convenient time that serves this class of customers.

Azran explains that LONG HAUL traditionally means big complex hubs sharing, alliances, massive computer systems, huge tank of oil, feed sharing, and a complicated network of airlines, ALL because businesses were focused on serving the time of this certain customer segment who will not travel to London at 3am in the morning. These ancillary requirements were the factors that ensured seamless connectivity (which serves well the time-sensitive characteristic of the industry). But this means idleness and waiting. As a result, they use only about 50% of their assets or about only 12 hours a day (Air asia managed to maximize utilization rate of 17 hours a day which represents a 30-35% extra use of the capacity).

Azran then exclaims “Hey, I bet that there are many people out there who are price-sensitive more than anything else!” He assures the crowd that all AAX did was stripping out the idle time, where the first and only airplane that AAX started with was flying 4 times a week to Gold Coast. For the same price of the plane, you get the same revenue as a high cost flight, with every seat costing 50% cheaper but more economy seats.

The problem with previous attempts on long haul budget carriers were that they hired people from the same industry, because they tend to get stuck with their old ways and restrictions that innovation and ground breaking ideas get impeded. He claims that the improvement you get is only about 10- 20% improvement; an airline needs a large enough cost advantage, for it to be untouchable by competitors.

Azran then clarifies that bankers are the ones really making money with every hedge. He warns that just because an airline claims that it hedges against increasing crude prices, it does not mean that it’s good. For AAX, their obsession is using every drop of oil MORE efficiently rather than hedging yet still using more oil inefficiently, because really, anywhere the oil price goes, the bankers get the first cut.

The other thing AAX focuses on is creating new ways of generating demand. Airlines naturally wait for customer to come to them. He comments on the sheer arrogance of this business model. He insists that Air Asia X goes out and CREATE demand and not wait for people to come to them. Today, he boasts that people don’t even decide where or when they are going, but they wait for the Air Asia sale! He jokes that people stays up on their mobile phone to buy a ticket to Jakarta for June this year, but end up buying a RM 9 ticket to Vien Tien for March next year, not even knowing it was in Laos. This he reiterates, represents a flip of purchasing demand- creating a whole different customer segment!

He recalls his trip to Gold Coast, spotting a family of 30 people all excited for the trip. One of them tapped him on the shoulder and asked why is it cold in June when it’s supposed to be summer like in the Air Asia X posters; which made him realize that (hey) this customer segment was a totally different group of customer segment, not the ones used to travelling, not the ones who would know that it’s winter in June in the Southern Hemisphere. Because of the opportunity that AAX creates, he regrets the government’s decision to still not allow AAX to fly to certain destinations!

He then reflects on how crazy the experience has been on him, remembering the only one plane he had to work with, the challenges in getting funding approvals. For one year, AAX had one airplane to work with and no contingency plan mildly pointing out he didn’t sleep much during that period of 4 months. In May 2008, they tendered out for loans for new planes but that was when the credit crunch of summer 2008 heightened. They were then stuck with no money, no airline which naturally translates to no growth. But, during that time, only the European governments were giving out capital funding. However, the rule was that the airlines needed a track record for 3 years. AAX, with 6 months on their record book, braved through and Azran and his team flew to London for a 1 hour worth of presentation to the Export Credit Office.

They kept AAX waiting but 6 weeks, after which they said yes, albeit with very stringent terms. That was when Azran learned the most precious things in the world are those few moments of opportunity amidst crazy turbulences, and whats more important is for us to grab those chances.

They Made Mistakes Too!
He realizes that mistakes were made, and they learned from it. One was in fuel hedging contracts. Had Lehmann Brothers not gone through with filing the bankruptcy, AAX would have gone down (Lehmann was a counterparty, and because they went broke, they couldn’t claim from Air Asia X an amount outstanding in fuel hedge contracts, which would have wiped out 4 times AAX’s capital and of course, wipe AAX clean. Absolutely clean! All in all they lost 12million USD in deposits with the fallen Wall Street giant.
He then went on to talk about X’s leather seats. He tried to get the audience to sympathize and connect with the problems faced having ones front seat going back into the space of the people behind. The black leather seats glided forward- which they initially thought was a great idea to handle the initial problem. Only that it didn’t get that good a response from users who didn’t know how to use it and had to sit through 8 hour flights upright, cursing AAX all the way through.
Next was the attempt to install state of the art entertainment system (complete with chat system) for every economy seat. Unfortunately, the great system didn’t pay for itself. He explained that the costs of Hollywood movies were incredibly expensive, and having late night flights, customers don’t pay RM20 to watch a movie. He was put in a tough position, but had taken a blow in the P&L and write away RM55 million worth of seats with the entertainment system. He then states that Air Asia X was an amazing organization in a way that no one was pointing fingers and blaming when things like this happen- that wasn’t their culture.
Azran reiterates that it’s not always being about bold and driven because they did not always work! Another example of a failed attempt, he remembers, was them trying to get the market share of Dubai and getting wiped clean off of the region by Emirates and Etihad in 3 months, who he claims is not AAX’s match for their “bottomless pockets”.

The trick is using your mistakes and turning them around! The idea is not to dwell on these mistakes, but rather to move on. He warns the young crowd to not be the guys who drags on the problem, sitting at the cubicle and grumbling all the time. We’re in for a (bad) surprise if we’re too focused on one thing that you miss out on the opportunity. On the other hand, even when things are going well, don’t relax and rest and your laurels.

“Whats Next?”
Air Asia X’s success, Azran assures the crowd, is not rocket science. Rather “What’s next?” is their motto.
The opportunity came in the form of the first low cost flight full bed seats. He joked that the legacy bastard “airlines” rip us off with the business class. AAX’s idea? To have the exact same plane seats, but rip off the lounge (and free magazines). With just RM5000 extra per seat, AAX get business seats that pays for itself! He points out that caviar and wine is not worth the extra RM10,000, and is happy that the AAX’s version of premium seats received good response.
He then connects this idea to our careers and what we can pick up from what we face through it. How AAX do things differently was by going against the low cost bible, where “thou shall not connect passengers” was apparently “an important verse”. AAX proudly challenges this idea and goes for the customer segment that may want to go long haul and does not mind stopping halfway between London to Australia.

The AAX Culture

He shares with the crowd Air Asia X’s 4 KPIs:
• Size does matter, make a 1billion top line in 5 years
• 2 US cents OPEX/ ASK
• 3 out of 4 hours, the plane is in the air. Culture of tick tock (sense of urgency)
• 4 out of 5 seats are filled, and hopefully with happy people

He stresses that if you can’t explain what you do in simple words, chances are you are not going to be able to achieve them (referring to the KPIs and goal setting that is unique to Air Asia X).

Azran then went on to sharing people’s excitement of travelling with AAX. He boasts of their destinations and the new places they open Malaysia to; convenience, and going for what matters for the customers. He also assures of the flat hierarchy in AAX, the openness and the approachability (he gets the exact same desk size as everyone else).

The competitive advantage is to know the pulse on the ground (he claims that they are the only airline in the world, where chief pilots and chief engineer have connecting desks (not rooms)! This is compared to the silos that exist in bigger airlines. He stresses, that most of the time, problems never really are just one person’s fault. They are no secrets between pilot and engineer in AAX. Something as small, he assures, has a world of difference in terms of how fast things move!

We don’t go to AAX because they are the best paymasters, but rather where employees get to grow and challenge themselves. He promises that if an employee does the exact thing that he was doing 12 months ago, he has failed the employee. For example, engineers in the legacy airlines work in huge silos, and problems don’t get transmitted well through the organization (and problem solving gets complicated and fragmented)

He calls upon an example of a PwC finance analyst they hired, who turned operations and now runs the integrated flight system. Dharma, a call centre operator, got through and became a flight attendant after 12-18 months. Yet, he still wanted to learn something different, now he is a plane channeling executive and he still flies once in few months!!! (he kept his flying license upon Azran’s advice).
Going Forward.

Azran admits that Air Asia x is a place for challenge and completely new career, not a place where pays eployess big bucks. As a leader, he builds a chemistry and culture, rolling out an “X FACTOR” programme, celebrating people’s skills, the organization’s skills, and allowing employees to engage people at all levels. What he worries about most is NOT what’s going to happen to currency and oil prices (because these happen to everyone). Rather, how he is going to maintain the chemistry of the 1000 people they currently have to the 2000 staff that they are going to be soon. This is what he worries about. He supports this by admitting the huge amount of time he spends on his BlackBerry and Twitter, connecting to the customers and employees.
ROUND OF APPLAUSE~!

Q&A:
Victor: How does AAX draw a balance between hiring people for their innovation, and for their skills? In facing problems, how do you decide to go forward and preserver, and when to change directions?

Azran: Marry experience and people who are open minded. Recalling my Moses, our director of ops- who brings a wealth of experience and contacts, but he is open to ideas. He’s experienced but not set in his ways but open minded! How? Feel the chemistry between the employee and the organization. As a guide, listen to YOIR customers. Don’t WASTE money on market research firms on focus research. He admits the power of twitter and social networking allowing him to leverage on this. (He jokes that people really don’t turn off their phone- that’s how he knows of operational problems)

Anonymous: How did Azran get his license when it’s obvious that other legacy airlines with government backing heavily opposed it?

Azran: ‘When I first deal with the govt, he had hair.” Just be persistent no shortcut exists

Anonymous: Are you a reader? What do u do for personal growth?
Azran: Bill Waterson (Kevin and Hobbes). I align my philosophy for this guy, disregard of authority imposed on him. Brilliant power of imagination. As a leader, one has to visualize and that’s key, and makes people look up to you and refer to you.

Azim: How do you perceive people that say no to you, just because you’re ambitious and you sound different? How do you overcome them?

Azran: It’s not supposed to be something to overcome; you should not be dictated by the people around you. Just not let it get to you (he rekindles what really matters is the customers criticizing you, THEY ARE THE ONES who really affect the growth. Next are the team members. Everyone else (governments, suppliers, regulators) nah!
Gareth Chow: What is your management style? Who is your hero?

