Lonely are the Brave

As I promised, there will be lots of plagiarism and bootlegging in my blog. I must therefore give acknowledgement and convey my gratitude and thanks to YB Dato' Mukhriz Mahathir for his very infamous letter. I've used it, tweak it, twist it to the tone of an employee grievance. Take this with a pinch of salt though folks.

Dear Highly Respected Board Members and Top Management

Let me take this opportunity to thank you and the management’s leadership for the faith in me and the chance to be a part of this once great corporation. With the blessing and hard work of some of our company’s management team and machinery as well as my fellow colleagues, I have been able to discharge my duties to the best of my ability.

However, sadly enough, my contribution is rendered meaningless in view of the poor management and lack of leadership of some Board Members and Senior Management.

In fact this has never happened in the history of our Organization before.

The sole intention of my letter to you is meant to save our Company from being brought down further and from being no longer relevant in our line of business, industry and to our nation.

The employees are unhappy and the message from them is very clear, and that is they have doubts and distrust some of the board members and top management as their leaders..

Contrary to your claim that you still have the support of employees and shareholders, the reality is that even our own middle management and stakeholders like clients and customers had reneged in their trust and believe in your leadership capabilities by supporting competitors and inflicting our company a further financial loss.

I wish our employees can be given the same rights to show their unhappiness and choice of leadership through the ballot boxes.

For if this happen, you will definitely see some board members and top management being voted out of our company.

It is therefore clear that your leadership and your handling of the issues faced by the employees and our company are no longer accepted. Let’s not deny the truth just for the sake of keeping your seat on Board.

For the love of our company and its employees, I beg that you take responsibility for the poor performance of our company. We can save our Company only if you relinquish your positions as members of the board and top management..

Members of the Board and top management, I hope you will understand that I make this plea with the intention of salvaging a very dire situation. A move has been made to woo many of our top talents to join the competitors.

If you do not resign in the near future, I fear that the situation will become untenable and our Company will be unsalvageable.

This plea I make without malice, and I am aware that your reaction and that of other Board members could very well be hostile.

But come what may, I am prepared, for the sake of our Company and our employees, to face the consequences of my action. With all humility, I leave my fate to Allah SWT.

I am sure that you will do the right thing for the sake of our employees and our Company.. May Allah SWT bless you for the sacrifice you make by stepping down.

Wasallam

Yours Sincerely

Employee Bin Mahader

Board is not God

Such strong words ! It must have been strong emotions that evoke such articulation. Someone once made this comment. It somehow continues to resonate in me till today. I’d like to start my blog with this topic. Board of Directors and Top Management’s leadership capabilities is the mother of all solutions or problems for many corporations. As the cliché goes, the buck stops at the board.

Let’s examine how this statement comes about. Rightfully Top Management and Board of Directors should adhere to the following 10 commandments in managing corporations:

10 Commandments For The Board Of Directors (as a Group)

1. Maximize the price of the shareholders’ stock. No surprise, but start by maximizing the company’s net profits. If the stock price lags behind, find out why and do something about it.
2. Exercise ultimate authority. (translated – does not mean ultimate arrogance or abusive) Since you have ultimate responsibility for everything that happens or doesn’t happen at the company, use your matching authority. Oversee, but don't manage or worse still micro-manage.
3. Delegate duties and rely on outside experts. You can’t and shouldn’t try to do everything yourself. Assign certain tasks to officers and employees. (translated – do not over-delegate, you should try to help, especially in getting outside help). However, do not over delegate, then criticize when things are not forthcoming)
4. Act only as a full group at a meeting or by unanimous written consent without a meeting. Individual board members have no authority to act for the corporation.
5. Own the strategic and business plans. Jointly develop these plans with senior management and hold them responsible. More importantly, help them stay on track and make adjustments to the plans as needed.
6. Take “cradle to grave” responsibility for key executive management. Find, hire, compensate, evaluate, plan for successors and if necessary terminate.
7. Set limits on authority of CEO’s. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so do CEO’s. If you don’t set limits, you have no one to blame but yourselves.
8. Oversee by establishing controls, systems and procedures.
9. Get “unfiltered” information for decision making. Are you getting the whole story or the CEO’s spin? Get the facts, all the facts, and not just from the CEO.
10. Evaluate yourself and the board as a group. You wouldn’t keep slackers on the sales force. Why do it here?

However, in a number of Malaysian Inc., many of the commandments are not observed. During the recent post-election analysis, some website listed 100 reasons why the current Government was denied 2/3 majority and why Rakyat is demanding for change in leadership.

Below, I have extracted 20 of the above reasons and intertwine them with reasons why many Board of Directors and Top Management have disregarded their fiduciary responsibilities.

1. broken promises – Pak Lah won a landslide and monumental election 5 years ago because the people placed hope in him to change the system. But most were not met.

(about 5 years ago too, many conglomerates (GLC, ULC) saw changes in board and top management’s leadership. There was great hope that these changes will result in improvements and changes in system. Alas, for some, it has resulted in further deterioration).

