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.

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.

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.

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.

Diversity Scares Me, NOT

Malaysia is one of the best places to live in because of our diversity. How can we be scared of diversity when it is all around us - especially since we have been seeing, eating and breathing it all our lives. Here are some examples:
Seeing- Walk down any Malaysian street.

See the different skin tones, see the clothes we wear.

Breathing- Smell the different flavours wafting from any food stall.

Eating- How many of you eat Nasi Lemak for breakfast, Noodles for lunch and have Nasi Kandar for dinner?

In the land that we call Malaysia, diversity is a plenty. This makes up Malaysia. I really cannot imagine eating the same type of food every day.

Unfortunately what saddens me as a Malaysian is all the talk about race politics in the news today. Why all this talk?

In my younger days, I’ve spent a lot of my years out of Malaysia. At one time, my best friends were a white English boy and a black New Guinean. We were the odd trio. We totally trusted each other and defended each other even against others of our own race. It was the comrade and friendship that matters. Not the colour of our skins.

As children we understood that colour does not matter. Somehow, as we aged, instead of being wiser and more accommodating, we get caught up and become narrower minded. At the playground near my house, I see so many kids of different races playing together. They just want to have fun and laugh. Yet if you look at the parents there, it will be great if they even smile or look at one another especially those of a different race. What happened?

People are people, be afraid of the person’s belief system not his/her colour. There are Chinese who are two-faced, Indians who are lazy and Malays who are money oriented. It is the person not the race that matters.

As the world becomes smaller, race diversity will become more prominent in any country. I have met Singaporeans who are of European descendent that are more Singaporeans then the locals born there. I have met many Englishmen from the Indian continent – many who are really Africans in heart and in soul. What makes them is their ability to adapt, their willingness to learn and their willingness to accept.

To me, a Malaysian is someone who loves to eat (this is who we are, we eat), contributes to the Malaysian society (I know many in Malaysia who do not contribute in any way even though they live here), loves this country, has adapted to the diversity here (surprising they are still many Malaysians who prefer not to have it) and is willing to defend and speak up for this way of life. That is the true Malaysian to me.

4.5 Years Down the Road

It is a Friday 22th August 2008, 7.00pm. I am in ATCEN Learning Centre attending an English Writing Class. Yes, an English Writing Class conducted by Aneesa. Do I need it …YES, because she writes for a living and I am learning. Learning how to get important written message across effectively. So Aneesa thank you.

Sitting at the back of the room, with my laptop, I am looking and listening to Aneesa conducting the session. Next thing I know I am compelled by a sense of accomplishment. All this learning about writing for effectiveness and seeing that every single ATCENian is still in the office learning; made me remember something.

To recollect my thoughts, I logged onto ATCEN website (www.atcen.com) and clicked onto “OUR STORY”. The page on The Journey popped up and I read it. Next I clicked onto the Chapter 1 button and what I was recollecting popped right up at the top of the page

“ATCEN was not built solely for the motive of profits. Why? We believe there's more to life than money. ATCEN aspires to revolutionize the Malaysian business approach; to be a model company, an innovative company. A company where the principles and values of the organization are not mere talismans on display but in every breath we exhale. We care for the development of our people, to build characters and the entrepreneurs of the future.”

I wrote the above paragraph, part of the ATCEN Story, on 29^th March 2004 when ATCEN was barely 4 months. It was written from the heart as ATCEN was still young and it was then a fantastic opportunity to start something new, something great, something to be proud of. And the founders at that time want it to happen.

Coming back to ATCEN Learning Center, I am just struck by what I wrote 4 ½ years ago and what we have achieved today.

In the room with me are 24 individuals consisting of 8 Malays, 10 Chinese, 3 Indians, 1 Iban and 2 of mixed parentage. We had ladies in tudung, mini skirt, jeans, office wear, fresh graduates, also the not so young, English educated, Malay educated and Chinese educated. They had only two things in common, we were all Malaysians and also ATCENians. Tell me of another company that is so rojak and diverse.

This is a company that is not relationship based, race based, chain based or any other based, even sexuality preference based. We are only PERFORMANCE BASED.

We are definitely revolutionizing the Malaysian Business Approach just by our background and the way we do things.

We are extremely Principled and Value driven, it does not matter who it involves. A wrong is a wrong and will be feedback upon. A Right is a Right and will also be feedback upon. Good behaviours are praised, the bad raised and learnt from. We do this regardless whether the individual is the CEO, the manager or the penyapu lantai, which is the CEO occasionally, rank is of little relevance here. All are equal. The CEO cleans the toilet so does everyone else. This in itself is another revolution in Malaysia if not the world.

Ask anyone in ATCEN and they will say we live here. That is just the practice in this organization. We are here not just to make a difference for our clients or ATCEN, the organization but for ourselves. We want to develop, build our character and be entrepreneurs. This is who we, ATCENians, moving towards our Aspiration and proud of it.

To the team it is now 8.15pm and the English Class has just ended and we are all happy with what we have learnt.

As for me I am just proud that words for a certain vision written 4 ½ years ago is now a reality. To ATCENians, you made this possible.

Tidak Apa Attitude Companies Deserve To Fail

Till today, there are still too many companies who just do not care about anything and I mean anything. We call this the “tidak apa attitude” in Malaysia. To be more precise it is not the company, as a company is as good as the people in there, so therefore it is the people in these organizations that just do not care about anything.

These people are the clerical, the officers, the management, the Board of Directors, the CEO and even the Chairman. There all form the company, they are the company. Yet they do not care. They are there to just ... turn up to work, do the minimal and get a salary they do not deserve.

These companies are literally “sucking” the life away from the Malaysian economy. Things do not happen there. They have slogans and branding campaigns that don’t work and are extremely poor in both planning and execution. They survive by getting highly paid external consultants to do the work and outsourcing everything else. The funny thing is that they get mega projects because of connections. When things fail, everyone is out for a meeting or a holiday.

Enough is enough, I want these companies to fail so that as a nation as a people, we can start excelling. We need to leave those irresponsible and uncooperative legacies behind. If these organizations need to be shaken to the core so be it. As in Nature, only the most adaptable survive and those “tidak apa attitude” companies deserve to fail.

On a separate note, I was in KWSP in PJ recently and I must give a big thank you to the team of people there. They were fast and efficient in processing my documents. I waited for less than 5 minutes to be served both times. Additionally the LHDN in Kelana Jaya was extremely efficient as well. Kudos to these two government agencies.

For those private companies with the “tidak apa attitude”, you deserve to fail.