Azran: I don’t believe so much in a particular framework in process. I believe a lot in gut, it rarely fails you, that’s my inner confidence. Don’t get too absorb in every individual case and the size of the problem. Take a portfolio approach! To go 99% satisfaction is to take on way too much cost. If 10% of the customers are cursing you all over and say they’ll never fly with you again, you’re doing well. Spending time with employees is way better than process charts and directions. Focus on the values, exhibit them, be consistent and guide them. My other favorite cartoon is Asterix and Mobilisk. Sorry it’s not Socrates and Descartes. Bloom County is another one I like. It’s about a penguin that can fly. These cartoons aspire me, because it’s about not accepting limitations. Things that really drive me is when you prove yourself when others tell you that you can’t do something. Stories of people going on and taking on the world.

Anonymous: What’s your safety requirement?

Azran: Simplistically, we say our KPI is 3 out of 4 hours the plane should be in the air. But, underpinning it is safety; we have airbus data to prove that we work more efficiently than Singapore Airlines. If you have a culture of silos, problems are systemic and it becomes compartmentalized. The key thing is for information to flow through and surfacing the root causes. Accessibility is important; problems within can surface if directed straight to me, if they don’t feel comfortable addressing it to their colleagues. As a leader, information flow is what keeps things together.

Reha: How does Air Asia X approach Talent management and retention?

Azran: We go back to the 4 pillars- How we recruit people: People who fit in the culture, open people, people who want growth opportunities, and with a culture of celebrating talents. Talent management style may not fit everyone but this is just how we do it
Louis: How do you combat human error? (Looking back at all airline disasters and crashes)

Azran: One of the biggest problems in airlines; CRM: Captain flies with too much authority, but flying needs 2 brains. Info NEEDS to flow in the cockpit, whether it is between first officer and the captain, or between the engineer and the captain. A lot of it comes back to assumptions being made and disruption in communication flows.

Anonymous: In your youth, how did u progress in your career?
There is zero coherence between what I did throughout my life. (He jokes that he took engineering because his physics and add math teacher was good looking). 1997 came and he jumped into banking- he was in banking in Bangkok at the heart of the problem. I taught myself corporate finance, Telco, nuclear, O&G (remembering his 8 months stint in nuclear power plant).
2001 in Korea, I moved the family there because that was the only place where acquisitions were happening. I asked for a permanent transfer (McKinsey Seoul). McKinsey Singapore called in the KLSE project, which turned out to be the best experience (he admires Tan Sri Azman Hashim for his ethical approaches). The opportunity to switch from McKinsey and into Bursa Malaysia, that was the first time the family counted grocery money. ASTRO then offered me an opportunity to spend RM 2b before Tony (Dato’ Seri Tony Fernandes) called me. And that’s where it took off. I didn’t have any plan but it worked out!
Azlan: Not planning too much is always my style as well. BUT, for me, when an opportunity comes, I always get too overwhelmed. What’s the best way to get around it?

Azran: Here’s my secret, when ALL ELSE FAILS, TRUST YOUR WIFE. (Crowd laughs)

Jie Peng: Are you targeting youth?

Azran: Yes, but 42-45% is the family with young children. Youth only 9-12% but long haul is higher cost for them. We spend A LOT on digital and media buy.
Anonymous: Any intention to change Air Asia X? Why stick with the name when Tony has no shares in it? How do you deal with the oil crisis?

Azran: AAX is a corporate brand. To the consumer, I’ll be crazy to use another name. Connecting ppl from Australia to Penang is where the business is. If I sell just an X airline, from point A and point B, I ONLY GET 20- 25% LOAD. Langkawi, Bali and Phuket are what are selling!
(He stresses again on the importance of being nimble to change, be the first to change, and information flow is key)

Kelvin: How do you get your thoughts and ideas through and down to the lowest levels?

Azran: Firstly, I hate emails. They are not effective. Meeting should be done in calls and meetings. Only use email for notes and results for the year. Communication is not one flow; you can’t control your message, but having a dialog with the consumers and your employees. Nothing beats face to face and the regular meetings you have. Use parties, the richness of information in parties- a strategic importance of choosing your music well.

Anonymous: It’s clear your strategy is price control. How do you achieve it?

Azran: We do 20- 100 different ways to cost control. It’s all about flow of info. Leaders must not be the main idea and tell people to do it. The organization must empower you with new info! (He uses the example of a finance clerk who says invoices can be paid in with credit cards.) No bank transfers, no charges. We get (credit card) points, we save money! (Another example was the guy stocking water in the flushes, who suggested keeping the level at 60% and monitoring use. That shaved of A LOT of weight on the airline which saves fuel costs.

YCM Special Session : Keeran Sivarajah, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Teach for Malaysia
Writing credits: Chen Chow Yeoh

This is the posting of live blogging of the Young Corporate Malaysians Special Session. Today, we have Teach for Malaysia with us.

Keeran Sivarajah, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Teach for Malaysia would be speaking tonight. He met Dzameer at PricewaterhouseCoopers and they worked together to start up TFM. He would be speaking today with Yong Su En.

The statistics shown was 1 out of 4 people do not have required level of numerical skills. 4 out of 5 working Malaysians only have education up to SPM. 3 out of 5 head of poor households only have education up to primary schools or less.

There are 9 Million people between age 7 and 17 and there are 400,000 who never go to school. For those from Orang Asli, only 6% finished high school. (Hope that I got the stats correct.)

Keeran shared on his experience visiting a school in Klang. It is March and one parent just brought the kid to school, and the kid missed two months of school, because he didn’t have money to buy school uniform.

Keeran shared on another experience yesterday in Gemas, where a parent wanted to take the 16-year-old kid out of school, because he has lost faith in the schooling system. He felt that even though the kid goes to university, the kid might still be unemployed. So, the kid might as well started working now and helped to earn a living.

These kids breathe the same air as all of us. They eat the same food as us. A lot of these kids do not believe that they can achieve big things.

Keeran shared on his experience attending the 4th Young Corporate Malaysians CEO Series of Talk and the speaker was Seelan Singham, Managing Partner of McKinsey & Co for Malaysia. Seelan said that everyone should have a scary dream, and that scary dream of him makes him to dream big. Seelan stressed that being idealistic is good and once we lost that idealism, especially after we worked for 18 hours a day and busy to go on dating/marriage, as well as paying for mortgage, we might look back and see “what the hell has happened to my dream/idealism”. Seelan shared that it is important to have a sense of purpose.

Keeran shared this dream of Seelan and he sees the dream of getting there for Teach for Malaysia. TFM was incubated by a company called Khazanah Nasional Berhad. They wanted to find 50 most eligible Malaysian youths, who want to make a difference in Malaysia. They want to build a movement of people, where people can make a difference to the community.

TFM is recruiting heavily in universities and young professionals. They are looking for people who want to make transformations in high needs schools. These people would be having the mandate to transform the outcomes of the kids, after going through the training.

TFM get their fellows to lead in classroom and community. These two years would be most exciting and rewarding tothese people’s lives.

Keeran shared on the exciting bit of him quiting his job. This program started with Teach for America 20 years ago, and by now, Teach for American has 18,000 alumni who are now in various sectors to solve this huge challenge of providing opportunities to attainan excellent educationfor all children.

Teach First is now the 5th most popular recruiter in UK, even ahead of KPMG. They are the top recruiter in Oxford and Cambridge. They also reject a lot of people from Oxford and Cambridge.

Malaysia is the number 3 in Asia, after India and China. Pakistan just joined the network recently. Malaysia is the first in South East Asia to join the network. There are another 20 countries that would join this network within the next 2 years.

54 years after independence, not every Malaysian kids have the access to quality education. Teach for Malaysia hopes to build the next layer of leaders, who could one day be a minister, Prime Minister or any other leaders, who would have a mission to solve this education issue.

Teach for Malaysia hopes to look for the best 50 in the country to join this year. The first deadline would be in two weeks’ time. This group would be the founding cohort for Teach for Malaysia.

Su En just took over the rostrum. Su En studied Economics at LSE and her favourite class was developmental economics. She did a lot of case studies on how initiatives that can transform the world. While those are fascinating, those were just theory. She went into management consulting in UK for 3 years, and decided to come back to Malaysia to serve the mission of developing the nation.

She initially found that there wasn’t a lot of initiatives from grassroot in Malaysia, especially compared to developed nations. She also spent time in China to help with migrant kids. She was then introduced to Dzameer and Keeran through a mutual program. She had known about Teach First back when she was in UK.

She came on board to join Teach for Malaysia in October 2010. She hoped to recruit the best and brightest among Malaysians to join this movement.

This is going to be the most challenging experience for TFM joiner. They would have to engage with 40 disenchanted teenagers and having to engage their attention. TFM required its fellow to go into the school and change the mindset of the students. The fellows would need to have huge confidence and solid teaching skills.

The Teach for Malaysia Leadership Academy would have an 8-week experiential, residential training in end-October 2011. These trainings are developed in collaboration with Teach for All, corporate partners and Minister of Education. They would practically be applying teaching, learning and leadership theories, based on the Teaching as Leadership framework. The trainers would be from Teach for All. This would adopt the methodof Teaching as Leadership, by Steven Farr from Teach for America. The TFM fellow would have the opportunityto practice teaching, live in a real classroom.

There would be ongoing support and training. There would be Leadership Development Officer, providing personal coaching, resources and guidance. There would be mentor, who would be senior teacher in the same school. There would be Business Coach, who would be senior manager from one of TFM’s corporate partners. There would be workshoips by training partners to share innovative teaching methods and best practices. There would be seminars by corporate partners on a wide rangeof transferable skills. They would also be getting Post Graduate Diploma in Teaching after first year of teaching, as well as earning credits towards Master’s degree.

The role of TFM Fellow is to make a difference in the classroom. They are expected tolead students towards academic achievements that defies traditional expectations, and they would be engaging, teaching and challenging students inside and outside the classroom. They would also work collaboratively with other teachers and school staff to build skills, share knowledge and obtain resources for the classroom. The fellow would lead by example and be inspirational role model to give the students the courage to dream big.

Scott Thomas, Teach for America Corp member shared on his proudest accomplishment was starting an after-school tutoring program. They had 8th graders tutoring 6th graders, who were struggling in Mathematics. It was a fantastic experience watching the older students play this mature role, not only being academic stars, but also developing patience and empathy.

Su En shared on the kids that she had mentored back in UK, where a lot of kids might not have the perspective beyond their backyard. They hoped to do something that is better than their parents, but they might not have the visibility to know of any potential beyond that.

