25th Young Corporate Malaysians CEO Series of Talk - Dato' Yusli

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

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.

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 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 as the best bumiputera managers 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.

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.

Adrian Lim - Young Corporate Malaysians CEO Series of Talk

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.

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22nd Young Corporate Malaysians CEO Series of Talk - Jason Lo

Live blogging from Nikko Hotel for the 22nd Young Corporate Malaysians CEO Series of Talk. Tonight we have Jason Lo, CEO of Tune Talk.

For the Facebook event, go to http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=107038969337345

Jason was born in Kuching in 1975. He was a sheltered kids in Kuching, just like other Kuching kids. When Kuching had its first flyover, everyone jammed up to take a look at it.

Jason has always been on stage since young, and he really found the world when he studied together with Khairy in Singapore.

When he went to University of Hull to study, he made 3-hour trip every weekend to London. He always tried to get musical deals there, but it was tough. He was very used to get rejection.

Then, he tried to stay longer in UK, and he told his father that he is doing MBA there, as Malaysian Chinese people would want their kids to do courses like business.

Eventually he came back to Malaysia, he started to produce his album. He joined EMI at the start. Back then, it was tough to get songs to go on radio. He has always been begging around. Hitz gave him a break, when they initially put up his song at 4am, and after he begged for it, they played it at 6pm.

Jason always focused on his fan, and even went off stage to meet the fans.

His partner, Nik ran the business, whereas Jason produced the album.

Once, he spent $100,000 and the revenue was $4,800. That was not really working. And at one point, the debt was $200+K.

Jason had to read the book on how to editing, and throughout the process, he was humiliated many times, from people of Datin class to other people.

He would have to contact supplier last minute, to get the drum sets, as sometimes organizer didn't have the sets ready, and he had to tape the wires sometimes.

Jason started to get calls, from landlord and suppliers, especially to ask for money. So, time was tough.

Fat Boy was having a tough time, and the phone line was cut and the salary of the staff was not yet paid. Jason asked Zaid to go and convert his guitar which was signed by top star. The cost was RM5,000, and thought that he could sell for RM10K, but eventually it was RM900. Jason cried in the car, as he asked Zaid to go in again to convert the guitar. It was tough time, especially he took a lot of efforts to get the guitar autographed by top star.

With the RM900, Jason used RM200 to pay for phone bill, RM200 for electricity, RM300 for Zaid and RM200 for buffet in Subang. Jason said that when things get very tough, go to buffet. It would be worth it.

Jason that when he was CEO of Fat Boy, it was as tough as being CEO of a telco.

Then, Jason went to do Latte 8 at midnight, and the show ended at 1am, and by the time, he left was 2am and went to bed at 3am. Then, at 5am, he had to wake up for his show at Hitz.

Jason also talked about once he fell asleep in the studio, when Ralph Marshall brought some investors around.

Jason also talked about how he called up Khairy one day, and brought up idea of MyTeam. It was great seeing the kampung boys took their first flight to UK, and drew 0-0 against Manchester United Reserve Team. MyTeam also played against National Team and scored first, before losing 1-2.

Before Tony Fernandes started Air Asia, he did ask Jason on what he thought about airline business, and Jason thought back now that he should have jumped on it back then in 2000 to invest on it. Jason was also asked before Izham went into TV station.

When Tony Fernandes started, he asked Mark Lankester to join, but he refused, as he felt comfortable. But when Tony started his hotel, Mark jumped on it, to be CEO of TuneHotels.com .

Jason even went on knee in boardrooms to ask for support for local artists, but Malaysians often just supported foreigners, especially Westerners.

When Tony Fernandes asked Jason Lo to join telco, and Jason eventually invested a bit on it to have some stake. Jason relied on wikipedia to learn, and during his initial business meetings, he learned his way to learn the key terms.

Jason shared about how his dream of people, when they are in Singapore, they could call back to Malaysia on local call rates and on same number. After that, it would be expansion to Indonesia. It would ride on the Air Asia's network.

Jason talked about how Tony Fernandes warned him before hand that the dealers would hold him to ransom, but Jason thought that it won't happen. But it did happen. Jason said that Tony was always spot on things.

Jason was sharing on various tricks that telcos use to make money from the customers. Telcos are like commodities of this century. For Tune Talk, it was a flat rate of RM0.16 per minute (flat rate).

Jason talked about how his RM0.5 Million went down to drain, when the incumbents forced the dealers to take out their posters.

Jason said that he is now working on his 4th album, after putting his children and wife to bed. Jason advised that we should always do creative and innovative things everyday.

Jason shared that Star Trek really showed things way in advance. Example, back in 1950s, handphone was there already, and "iPad" type of notebooks were used there too.

Jason hoped that he would achieve the following before he died.

a) Made 20 albums

b) Played at Wembley

c) Went on top of BillBoard

He said that we should always work very hard to achieve our dream.

As of now, he is making his 4th albums. He had played to 35,000 people in Sungai Petani, hearing them singing his song.

Jason talked about how we could set up platform and went off the ground, and went up bit by bit.

Q&A

Jason loved wikipedia, and he felt that everything is there. He also felt that dare to fail is important and we could learn from mistakes. Entrepreneurs all dare to fail, and if you do that, then your learning curve would be steeper. When fail, learn from it.

Don't close yourself off when you are learning, and always go to talk to people, and learn from people. It is very important to learn from everyone. Even a beggar can make us learn from it. Make it a point for us to always learn.

Jason has a management style, which is full transparency. All the staff know everything that is happening, and all the team discussed together for everything, example the company's marketing plan.

Jason also talked about "Chinese whisper". He hated it very much, if people do it. Communications would get distorted, if people whispered.

Jason said that it is very important that people don't have temper. People should be having fun at work. He tried to be very approachable too.

Sometimes his staff would go to him and ask him to make decision, but Jason always wanted the team to discuss and decide. This would empower the staff, and no decision is made without the knowledge of everyone.

Sometimes, Jason might get voted out by his staff, when they all voted for a certain decision. Of course, sometimes wrong decision could be made, but that is unavoidable.

