‘Leadership Sharing’ at PETRONAS Induction Programme for Executives

Today, the World Cup 2014 maybe light years away from our mind. That notwithstanding, we witnessed some outstanding display of world class football in Brazil – though, not necessarily by Brazil! My pick of outstanding matches are USA-Belgium, and of course, Brazil-Germany. Germany won the World Cup with a very peculiar feature – of not really having any star player.

2. Among the top 25 most valuable players in the world, Germany has only 3, with Mesut Ozil being the highest ranked at number 8. Spain has 5, England has 4 – but both the teams didn’t get past Group Stage. None of the top three players, based on transfer fees, played beyond Round of 16 – Gareth Bale, Christiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez. So, star players don’t guarantee success.

3. The then reigning World Cup holders, Spain, was given a thrashing in group stage, starting the campaign by losing 1 – 5 to Netherlands. Both Spain and Italy, the 2006 winners, didn’t survive past the group stage. So, previous successes don’t guarantee future success.

4. Host Brazil was also thrashed in the semi-finals, losing 1 – 7 to Germany. It was Brazil’s worst performance ever in the World Cup. Host nations have won the World Cup only 6 times, the last being France in 1998. Home fans outnumbering rival fans, familiarity with the pitch and climate, and thunderous stadium atmosphere don’t count for much in the final analysis. So, home-ground advantage doesn’t guarantee success.

5. So what contributed to Germany’s success? Maybe the massive changes the German Football Association made to the youth development and training centres about 10 years ago. Or, the decision to stay at a resort purpose-built by a German developer, with dedicated training facilities, designed to allow team members to share the villas. Or, it might even be the advanced technology they used. That included a device worn by the players during training that had sensors to measure speed, distance, acceleration, heart rate and power, so that the data can be used to design optimum training plan for individual players. Possibly a combination of all these.

6. The message is: the only guarantee of success is visionary planning, flawless execution, hard work and perseverance. No short cuts. ABOVE ALL, TEAM WORK. Not Prima Donna. For us to excel in our careers and for PETRONAS to continue the stellar journey, we will do well to remember this message.

7. It gives me great pleasure to be with all of you this morning. I wish to thank PLC for welcoming me to speak. Particularly to Chairman Datuk Omar and CEO Hj Yasir Rahman.
– This is my second time for me to speak here. The first was on 12 November last year. [“I am my Own Leader”]
– As KSN, I made it a point to visit INTAN on a regular basis
– spent half a day interacting with every session of JUSA participants
– twice with fresh intake of Cadet officers into the public service. At the beginning and at the end of their training

I am so glad that the Top Management of PETRONAS is also engaged with and through PLC. I wish to WELCOME you all, the new Executives, into the PETRONAS family. To grow together with the Company. To serve our country.

8. What I’d like to share with you today are the lessons I have learned in my 40 odd years of endeavouring to serve our Country. Things I learned along the way. Things I tried to practise. These worked for me and I believe for many others, and possibly could work for you too.

9. I came from an obscure kampung called Cherok Paloh, which is somewhere between Kuantan and Pekan in Pahang. Has anyone here heard of Cherok Paloh? I don’t blame you if you have not. It is “Cherok” – obscure. From a kampung no one here has heard of, here I am, speaking as Chairman of the only Malaysian company in the Global Fortune 500. More precisely, currently ranked 69 in the Global Fortune 500!

10. This is not about boasting. There are some important lessons in it
– Firstly, it doesn’t matter where we come from, what matters is what we do with our lives
– Secondly, although it doesn’t matter where we come from, we should never forget our roots
Not once did I forget Cherok Paloh. In fact, I am where I am today in spite of Cherok Paloh. Correction, not “in spite”. Because of Cherok Paloh.
For me, Cherok Paloh was my raison détre for joining the Civil Service.
You and I must also appreciate the raison détre for the establishment of PETRONAS.