TFM Fellow is expected to impact the wider community. The role would provide unique opportunity to design, implement and manage a sustainable, transformational project in the school or community in which you serve, with the help of your Business Coach and community leaders. They are expected to develop a deep understanding of the many barriers to achievement and complex problems associated with achieving equity in education.

Zeenia Anwar, Teach First Ambassador shared on “If you want to stretch yourself and become a person you never thought you could in your wildest dreams, do it, apply for it. You’ll have the two best years of your life.”

TFM would also provide professional development opportunities. In Malaysia, TFM aimed to help on internship and employment opportunities with top-tier organizations in Malaysia. BCG, McKinsey & Co, PwC have helped tremendously in this early stage of TFM. There would be professional development workshops run by corporate leaders. There would be exclusive networking events with senior figures in private and public sector firms. There would be Business Coach as well.

TFM has gotten approval from the following programmes to do deferral, including Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Management, Harvard Law School etc.

There are five stages of admission process. It would start with online application, and then phone interview, and then a 30-minute long online assessment, with a full-day assessment including a group case study, a mock classroom activity and a one-to-one interview and then would be final offers.

The first round of deadline would be 21st March, and the second round of deadline would be 27th June. TFM practices rolling admission. So, do start apply now at Teach For Malaysia . Please help to spread the words to others too.

The starting pay for teachers would be between RM2,300-RM2,700, which is similar to the starting pay that Keeran had when he was with PwC.

TFM Fellow would also engage the community and keep abreast with the parents. There are a lot of opportunities for TFM Fellow to reach out to the parents and community, but it would be up to the creativity of TFM Fellow and the TFM would be supporting the Fellow.

Keeran related on a case from Teach for America, where a parent wanted to take the kid out of school, as the kid doesn’t seem to learn anything. The Teach for America Fellow asked the parent to give him/her a month to transform the kid. The Fellow put in efforts to educate the kids and keep the parents updated from time to time, and after a month, the kid can read a full page.

After the stint in Teach for Malaysia, the Fellow is flexible to do whichever route that they would want to explore. This TFM program aims to develop leaders and it would be up to the Fellow to chart their pathway. During the two years, there would be a lot of developmental support to help shape the leader. What is needed from this Fellow is that after the two years, they would be asked to support this TFM mission whereever they are. They would be alumni network too, that would support their mission.

One of the Teach for America Fellows said that if he is still not convinced that his children can get quality education in any school in America, then his job is not over. There is still a lot of work to be done.

TFM Fellow would be assuming full-time teaching positions in secondary schools, where they would be teaching English or Mathematics/Science-related subjects. What is important is not to change the curriculum, but the TFM Fellow would go in and set high academic and non-academic goals, to mould and guide the students. TFM is looking into Educational Impact Evaluation and they are looking at partnering universities or Teach for All on this area. TFM is working hard on this, to be able to quantify more objectively on the performance of the TFM Fellows.

One of the attendees highlighted that there might be possibility of putting the students at risk, if the Fellow is not able to perform up to expectation. Keeran and Su En reiterated that the Fellows would be getting continuous training beyond the 8 weeks, and there would be full-time staff who would meet with the Fellows continuously to guide them. There would be mentor within the school too, to guide the TFM Fellow.

For the first year, the 50 TFM Fellows would be placed in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan, so that more monitoring can be done. TFM would be investing a lot in training and building a leadership movement. TFM would be investing to develop the leaders.

TFM selection process would be very rigorous to select new joiners who have strong competencies in leadership, as well as their capacity to handle situations.

TFM Fellows would be fully responsible for their class and they would be expected to teach the normal school syllabus. For TFM, they are also interviewing the schools and the school heads, so that they would get the support needed.

Ministry of Education and Management Consulting firm ranked all the schools in the country, and they are looking into those 70 schools within KL, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan which fell into the grading of Band 6 and 7. TFM would be visiting most of these 70 schools and eventually select 17 schools, where they would be putting 3-4 TFM Fellows in each school. It is very important that those schools selected would have supportive leaders there.

TFM applicants would also be subjected to Subject Audit Test during the application process, so that those TFM Fellows selected would have working knowledge in the subject and they would be getting help from more senior teachers on subject matter issues.

There is a suggestion from the audience where those who are not selected for TFM, could be put into a mailing list, and they could be put to good use by helping others in the community, for example teaching at orphanage etc.

Another audience shared on the practical training of being in real classroom would shape the teachers, no matter how much training is provided. He also shared on teaching students how to fish, instead of giving them the fish. He suggested on potential opportunities to partner with other organizations, to help the students and Fellows.

One of the big responsibilities for TFM Fellows would be to ensure that all students in the class are taken care of. There would be collaborations with various parties on this.

Finally, don’t forget to apply for Teach for Malaysia. Please help to spread the words too. Lets make a difference, by providing every kid in Malaysia with the opportunity to attain an excellent education.

YCM CEO Series 29: Rejina Rahim, Managing Director of Nomura Asset Management
Writing credites: Chen Chow Yeoh

Today is the 29th Young Corporate Malaysians CEO Series of Talk. We have Nor Rejina Abdul Rahim, Managing Director of Nomura Asset Management Malaysia. The talk is still at our usual place, but the name of the hotel has been changed from Nikko Hotel to InterContinental Hotel. Below is the live blogging.

Education and Early Career
Rejina graduated with LLB (Hons) from University of Kent at Canterbury, UK in 1995. She started by being Legal Office at Pengkelan Securities, Malaysia. She did her Barrister at Law, Lincoln’s Inn, UK in 1997.

She became Compliance Manager at Commerce-BT (now known as CIMB-Principal). From there, she became Head of Legal & Product Development, and then Head of Legal & Risk Management, as well as later on as Head of Institutional Marketing & Business Development. In 2006, she became the Managing Director of Nomura Asset Management Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

Rejina made a disclaimer that what she said tonight would be her personal opinion and not the opinion of Nomura or Nomura Asset Management Malaysia.

Malaysia: Journey to 2020
Life is an adventure and change is the only constant. In the Last 15 years, we saw Y2K, Asian Financial Crisis, Global Financial Crisis
etc. Today, even the developed countries are not as stable as we thought. Lehman Brothers, which had a history of more than 150 years, went down during the crisis.

In the globalized world, what happens in the other side of the world does affect us. Good news is that news coming out from US is getting better. US housing prices are improving. Investment spending on equipment and software are up sharply. 2010, it was a very bad year for Europe. Things are still very shaky over there. Although investors are still very cautious, things are not that bad. The leverage level of Europe is not that high. There seems to be outflows from emerging markets to developed market in the last two weeks.

However, things may not be so bad in Malaysia. Despite Malaysia is coming from a higher base, the Economic Transformation Programmes would create excitement. We have been getting news of expansion of production from oil & gas sector.

Journey to 2020 would not be easy for average Malaysians. We would have more traffic jams before MRT is ready, and housing prices would go up before MRT is ready.

Rejina shared about her holidays in Malaysia, and said that it is very beautiful. If foreigners can make Malaysia their 2nd home, we should love it more.

Malaysia, as the Islamic financial hub, we should take advantage of the unrest in Middle East, to grab the market share.

Despite what is said about broadband prices in Malaysia, we still can easily get free wifi at mamak here.

Just as Rome was not built in a day, we should not expect things to change within very short time.

2010 was a great year for Malaysia, and we do have strong fundamentals in Malaysia. Growing 6% a year is not going to be easy, but with the talents in the younger generation, we should be able to value add and grow Malaysia at that rate.

The path to developed nation status is not going to be easy. Our valuations are not as cheap as our neighbours. Global investors are looking at our neighbours first, before looking at us.

We are going up in a world, where competition is getting tougher.

Back in 1980-1990, a double storey house in Subang was RM80,000. Today, RM80,000 would get you a low cost flat in Bangi. Back in 1996, Rejina got a starting pay of RM1,500. Today, fresh graduates earn an average of RM2,000 and the extra RM500 would just get you a room (and not a house).

Lessons Learnt
Lessons learned from the global financial crisis can be useful for us. Greed is not good. Lets get back to basic. Be nice to neighbours. Grow your own herbs. Think before you buy a nice handbag on credit cards.

Make your street a nicer world and your world would be a better place. Some might called her an idealist and it might take a lot more hard work to get things work. Even though we have the technologies like Facebook, Twitter, face-to-face communications tend to get the messages across better. We don’t always have to rush. She always finds it easier to speak face-to-face.

Back to the Future mentioned 2010 as the future, but now it is in the past. Today’s world has changed a lot, and it is a world of changing everything. Like when we reach the peak of Mount Kinabalu, we can take a photo there and tweet it to the world. Everything is so instant. There is also some “down” for things that are done too instantly. We got irritated when others don’t reply within a few hours.

Markets around the world are now watching nervously what is happening around the Middle East. Are we having information overload? Before, one person can’t make real change in the world. But today, each of us can make real change in the world.

Management and Human Resources can track what your track record even better. She would google her future employees. Taking charge of one’s life may not matter to your CEO or your boss, but you should want to make the impacts on people.

People are inspired because they are passionate of what they are doing.

A Late Bloomer
Rejina called herself as Late Bloomer. She was lucky that her parents were not from the traditional mould. She got an early stint at Malay Mail. Back then, Datuk A. Kadir Jasin offered her to stay on, and told her that she doesn’t need to go to university to be successful in journalist.

She got married in 1996. The managing partner of a law firm questioned her of her recent marriage and asked whether it made sense to hire her, since she would get pregnant soon.

She left legal practice and joined as Complaince Manager and from there, moved on to other roles. She did get pregnant soon after she joined the firm, and her productivity went up and not down.

She started Nomura Asset Management Berhad in December 2006. When she went over to Japan, she couldn’t speak Japanese, but she had a point to prove and do well.

Do not expect people to react the way you want. If you do, 9 out of 10, you would be disappointed.

She trusted her maid, Wati greatly and she would trust her just as much as she trust her colleagues. As a women, the expectation of her role is higher. Even though she has spoken around the globe, she would still go through the homework of her children, whether directly or over internet.

She has learned a lot over her 38 years. She learned that her kids can teach her a thing or two. She learned that her husband can still surprise her even after getting married for a long time. She learned that making mistakes are ok, as long as one learned from it.