It is very important for Jason that when his staff left, they moved up. Sometimes, he would try to make it very clear to his staff who wanted to leave, if they are not moving to a more established roles elsewhere. He would do his best to convince them to stay back.

Tony Fernandes chose Jason Lo based on his strength and weakness, and he was not from telco background. Jason has also started a company before.

Jason said that a lot of things that happened today, he didn't plan for it. But when opportunities come, he seized it. Tony, Jason and Mark Lankester all came from music background.

It is very important to communicate with the staff, and have a laugh at things. Jason said that we should be more laughing at ourselves, and not be as touchy on things. It would break the ice and have more fun.

Jason shared his phone number and email address with the audience, and he said that as the bosses, one should be very approachable. One can't do great things, if one is not approachable.

Malaysia should be do a lot more, but often we are scared to fail, and we don't reach our potential.

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The Young Corporate Malaysians 21st CEO Series of Talk

The Young Corporate Malaysians 21st CEO Series of Talk, by Wing K. Lee, CEO of YTL
Communications at Nikko Hotel.

Live blogging from the venue.

Wing borned and raised in Hong Kong. Grew up alone with mother. Mother was small print shop owner, and she went to see clients and Wing would go together. In 1980s, the clients would have a computer, and it is more of showing off.

Back then, his mother bought an Apple for Wing, and what Wing did was playing games. And after approached by his mother, Wing then started to use computer for actual learning. That was in Form 4 in Hong Kong.

In Form 6 in Hong Kong, his mother asked what he wanted to study, and Wing said photography, and just like any Chinese mum, his mother said that he had to pay on his own. So, eventually he went on 2nd choice of Computer Science.

Wing chose the colleges in US, which offer computer science curriculum. University of Texas, Austin was one of the top programs. He applied for University of California, Berkeley, Brown, University of Minnesota and University of Washington, besides Texas, Austin. He got acceptance to all 5 of the universities. Brown, Minnesota and Washington are not his choice due to weather. Then, he was left with 2 options.

Choosing between Texas and Berkeley, and he heard that big earthquake would happen in San Francisco, so he dropped Berkeley and chose Texas, Austin. That was such his frank sharing on how he actually chose his universities.

Back then, his first job was janitor. And today, Wing really respected the janitors. He learned hard and always reminded himself to be humble and learn the value of money. Later on, he was promoted to lab assistant job, and then took up teaching assistant job.

He worked very hard, and carried 18 to 20 credit hours per semester. Nevertheless, the tough time was also the memorable time.

He graduated in 1989. When one goes for US visa interview and the question of whether you would stay in US is being asked, the answer is always no, or else you won't get your visa. And Wing back then did truthfully answered no, when he was asked back in 1986.

In June 1989, when Wing was hiking in Canadian Rocky mountains, and on 4th June 1989, Tiananmen Square incident happened, and Wing's mother asked him to find ways to stay in US.

Wing's mother lost her father due to communist and Wing's mother had to be refugee in Hong Kong. So, she advised Wing to stay in US, so that he could have better life and eventually, Wing decided to stay in US.

Wing then picked up his 2nd degree in Business Management, and when he is done, it was recession in US. Fortunately, Wing managed to get 20+ interviews and he was given 4 offers. He chose 1, JC Penney, which is the largest retailer in US.

One of the offers is Tandem Computers, another is Mobil Oil and Halliburton. Halliburton asked Wing to build a Computer-based training. Mobil Oil asked to help on building system. Tandem Computers was mainly used in financial institution and Wing was asked to help in operating system.

In 1989, US has this new "strip malls", where it is row of shops along a mall, and it grabbed market share from bigger players. For retailers, having scale is one thing, but fast reaction is important. Thought that he can helped a company to restructure, so Wing joined JC Penney as management trainee.

Back then, he has to learn a new programming language - COBOL, and he realized that university education teaches him to be adaptive and able to learn something fast. He was able to help JC Penney to launch JCL within 20 months of joining. A lesson learned from here is that a company always needs to learn to reinvent itself.

If you deliver on business promise, people will reward you, but people may not continue to reward you all the time. So, you have to reinvent.

2 years later, Wing approached the HR of the company to apply for Green Card. But they can't, as they have to advertise in 1,500 outlets, and to show that no American is qualified. So, Wing had to look elsewhere, although his supervisors there were very supportive of Wing. Wing has delivered a lot of value to his computer, so they valued his contribution.

Wing spent 15 years at Sprint. He chose to get into Sprint, as it was looking to reinvent itself. Sprint was the first to launch the fiber optic network. Wing was tapped for his skill in distributed network and messaging system. This time, he got them to put in offer letter to help him to get green card.

Back then, when Sprint got problem, they would called Accenture (management consulting company). So, when Wing joined Sprint, 80 people in the office were from Andersen Consulting. So, Wing was asked to report to Accenture guy too, and back then, there was an Andersen Consulting partner in the board of directors too.

A good architect is someone who knows the whole landscape. Back then, there was a lot of hierarchy too in Sprint. Wing lives the notion of life of always ask "What can I do". Wing has a list of task list, and he gets it done quickly and at high quality, and then he offers help to others. People would reciprocate, and help him too. So, whenever Wing puts his name on anything, it has better be very good. So, he would always make sure that it is the best thing that he can deliver.

Started out as Software Engineer 2, and within 2 years, he became Manager of the team. Wing became Director of Sprint at age of 29, and was the youngest director there.

Wing has 9 patents, and they were filed in late 1990s and early 2000s, and he still had 20+ in the pipeline. The entire process of getting patents would take about 5 years in US. Patent system is also quite abused, where a lot of people file it, just to provide defensive or offensive mechanism. So, there is something wrong about it. Wing only filed a patent, when he managed to solve a real problem.

Wing used to spend a lot of money to call home, during his time at University of Texas, Austin. So, when he got the chance to move to Sprint's headquarter, he took the opportunity, as he was charged to work on wireless network.

In 2001, high speed internet means 80 kilo bit per second, so back then, to stream the picture, is still very slow. And it cost USD2 billion worth of investment, and the picture is still look pixelized. Wireless network can never compete with wired line, purely on speed, so have to fight on other competitive landscape. That was a turning point.