11. I understand, by now, you have had sessions discussing PETRONAS history, our Mission and Vision, and Shared Values.

12. PETRONAS’ relatively short journey of just over 40 years – 40 years and 4 days to be precise – has been nothing short of phenomenal. From a domestic regulator to a respected Global Oil & Gas Company – NOC and IOC. Of course, it’s not an accident. Success is seldom an accident. Our story is one of visionary thinking, careful planning and dedicated and committed execution. The building blocks were set in place by our founding fathers. Enacting the PDA and forming PETRONAS under the Companies Act in itself were ingenious steps. To ensure the amanah of creating long-term value from this depleting resource is carried in a responsible manner with commercial savviness, and not squandered away like what has happened in many other countries.

13. As an example, from the very beginning, PETRONAS gave scholarship for Malaysians to earn qualification in highly technical areas. It was not an afterthought; it was not a mere CSR gesture. It was a result of a clear vision to develop our own capabilities in this industry so that we can carry the amanah to the best of our capabilities. To be the masters of our own destiny.

14. Suffice to say, where we are today is a result of visionary leadership of our founding leaders, carefully planned building blocks, lots of hard work, sweats and tears and the steadfast believe that we are doing this for something bigger than ourselves, bigger than the organisation. Our performance and achievements are intertwined with the hopes and aspirations of our Nation and its people.

15. I was requested to give my views on building careers, leadership and management. Although I spent 38 over years totally in the Public Sector, I think good practices are basically the same whether it is in the public or corporate sector. Whether it is about sharing, listening, transparency, integrity, good service. Whatever. So let me share some stories from my own career.

16. From the very beginning, I knew what I wanted to do – that was, “To Provide Good Service to Customers”. As simple as that. You may ask, “Why?”

17. Let’s now go back to “Cherok Paloh”. No one here has heard of Cherok Paloh, but most Senior Civil Servants – the KSUs and the Directors General – were very familiar with Cherok Paloh, and MORE IMPORTANTLY the concept of Cherok Paloh, by the time I left the Service in June 2012. Cherok Paloh is a very small kampung where for many, their livelihood depended on the rubber smallholding. Once a year, when my relatives had to pay the ‘cukai tanah’, they had to travel a long way then to Pekan where the land office was. And since it’s so far, they practically had to take a day off. That meant no income for that day. So what did they do? They went to Pekan when it rained, because you can’t tap the trees anyway when it rains. Zero ‘opportunity cost’. But to get to Pekan, they had to cycle for a distance, cross the river twice on a boat or ferry and cycle again. Sometimes, they might reach the office when it was about to close. So what did the Peon at the Land Office do? He told them to come back the next day. Can you imagine that? A whole day of travel and you have to come back another day!
That peon at the Land Office gave me the cause for my career. I wanted to make lives EASIER and more pleasant for the likes of my kampong people. I wanted to be a Clerk who will say, “It’s okay. You have travelled the whole day. I can work an extra 10 minutes to get this processed”. That’s it.

18. You may have your own ‘Cherok Paloh’. Call it Bario, Ulu Tembeling, Grik or whatever. Cherok Paloh is just a concept. Something that drives us to improve – ourselves, our family, our Company, our society, our country. I urge you to hold on to your ‘Cherok Paloh’. It gives meaning to what we do and motivates us to overcome challenges. It will keep us going in the face of obstacles. If every one of us have that seed inside us, to be the better peon, the better taxi driver, the better Executive, the better Senior Executive – the better version of whatever we encounter – imagine how much better our PETRONAS would be. How much better our Malaysia would be!

19. But it is very common to hear people say, “Yes I want to improve but they are not improving. They are a stumbling block. They don’t see what I see.” ‘They’ could be the parents, the company, the government or many others. Of course there are a million things which are not under our control. But there are many that we can control; or at least influence. Many of us may be familiar with the concept of ‘Circle of Influence’ and ‘Circle of Concern’ made popular by Stephen Covey. In his book, ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, Stephen Covey lists ‘being proactive’ as the first habit. Instead of reacting to or worrying about conditions over which one has little or no control, proactive people focus their time and energy on things they can control. They focus their efforts on their ‘Circle of Influence’ – people and issues that they can do something about: personal health, children, and problems at work. Reactive people, on the other hand, focus their efforts on the Circle of Concern – things over which they have little or no control: the national debt, terrorism, the weather, the price of oil, or the exchange rate. Having an awareness of the areas in which one can influence decisions is the first step to becoming effective.