Innovation and lessons can come from anywhere. Steve Jobs didn’t even have a college degree. He has a passion to learn. He took a calligraphy course. That same course helped him design the typography in Mac.

Questions & Answers Session

She shared that sometimes we won’t know that we screwed up until it happened.

Compliance usually takes in those from legal or accounting background. For her, she is always going out to learn what others are doing, and learning up on it. Be inquisitive and tries to find out what is available in the firm. She said that most people are always quite surprised that managers and bosses are quite to it.

Nomura Asset Management Malaysia managed equity global and fixed income out of Kuala Lumpur.

She hoped that she should be running a lot faster in the next 10 years. She aimed to run half marathon in less than 2 hours.

Nomura as a group has exposure to Islamic Banking/Finance since 1980s.

She felt that if one wanted something badly, then one would make the time to do it. She joked that if one wanted to sleep, one can sleep after one is dead.

She knows the industry pretty well, so she is still in it. If she does not have any financial obligation at all, she might end up being physical education trainer. She loved her job pretty much too. She met all sorts of people around the world.

There is a lot more interest in Malaysia lately, compared to previously. Eventually, for a global investor, and if they wanted to benchmark with MSCI, Malaysia would make up for a very small part of exposure. So, some investors could decide that they would be investing it in other countries, like Indonesia and Thailand.

We talked a lot about Malaysia here, but we don’t promote the country internationally. Not many public listed companies in Malaysia do not even have investor relations department. We need to have more companies going around internationally to promote the companies and country.

She enjoyed running. She used to do yoga. She is looking to do pole dancing. Any kind of exercise is good.

We need to know what we are looking for, and we shouldn’t just be looking for a big pay cheque. Malaysia hasn’t come to the level of Singapore and Hong Kong, where they can get bonuses of 3 years. She definitely sees that pay is increasing in Malaysia, especially in asset management companies.

She says that everything goes back to perception. We can say cup is half full or half empty. It is better that we take the challenge.

One advice she could give is don’t get emotional. We should gauge who we are speaking to, and different people would give different responses. Body language is important. It is very important to be listening. Today, it is very easy to read and glaze over things, but we should focus on listening.

Need to be strong numerically and also would need to have good writing skills, to do well in Asset Management firms. Usually people would start from research. And she adds on, having a good look, would help the firm in doing marketing. She would suggest that people have some form of finance learnings. She knew of people with both legal and accounting degrees.

CFA used to be something difficult to attain. Very few people in the industry had it. But today, with lots of courses, it is much easier. Having CFA would be good to show the prospective employers of your interest. One of the best fund managers that she had worked with, do not have CFA.

Thoughts on Singapore
Her personal take is that Singapore needs to survive no matter what, whereas we are blessed with natural resources and do not think ahead as well. 20 years ago, Singapore has already gotten their MRT sorted out, and we are still in the planning stage today. We need to think ahead, be passionate and be hungry. If we think that life is easy and we don’t need to work as hard, then we can’t go as fast.

Thoughts on Education
Her children used to go to government school. She is a member of Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE). She used to go to Sekolah Kebangsaan and she didn’t think that she is more stupid compared to those who go to boarding school. What things that she does not like is that our education policy keeps on flip-flop. She took her children out of national school. Both her children are learning Mandarin. She is hoping that one of them would start learning Hindi.

She doesn’t care much about how others looked at her. Back then, she would need an interpreter, but today, meeting notes are in English.

Understanding Youth and Embracing Facebook & Twitter
A lot of companies do not allow Facebook/Twitter, but what they do not realize is that youths today can multi-task. She does not make any deal if her staff is on Facebook/Twitter during office hour. One thing she would know is that they would be a happy staff. She is very amazed at how the 6-degree of separation is a lot less. We can do words of mouth much better.

Just like if one opens a restaurant, a blogger can help promote the good things or bad things of the restaurant. She still did her business traditionally. If all the regulators in the world would allow more cross-border selling, then it would be a lot better. Of course, would need self regulation and people need to do it more responsibly.

The world is your oyster. Opportunities do come around from around the world. There are people who are working in Malaysia, and yet they write iPhone apps that bring them USD20,000 a month. There are a lot of success stories from here too. The internet is a very powerful tool.

YCM CEO Series 28: Ahmad Izham Omar, Executive Director of 8TV
Writing credits: Chen Chow Yeoh

Live blogging for the 28th CEO Series of Talk for Young Corporate Malaysians – Ahmad Izham Omar, Executive Director of 8TV.

You can follow Ahmad Izham Omar at http://www.twitter.com/ahmadizhamomar and Young Corporate Malaysians at http://www.twitter.com/ycms . The hash tag for tonight is #ycm. There would be live tweeting there as well.

8TV broke even in a record of 18 months. Izham became the COO of 8TV, before being CEO of 8TV. Recently, he was promoted as Executive Director of 8TV. He is also the CEO for Radio Network.

Izham’s main theme is “Making a Difference”. He now works in TV, Radio, New Media and Music. He would be sharing a story about his journey.

Back in 1998, when he was 28 years old. He was in charge of a company, called Positive Tone. He wanted to grow the artists in his company, and EMI heard of his problem of funding, so EMI wanted to own the company 100%. It is a company that is part of Izham. The EMI people are very professional and have done extensive studies on Positive Tone.

The EMI people talked about Net Present Value, due diligence, cash flow of Positive Tone and EMI, and it really overwhelmed Izham. They told Izham that they loved him, because he was different.

Music/content comes first and then comes marketing/communications. Without great music, nothing else moves. Usually if lack of sales, it is due to bad product, and not due to bad promotion.

Back in 1995, he was hanging out with a 31-year-old guy, Tony Fernandes outside Dynasty Hotel. Tony Fernandes shared with him that “if you have one million dollars, but if you have bad music, it won’t sell.” So, product/service comes first, then comes marketing/communications.

The first P of Marketing Mix is Product. So, that is the most important thing.

The typical record industry infrastructure back in early 1990s are divided into Malay songs, Chinese songs, International/English songs. The TV, Radio, Press, Retailers, Record Companies all do the same, where they have different divisions/departments for it. The Mostpit said that the infrastructure is wrong.

In the 1970s/1980s, people start to gradually move into urban area, and move beyond their parents’ generation. They are the urban group, who tend to be more racial blind. The urban people tend to have aspirational values. They tend to aspire to move up the value.

Then they produce OAG, which is different from the typical records. They were laughed by the infrastructure back then. Izham brought the album to MCA (which is now Universal), BMG etc. However, people can’t see the value of this music.

Izham brought the song to a music shop, where the owner told Izham that he didn’t know where to put the cassette. It is neither Malay songs, nor Chinese songs, nor English/International songs. People can’t appreciate this different form of music.

So, at that time, Izham decided to go straight into the urban market. He decided to go straight to the indie market. This was the time he worked the hardest. He had to make flyers, distribute flyers outside the mall. He even went into toilets to stick flyer of buying OAG.

There was a time when Izham did not have money, so he even had to go back to his mother to ask for money. He finally found a distributor, who was a pirate, and it became into triple platinum. It even outsold Sharifah Aini and KRU.

However, in the end he had to turn down the distributorship, as it was a pirate.

He shared on his newsletter back in 2002. The database grew to 20,000 in a year, and then 70,000 after 3 years. He replied to all emails that he got. Izham shared that most marketers missed the main ingredient of it. Marketers today rely on others to win over their customers. Marketers often felt surprised that Izham won over his customer one by one. Izham shared that often those marketers would filter the information that is supposed to reach the top management, so all those information has been “scanned and filtered”.

Izham shared that his biggest success of music industry is to transform the infrastructure of music industry. He managed to urbanize the market.

People often said Positive Tone is an innovator. Izham said that it is not original, but copied from other companies, like Motown, which has artists like Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross etc. They made Black music for White People.

Do look for clues from around the world. Learn from around the world, but not just fight within Malaysia.

Izham eventually sold Positive Tone entirely to EMI. He became EMI staff and took charge of artists like Sharifah Aini.

One day, he received a call from Abdul Rahman Ahmad, which he didn’t know who he was. He found that he was CEO/Group Managing Director of MRCB. He brought along Sharifah Aini and KRU CDs when he went to meet Abdul Rahman Ahmad at Crown Princess Hotel. He was not intimidated by him, as Izham had more hair.

First thing Abdul Rahmad Ahmad said to Izham is “Dude, are you interested to start a new free TV Station”. Izham’s reaction “Are you mad? Are you nut?” Abdul Rahman Ahmad said that he wanted Izham because he didn’t know anything in the field, so won’t make the same mistake as others in the industry. The mission is to start a new, cool, free terrestrial TV for the urban young adults.

Abdul Rahman Ahmad told him to do the same thing as he did for Positive Tone, but on TV. Izham stayed cool when in front of Abdul Rahman Ahmad.

Immediately after that, he called out his friends in TV Industry. Everyone said that he won’t succeed. There won’t be money in it. He remembered his moshpit’s days, and he asked those people who are crazy of TV, and they were excited. He took the offer.

He created a free TV, never like this before. At that time, Astro’s penetration was 25%. So, he showed MTV for the first time to the remaining people who were not on Astro. He used the content strategy, and show the best shows from around the world. He got Grammy Awards, Oscars, F1, Euro 2004. He went to Hollywood a week before to get the shows, and created innovative local content, like Quickie, So you think you can dance etc.

Izham went on the street to get the publicity. In the Star youth 2 Cool Pool 2005, 8TV won 40% of the votes, and AXN was the 2nd channel at about 18%.

Izham let the young people run the show, and he stayed aside to let them make the difference. 8TV was the no.1 station for the target music, and broke even in 18 months.

Abdul Rahman suggested to start a couple of radio stations. Izham went to see his friends at Hitz, Era, Red etc. They all told him that there was no money. The moshpit told him to go ahead. Infrastructure said no and people said yes, so he decided to go ahead. He launched Hot FM in 2006 and became no.1 radio station for age below 35. Fly FM became the no. 2 English radio channel. In 2009, he started OneFM.

He wanted to keep on making music, so he started Monkey Bone. Then, Abdul Rahman Ahmad asked him to go and do digital. He was asked to take charge of Alt Media.