Back then, he made pilgrimage trip to Japan, as it was still the technology hub. In Japan, people started take photo and made it into wallpaper. So, Wing found an area to look into using wireless network to move picture.

Wing they all went to the guy who wrote Turbo C++ and Turbo Pascal, Philippe Kahn. Philippe has sold off Borland, and became millionaire. And he had a baby. Philippe has built a prototype of transferring photo, and Sprint wanted to commercialize it. So, the value that wireless can provide is that one can take a photo and then send across the network within seconds. Picture Mail product charged USD5 per month and need data plan which cost USD10 per month. It was the biggest phenomenal success of the company.

So, the breakthrough paradigm is to cross-link two different fields and bring value. Software brings life to things. The company was growing very fast then, and the fastest growth in wireless history.

Sprint was the first one to launch J2ME game in mobile device. Mobile video was launched too.

Through these exercises, Wing was asked to head the innovation team. So, he went from infrastructure, and then architecture and then innovation. This was the first 3 of the 5 jobs in Sprint.

Wing led the innovation team of Sprint for 5 years, and it was very satisfactory.

Sprint looked at various technologies post 3G. And that's how Sprint launched his career into Wimax. Next generation CDMA upgrade definitely makes sense, but Sprint made the bold decision of not upgrading to CDMA. The royalty of CDMA is quite high, and Sprint's goal is to democratize internet. What got them excited about Wimax is the ecosystem, and it is the IEEE technology. When a technology is an IEEE technology, it can scale easily. That's how people can do plug and play, and cost will go down and people will pick up.

Sprint then merged with Nextel, and a big mistake is that they didn't take good care of the customers of the acquired entity. Sprint lost their mindshare, and they started to churn, and then people started to cut cost.

So, Wimax operation has to be scaled back due to operations issue. Wing was leading the product development team of Wimax. Sprint has to spinoff Wimax business and merged with Clearwire, and then go into clearwire company.

Andy Rubin started Android, and he loved robotics, so he created Android, using his name and his love of robotics for the company name. He went into Google to ask them to invest in his company, and Eric Schmidt heard the pitch and offered to buy at a cost of about USD80 Million.

Andy Rubin had the blank check from Google, and he invested hundreds of millions to buy the best applications. Wing was doing the due diligence on Android and brings Sprint on board.

On why WiMAX was chosen as the platform to deliver Malaysia's mobile network, Wing highlighted that it is the only technology that can deliver it at the right cost. LTE is not yet a matured technology and yet the royalty is very high, and hence, it might be difficult to deliver in the right price.

Wing was instrumental in delivering the 1st 4G network on Android at Clearwire.

In Summer 2008, the government of China created Thousand Talents program, where it tried to attract top talents to ensure that China's state-owned enterprise, universities, research laboratories and space programs can be world class and compete globally.

Wing was then headhunted to lead the Innovation Team at China Mobile, which has 500 Million subscribers (even more than total US population), and Wing has this opportunity to change the experience of 500 Million people.

Then, he got a call from YTL Director, and he came to visit Malaysia. He found it very interesting, where the country has very poor connectivity, and yet YTL is a company with strong resources and determination.

Wing had a hard time deciding on whether to go to China or Malaysia, and the book "Clock Speed" influenced him. In that book, it talked about how fast things are changing, and Wing believed that being at YTLe would enable him to bring fast transformation to large group of people and improve people lives faster.

In Malaysia, only 25% of people are connected to internet, yet the average age is 26. The people here know the power of internet, but can't really enjoy the connection experience. So, Wing sees this opportunity to make impact at national scale immediately, and improving people's lives.

For Clearwire, it won't be able to launch nationwide in less than 2 years in US and to launch for whole of US would cost more than USD5 billion, but Wing can do that in Malaysia in shorter time and also at a cost of USD850 Million. Wing lamented on the very slow uploading speed of 60 kbps that many people experience here in Malaysia.

The WiMAX experience is not just to connect people with internet, but to enable people to have applications that satisfy their social needs.

For this WiMAX, YTLe is working with 3 world top player in it. For IP Backbone, it is working with Cisco. For wireless network, it is working with Samsung. For WiMAX chipset, it is with GCT, and YTLe just made a commitment order of 1 million devices and it is the largest acquisition in the world, and with this economy of scale, it would drive down the prices.

On expansion to other countries, Wing planned to do it very well at its homeground in Malaysia, before looking to expand it elsewhere. Talking about internet, it is really about getting developers to make it happen. With internet, it is equal opportunity for everyone, and to really make it possible, especially with mobile internet.

Wing also introduced mYprize, which offers USD1 Million as prizes for incentives of 4G applications, devices or ideas. It offers USD120,000 prize money for Malaysians anywhere in the world too. So, hopefully, this can tap on the talents of Malaysians globally, as well as other talents to get involved.

The soft launch of YTLe WiMAX would be in Q3 2010, and nationwide commercial launch would be in Q4 2010.

Wing promised that YTLe WiMAX would be a new experience and customers would reciprocate with the support. While Wing did not disclose the pricing or package of WiMAX, he promised that there would be surplus value for the users. He talked about the 20 Mbps network that he had in US, and hopefully soon, Malaysians can enjoy similar or even better network.

Wing shared on Clayton's book of "Innovators' Dilemma" and "Innovators' Solution", and he said that it is good that YTLe is brand new, so there won't be legacy issue behind. With legacy, there might be inertia to move. And to make it work, it needs disruptive innovation. He cited Intel Centrino as a way for Intel to reinvent itself. It created a lower cost low-end product, that undercut itself, but it allows Intel to grow market share.

One of the issues of 3G was that the network was used to cater for voice and data, but for 4G, it would be packet based and used to carry data.

While AT&T enjoyed a great exclusive partnership with iPhone, the huge amount of data that iPhone used took a toll on AT&T network, which affected the call quality.

Wing shared a few tips with the audience, where he talked about working very hard and always producing the best. He talked about having mentors and also reading a lot. One good resources would be iTunes applications, where a lot of top universities resources are available. He talked about ability to have platform to bring idea to the world, and among the largest developers' network are Microsoft, Java and Adobe Flash.

