Top Glove Leaders’ Summit 2013

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Assalamualaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh

Salam Sejahtera

dan Salam 1Malaysia

Tan Sri Lim Wee Chai, Chairman of Top Glove

Colleagues

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to be with all of you this afternoon.  With leaders who make things happen in Top Glove.  This is a company that every Malaysian can be justly proud of.  Should be proud of. Any company that has captured 25% of the GLOBAL MARKET deserves to be proud of itself too!

Where do we go from here and how do we do it? How do we sustain our company?

2. The thoughts I share today revolve around two quotes from Confucius.  One, “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life”.  And two, “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” I know Tan Sri Lim also shares these thoughts.  When I first played golf with him on the late evening of Tuesday 30 April 2013 he explained that “Work is a hobby, exercise is a duty”. I suppose hobby is something we voluntarily do because we enjoy it. While ‘duty’ is something we do because we must –  whether with interest and joy, or without.

3. I must say that I approached my tasks in the civil service in the same manner. Mind you, I did occupy the most senior position in the Malaysian Civil Service for almost 6 years. I absolutely loved what I was doing. Serving our country.  Serving the public. Actually serving ourselves since the civil servants themselves and their relatives and friends are all customers of the civil service, one way or another.  So if we make public service so easy and so pleasant for everyone, it serves us well too.  Now and here, as well as in the future.  More so when one retires! It is extremely satisfying to know that what we do is about making tomorrow better than today, for every one of us.

4. Tan Sri Lim, KM Lee and many others, thought that all I did in the public service was to chair PEMUDAH.  Maybe because that was the most visible function of my previous job.  Also, maybe because we did some outstanding work in and with PEMUDAH.  I must emphasise the WE because it was a collaborative work.  Collaboration between public and private sectors.  Collaboration amongst various ministries and agencies.  The sum total of PEMUDAH’s effort was improvement of Malaysia’s ease-of-doing-business ranking from 25 in 2007 when we started, to 12 in the world last year.

5. I would like to share two examples of initiatives that came from PEMUDAH.  And, on the lessons from them.

6. The first example is passport.  It used to take quite a while to get a passport.  We had to queue-up from very early morning just to get a number to be served!  The application form was so long and complicated, there was a cottage industry outside immigration offices offering form-filling service. When I left the service in June last year, one could get a passport in 1 hour.  For comparison, even to get an airline ticket to travel using that passport may take longer.  What more to get a visa to go to the US!  To get a visa for Canada, our passport needs to go to Singapore first!

7. The second example is getting tax refund.  There was a time when everyone dreaded the prospect of having overpaid their income tax.  That was because getting it back took a million years. I am exaggerating of course, but that is how it used to feel. After exchange of many letters, we will eventually get our money back.  OK, but how about the opportunity cost.  We are all familiar with the concept of ‘time value of money’. That value was lost forever.  So what we did with PEMUDAH was to instil a new standard.  A new expectation.   Overpayment of tax was to be refunded within 30 days.  Any longer, LHDN would have to pay an interest of 2%.  Shouldn’t that be the way?  After all, any late payment of tax is subject to penalty.  It’s only fair the same rule applies for a refund too.  And guess what?  We did it.  People were getting their refunds within 30 days.  If they didn’t, they could email their complaint to me.   KSN’s email address was there for the whole world to see and use.  And, I made it my “hobby” to ensure that complaints are not merely acknowledged.  They must be attended to.  Speedily.  There is no point in giving e-mail addresses, tweeter or facebook accounts unless they are responded to!

8. These two examples prove a point – that we are capable of achieving world class performance all along.  All that is needed is for someone to say, “Wait a minute, that doesn’t sound right, it doesn’t sound fair.  We can do better.  We must do better.”  An acknowledgement of the problems, and the guts and willingness to challenge the status quo.  That’s what we need.

9. In both cases, it didn’t cost a fortune to get the improvements.  Sure, we invested some money to get new machines for printing passports.  But what really changed was the mindset. That we are here to provide a service. To facilitate the lives of our customers, the public.  We exist, because the public wants us to exist.  The basic law in economics – demand dictates supply.  So too for any company.  Including our company: we exist because our customers want us to continue existing.

10. But how did the change happen? What triggered the realisation? Like Confucius said, it’s quite simple.  By listening.  The days when Government knows best is over.  The public, the investors, the tourists, everyone, have a lot to say.  They demand their right to be heard and to be served.  One might say, “But what choice do people have if the civil service doesn’t respond, it’s not like there is any competition!”  I beg to differ. There is competition. Investors and tourists can go to another country that serves them better.  Our own Malaysian investors and talents can leave the country too. So, not unlike the private sector, competition is very much alive for the civil service as well.

11. Speaking about competition, we also initiated the PEMUDAH Challenge where PEMUDAH will reward RM1000 for ideas from the public that can further improve public service.  These include “Left turn on Red at traffic lights if there is no traffic”; doing away with requirement for police reports to replace Identification Cards; and on-line application for change of school. Simple ideas.   Simple solutions.  By simply listening!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

12. Lest you may think that all I did was PEMUDAH work, PEMUDAH took up at most only 10% of what used to be my day job.  The remaining 27 days in the month were doing the “traditional” civil service responsibilities, that of overseeing the ministries and various agencies, at Federal and state levels. Here, the content might have differed but the principle was the same.  It was always about being client-focused, listening, facilitating and having a sense of urgency.  It’s that simple.  And underpinning it was what I believe is the single most important quality that can either make or break an organisation – integrity.

13. I would now like to speak very briefly about these qualities.

14. Being client-focused may sound like a no brainer, but there are many an occasion where client is not the focus. When I say client, it is not confined only to customers.  It also includes our direct reports, superiors and colleagues. Everyone we interact with. Instead of focusing on our clients, we sometimes end up focusing on the process, the competition, or our KPI – even when we know times have changed and the KPI’s are no longer relevant.