Today’s audience has many options. People now watch things in all sort of media. Malaysia is no.3 in the world for the number of people spending over 20 hours a week on streamed/downloaded contents. Malaysia is the world no.1 for online advertising click-throughs. Malaysia are digital media junkies. He didn’t need research data to tell.

He shared on his family trip, where his brother-in-law was going online next to swimming pool. Even older people are online, and of course the youngs. He introduced Catch-Up TV, where people watch online exclusive contents, online contests and make it mobile portable. He believed in an amazing, engaging, interactive future for media.

Recently, they launched TonTon in 2010, where it is world-class, intelligent and all about video. The Catch-Up TV has 1.8 million registered users. No. 1 show on TV has 4 million viewers, but the show online has 64 million video views online, and we don’t even have 64 million population. He shared on people watching it during lunch time. People can chat on it, and have nice interface. There are 30,000 hours of archive video.

All those old TV programs are now on TonTon for free, and by January 2011, everyone can create their own channel. Tonton sat on intelligent media platform, and it would recommend content you like and it would serves advertising relevant to you. It would focus on showing the right advertising to the right people at the right time.

You can never imagine what wondrous things await you until you start moving.

He shared on the most important thing to making a difference is having a solid team. When he interviewed people, he looked at whether people have done something crazy. He would be observing on whether you would die for the mission.

George Bernard Shaw said “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

When you have the right amount of unreasonable people around you, you can do the impossible.

He shared on his lessons learnt in making a difference.
a) Do it from the heart – The type of things that you would be excited to do when waking up at 5am.
b) There is always a new way to do something.
c) Product/Service Comes First – Google hardly do any ads.
d) Roll up your sleeves and jump into the moshpit. – hang out with the crowd
e) Look for clues from around the world
f) Leading the market is better than being a slave to it – The best way to predict the future is to make it. Give them what they don’t know they want.
(Henry Ford said that people would want a faster horse, but he created car.)
g) Win your consumer one by one.
h) Have a team that will die for the mission. Surround yourself with a team that is smarter than you.
i) A little naivety goes a long way. – Izham was naive, so he was lucky. He was young and foolish and thought that he could control the world, he went and do it. He would throw people into the deep end of the pool, and see whether they can swim.
j) Have the balls to try it. If not going to try it, it would never get done.

Elvis said that he would play the black man blues. He shared on how people really go out and do it.

You can’t hit a home run unless you step up to the plate.

Izham shared on William Hung, and William Hung didn’t know he can’t be a star. He went on to do it anyway, and he sold more than 1 Million and he went on to become a platinum in Singapore.

Q&A:-
Izham shared that for those who are age between 0 to 12, 80% of influence would be by parents and 20% by media. But by age of 13, mentality would have get stuck already. So, if people are racist by age of 13, then it would be the influence from age 0 to 12.

In his media, there would be children watch it as well, so they would get influenced. For Malaysian movies, often we don’t lead them to some positive conclusion, but usually internationally, there would be such a lead into positive message.

Izham shared on his future would be on content. When he was in music, it was content. For TV, it was partially content, but not all contents are owned by him. He is looking into going into making content. He believed that he could make an internationally-known content maker company.

Izham’s main goal in life is to make the Pak Guard at TV3 to love the things that he do. If that succeeded, he would have influenced the mass. He wanted the whole of Malaysia to like it. He remembered his first day at work, when the guard was listening to the song of – Anak Ayam, a Too Phat’s song.

Izham shared that people have to open the eyes, and then the luck would swim by you. If people close the eyes, then you would not see the opportunities, even if opportunites come by you.

The higher you go up, the tougher it is for luck to reach you. So, make sure you build up your foundation – education and experience. The more you build you luck, the closer it would get by you.

Some people who have good education and luck went by them, yet they don’t sense it.

Izham that he had a degree and master. He did Bachelor of Music, Music Production & Engineering at Berklee College of Music in 1988-1991, and then MBA at Suffolk University in 1992-1994. He did Executive Education at Harvard Business School.

Izham always went down to the street, to know what really happened at the ground. All the management team would wear 8TV’s vest at least once in a quarter to go down with the troop to learn what’s happening at the ground. And also go to Tweetdeck to listen to what people are saying, although those tend to be peole who have a lot to say. What needed to hear are those who might go out and tell.

Izham really enjoyed the hardship. He enjoyed the experience of having 40 cents to go to the toll. He learned from the failures. There was once, when he turned back when Jaclyn Victor won the Malaysian Idol, the crowd is 1Malaysia. He was very touched with it, and that was the highlight of his life! Usually, in entertainment area in Malaysia, people tend to be one race. In that occasion, he felt like in stadium watching badminton, where all races cheer for Malaysia.

There would always be people buying piracy, so for Tonton would provide it for free and have nice interface, so people would use it. And there is a platform for advertisers.

In TonTon, it would show relevant ads, example when the show has rice being shown, there could be advertisement of rice by a hypermarket, or when the artist wears a jacket, there could be an advertisement to buy that particular jacket. There is a lot of potential for it.

For those piracy, Izham shared that only 6% of people would be using stuff like bittorrent, but the mass would still not be exposed to it.

Izham would lead by example and do things that are beneficial for the community and the target market. He would only take advertisements that are credible.

As of now, Tonton is only available for Malaysians, due to the bandwidth issue, but hopefully by end of the year, it would be available for the rest of the world.

Work life balance can be achieved over time. Izham started work in 1994, and he got married in 1996. He cannot rest until he got things solved. He would solve the problems, whether it is portal or transmitter. He tried to control himself now.

When he first started, his wife didn’t get to see him much. Now, Izham went to work late and came home early, so he would spend time to have breakfast at home. He can now rely on his talented and capable staff to make things done. He would have time to think through.

Now, he is CEO for 3 companies, but he is more relaxed than he was a manager at Positive Tone. He shared that many bosses tend not to let go. He shared that he tries to make him redundant. He shared that he only go for 1 meeting at 8TV every fortnight and responded to some emails for Shouts Award. Swee Kim handled the things and perhaps checked with him when necessary.

Principal of business, you must suffer for four years. Izham learned a lesson, one has to either becoming a millionaire or bankrupt, then one hasn’t tried hard enough.

One very important thing is to hire the right people.

Both Media Prima and Astro have both invested a lot more into local content. Internet is giving them a lot of competition and it kept them always on the toes. It is not just the channels.

Izham shared that one has to make money to do good stuff. Izham has to roll the profits that he makes. Izham used to tell Too Phat to make profit, so that can make better albums. To increase everyone’s talent and creativity, then one has to make profit. ONe has to weigh between social good and profit, and balance it. The problem is that people with no ethics take care of companies. The main problem is that people doing CSR due to tax credits. Eventually, the stock market would look at the financial number. So, it has to be a balance. And what matters is goes with your heart.

Izham wants to see them selling Malaysian contents to the world. Izham is only 20% of where he really wanted to be.

Above is the live blogging for Izham’s talk. If there is any error, do let me know. Do check out the 2nd Young Corporate Malaysians Summit on 11th December 2010 at Nikko Hotel.

YCM CEO Series 25: Yusli Yusoff, CEO of BURSA Malaysia
Writing credits: Chen Chow Yeoh

Live blogging of Young Corporate Malaysians 25th CEO Series of Talk by Dato’ Yusli, CEO of Bursa Malaysia.

Early Life

Dato’ Yusli was born in Bangsar Hospital. His late father was army officer, so he used to travel a lot. However, his late father passed away when he was about 40. At that time, Dato’ Yusli was 8. His mother brought them up. At that time, they were living at MINDEF at Gurney/Semarak.

He was at Rifle’s Range school, and then St. John, and then went to Sultan Alam Shah in Petaling Jaya. He did his Standard Six in 1970. He skipped a year of school, so he only had five years of primary school.

He was selected as the first batch under Yayasan Selangor to study in Kuala Lumpur under the first year of New Economic Program. The school that he was supposed to go to, ended up does not exist now. He ended up going to Victoria Institution, and the rest went to Methodist Boy’s School and St. John Institution.

He spent his years at Victoria Institution (VI), and it was fun. He left VI at the start of Form 6, as his mother felt that he was not studying enough. He was just made Head Boy then.

He then went to UK in 1977 and did A Level and university, as well as working in UK. He came back in 1990, and joined Renong Berhad, which also does not exist today too. Dato’ Yusli was joking that places he went to, ended up does not exist today.

He went to do ICAW, and joined an accounting firm in UK, Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co (which eventually became part of KPMG). He was in UK till 1990. In between, he got married. However, unfortunately, it didn’t last. His daughter is now staying in UK and now is a doctor there. When he came back, his daughter was 6.

Early Career Prior to BURSA

Dato’ Yusli was supposed to start working with Petronas. Before he went to Petronas, he got “hijacked” to Renong. At that time, Renong just took over UEM, and they were building the North South Highways. Renong was one of the preferred companies then.

During the New Economic Model, Tun Dr. Mahathir selected a bunch of bumiputera businessmen to build a bigger pool of bumiputera professionals, and at that time, Tan Sri Halim Saad was one of them. Tan Sri Halim Saad was Dato’ Yusli’s first boss in Malaysia.

Dato’ Yusli then had to explain to Tan Sri Hassan Merican on he had to turn down the offer. In hindsight, Dato’ Yusli felt that in the fairly new group, like Renong, there was a lot more flexibility and he got a good learning curve.

In Renong, Tan Sri Halim Saad set up a Group Management Office, and that company was HBN Management. He set up with the help of an ex-partner in PwC. Dato’ Yusli’s first job with Renong was to write report on the companies that Renong had. Having worked under Tan Sri Halim Saad, Dato’ Yusli shared that Tan Sri’s culture was ruling by fear. He shared that everyone needs to know everything at finger tips, or else, would “get bitten off the head”.

Dato’ Yusli shared on those quarterly presentations back then, and some of those subsidiaries people were terrified and sometimes they didn’t even dare to sleep. One even fainted in the meeting.

Tan Sri Halim Saad knew a lot about each of the companies, and he could literally ask anything and everything on the company. And if people could not answer, they would be in trouble. Dato’ Yusli highlighted that while Tan Sri’s style “sucks”, his style was admirable, as he was able to get everyone on their toes. Dato’ Yusli credited him (Tan Sri Halim Saad) as the best bumiputera manager that he had worked with.