He ended with 4 key components to innovation, which is having original idea, building and applying idea, being financed by someone and have a platform to distribute.

It was a great 140 minutes of talk non-stop by Wing. Really engaging and it attracted the largest crowd of Young Corporate Malaysians CEO Series of Talk, with more than 150 people turned up, and it was reduced to standing room only.

After the talk, a large group of attendees surrounded Wing, and he attended the questions till well past 11pm, and at that time, he hasn't even had dinner. That speaks volume of his dedication and passion to share with the youth!

On behalf of Young Corporate Malaysians, great thanks to Wing for sharing with us, and to all those who attended, hope that you manage to learn from Wing.

For future Young Corporate Malaysians events, do check out Young Corporate Malaysians .







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1st Young Corporate Malaysians Summi

Check out the 1st Young Corporate Malaysians Summit on 12th December 2009 at Menara Integriti. A lot of awesome speakers.

For full info, click on the image below.



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The 18th CEO Series of Talk for Young Corporate Malaysians

The 18th CEO Series of Talk for Young Corporate Malaysians.

Speaker - Yasmin Mahmood, Managing Director of Microsoft Malaysia

Date - Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Time - 7:30pm - 10:00pm
Location - Dewan Murni, Menara Integriti
Street - Persiaran Duta, Off Jalan Duta

For more info, go to Facebook Event
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17th CEO Series of Talk - Chew Seng Kok

Live Blogging at 17th Young Corporate Malaysians CEO Series of Talk, Mr. Chew Seng Kok (Managing Partner of Zaid Ibrahim & Co (Zico)).

Youth are the future of the world. Mr. Chew Seng Kok has been sharing at various platform.

During the previous crisis in 1984-1987, and back then, as lawyer, send notices of demand to companies to ask for payment of debts.

Left at age of 27 from Penang to go to New Zealand to be the first Asian to work in the law firm there. Before that, worked 2 years in Malaysia. And then in New Zealand, worked for the law firm, and wrote the State Owned Privatization Act for New Zealand.

In 1989 got Baker & Mckenzie in Sydney and then Hong Kong and then Singapore. At that time, he was 29. Spent 2.5 years there, and worked quite a number of Malaysian work. Previously helped Halim Saad to do a lot of restructuring, to build the Renong empire.

At that time, have to hide, as offshore lawyers are not allowed to practice here.

During the course of work, met Zaid Ibrahim. At that time, Zaid Ibrahim, he invited Chew Seng Kok to come in

Conditions :-
1. Want to create Malaysia power house. At that time, there were only 3 top Malaysian firms

2. Want to create a place for bumiputera to strive, but have to be on merit.

3. Cannot be Jaguh Kampung. Once it succeeds, it has to go out.

Over that lunch at Kampachi, the partnership is on.

At that time, Zaid Ibrahim gave him some money to start the law firm.

Need to have a partner/co-sponsor to support.

In 2001, had 100 lawyers, and then overtook to be the largest law firm in Malaysia. In 2003, opened ZICO in Singapore. In 2003, there was SARS and Iraq war. In 2005, opened in Jakarta. At that time, it was dispute between Indonesia and Malaysia. In 2007, opened in Bangkok and it was the coup. In 2008, opened in Vietnam.

ZICO is about to open in Sydney and Melbourne, after getting the approval.

20 years ago, you needed a signature by British and American lawyers, even though it was created in Malaysia.

One must not take credit for things that one does not do. Chew Seng Kok credited the benefits of ASEAN etc, which helped them to make the move. The commitment of the ZICO partners and lawyers make it happen, besides the opportune time.

Why Malaysian companies lose out in Middle East, we tend to just bring experience from Malaysia to go there, but what we should be doing would be to get local partners. We shouldn't just be depending on our local success to know that we can make it abroad.

Malaysians tend to think that relationship alone is enough, but in abroad, we need to deliver. When ZICO goes out, it does not ask for favour.

In 1998, Zico signed up as 1st Asian partner of Anderson Legal. And Chew Seng Kok learned a lot in Anderson Legal. In 1998, hired a branding consultant. ZICO now branded itself as "trusted business advisor". Chew Seng Kok worked with Azman Mokhtar in his early days in Bina Fikir.

Chew Seng Kok drafted the Danaharta Act within 46 days. Mr. Chew highlighted that we shouldn't go around and claim that we are smarter than others, and we shouldn't claim we know this or that person.

Chew Seng Kok also managed to get the Brands grant, after finding that it is similar to companies who manage to get those Brands grant.

Don't feel scared when go around. Malaysia Boleh! Zico managed to advise for many projects around the world.

There are many Malaysians who are around in the world. So, take the opportunity to hire Malaysians there, instead of them working with other companies there. It is much better than sending a local from here.

If you go around the world, you would be able to see Malaysians around, and it is part of the brand mobility. It is how we capture the talents around.

Pre Global Financial Crisis, if anyone has brain, one can work anywhere in the world.

Because of internet, it is a globalized world. People can do work anywhere in the world.

In 1992, when ZICO produced the 1st newsletter in the industry, it was fined quite a few times by Bar Council. Now, ZICO produced the newsletter every fortnight to send to clients. ZICO invested a lot on the people, IT and delivering the service to the people.

ZICO's partner's room are very basic. Mainly just IKEA furniture. It had rather spend money on the lawyers and delivering the service, rather than on these "dead stuff". 3 years ago, ZICO provided Blackberry for its lawyers who have served for more than 3 years.

ZICO commissions Synovate to do a client survey every 3 years, and the reports go directly to Chew Seng Kok. And if the clients give a poor response, the partners would be called up, and ZICO would go over and apologize to the client.

ZICO focused on delivering the service. Has served General Electric Malaysia for the past 20+ years.

In ZICO, there is a bistro, where there are hot food every night, with rice, chicken or fish, vegetable and then soup. And for breakfast, there is nasi lemak.

There would be a major announcement by Bursa tomorrow at 10:30am with Chicago. Chew Seng Kok was there this morning at 7am to sign, so that it could be in US at 6pm US time.