15. Listening is another quality which may not be that easy to practise.  Many of us are more tempted to be seen and to be heard.  Listening is the twin to humility. They are a package.  To listen, we need the humility to acknowledge others may know more. May know better.  A subordinate far down the rank may know more about an operational issue than us at higher Management.  So why not listen to the ‘expert’?  We have everything to gain by listening.  A view supporting our own will only strengthen our argument. On the other hand, a view opposing ours gives us an opportunity to improve.  If the opposing view is not solid, we could dispel it with facts and get a new supporter.  However, if it makes sense, we should adopt it. Change our stand.  We are only wiser for it.  And we get to avoid making a fool of ourselves further down the road. To listen, I made my email address as KSN available for the whole world. Anyone could write to me with complaints, ideas and suggestions. And, they are free.   That gave me as much inputs and insights as if the Government employed a thousand officers directly reporting to me.   And, I did not have to go to the ground every single day.  Because I had reports directly from relevant and interested people on the ground.  Of course as leaders we must be smart enough to differentiate what is true and what is less than true.

16. Next is facilitating.  This means, seeing ourselves as problem solvers. Essentially, that’s what we are in an organisation.  We may be an Accountant, HR Manager or CEO, but at the core, our job is to facilitate problem solving. Not merely to follow a process, reply to emails/tweeters or write up reports. Those are only means to an end.  And the end in mind is “how can we facilitate solutions that are faster, better, fairer”.  In the simplest terms, I discouraged hardcopies and snail mails.  In fact, I encouraged people to email me and send me scanned documents.  That made it faster and easier for me to receive information. And, to get relevant others in the loop.  It was also easier to access the documents.  Practically, I was carrying a million documents and letters in my iPad.  All ready to be accessed wherever and whenever I wanted.

17. And that example brings me to the next quality – a sense of urgency.  We should treat every email, letter and query as urgent.  The fact it is in our inbox or in-tray means someone is awaiting our response to move on with their job.  Open it up, give due consideration and respond, fast.  Any delay in responding means we are delaying someone else’s input.  We are delaying them in reaching their goal. We are delaying our organisation in meeting its Vision.  I simply cannot understand when people say it took them a week to respond to emails because they were attending meetings in Pahang!  Or wherever.

18. And finally, the single most important quality – integrity.  Integrity is not just about avoiding corruption. That is but one small aspect.  It’s beyond that.  It is about doing our best. It is about honesty, about not cheating and about trust.  The position we hold in the company is a trust.  We must be honest with how we spend our time at work.  Be objective and professional in making our decisions.  Fair and firm in managing our teams.  Integrity must be the core of our being.  It must be the foundational value of our personality, from where our thoughts, words and actions originate.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

19. Those are some of the principles that I think are important in our career.

20. Taking a leaf from there, what could be some key lessons for us in Top Glove?  We are already number one in the world, and we have 25% of the global market share.  Can we do better?  Of course we can.  Is there guarantee we will stay number one?  Of course not.  Our market share and our position only tells us what we have done right so far.  It is not an indicator of our performance in years to come.

21. To put this in context, we need to look at IBM and Kodak.   They were both world number one in their respective industries.  However, the past ten years have seen their fortunes diverge and head in opposite directions.  Today, Kodak has been relegated into Chapter 11.  But IBM is still a world beater.  What happened?  One stayed close to the ground, reinvented itself many times over and is quite unrecognisable from its early days.  The M, which stands for machine in IBM, is misleading. IBM does not make machines anymore. It has reinvented itself as the leader in high-technology services industry. On the other hand, Kodak insisted on selling film rolls even after smart phones started carrying camera function. Could more listening and a better sense of urgency made a difference to Kodak?

Ladies and Gentlemen,

22. For Top Glove to continue to lead the industry and stay relevant, we must stay on our toes.

23. Being client-focused will require us to continuously redefine who our clients are.  Beyond customers, there are broader stakeholders – Government agencies, professional associations.   Many more.

24. We must keep our antenna up for future industry trends.  Let’s not forget that although IBM lost its PC market share to other PC makers, eventually, the PC market itself has lost out to smartphones and tablets.  The threats to Top Glove may not necessarily be obvious.

25. We should not only listen to our customers, but also to our customers’ customers.

26. Of course, we need to find ways and means to facilitate our interactions with our customers.  On top of that, can we facilitate and add value to the interactions between our customers and their stakeholders.  Can that give us a peek into the future of the industry?

27. And, can we do all these yesterday rather than waiting for day after tomorrow?  If we see a new trend emerging, we should embrace it quickly and hasten its arrival.  Trying to stall industry innovation may give us a short-term respite to hang on to our market share.  But it will also mean someone else is getting better prepared for tomorrow’s market share. Let’s not peddle film rolls after cameras have come to phones!

28. Top Glove’s success is also success of Malaysia’s corporate sector.  For a small country like Malaysia, having a home-grown company leading a global industry is a matter of national pride.  As leaders in Top Glove, each and every one of us carry the responsibility of ensuring continued success of this national pride.  Of course, we have an obligation to our shareholders.  But there is also an obligation to our nation. Not only to continue our success story, but also to mentor and guide other aspiring Malaysian organisations to plant the Malaysian flag in their respective industries.  I believe, the most rewarding part of leadership is in leaving a legacy where our efforts pave the way for others to become better leaders and more successful. To hear another Malaysian world-class company say that they were inspired by Top Glove – that will be the ultimate satisfaction.

29. On that note, I wish us all the best in becoming a better leader tomorrow than we are today.  For Top Glove and for Malaysia.

Thank you.