Others who were working at Renong was Datuk Seri Che Khalib. He worked very long under Tan Sri Halim Saad, whereas Dato’ Yusli worked for five years under him.

After HBN, he moved to Faber Group, and then Time Engineering and then went back to Renong Group as Chief Operating Officer in 1994/1995. At Renong Berhad, Dato’ Yusli reported to Tan Sri Halim Saad.

After that, Dato’ Yusli joined Shapadu Corporation for about 2 years, but he left as he felt that what was promised to him was not carried out the same way.

Dato’ Yusli felt that as country progressed, then people would need to specialize, instead of being “jack of all trades”. In developed nations, there were not many conglomerates.

In Renong, Dato’ Yusli had exposure to construction, infrastructure, property, engineering etc. At Shapadu, it was similar.

At that time, Dato’ Yusli joined Sime Merchant Bankers Berhad, which was joint venture of Sime Darby, ANZ Bank and another Japanese Bank. (And he joked that Sime Bank does not exist today too.) Sime Bank got hit by Asian Financial Crisis and Sime Darby decided to get out of Banking industry. Sime Bank was acquired by RHB.

Dato’ Yusli decided to leave before the bank got folded. The worst thing that Dato’ Yusli felt was that Sime Darby decided to pull the plug. The first thing that Dato’ Yusli chose to join them, was that it was supposed to be stable.

Datuk Jaafar Hamid, who had worked with Tan Sri Halim Saad, planned to do Management Buyout for Intria Berhad and Metacorp Berhad. So, Dato’ Yusli decided to join them as Managing Director of Metacrp Berhad. After Tan Sri Halim Saad, Datuk Jaafar Hamid was the person he admired the most.

However, two days before Dato’ Yusli joined them, the MBO fell through. So, Dato’ Yusli had to report to Tan Sri Halim Saad again. He was asked to be Managing Director for both Intria Berhad and Metacorp Berhad.

At that time, Intria then bought into a UK firm, and had to take a huge Pound Sterling loan. At that time, the exchange rate was about RM4 to 1 Pound, but during crisis, it became ended up to RM8 to 1 Pound at one pound. Intria ended up going into receivership.

During back then, Tun Dr. Mahathir encouraged local big companies to venture abroad, but, not many of them succeeded, as they were not ready to match the foreign “con” people, until Petronas was successful abroad.

Usually when Japanese companies wanted to invest abroad, they would be there for some time to observe, whereas for us, we usually just went out.

Dato’ Yusli shared on the reason of Asian Financial Crisis, due to too fast growth and companies went on too much gearings. And the Western world didn’t learn the lesson, and ended up in crisis recently.

Dato’ Yusli was always in fascination with financial sector, and one day, Datuk Seri Nazir called him and he joined as Chief Executive Director of CIMB Securities Sdn Bhd. That was in 2000, and he stayed on for 4 years. And then he joined as CEO of KLSE.

Dato’ Yusli was always willing to try to new things, and he was always involved in general management. In this manner, one does not need to be technical expert, but one builds expertise in organizing and managing people. Technical expertise would help, but not a must.

Dato’ Yusli shared that having some knowledge of finance and accounting would help in progressing in corporate world. Like when one is a CEO, one has to speak to analyst, and the analysts would not be impressed, if the CEO does not know about finance and accounting.

Bursa Malaysia requires all listed companies to have briefing to analysts and media.

Prior to end of 2003, KLSE was owned by brokers, and the brokers gave a guarantee for the exchange. And then KLSE was demutualized and became a company limited by shares. So, they wanted a new board and a new CEO, and Dato’ Yusli came in as CEO of KLSE.

Q&A

Dato’ Yusli then responded to a bunch of questions.

Dato’ Yusli shared that every time one joins a new company, it would be a new set of experience and new set of challenges. He was fortunate to have the chance to move into various industries. As of now, he has been in stockbroking industry for 10 years.

Being in general management, it gives us the ability to influence the culture of the place. Dato’ Yusli tried to learn from the bosses that he had worked along the way, and extracted the good thing and not to take on some of the not so good things.

Having worked abroad, one of the things that Dato’ Yusli found more common in MultiNational Companies or companies abroad, is that they probably treat their employees differently. Things like respect for the individual are different in the more developed economy. Over there, people tend to pay more attention to quality of life. In developing countries, it is easier for employers to “force” people to work hard, as people here are less likely to complain.

Dato’ Yusli felt that people should have a good work life balance. He felt that if people work all the time, then people would become unproductive. If people do that day in day out, productivity must decline after a certain point. Dato’ Yusli preferred that they go back and rest and energize, instead of staying back late.

Dato’ Yusli felt that sometimes lower-ranked staff don’t dare to go back earlier, because their boss don’t go back early, and sometimes the boss don’t go back early, because they don’t want to set the wrong example. So, ended up people stay back later.

In corporate life, people are different, compared to students’ days. So, in a group of people, there might be difference in personality, and people might not work well together. So, if one is unlucky, then one would have to work to get people to work together. So, as one moves up the ladder, then one would have to handle that.

In any position, people are still people and would have character. Dato’ Yusli always advised that people should be firstly professional at work. That means one should do the job that one is paid for. One is not paid to not like a person, not paid to not cooperate with another person.

Dato’ Yusli does not expect people to like each other, but do expect people to work together. That sounds simple, but almost impossible to do. That is probably the biggest challenge for anyone. If people don’t talk to each other, someone has to break the ice, and professionals would do so, to get things done.

There are close to 1,000 companies, which they are quite diversified. In Malaysia, we are quite blessed with resources and we have enterprising people, and generally, people are quite well educated. Dato’ Yusli felt that the challenge is not too many people invest.

Securities Commissions is the commission that approves listing. ACE board is meant for businesses that do not have much track record. Lets say that there is a younger company that wants to list, they could find with a sponsor investment bank, and then they can list.

A lot of people do not want to let go of power, and that is especially so, for entrepreneurs. So, as the number of employees grow, entrepreneurs need to learn to give up the power, or else, it might be hard to grow the companies. It is important to look for professionals to handle the companies.

Most of the problems we have today is due to dishonest people. So, it is tough for entrepreneurs to find someone that they can trust.

Dato’ Yusli credited YTL group to have a balance of professionals and family members.

As company promotes staff up, the skill sets needed would differ, and company should ensure that the skill sets is built up.

Dato’ Yusli felt that there is nothing wrong with subordinates who are better than the boss. In fact, it is better, as it can help the boss to do a better job. Then, Dato’ Yusli’s advice would be for one to be better than one’s boss.

Dato’ Yusli shared on Bursa Malaysia, where there are only 600 staff, so there are limited jobs on the top. However, there are some specialist roles, which those people would choose to stay there, as there is only one exchange in the country. Of course, Bursa Malaysia did face the challenge of being poached by other banks.

Dato’ Yusli shared that Renong took on too many projects, and funding obtained was often short term, and the projects were long term. And interest rate went up, so it was harder to get income matched. So, cash flow problem could happen. It ended up with Khazanah Nasional bought over Renong.

Dato’ Yusli shared that back then Prolink, a Renong subsidiary, was the master planner for Bandar Nusajaya. And if not due to the crisis, Renong would be the one that took charge of Renong.

Dato’ Yusli felt that there is a trend for the Robert Kuok’s linked group to list abroad. Dato’ Yusli said that if followed logic, then they should have listed in Malaysia.

Dato’ Yusli shared that it is challenging to attract Indonesian companies to list here.

On his goal when he joined Bursa Malaysia, he wanted to improve the culture of Bursa and created a better atmosphere. He felt that he hasn’t really achieved that yet. There are some people who prefer to be told what to do, and if there is no instruction came down, then there could be problem. So, if things are not doing well, then one has to change. Change is always difficult. People don’t like to change, especially if they have always been doing something for the last many years. This is another thing that one has to deal with, as one progresses.

The skill required would be to learn how to sell the idea. That is a skill that everybody needs to have. Looking back to those at school, the one who is doing well at corporate life are those who don’t do well at school. They were the ones who were really socialing around. Those who don’t have good social skill, would find it hard to do well in society.

Bursa Malaysia is in service industry, and there are a lot of stakeholders. Pretty much everyone has opinion on Bursa Malaysia. In dealings with direct stakeholders, Bursa tries to be as efficient as possible.

Dato’ Yusli’s comment on 10th Malaysia Plan, the plan is on the right plan, but the challenge is to get everyone to work together with Prime Minister. First is to get all the ministers to work together, and then to get all the civil services to work together and then all Malaysians to work together.

Dato’ Yusli felt that when he was younger, inter-racial thing was better. But over the years, society has lost some of that, but what our Prime Minister tried to do with 1Malaysia is to find ways to get everyone to work all together, for the country to progress.

Dato’ Yusli felt that we should have more solid government schools, so that schools can produce better quality people. Maybe today, there is more pressure, life is more stressful, and there could be some structural issues, and the government should definitely find a way to quickly fix the education system. That is about the future of young Malaysians. This should not be politicized.

In life, there are many decision points, and one makes decision and one can’t turn back the clock. Dato’ Yusli thought that most of the decisions were correct. Perhaps one of his personal choices would be to bring his daughter back, but he can’t turn back the clock. Once a kid grows up, it would no longer be the same.

He wanted to create high quality professionals, and people would work together. It is easier said than done. One is paid to do work, so one does work for the salary, instead of one does work for the bonus. The bonus is just if people exceed the performance. One should look at whether one contributes more than what they were contracted to do. Nobody works eight hours flat out, although in theory, that was what one was paid for.

Dato’ Yusli would like to see Corporate Malaysia to have very high corporate governance standards. He wants companies to run with high transparency, and a lot of failure that we see in the past, was due to lack of corporate governmance, for instance fraud. Fraud could happen at all sort of level. It could be people stealing cash or selling fictitious products to fictitious people, and sometimes even public listed companies.

If one buys a share in a company, then suddenly we find that one month later, the company goes bankrupt, due to auditors said that the stocks or debtors in the companies would be worthless. Of course, people have paid money earlier, and one would lose money. If one knew that the company would go bankrupt, then one won’t invest it. So, Bursa’s attention is on companies disclosing it. If dishonest people discloses things, then chances are things might not be honest. So, Bursa has to detect those. Fact of life is that there would be dishonest people.