Today, what we did to American firms, the Indian firms are doing it to us. Now, we have to be smarter. Today, Zico has 7 offices throughout the country. Zico only allow maximum 10% of revenue from litigation and conveyancing. The margin of those kind of work is low.

What Zico focused is on blue ocean. No point competing in red ocean, as others can do it at half the price.

What is termed as good, is that it is good enough to be commercial. There is a growing needs for people to be specializing. For ZICO, there are 22 specialization areas, where every lawyer after 2 years in the firm, would be asked to specialize.

Due to the cost, we need to be agile in the market. ZICO has not expanded the office space in the last 5 years. Basically, get people to work outside of office. Office space are all dead spaces.

ZICO has given the petrol allowance and handphone allowance to the staff since a few years.

Dato' Nik was headhunted to serve the Ministry of Finance in Middle East, and he is a Malaysian who has proved his worth internationally. Despite him of being Chairman of ZICO, he is still working very hard everyday.

If Chew Seng Kok at age of 49 and Dato' Nik can go around the world and working hard, there is nothing that stops us. Separate our nationality when we go out. Internationally, if we are good, no one really cares who you are.

Chew Seng Kok wished that he had gone out earlier. Chew Seng Kok was with ZICO for 12 years, before exploring abroad. They were too comfortable and became a Jaguh Kampung. He would have gone out earlier if he could.

When abroad, the tax rate over there is much lower. Dubai is 0% tax rate and Singapore is 15-18% tax rate, so it makes more sense to be there.

Some of the top lawyers that Chew Seng Kok groomed ended up being poached by top companies, like Khazanah and CIMB etc. Having said that, 4 of his top talents who went out ended up coming back.

In terms of lawyers, ZICO has about 50% of lawyers who graduated locally. ZICO also provided 3 english courses a year for its staff.

For those who come in to ZICO, they are 2nd upper and above.

ZICO took in 20 students every year, where they became apprentice, and half of those are local graduates. These apprentices are brought to court and followed some lawyers who would mentor them.

The fact that ZICO is doing new things and open new grounds, that's the reason why Chew Seng Kok wakes up in the morning and feels excited to work. Last week, his schedule was 2 days in Vietnam, 2 days in Jakarta and 1 day in Labuan. And next week, he would be in Abu Dhabi and Hanoi.

Every time, there is a new thing everyday. When Zaid Ibrahim got appointed, he quit and left ZICO.

Chew Seng Kok always choose to speak to youth. He felt worried that youth these days do not dare to take risk. Chew Seng Kok turned down a partnership at age of 27, when he left to go abroad.

These days, when Chew Seng Kok asked lawyers to go Jakarta, they don't really want to go. Back then, Chew Seng Kok would always just leave the comfort zone and go all out.

We needed to try and go and explore blue ocean. We only have youth once.

When Chew Seng Kok was 27 and being only son, he left to go to New Zealand, then Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore.

Those exposure that Chew Seng Kok went through would definitely give him a lot of betterment. Do things as it comes to him.

Inquisitive mind is the most important ingredient of being a lawyer. Need to always be curious and think through.


River land was never gazetted, and Vincent Tan tried to run Linear City.

KL Sentral, before it was built, it was 30 years lease land, but it can't be railway land in that circumstance. So, it became freehold, with the condition that railway track runs below it. That turned KL Sentral into reality.

When you work for multinational companies in Malaysia, you get to learn from the world's best, while still contributing in Malaysia.

When Lim Chong Eu started Penang Free Zone, those multinational companies developed a lot of top brains, but we didn't exploit the brains to the rest of the country.

Chew Seng Kok believed that when he went abroad and then he came back, he developed ZICO with Datuk Zaid Ibrahim and now ZICO has 145 lawyers under it.

Today it is a global world, so today, we can contribute to nation-building globally.

Chew Seng Kok's regret is that Malaysia does not have a good policy to bring back top Malaysian talents. He took 50% pay cut when he decided to quit and come back to Malaysia.

There are a lot of top Malaysians in Singapore who want to come back, but there are too many little Napoleons.

For the young ones, do be careful of what you say.

For ZICO, when it pitched to new clients, it showed them the list of general counsels of clients and get the clients to check on the reference. If one has been doing good job, then there is no worry that the new clients can check with the reference.

Chew Seng Kok highlighted that when lawyers submitted stuff to him, and he commented on their work, especially negatively, and they felt happy on it.

Chew Seng Kok's two main passions today is to develop ZICO regionally and also to leave a solid succession plan for ZICO.

Back then, when Chew Seng Kok was 27, his hope back then was to earn a lot of money.

Chew Seng Kok advice is that we should make a difference in people's lives, and when we get financial freedom, we make a difference in others.

Chew Seng Kok said that he took his time out to come and share, because he felt encouraged by what Wan Firdaus is doing, and this is good efforts.
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1st Ambassador Series of Young Corporate Malaysians

Live Blogging of The 1st Ambassador Series of Young Corporate Malaysians by His Excellency Boyd McCleary, UK High Commissioner to Malaysia at Menara Integriti.

High Commissioner started by saying that it is great to see many young faces here, despite the fasting month. High Commissioners explained that High Commissioners are those diplomats sent to Commonwealth countries, whereas Ambassadors are those diplomats sent to other countries.

If we look back at colonial period, it was not trade that brought Britishs to come over to Malaya back then. It was trade that brought them here. "Trade goes before the flag".

It all started in 1592, when the first Englishman landed his ship on Penang and loaded it with pepper. Penang was the first of the Straits Settlement, where treaty with the Sultan of Kedah was signed in 1791. Then, Singapore was established by Raffles in 1819 and then finally Malacca exchanged for Bencoolen in Sumatra in 1824.

The main initial driver for Penang was spices. The treaty was singed not with the British Government, but with the East India Company, and later other forms of commercial agriculture.

The other driver was the need to secure ports to protect British shipping lanes between India and China.

In 1860s/1870s, initially British was looking for more opportunities for agriculture, but later on tin, and hence British turned to Perak. There was 1874 Treaty of Pangkor, where a British Resident was appointed in Perak, followed later by Selangor, Johore and Sungai Ujong (Negeri Sembilan).

