Talent Warning!

In one of my entries recently I talked about what I thought would present it self as Malaysia's greatest challenge in the coming years. I said that that challenge would be how to close the gap between the available talent pool in Malaysia with the demands of the new economy in the coming years.

On July 27 and 28, the Customer Relationship Management & Contact Centre Association Malaysia (CCAM)had a CEO round table in conjunction with its national conference with the theme " Empowering the Industry to be the Next Global Catalyst".

The Edge reported on the conference on 20th August with a write-up on the discussion. Sam Haggag, the president of Contact Centre Association of Singapore put it bluntly when he said "...The technology is in Malaysia. The infrastructure is here too. The challenge is talent".

It is amazing how at any given time, a government policy maker can go on for 2 hours talking about the efforts needed to make Malaysia a competitive global economy without once mentioning the word talent! What do they think will make Malaysia a 'competitive global economy'? More buildings and infrastructure? Why is the Multimedia Supercorridor is no longer in our popular lexicon? The reason is simple.We simply don't have enough talent in these critical areas to sustain our grand plans. Despite our farsightedness to piggy back on the bandwagon of the ICT based economy we failed to see that this new economy is based entirely on talent. We don' even have to have the financial resources or infrastructure. Others with these resources will line up at our door knocking feverishly to come in. That is, if we have the talent. Ask the Indians and the Filipinos!

For example, the petrochemical industry in Malaysia is already facing a talent shortage so acute that drastic measures are needed to stem the outflow of our precious talent to newer players in the industry.

The way to develop talent is dependent on developing a performance based culture. One that is unforgiving of poor performance and reluctance for continuous change and willing to make 3 times more investments on people development.

As we celebrate our 50th Independence Day, let it be made clear that the road ahead is tougher than what our forefathers would have seen way back in 1957. Happy Merdeka!

May God bless our nation and our people.

A New Car Maketh No New Future!

The national automotive company, Proton just revealed its latest model called the Persona with the tag line "our pride and joy". I had the opportunity to view it a few hours prior to its official launch. It looked good and priced right.

Almost all media reports and review of the car came with a prophesy : This model will save Proton.

Well, that is for time to prove right (or otherwise).

The fact is, many companies in the automotive industry has done the same to rescue themselves. Some has been successful while others not so. The ones that were successful did not only come out with a winning new car model but also developed a winning new 'mental model'. Remember Nissan before Ghosn? That's right. He came up with not only newer models but also developed a new mentality and culture for Nissan Japan. If anybody thinks that Toyota is the biggest auto company in the world today because it managed to have a string of top sellers, has got it all wrong. Toyota is where it is today because it had a mental model that facilitated the production of winning models. The world renowned TPS (Toyota Production System) is at the crux of it, a winning mental model that was translated into a winning quality and production system.

The new Persona looks good and should be a hit in the local market. But, the problem with Proton is much deeper than poor selling models. It is about its worldview or rather the worldview that the powers that be wants it to have. Proton needs to be run as a business entity. Its people should be made to realize that the country owes them nothing. The world is not interested in its history but only what it can do now and five, ten, fifteen years down the road. It needs to develop new models at every level of its business process.

Go see the Persona. You will like it.

MOTIVATION FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE

Hi! People,

Recently I conducted a public program on Motivation for Peak Performance. The following is an extract from the module that I developed for the program participants.

We live today in a world of great change and uncertainty which are fast becoming a fact of life. It is easy for us to fall into the trap of defeatist thinking and pessimistic attitude but to be truly successful and to have a truly meaningful personal and professional life; we need to rise against the mob of negativity that surrounds us both at home and at the work place.

Look around us today and we will find many Malaysians who have risen against all odds to enjoy great success. Tony Fernandes, Idris Jala, Chef Wan, Nicol David and Lim Keng Liat are examples of those who have left a mark in our collective consciousness. While these individual success stories are easily identifiable, there is also another kind of success story in Malaysia which is not widely known. This is the success story of Malaysian brands such as Maxis, Royal Selangor Pewter, Astro, Clara and Naza which have taken the region by storm. All of these success stories are scripted by individuals who have that extra edge in peak performance, creativity and problem solving. These individuals are evidence enough to show us that academic qualifications, financial standing, technical know-how and ‘friends in high places’ will only take one so far in life. Beyond that, we have to call forth a different kind of skill and knowledge : We have to tap into our personal reservoir of mastery and skills that transcends academic and even professional qualifications.


Understanding how to motivate ourselves is a great way to begin our journey towards a more energized, motivated and high performance self.
All these, of course, begins with changing our thinking pattern :

“ When you change your thinking,
you change your beliefs;
When you change your beliefs,
You change your expectations;
When you change your expectations,
You change your attitude;
When you change your attitude,
you change your behavior;
When you change your behavior,
You change your performance;
When you change your performance,
YOU CHANGE YOUR LIFE.”.



“We know what we are but know not what we may be”
-- William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) --

Have a great week ahead.