2. Young educated voters who has nothing to lose

(Board and Top Management who could not understand, interact with and keep up with young educated, talented gen Y, Z that have been employed, hence loss of hi-pot talents)

3. Sleeping on the job - no this is not an analogy.

(need I elaborate more ….. ?)

4. Sexist comments coming from BN MPs

(abusive, personal attacks on employees from Board and Top Management)

5. How government money is spent on saving Port Klang free trade zone and the pull out of Middle east investment in that part of the world

(How money is spend on projects that did not materialize and perpetrators go unpunished)

6. Rumours (or is it real) of money politics.

(rumours [or is it real] of bribery and fraud by some senior management)

7. Malays not believing in UMNO anymore. BN in general has been perceived to have lost touch with the general public

(middle management and staff losing faith and believe in company’s leadership (top management and board of directors))

8. ISA fear - the use of ISA on Hindraf leaders

(termination, separation fear – the use of this to instill fear in employees)

9. Economic growth was never felt by the people. Government claims that our economy is growing (I believe that as we saw soaring prices for commodities)

(Economic growth, positive ebitda were superficial and not contributing to long-term growth and stability of companies.

10. The arrogance in general of the ruling MPs. The Rakyat want sincere and people-serving MPs.

(The arrogance of Top Management and Board. Employees want decisive, trusting, firm yet sincere leadership)

11. Arrogance and perceived lack of truth from mainstream media

(arrogance and perceived lack of truth on future direction of companies)

12. Too many wayang shows. People want real entertainment.

(a lot of hidden agendas, prejudiced and subjective decisions regarding existence and future direction of companies. Employees want the truth !)

13. No reduction in personal income tax. Why can’t the government make people happy for once?

(gratuities, bonus, incentives, promotions, increments are given half-heartedly. Why can management make employees happy for once.

14. Building collapsing everywhere - failure to replace incompetent contractor (frankly, I have seen quite a number of malays in kampung area who had been frustrated by “the people’s” money given away to incompetent contractors)

(Non-performing projects or failure to secure projects - many irresponsible and incompetent partners, contractors, get away scot-free.

15. Failure to stop a brain drain of people from Malaysia - look at how Singapore tries so hard to attract foreign talents, and we are throwing away our cream of the crops.

(failure to stop a brain-drain, high potential staff from leaving companies)

16. Disneyland here, Disneyland there, and all we see is EmptyLand

(Projects here, projects there, and all we see is nothing)

17. The people have enough and are fed up.

(staff and middle management have enough and are fed-up)

18. Rakyat’s lack of acceptance of NEP. Many quarters prefer to do away with NEP totally.

(Employees and line-managers lack of acceptance of organization’s business plan and goals.)

19. Biased and preferential treatment.

(within a bigger picture, biased and preferential treatment of certain companies over the other)

20. Samy Vellu - a political liability. he had overstayed his welcome. The Indians do not want him, BN does not want him, the people do not want him but yet he could hold BN position. Interesting but true.

(Some Top Management and Board members who are organizational liabilities and overstayed their welcome. Not planning to talk about this in detail though)

So is it likely that what happen to the Government recently may happen to some Malaysian Inc? Is the writings on the wall? I am not sure. I am still seeking answers.

It’s been a long day (writing this article). Its energy sapping too cause whilst writing, my mind wanders into that forbidden territory of what ifs. All things considered, I am an employee with a thought. And maybe some people cannot accept that.

The Great Hope

The reason I started this blog in the first place was as a form of therapy. I had gone through an emotional trauma and depression at work and it has hit me hard. It is much easier to write about my feelings than talk about them. In any case, the recent political tsunami has given me the much needed motivation. It felt liberating knowing that one of the biggest factor which helped fuelled the current change in our political landscape had been the use of internet as a medium for alternative sources of information.

I am not sure whether someone will read my blog. I am not sure whether someone may even appreciate it. Some may blow it off as just steam from a frustrated employee. ut how will that be converted into real change? How will I contribute to this change, in reality? I am still not sure. My quest for an answer continues ..............................

The following extract from another blogger has given me much hope to continue on though.

“The 12th General Elections was the defining moment in the history of our nation. It was a day when the opposition parties, by a rare show of unity among them, succeeded in denying the BN a 2/3 majority in parliament. It brought mixed feelings among the people and the various political parties. To the ruling BN it was a bitter victory that could not be celebrated but to the opposition a sweet success that was considered impossible just weeks before.

Nevertheless in general it was a victory for democracy and Malaysians as a whole. Most significantly it was a victory for racial unity that is very much needed these days. In fact Malaysians in general were surprised but encouraged by the unprecedented unity among the supporters of the various parties.”

Because of this GE (general election) factor, you will note that I will be bootlegging and plagiarizing a lot of ideas and concepts from the ‘alternative media’ to share and voice my opinion on issues at work.