In 1896, Federated Malay States (FMS) was started with the seat of Government in Kuala Lumpur. For other states, there were less commercial interest and less interest, and those states were "unfederated".

Commercial agriculture in Federated Malay States expanded first into coffee, sugar, pineapples and gutta percha. However, the most significant development for British Malaya was the invention of the pneumatic tyre in 1899, which led to rapid expansion of rubber.

By 1929, almost half of all cultivated land was planted in rubber. And then came the development of oil palm, again with British investors, including a Mr. Sime and a Mr. Darby).

To make oil palm working in Sabah, they actually had to go to Africa to get a certain insect, to make the growing of palm oil working.

Right through the colonial period, the British saw Malaya primarily as a key source of raw materials. So, it was scarcely surprising that it was the (predominantly British) planters who were the target of the Communists during the Emergency (when one in ten planters were killed by insurgents).

At independence, Malaya was the world's largest exporter of natural rubber, tin and palm oil. Agricultural production accounted for 40% of the country's GDP. And the main destination for good exported was the UK.

While it is absolutely fair to note that the development of British Malaya's economy was in the interests of the "mother country", we should perhaps not forget that the bulk of the technology, much of the finance and the investment itself was from the UK.

Another major positive legacy of the colonial period was the rule of law, that has initially been established primarily to enable the trade to flourish.

At independence, the following British companies were already well-established in Malaya: Unilever, Shell, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Sime Darby, Harrison & Crossfield, Boh Tea, Boustead, Jardines, Level Brothers (later on Unilever), Commercial Union Insurance Co, Castrol and GEC.

But the investment did not stop at Independence. Examples from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s.

Glaxo became the first company in Malaysia to open a factory for the local manufacture of pharmaceuticals in 1959. Shell's investmnet in Sarawak in exploration for oil and gas. Shell is the biggest employer in Sarawak, and Shell has developed a number of corporate leaders, including Datuk Seri Idris Jala and Tan Sri Zarinah Anwar.

Inchcape began the manufacture of cosmetics, pharmaceutical products and timber mouldings. Harrisons and Crossfields and Guthries (both in the plantation business) set up companies to manufacture rubber goods and edible oils. Lever Brothers began making soaps, cooking fats, ice cream etc.

Blue circle's investment in cement. ICI became involved in the promotion of plastic products and set up a plant to manufacture titanium dioxide pigment for paint.

Guinness (first brought to Malaya on sailing ships) established a brewery on the site of an old tin mine in Sungai Way in Selangor. GEC became the first company to be involved in the manufacture of consumer electronic products. Coats Viyella set up a factory in Prai to produce silk thread.

And over the past 10-20 years, investment hasn't stopped. BP investmnets in petrochemicals and Shell in exploration, LNG/distillates. British Telecom established an ICT research center in KL. Alphabilogics in Penang and Spirit Aerospace in Subang on high value manufacturing.

In financial services, Prudential and Friends Provident, HSBC and StanChart has invested in Islamic Finance.

In back office processing, one third of the jobs in Cyberjaya are provided by UK Firms.

In retailing, Jardines invest through Giant, Cold Storage and Guardian, as well as Tesco invests heavily in Malaysia too.

In education, University of Nottingham are based in Semenyih, and Newcastle University is building a campus in Malaysia.

There is no clear indication of how much is the true investment by UK.

Some questions to ask, include what nationality is an investment. For example Shell is it a Dutch company, but it is incorporated in British. How do you count an investment? Is it the financial figure invested or jobs created or some other values?

When did the investments take place and what about disinvestment? Management buy-out, take-overs, nationalizations etc. For example, BP Petrol Stations, ICI, Sime Darby and Unilever.

In other examples, how to differentiate trade and investment. For example, BAe System, CTRM and Airbus.

If we look into the future, then there might not be much investment in the manufacturing, especially in the low end manufacturing. However, investment in the service sector, especially education and training would remain strong. There is growth in the business processing centers too. It is the UK hope that UK can play a part in supporting Malaysia's Prime Minister's hope to bring Malaysia out of the middle income trap.

UK does not just belong to EU and Commonwealth, but also including NATO etc. EU is a great organization, where a lot of people wanted to become member. EU is a good thing for British and for Europe.

Not many Malaysians know exactly on what Commonwealth does. Last month, UK just launched Commonwealth Conversations. There is a plan to have a Commonwealth Conversations in KL in 2nd half of October 2009, to get young Malaysians to talk on Commonwealth. It is the hope to get Commonwealth to do fewer things, but to do it better, and get it delivered.

Commonwealth is not as popular in attracting new members, compared to EU. Mozambique who is a Portugese colony, just joined Commonwealth not too long ago. And Rwanda also just applied to join Commonwealth.

On HE Boyd McCleary's personal view, he is very impressed by the way that the new Prime Minister stimulates demand. Malaysia is a country which heavily depends on exports. Malaysia has been able to maintain the high domestic demand.

Another thing that HE impressed about our new Prime Minister is that Malaysia is moving towards open economy, and not moving towards protectism. The biggest problem that Najib that might faced would be that he has to get all those promises delivered.

Most countries have some form of immigration control. It exists in every country, including US, Australia etc. UK is now introducing new system, where it is a point system. Australia had a point system for some time already.

For Tier 2 visa, which is a highly skilled staff, it needs to show that the particular skill is not highly available in UK, and the applications would need to apply online.

For student visas, if one has a valid offer from UK Universities and also show proof of their financial status, they will get the 40 points needed. And they need to apply online.

In terms of foreign exchange, it is moving quite volatile. For Pound Sterling vs Ringgit, it is now RM5.80 to 1 Pound, but compared to 1 year ago, it was RM4.80 to 1 Pound.

When Euro was first introduced, Pound has grown quite a lot, but recently Euro has strengthened and it is getting closer to 1 Euro to 1 Pound.

If we look at the economy of the last 10 years, UK economy has grown by 30%, whereas German economy has grown by 10%. So, the correlation between currency and economic growth is not that solid.

The quality of Malaysian English is actually somewhere in the middle, where it is not too good, and yet not too bad.

High Commissioner also commented that most of the committee members of Young Corporate Malaysians are UK graduates and these are important links back here.