20. I like to touch upon a number of principles which were very important in guiding me along in my life – at both personal and professional level.

21. First was to see myself as a member of the larger organisation. Not the unit, section, department or the division. Member of the Larger Organisation: the Common Good. So, ‘circle of influence’ does not have to dictate our ‘sphere of thinking’. While being realistic in drawing my circle of influence, I have always been very adventurous with my ‘sphere of thinking’. We must think big picture. A key principle here is to think beyond ourselves, beyond our current portfolio. That naturally meant I must think like the Secretary General, Chief Secretary, Minister or the PM, even when I was only 10 years in the service. What would the CEO say or do? What outcome will be in the best interest of the organisation, even if it’s not the best outcome for my own unit? It also meant I had to read up a lot more than what my position required.

22. For many years, the Tourism Malaysia Office at Trafalgar Square in London was in the Assets book of MITI. This was simply because when it was bought Tourism was a part of the MITI portfolio. Just like Domestic Trade or Plantation Industries and Commodities. All in the old MITI domain. But since there was already a Ministry of Tourism, I couldn’t find a logical reason why that building should stay with MITI. As it was whenever they needed to do some plumbing work or electrical work, the Tourism Office in London will contact the Ministry of Tourism in KL, which will then contact MITI for funding and approval. The usual questions and answers about the need for the repairs, cost estimates, alternative options etc will flow to and fro. Once agreed, the same trail will carry the message back to London. Just explaining the process is quite tiring; imagine the actual convoluted accounting treatment! And, so UNNECESSARY!

23. If the building was used by Tourism, let the Ministry of Tourism manage and maintain it. It sounded quite straight forward. But there were many within MITI who objected. There was a matter of prestige attached to ‘owning’ the building. To me, being in MITI’s asset books is not the same as it being owned by MITI. Because it wasn’t. MITI was only a trustee. It was owned by the Government of Malaysia. MITI was chosen and entrusted to manage the asset at some point in the past. That’s it. So MITI passed the asset to the Ministry of Tourism when I was Secretary General of MITI. One couldn’t see it that way if one doesn’t see the bigger picture, the larger purpose.

24. Second is innovation. At its most basic, innovation requires us to challenge the status-quo, discard pre-conceived ideas and ask tough, sometimes uncomfortable, questions.

25. For some years now, our country is confronted by news on increasing crime rates. The public was, understandably, getting very worried. Very nervous.

26. There was a need to increase the number of police patrol personnel. Normally, that would have meant increasing the intake and the training capacity of PDRM, potentially involving millions of ringgit to build new training facilities. And it would take time. But we decided to take a path less travelled. This was among the first initiative taken under the National Blue Ocean Strategy.

27. First, we had to take stock of the personnel we already had in the system. There were trained police personnel who could not do patrolling because they had other work to do – they were desk-bound to do administrative work. So, the first solution was to redeploy existing officers from other agencies into PDRM to do administrative work and free-up the police personnel to do what they do best, policing. Seven thousand four hundred of them. So police do the policing, and civilians do the administrative work. Something unheard of at that time, but sounds like a very natural thing to do now.

28. But that was not enough. We needed more. It seemed investing in additional training facilities was inevitable. The Government approved refurbishment of an old complex at a cost of RM159 million. It took about three years to complete and had capacity to train 300 personnel at a time, with each batch requiring six months of training. If we had stuck to that model, we could never put enough personnel on the streets. We will always be playing catch-up.

29. So we brought the Military and the Police together. Two groups who seemingly had their own ‘line-of-business’ and had little to do with each other. We asked a simple question, “Why don’t we train the police at military camps?” Four months and RM1 million later, the first batch of 1,600 personnel started their training at Port Dickson and Tanjong Pengeleh camps.

30. Traditional model dictated RM159 million, 3 years and 300 trainees. A simple question yielded an alternative model – RM1 million, 4 months and 1,600 trainees.

