Fairly Regularly

This place where I am working has got a new Chairman, beginning January 2009. He happens to be the son of the late Tan Sri Azizan, the former President of Petronas. Young, savvy and definitely a go getter, he paid a visit down south yesterday and share his thoughts with the eager citizens through a townhall session.

I've known him personally when I was involved in a special project way back in year 2001. At that time he was assigned to oversee this project and from the look of it, man, we're going to face a very tough man. Some people said that he has changed a little bit since, more milder as he ages. But I believe his fundamental in managing people will remain. No nonsense, fast response, gimme details, and fat chance you can escape should you try to talk your way out (BS for short).

At the age of early 30's, he was already the Board member, and now at 42 years of age, he's the Chairman of this place. Going at almost RM4b revenue per year, and also taking care of the parent company which happens to be one of the blue chips, hey, that's quite an achievement. Setting aside the reputation of being the "son", I believe he has what it takes, the merits. The relation and the name alone can't help him to survive and turnaround a company.

What did he touch on - the gloomy condition ahead, the ownership and pride in our work, the teamwork and the honesty. 1 on hard target and 3 on soft issues. People management is everything.

After the townhall, some people did post some questions but heck, I was really frustrated with the quality of the questions - mostly centered around more benefits. Don't they realize that they have further manifested that we have nothing else to think about except more benefits??? Human beings can't be satisfied, no matter how much you have given. Since everyone else posted questions centered around benefits, it would be awkward if I were to ask about the company's strategy moving forward. I would be totally out of place, and I almost heared the jeering, instead of cheering, if I were to post that sorts of questions. So I'd decided to say hi to him personally after the talk. He was swarmed by people, but nevertheless, I got my chance.

Here are the questions and his response (while smiling, mind you):

Q : In MISC's vision, it's for maritime transportation and logistics service provider, there's no mention on offshore business, so how do OBU and MMHE fit?
A : Oh, it's on energy. That vision is old already. It's time we change it.

Q: Can you share a little bit more on the defunct RTO? What was it actually?
A : They just have so much liability. When we did the study, the first valuation was at RM1.20-1.30. When we looked deeper into their company, we could see that they had so much exposure, under bidding, and the likes. It's just too risky.

Q : Now that they only worth 30 cents, are we planning anything or we just shut it?
A : Nope. There are just plenty of opportunities out there.

Q : Let say they go on auction later on, would we consider?
A : If it's only the land, we can consider. Not the liability (while trying to pat my back, luckily his hands did not touch my back torso. huhu.....).

Well, he's friendly in informal setting allright. But I'm sure if we were tasked to do a presentation in front on him, it would take me at least 2 days to practice alone. That should include the potential questions and all the pre-prepared answers. This is what it takes to make him satisfied.

He said that we form a major part of MISC's business, and for that, he will come down here "fairly regularly". What does it mean? It means trouble to a lot of people, I bet.