Directors of companies are meant to monitor the performances of the bosses in the companies. Bursa Malaysia did set up mandatory training for board members, but it was taken away after Directors were against it. So today, only first time board members of public listed companies go through a few days of training.

Today, public listed companies do list down the trainings that the directors went through.

Dato’ Yusli ended with hoping that all the attendees would become investors, and also to make sure that one read the annual reports. As long as one buys reasonably low, then sells reasonably high, then it would be good.

Dato’ Yusli felt that it is important to know the management of the companies. If one trusts the top management, then one can invest in the company.

Dato’ Yusli always supports the countries of the captain of Arsenal. Last World Cup, he supported France, and this time, supported Spain.

YCM CEO Series 24: Arlida Ariff, CEO of Iskandar Investment Bhd
Writing credits: Chen Chow Yeoh

Live blogging of Young Corporate Malaysians 24th CEO Series of Talk, Arlida Ariff, President and CEO of Iskandar Investment Berhad.

Academic Background
Arlida graduated from an American university. Back then, most people chose UK, but she chose the non-traditional route to go to US (despite her parents’ disapproval). She went to a Liberal Arts College in Portland, and then went to Syracuse and study. She got her engineering degree when she was 21, and she related that back then, in Syracuse, 9 out of 10 top students were female.

She went to UC Berkeley to do her master (instead of Stanford), as she could get the Master in 1 year. She graduated with her master in 22 years old. However, back then, it was financial crisis time.

Early Career
She then went to Universiti Malaya to become teaching assistant. However, she got stuck at Student Affairs Office. So, she went to organize social events in the university, like organizing annual dinner, events etc. That gave her the perspective of how studying in local university versus US university.

After that, she joined a “Chinaman” Engineering company which worked on foundation contractor. In early days, Sunway used to be tin mining area, so Arlida was one of those in the early days working on it, and making something out of nothing there. She converted less usable places, into more user friendly and potentially viable places. After some time, she realized that she won’t have great future in the company, so she left and join PETRONAS.

During that time, PETRONAS was in a stage of transformation, and she mentioned that it was interesting there. She was put into project management there. In the early years, she was working on PETRONAS project, PGU (PETRONAS Gas Utilization). When she went into it, it was during the second phase.

In the middle 80s, Malaysian petroleum was filled with gas. So, back then, they just burnt it, before a few years later, they found a way to use it. Then, they extracted those gases from oil.

She became gas expert in the pipeline during that time.

Then, PETRONAS bought into KLCC, and at that time, it was called “Sri Kuda”. As she was from civil engineering, she was roped into the project. At that time, she didn’t even know that it was supposed to be the world’s tallest tower.

She spent 15 years in KLCC, honed her skill to be project manager. During those times, she was Chief Property Management, Chief Security and Chief Tour Guide.

The Iskandar Experience
Then, she was being roped into Iskandar project. She said that the toughest job was to create a place that people want to be, and convince people to relocate to Johor Bharu. She said that she had to think of how to convince people from a place where they are comfortable, to go south and live and develop in Iskandar.

As people know, Johor Bharu had a poor reputation of poor security, and it had to be transformed to make it a livable place. So, Arlida and team had to think through it deeply, and make Iskandar not a white elephant. She was thinking of how to make the whole place viable. It has to be visionary.

She advised that before doing anything, we should have a vision and we should have a plan. Arlida quoted on “Failure to plan is planning to fail”. She also advised that we shouldn’t over plan as well. Very often, we do have basic plan that understand the target and the vision that we want to create.

Arlida shared with us that she really believed in Malaysia, and she believed in the future of the crowd who is attending. She said that all of us are those who are going to determine the future of Malaysia. We are all responsible. It is not about leaders, but it is about all of us.

She shared that “the grass is always greener elsewhere, until we went over there.” She shared about how a lot of other countries had it much worse.

She wanted us to think of what we can do and what we want to do, and she shared that we all have the opportunities and potential to improve on things. She said that next time, before we want to complain on something, we should think of what we can do.

She said that we often not learn from history. We should learn from history. History would tell us that civilization lies on the trade route. Singapore was very successful, because they were in the crossroads of the trade. So, if Singapore can be successful, so do Johor.

Arlida said that Iskandar is about 3 times the size of Iskandar (550,000 acres or 2,217 square kilometers. It encompasses 3 districts – Johor Bharu, Kulai Jaya and a part of Pontian. There are 5 local authorities in the district. Currently, population is 1.6 million people, and it is to increase to 3 million by 2025. In normal time, growth is just 5% or so every year.

She shared on each flagship zone has its own economic cluster. The 5 zones are Johor Bharu City Center (Cultural and Urban Tourism), Pasir Gudang and Tanjung Langsat (Chemical), Tanjung Pelepas (Logistic), Nusajaya (Education & Medical tourism, Entertainment & Recreation, State Administration and Finance), Senai/Skudai (Logistic/R&D).

Most of the developments are going to happen in Nusajaya. The target is to grow Iskandar into several times of sizes in all aspects (GDP, Per capita income etc). She highlighted on five main pillars to be reinforced, and then grow higher income as the main pillars.

As of February 2010, USD16.92 billion (RM59.04 billion) has been committed, predominantly from the private sector. As of now, Iskandar Malaysia has attracted over 700 site visits from potential investors, domestic and internationally.

Catalyst and new key investors includes Iskandar Investment (IIB), Mubadala, Kuwait Finance House, Milennium, UEM/Limitless, Genting Property, Central Malaysian Properties, JCorp, Malaysian Mining Corporation, Malaysia Pacific Corporation etc.

She shared that we should learn Mandarin, as with 1 billion population, and there would be a lot of domestic consumption. On India, she said that they understand English, so it is not as important. Having said that, American consumption per capita would be a lot higher.

With small domestic population, Iskandar would have to look beyond the country to grow.

Arlida was sharing on opening a new hotel, one would need to have 12 approvals, and the whole process would take 1 to 3 years.

With that, IRDA would be set up to take care of the processes. Iskandar Investment Berhad would have to create projects that would catalyze the region and also bring in Return on Investment.

IIB has the shareholder of 60% of Khazanah Nasional Berhad, 20% EPF and 20% Kumpulan Prasarana Rakyat Johor. Iskandar Investment Berhad has a land bank of 10,000 acres.

Medini is an international zone, and for those who are in certain sector, they would be able to get certain incentives. Now, focusing on the northern sector of Medini. Legoland (76 acres) is built to cater for the young (2-12 years old) and also their parents. The reason to focus on this area is that entertainment for youth has been well catered in the region, so it is better to focus on the entertainment area for the young.

Now, with us working with Singapore, so we are doing things that are complementing with Singapore. In Medini, there would be Lifestyle Retail Mall (21.1 acres, built-up area – 1,000,000 square feet). Back then, when go to shopping mall, it was go shopping, but now, it has become entertainment place.

IIB tried to build Medini North, to be a place where people would enjoy being. For Legoland, there would be 6 Million Lego bricks, and now, they have hired 12 people to be Legoland Model Builder. One of those 12 people is a lecturer.

For incentives, Medini would have specific incentives, similar with Multimedia Super Corridor, example corporate tax exemption for 10 years.

EduCity @ Iskandar is being built – Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia, Management Development Institute of Singapore (agreement just signed yesterday) and Netherland’s Maritime Institute of Technology. Hopefully all those would be opened by September 2012. Arlida aimed to have 2 more universities announced by end of this year.

Arlida also spent 5 years in Putrajaya during the planning phase and phase 1 building of it, including Prime Minister building. She highlighted on the 4km boulevard and 13 parks. She highlighted that it is important to create events and usages for the infrastructure to be used properly. She said that it is easier to build, but tougher to make it usable.

Arlida said that she has learned that things built to be practical. For the stadium, it would be with capacity of 12,000 people.

Marlborough College Iskandar Malaysia is built, with target completion date in June 2012. It is one of the top 5 colleges in UK.

As part of the social responsibility, there would be Workers camp and Kampung Tersusun as well. Arlida also shared that in her career, she has migrated graves of all religions/races (Muslim graves, Christian graves, Chinese graves, Hindu graves and Orang Asli graves).

Arlida shared the importance of the warming of the relationship with Singapore. There is a joint ministerial committee to look at various issues in Iskandar.

Arlida shared on the work in progress for Iskandar, and it is a city to be the place for the future.

Arlida shared on what kept her awake at night, and she said that the challenge is how to change mindset. She said that one could do marvelous thing, but one need to convince the rest of stakeholders to do it together.

On mega projects, it is not too difficult to do, after one have learned on what to do, but it is tougher to get others to do together.

Advice to Future Leaders
She shared that we have to be in the proponent of change, and we are all together to bring the positive change together, to make Malaysia a better place. We should be together build a place that we want to stay and we want our children to grow up.

Arlida shared that it is easier for our generation to change, since we are still new in our career, and she said that if we tell the stories from our heart, then we can convince others to change.

Arlida said that there are more opportunities for young people now, than before. 20 years ago, opportunities were limited, and there wasn’t internet. Now, mobility is also widely available. Arlida said that the limitation is by our mind. Opportunities today are at least 1,000 times more than before. Our limit has been expanded.

Today, the region that surrounds us is the world. The real problem is recognizing the opportunities. If we are not aware of the opportunities, then we would be limited. Today, we are at the finger tips of the world. We should read more.

A lot of time, we don’t learn from history. A lot of lessons can be learned from there. Be there, watch, look and listen and eventually, we would see it. We need to build the experience and knowledge, and observe around.

Don’t look at salary, but keep on learning all the time.

Arlida used to play piano at lobby of Shangri-la Hotel back then, and she said that the learning she had through observing what others do back then, it is crucial for her to plan for the hotel development.

Arlida shared that for a good CEO, one has to have a vision. It is important to be emphatic to the people. One has to have experience and knowledge. It is very easy for one to just scold, but one should know how to do. Arlida has seen young CEOs, who went in through a stroke of luck, but don’t have the desire to run it.

Arlida shared that one has to respect the people who work for her. One has to earn the respect. One can earn the respect by caring the people and understand the people. Even though being a hard master, one respects the team.

Arlida shared on many different bosses and CEOs that she has worked with. She said that what makes her difference is she tried to learn from what she sees. She said that the intention has to be right. Everybody can teach one something. What is important is that one is willing to learn from subordinate and listen from them. One of the best lessons that Arlida learned is from her technicians.

