Monday, September 29, 2008

Undemocratic Any Business Organization Should Be, However...

I read a good management book over the weekend that says any business organization is a highly undemocratic organization and that is the way it must be. I totally agree with that statement. It is the responsibility of the leader in the organization to make the unpopular but right decision.

However in the course of my work as a consultant with companies, there are too many leaders that practice the above and at the same time DO NOT listen to a single word that is uttered by their subordinates. They do not want to receive any feedback from them. They want things done their way and any other way is against them.

I have had my fair share of experience dealing with the mistrust between the leader and the management team. Many a times, these issues would not have erupted if the leader were just to actively listen and gave his honest feedback to this subordinates.On the other hand, if this were done, there may not be a need for consultants.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Malaysia scores a 5.1 in Transparency International CPI.

Malaysia scores a 5.1 and fall in terms of world ranking to 47 from 43 for Transparency International CPI.
Despite all that has been done on corruption over the pass few years, it seems as if we are not going improving in terms of our corruption index in Malaysia. We are still at a 5.1 and have been hovering between a 4.90-5.10 for the last 6 years.
The CPI survey by Transparency International al measures the perceived levels of public-sector corruption in a given country and is a composite index, drawing on different expert and business surveys.
The 2008 CPI scores 180 countries (the same number as the 2007 CPI) on a scale from zero (highly corrupt) to ten (highly clean).”I have only one thing to say, we need to clean up the act. Malaysians needs to start moving up the ranking or else as a nation will be deem corrupt and easily corrupt by others. Furthermore in such situations, the poor in this nation will always be exploited.

Monday, September 15, 2008

A Malaysian Voice for Contribution

I am a person who is apolitical in many ways which is ironic considering my father named me after a very famous and colourful politician in the UK who unfortunately got into some trouble in the late 1970s, ala Anwar.

However despite using the word apolitical, I have since the coming of age to vote, I have never failed to exercise my voting rights as a citizen of this nation called Malaysia for what I believe is good for this nation.

With my upbring and my education background, I could have chosen to reside in several different countries in the world, however ultimately I choose to be a Malaysian and call Malaysia home.

Malaysia is home to me not because this is the land I was born in, which I am not. Neither is it home to me just because my family is here, as I have learnt at a young age that people adapt. Malaysia is home to me because it is the land I want to contribute to.

Unfortunately over the last few weeks, there has been lots of chatter about what it means to be Malaysian. According to some individuals a person must be of a certain race, a certain religion, live here for a certain time, forefathers are from here etc.

I am extremely irritated and sad when people say things above, as a Malaysian I want my fellow Malaysians to be contributors to this nation. As long as they are contributing to this nation by making it a better nation, reaping the rewards yet placing it back into the system to benefit more people, the person deserve to be here.

It is those individuals that suck this nation from its resources, the corrupt, the thieves, the leeches, the cheats; those are the ones that are not Malaysians.

As Malaysians it is time we look beyond whether a Malaysian is brown, yellow, green, black or purple. We need to look at his/her contribution to this nation.

We need a vote for that.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Manners

What happened to the simple “Thank You”?
Malaysians don’t say that anymore.
You hold the door for them, they walk pass as if you are the doorman.
You hold the lift for them, they give you a scowl.
You stop to let their car pass on a narrow street, they drive pass as if it is their grandfathers road.

What happened to the simple “Sorry”?
Malaysians don’t say that anymore
You get stepped on the foot and the person just looks at you blank.
You get accidentally shove aside and the person walks away.
You car gets block because another car has double parked and you get stared at because you have inconvenience them.

What happened to our manners?
All it needs is to start with a simple Thank You and Sorry.