And looking at Malaysia's competitiveness, then Malaysia's population of 26 million could be much smaller than countries like Indonesia. So, those could be areas that Malaysia may not have the upside.

However, there are a number of companies that set up operations here and have a lot of investment at stake here.

Mobility of investments need to be there, to impress the investors. The government bureaucracy and tax regime are also considered. Malaysia's government is getting some of those right, and some are working on it through Pemudah. And setting of KPI is a good step.

Malaysia has the best cost quality balance ratio currently. However, if it is not moving forward fast enough, then it might get caught up by others.

UK was in similar situations some time back, where UK was previously good at attracting foreign investments, but at one point, investments were leaving UK. But UK managed to turn around and today, it is an important destination of foreign investment. What UK has done is that it is very agile.

Malaysia has to focus on the high end education, and grow on it. UK has been inventive and adaptive.

Most of the investments look at medium to long term. At current term, there is no investor in Malaysia pulling out, but there are some who have pulled up from Thailand.

There are some funds for Small Medium Companies to do research and development. From the Trade Commissioner of UK's view point, there are a number of funds in Malaysia, including from MOSTI.

The crucial element for Malaysia over the next 1 year would be the direction of the National Economic Action Panel. Prime Minister Najib has appointed a number of top people from all over the world to help to chart the direction of Malaysia's economy.

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16th CEO Series of Talks - Dato' Dr. Nirmala Menon

The 16th CEO Series of Talks by Young Corporate Malaysians

This is a live blogging.

Dato' Dr. Nirmala Menon
President and CEO of ING Malaysia

Dato' Dr. Nirmala Menon feel young coming to speak to youth and she was told to talk about what you have done, your experience.

This talk is not about making your first million, nor about giving you formula of success.

Rather it is about what you stand for, who are you, where you want to go and what's value you must have in order to be successful. What is your definition of success.

Hopefully by end of this evening, you would have gain on some of these values.

The ones who are here are privileged bunch, and have power of education. Most have good jobs, good families and come from a background of affluence.

Within the same group, there are 2 groups, where one group who feels very happy with it. Happy with job and fits in with what you want to do. And another group may feel that you haven't found the calling or passion of life.

To both the groups, it is alright. To the group who has found it, don't stand still, and keep going, and see how can be better. See how can grow. Ask yourself the question frequent. To those who haven't found the calling, relax and believe that you have time. Look for your passion.

Back then, Indian families, you must have been a doctor, lawyer or engineer, and if all else fail, go to accounting. Naturally, became a doctor.

A lot of us want to be "genius" and always come out quick to work. We are not able to enjoy, as we always want it fast. On the other hand, we need to look for our passion and don't settle for less. Everyday, we spend the bulk of our time at work.

When speak to generation X, they always talk about work life balance. But in reality, there is no work life balance, but there is work life choice. Whatever you choose to do, you shape your life. You decide where you want to be in illusive corporate ladder. You decide where you want to be in your life. What do you see yourself doing in 5 years' time.

10 years ago, joined Aetna. That time, hoped to be CEO one day. Back then, Dato' Dr. Nirmala Menon was a government doctor, and worked many hours a day. Husband and kids used to come over to hospital and have dinner together at General Hospital. No one was really happy back then.

When joined, was really bored to hell. Nothing much to do. Back then, wanted to have work life balance. And she really had, since she can go home at 5pm. During office, she could actually have relaxed too. Dato' Dr. Nirmala Menon took the initiatives and tried to go to different groups, and then tried to offer help. She managed to get chance to go to US for 6 weeks to learn underwritings and claims. It was her choice to make and she took it. She made full use of it.

And now 16 years later, Dato' Dr. Nirmala is now on stage as CEO of ING Malaysia. Whether she still missed the life in hospital, she still missed it. She still missed the smell of medicine.

We all need to have a dream. If you dream it, you can achieve it. When Dato' Dr. Nirmala Menon made it to CEO, a lot called her to say that she broke the glass ceiling. But there was no glass ceiling. Everything was in the mind.

A lot of time when being asked to name 2 leaders, people name men. But in reality, it
doesn't need to be that. People have to change the perception. A lot of time women try to be like men, and in reality, that shouldn't be the case.

Many people tend to associate females as caregivers, nurturers, but tend to associate
males as having guts.

Back then, a lot of women managers, they wanted to be called dragon ladies. They wanted to be associated as being tough.

What Dato' Dr. Nirmala Menon advised are that the top leaders are great communicators, and also they care and they have empathy. A lot of these are qualities that women have. And build up with logic, intuitive etc, and that would be very balanced. For men, should build up the feminine quality, like communication, caring, empathy.

To all young professionals, professional actually means a calling or your vocation and integrity/value/standard. Companies say they want professionalism. When companies say that, think what they really want and whether they do what they want. Ask whether we have those believes and characters. And a lot of these will take us to where we want to go.

Know who you are and celebrate who you are. Build internal attitude and behavior and
all these would support where you want to go. As youngster, you have the chance of the world, to go where you want to go. There are more than enough for every man's need, but not enough for every man's greed.

Why we are thinking that the crisis is happening. A lot of us forget about value, when we are rushing to get more profits. When people have to take a long time to explain to us what they are selling, then we shouldn't buy, since we don't really understand the product.

Being in financial sector, it is tough and challenging time. Do we sit back and say "tough life" and sit and wait for rebounce? But what we need to do is to change. Change has the biggest psychological impact of our mind. A lot of times, we don't change. We just do our routine. A lot of times when we have to change what we are doing, we get upset. A lot of times, we are threathened by change. But to the hopeful, change may give us better life. But to the confident, you need to be inspired by it. Everyday, challenge what you do. Challenge what is the status quo. That is what going to bring you to greatness.

Generation Y are not afraid to stand up and question. That is the biggest strength to stand out and question. Generation Y are more carefree, more entrepreneurial. The way Dato' Dr. Nirmala Menon see is that this is positive value. Back then, people were more afraid.

Ultimately, choose what you want in life and make it happen to you. The way we frame things, will determine how we see things.

What do we see when we see eclipse, we should see the ray of light, that is illumination and not darkness. We shouldn't see the gloom of darkness. We must be optimist. If we are pessimist, then we will lose out on all these.

