Tunaround and Transform - A Malaysian Success Story

I would really like to recommend for you to read below interview done by a management consultant firm named Mckinsey with CEO of Malaysia Airlines - Idris Jala, as published by Mckinsey Quarterly online magazine.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Turning_around_a_struggling_airline_An_interview_with_the_CEO_of_Malaysia_Airlines_2238

Idris should really write a book on his phenomenal success to turnaround and transform our national carrier. To give you a snippet of what I like:

First, when he did the turnaround process for 2 years, he told the people involve that if you don't succeed, out you go. Wonder if my company had the gut to do the same. When people are wary of the very thing that bring rice to the table of their family, then only they'll do things which they always thought is seemingly impossible, or couldn't care less about.

Second, in the transformation program, people are given new vocabulary and new responsibilities. No need to employ more staff or any foreign intervention. The strength of any transformation journey lies with the people within the organization. We just need to find ways to extract them out. In MAS, staff are put in "labs", where 10-15 people are grouped together to brainstorm with expected output called "big results fast". We try to do this here, but we are not yet successful. A lot of things we can learn from MAS's experience.

Third, Idris said the leader of any organization must cut the clearing in a very dense tropical jungle, so that people can find the pathway. Then only they can see the sky and get direct sunlight. He's talking about leader creating hope for the people. He started the believe and hope first, then only the people follow.

Fourth, he talked about divine intervention. Instead of talking about it bluntly to the management consultant who seemingly failed to acknowledge that some extra power is needed to ensure success, he delicately explained that we can only control a small portion of success, major component of it is indeed determined by "divine intervention". After all the hard work, don't forget to pray (berdoa).

Last but never the least, he acknowleged the role of his wife in this success. When he was instructed to move to MAS, he felt that he needed to conquer the fear of failure. And guess who he turned to for some calming effect? The dear wife. Well, they say that behind the success of a man, there is always a woman. And behind the failure of a man, I bet there are countless women!

That's it for now folks. I feel that lately I've not written something intellectually stimulating. Hope this one will make your head spinning for that intellectual dose.