31. In this case, innovation was removing the mental barrier about being ‘police’ and ‘military’ and seeing themselves as the security forces of the country. Now the sharing of training facilities goes beyond the military and police. It includes Prisons Department, Fire Services and others.

32. Third is a sense of urgency. It is not about rushing decisions or action, it is about being responsive. For the life of me, I could never understand why someone would delay making decisions just to make oneself appear important. It doesn’t show importance, it shows incompetence! We should treat urgent phone call, email, letter and query as urgent. The fact it is brought to our attention means someone is awaiting our response to move on with their job. Open it; give due consideration and respond, fast. If it can be done today, do it today. If it is a request for approval, and if we are not going to approve it, the least we could do is to have the courtesy to convey the decision quickly. And tell them why it is not approved. They can move on with alternative options. As Collin Powell said, “bad news is not wine, it doesn’t improve with age”.
And if the request will be approved, why not deliver the good news fast?

33. Let me tell you a story about Napoleon. Not the 19th Century French Emperor. This is about what the then Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Badawi referred to as ‘the Little Napoleons’. The pockets of public servants who wanted to show their authority by delaying decisions and actions such as on payments. We found a way to strip these ‘emperors’ off their perceived power.

34. The Government’s official policy then was that payment must be made within 30 days of receiving an invoice. But the attitude of these Little Napoleons was, “you should be grateful that I pay at all, even if it takes 30 months.” It was discussed at the Secretaries-General Meeting and it was agreed to shorten the period for payment from 30 days to 14 days.

35. And we monitored its implementation closely. We monitored the PM’s Department every night, and other ministries twice a month – on the 15th and the last day of the month. But of course, there was always the possibility people down the line might manipulate the report to make their departments look good. Make their bosses look good.

36. So we did one more thing. We put a simple announcement on the websites of the KSN, PM and DPM. It said, “All payments will be made within 14 days. If you have not received the payment within 14 days, please give the details, and we’ll pay you within 24 hours!”

37. This way, everyone knew they cannot ‘manipulate’ their departments’ performance report because someone who didn’t receive his payment will report it. Call it ‘crowd-sourcing the enforcement’ if you like. It got the job done. Easily 90% of payments were made within 7 days.

38. Fourth and lastly for now of my Ten Commandments, my favourite topic – INTEGRITY. It is also one of PETRONAS’ four Shared Values – besides Loyalty, Professionalism and Cohesiveness.

39. Integrity is about being honest and truthful, and having consistency between principles, expectations, words and deeds. In public and in private. Especially in private. When no one is watching. Integrity is not just about avoiding corruption. That is but one small aspect. There is much more to integrity. We must be honest with how we spend our time at work. Objective 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. And it is absolute, there are no degrees of integrity.

40. In PETRONAS, we have a dedicated Senior Personnel for Integrity in the form of our Chief Integrity Officer, Dato’ Samsiah Abu Bakar. We also have our Code of Conduct and Business Ethics, No Gift Policy, Whistle Blower Policy and many others. But make no mistake: these are not the be all and end all of Integrity. All these are mere manifestation of our resolve and intent. At the end of the day, it is left to us all, to you and me. Each and every one of us must uphold integrity in our thoughts, words and deeds. If one of us fails, as an organisation, we all fail. At the expense of sounding cliché, if integrity is likened to DNA, a breach of it is a cancer. One that needs to be removed immediately, lest it spreads and triggers our downfall.

41. Those are some of the key values and principles that have served me well in my career. I hope you find it somewhat useful in guiding you as you chart your own career path.

42. Some words of caution – everyone starts their career with grand ambitions and ideals. But along the way you will be confronted by three demons called job security, predictability and familiarity. They will seek to consume your ambitions and ideals, and make you a passenger in your own life. If you can shake them off, then you will be in control of your career. So watch out for the demons!

43. On that note, I wish you all the best in taking charge of your career and becoming a better version of yourselves – every day.

I look forward to engaging you in the remaining time of today’s session. And, on a continuous basis. I hold very dear to the belief that if you have a better idea than mine it does not diminish my stature to adopt yours. To the contrary, it is better for the Common Good that we follow your idea.

Wabillahitaufiq wal hidayah, wassalamu’alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.