When we look at things positively, we will make full use of it. There are so many real life examples, because people frame it at a positive manner. There is always a flip side, in everything that happens. When everything negative happens, flip it and grab the positive side. To the young, you have the ability to look for the right side. And always ask the right question, get back to the answer.

Never compromise on value and standard. When you fine value of the company is there, be truly committed and do your best at all time, and good thing will follow.

Dato' Dr. Nirmala Menon will end with Mahatma Ghandi "Be the change you want to be". It is all up to you.

As you go up the ladder, it is about managing people. It is about making sure that you have the right person with the right job. Biggest challenge that Dato' Dr. Nirmala Menon faced was that she was a peer, who became a boss. As Dato' Dr. Nirmala growing the ladder, she was peers to all the rest of senior management, and then suddenly she was promoted to take the CEO job.

When she doesn't know, she always be the first to say that she doesn't know. She asked for help. When she became CEO in October 2007, it was when US first get into recession. Dato' Dr. Nirmala Menon brought 20 management team people and went to hotel and study where they are, where they want to go and how to go. Dato' Dr. Nirmala Menon engaged a consultant to study the competitive landscape, and then see where they want to go and how to get there.

As all are sitting together to craft the vision, and as all are part of the ones who create it, all believe it and buy in for it. It was rolled out to the entire company. There were 3 year profitable plan. Everyone will speak with candor, and no fear for anyone to speak their mind. No fear of failure. As long as good idea is brought up, it will be done.

A lot of people were still in their traditional mind. People might not dare to speak up, as scared their boss or supervisor would get hurt. Dato' Dr. Nirmala Menon did a monthly session with people of all level (without their supervisor). The first 6 months were very tough, as no one would ask any question. Now, everyone are happy, and ask a lot of questions.

When this was initially implemented, a lot of senior management felt threathened. Dato' Dr. Nirmala Menon said that it was not the point. Dato' Dr. Nirmala shared those ideas with the senior management and worked together to make it better. Currently, the employee engagement is very high.

And giving back to community is something very important for the firm. It is not about giving a cheque. ING has "Helping Hands" community project and there are 500 volunteers (out of 800 staff in HQ) go together as part of program to make a difference. They went to make a difference in the kids by sharing with them on environment.

Last year, was 45th anniversary of Zoo Negara. ING gave out 60,000 tickets to the orphanages to bring the kids to visit the zoo. The kids were brought to play games. And the week before that, ING staff went to paint the fence near the sea lion area in the zoo.


Whatever you feel that you want to do, go ahead and do. Give back to society, be it to community, cultural or society. Do the humanitarian job. Join self improvement classes or read those books, or join such societies like Young Corporate Malaysians and learn from the process.

Think of what we want to be remembered in life. Is it as a good human being? Is it as someone who cares about people? Dato' Dr. Nirmala Menon stressed a lot about being good human being.

Truth is that so many things happen everyday. It is perfectly ok, if your supervisor does not see what you have done. It is ok to share with the supervisor of things done. It is something that frequently women fail to do. And what Dato' Dr. Nirmala stressed is that all people have to work very hard.

Dato' Dr. Nirmala has a very supportive husband. A lot is about priority. What we care about and how we prioritize. And often, things can work it out together. And sometimes, things are lost. With the work pressure and work choices that have to be made, things could have to be sacrificed.

Over the years, many mistakes have been made. One big mistake was not knowing what Dato' Dr. Nirmala wanted to do. A lot of time, she sold herself short, and often, she didn't plan well. If she could turn the clock well, she could see the options available and plan it better. What has happened was natural movement.

Dato' Dr. Nirmala never shy in sharing her opinion. If something is against her value, she won't do it, even if her supervisor made her to do.

Everyone has a choice. We choose what we should take.

Create rapport with all the people that you are working with. Always be honest and transparent in our dealings. Talk to them in a comfortable level. We are not aggressive, but try to create a rapport. NLP is a good tool to look at someone and see whether someone is visual or kinestetic person, then we talk to people in that manner. Use words that people are comfortable with. When we see peple and understand people, then we are easier to relate to. The truth is that everyone is different.

A lot of youth these days are visual. We like to see things, or be like in internet. We like to grasp things, and quick to run it. And there are others who need top down. People who need to go through everything. And we need to sell it at the way others like to see. Build genuine rapport and things will turn better.


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Young Corporate Malaysians Talk - Dr. Mahani, 19th May 7:30pm

The Young Corporate Malaysians CEO Series 12 : Dr. Mahani, Director-General of ISIS Malaysia
Malaysia’s Economic Outlook 2009: Doom and Gloom?

Facebook Event: here

Date: Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Time: 7:30pm - 9:30pm
Location: 67 Jalan U Thant (in front of Palestine Embassy)

Description
Dr. Mahani Zainal Abidin, the Director-General of Institute of Strategic & International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia, will be honouring us with her presence at the Rumah UKEC this coming 19th of May.

Just a brief of what Dr. Mahani does:
Dr. Mahani obtained a Ph.D (development economics) from the University of London in 1992. She was Professor in the Department of Applied Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya. In 1998, Dr. Mahani was appointed a member of the Working Group for the National Economic Action Council, a body established by the Malaysian Government to formulate measures to initiate recovery from the economic and financial crisis. She was a Board Member of the Malaysia Employees Provident Fund (1998-2000). In 2001, Dr. Mahani was appointed as the Head, Special Consultancy Team on Globalisation of the National Economic Action Council.

She also serves as Deputy Chairman of the National Accreditation Board from May 2003 until October 2007.

In 2005, Dr. Mahani was appointed as the Deputy Director-General, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia.

-- Quoted from Source "http://www.isis.org.my/html/people/people_MahaniZainalAbidin.htm"


Feel free to bring your friends to this event, it's FREE and it's up to YOU to make the most out of it especially during the infamous Q&A session.

Don't forget to join our mailing list through the link below if you haven't already done so!
here .


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Encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I will be more than happy to post it to share

Feel free to quote any post within my blog, as long as you link it back here. Sharing is always a good virtue. :)