Pressure can be a good thing, and one needs to learn how to manage the pressure. For this kind of mega project, one has to go through some pressure. Arlida focused on managing the pressure, and not making it bigger than it should be. It is important to have good work life balance.

There are times it could be tough, as one juggles roles. Arlida shared that everyone can come and go, and everyone is replaceable, but one is not replaceable in family.

Writing credits: Chen Chow Yeoh

Live blogging from the 23rd Young Corporate Malaysians CEO Series of Talk by Adrian Lim, Managing Director of Sony Music.

He started his venture into music industry when he was 18 years old. So, he is now close to 20 years in the business, with his age at 37 years old.

He started in the retail business for 4 years, and then he went into Warner Music for 11 years, before at Sony Music for 5 years.

His business is always very much misunderstood, as people would have linked Warner Music with Warner Brothers, and Sony Music with Vaio etc.

Sony Music often worked from behind the scene, and the artists are always the one who got the limelight. People who got into music shop, end up looking for CDs of artists, and not the company that represented them.

Music is always around us, from karaoke, to even back then, when people copied songs from cassettes to cassettes.

Adrian used to buy cassettes from pasar malam, and then he had a catalogue, and when his friends wanted to do parties, he would produce cassettes for them. That was back in his schooling days.

Copyright act started in 1988. After that, copying songs was no longer legal.

Since then, Adrian wanted to respect the law, and then he started to buy original cassettes, and he also wanted to support the industry.

He started to work at pizza shop, where his first week, was washing plate, before he started to get permission to cut fruits. He didn’t want to do this work for long.

One day, he went to Jaya supermarket, and he was hired to work at a cassette shop (Horizon) there on the spot. He only had lunch at 4pm that day, but that was his most satisfying lunch, as he found his calling in the music industry.

His pay then was RM1.50 per hour, and it was lower than RM1.80 per hour at the pizza shop. After some time, he was offered RM550 per month as a full time staff.

Adrian tried to apply for Warner, BMG and EMI, but ended up no response yet.

In retail, he learned how to talk to clients. As he was new, he was assigned to do classical music. No one else wanted to do those kind of music. After that, he was assigned to do jazz music.

Adrian’s principle is that if one wants to go to the next level, one has to really do more stuff. So, he challenged himself to try out new stuff and gain more experience.

Adrian developed a great skill on how to recommend songs to get people to buy cassettes. So, soon he got promoted to be overall buyer. So, he would be able to look at customers, as they came in, and then he could recommend them to the right cassette, that they would like.

When Adrian’s mother asked him what he was still doing, he would say selling cassettes, and she would felt that he was not developing himself, since he still sold cassette. However, his father, especially being a music lover, loved that Adrian is a buyer for music.

Then, he went on to develop himself in the Malay songs, and then eventually into Chinese songs. So, he could sell for all kinds of songs.

He was usually on leave on Monday, and on his off day, he would be doing research on what was the latest songs. He would be listening to musics, and then learned the top ranked hit songs, as well as asking his friends on what was the latest music. He wanted to make sure that he knew all the new songs.

He shared on his interesting example, where customers came in knowing only a little part of the artist’s name or the song’s name or album’s name. Some customers would come in saying that they wanted tape, when asked whether they wanted cassette or CD. To them, tape was what they would want.

So, it took some experience to learn what the customers wanted.

Adrian learned how to attract crowd, for example type of songs that need to be played, to attract attention. Adrian talked about people’s mindset, where people perceived a certain industry is not as glamorous. But if one worked himself/herself up, then he/she would have a great future in it. If want to be successful in anything, never be afraid to do more and learn more. Then, one would learn to develop oneself.

As Adrian wanted to learn to do things more challenging, he went on to start doing retails in selling binding machine and laminator, and covered Shah Alam and Klang. When he started doing his job, he was able to sell the laminator very well. And eventually, he got promoted to Petaling Jaya and Subang Jaya.

One day, his friend told him that Warner Music would like to hire a sales representative. During the interview, he was able to name the artists in Warner Music, and that impressed them a lot.

His second round interview was with Mark Lankester, and his third round was supposed to be with Tony Fernandes. However, Tony Fernandes told Mark that Adrian seems to be a very suitable guy, so don’t need to do more interview, but just hire him.

So, he went into Warner Music. Started with radio and then eventually moved around to do promotion. Tony Fernandes was the one who promoted him back then.

Adrian went in to compile a good mix of songs, and then he did strategic marketing. He went on Regional Marketing Manager in Hong Kong for one year, and then he went on to be Senior Marketing Manager and then eventually be Marketing Director.

Adrian talked about loyalty, and also took about 45% pay cut to come back from Hong Kong to Malaysia. He talked also about when he moved from sales to promotion, he took pay cut, as he would no longer be getting commission.

Adrian’s wife preferred that he stayed on in Hong Kong, but Adrian felt that his calling was back home.

Two and a half years later, he got a call from Sony BMG, when there was a merger. He eventually got the job as the Managing Director.

Adrian’s advice is to be very influential in the field, and to have one’s name to be always come up, when people talked about the industry. During the interview, Adrian told the Regional President that he knew nothing, except music. Adrian was very open during the interview, and shared on how he saw the set-up of the company. The interviewer then was expecting a much more “senior” guy, so Adrian just had to be more serious and seen as a suitable candidate to be managing director. So, he left Marketing Director from Warner Music to join Sony BMG as Managing Director.

Adrian’s advice is not to save work, but always to finish up the work, and get it done immediately. One never knew what interesting work would come up the next day.

Adrian has always been asked on what is his secret of success. He felt that it is very important to really learn and know the stuff.

It is very important to “cross over”, where one is able to be adaptable and learn new stuff, and cross sell things to different segment.

Adrian learned how to understand the market, and how to go beyond the core fans, so that there would be greater demand. For example, how to get those English-speaking Chinese to buy tracks for Lee Hom.

He shared on how he turned around the “Dr. Bombay” song, where he sold 120,000 CDs, when he hit the younger crowd and mass, with the wordings of “Kakuta”, instead of “Calcutta”.

It is very important to educate the market and create the awareness. He would learn what the public identify the artists/songs/albums, as they might not be really knowing the actual name of it. So, if one can be master of it, then there would be a lot of potential.

Adrian shared that those who are very successful in YouTube, may not necessarily make it big in the actual album.

In terms of whether YouTube would be a competition to his business, he felt that it is not necessary. Sometimes, YouTube could help him to unearth talents, although not all would work when in actual audition.

Adrian also shared about the antics of some artists, like some want to have beer on stage, or want to meet the make-up artist at midnight etc.

Adrian shared on one of his experiences with Aaron Kwok, when he offered to order Coke for him, but he refused, even though the drink was to be delivered to his room in room service. He was the Pepsi promoter. He shared on how professional Aaron Kwok was, when he endorsed the brand.

Adrian shared once where the artist needed a recording of the football match, but somehow the recording didn’t work out. So, the artist wanted to cancel the press conference and concert, but luckily Tony Fernandes managed to sort it out with the artist.

Adrian shared on the understanding that his wife had, as he had to go club hoppings to promote his music, and also sometimes, when he went for dinner with his wife, he would go out to his car to bring a CD, to get the restaurant changed the songs, if they didn’t play the songs from him. That was his dedication to his job.

Adrian shared on the importance of organizing things and making sure that things are in control. Adrian also shared that it is important to be able to do what one’s boss is doing, so that if the boss is promoted or headhunted, one is ready to take over the job.

Adrian shared that if one makes mistake, one has to admit the mistakes and take responsibility to it. Learn from it and improve from it. If one can really know everything about the industry, then it would be convincing to others.

Adrian shared that loyalty is very important, and also always made sure that he learns one thing a day. When he shared lessons learned with others, people would appreciate what he has gone through.

Adrian also shared that it is important to learn how to write good minutes.

Adrian shared that learning how to handle a team is very difficult. So, if one can learn how to handle people, then one can go very far. Human beings have so many character, so it is very important to learn how to handle people.

One has to be flexible to learn how to deal with different type of people. Might need different style to deal with younger people, or with older people. Learn how to manage upwards and downwards.

It would be important to really learn everything. Adrian used to read about every section in newspaper, to really equip himself with all sorts of knowledge. Adrian stressed a lot about reading. It could be reading from the internet. This would ensure that when people talk to him, he is able to talk comfortably to people.

One can’t demand respect from others. One has to learn to earn the respect from people. Adrian wanted a good team, and be a team player.

When Adrian hired people, he stressed a lot into looking at their co-curricular activities.

Adrian highlighted that there are plenty of jobs in the music industry, so there are a lot of stuff one can work on.

Malaysians have a lot of talent, where we can learn to go far. In Malaysia, it is very unique, where we can relate to all sorts of music. We would buy Hindi, Middle Eastern music, Korean music etc. Malaysians can accept others’ music easily, but our own music did face a lot of challenges to go out.

Malaysians are well exposed to all sorts of music, so in this music, people can go very far.

Today, there are more ways to monetize the music. In weddings, in radio etc, people do pay for the public performance royalty. If everyone starts to pay for music, then it would be growing a lot.

There is an enforcement team from MACP and PPM, who went around to collect public performance royalty and it is a non-profit agency, which would then distribute the collections to the companies, by using 60% air-time played and 40% market share.

Today, people are interested to see performers live, so Sony Music would work concert organizer to bring in performers, and cover the coverage from radio and other promotion.

For Sony Music globally, itunes is their number one revenue generator, much higher than even Walmarts.

Adrian shared that Sony Music needed to educate the people about paying a little more for music, and get Sony Music to get bundled into other products, like in Sony Ericsson or Blue-Rays. Sony Music would also work with other players, like Panasonic.

When being asked on his actual reason of leaving Warner Music, he shared that he wanted to challenge himself to go far. It was a tough decision. Adrian shared that when he went into Sony BMG, he didn’t bring in new people, but retained the team, and respected others first.

So, at that time, Sony merged with BMG, and he was from Warner music, but he managed to get everything work well, by earning their respect.

Adrian shared that passion in the job is the most important thing, and one would go far in life with that.

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Above are the live blogging that I made from Nikko Hotel, where Adrian Lim shared. If anyone caught any typo or wrong information, do let me know. I will rectify it. Thanks for reading.