Tuesday 27 February 2007

Idris Jala: A Fine Example of a Successful Bumiputra-CEO

From Dr. Hsu's Forum Blog - Dr Hsu Dar Ren: Read HERE
(Dr. Hsu is a medical doctor, running a family clinic, and trained in occupational medicine and safety)

Read Here related article in Screenshots-Jeff Ooi (dated May 30, 2006 )

Read Here AP Newswire article reported on Forbes.com: ".... National carrier Malaysia Airlines said Monday it is on track to return to the black this year after reporting a sharply smaller loss in 2006, and announced plans to set up a premium-class airline to operate out of northern Penang island. The airline logged a second straight quarterly profit for the quarter to December, thanks to improved business conditions and savings from cost-cutting..."
Read here for more

Excerpts: Read here for more on Dr. Hsu's article

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Idris Jala
Managing Director, MAS

Idris Jala, a Sarawakian Bumi, was appointed Managing Director of Malaysian Airline System (MAS ) in December 2005.

He immediately instituted a Business Turn Around plan which has shown results, all within a year, faster than most of us expected.

This is NO easy task because MAS is not just a business entity. There is so much of pressure and interference from politicians too.

The ground people have remained the same, the crew has remained the same, the managers in offices also the same. What makes the difference in this case is truly the leadership and the caliber of the Chief, the Managing Director.

The success of Idris Jala, in turning around the ailing MAS within a year, is true example of a Bumiputra success story.

Idris Jala was NEVER employed in Government sector.

Instead , before this appointment, he worked for a multinational, Shell, where only meritocracy and good results count.

Despite the competition from non Bumi and other Bumi in the company, he was able to rise up the corporate ladders in Shell and became one of the top executives of Shell before he was asked to assume the present post.

To climb up the ladder in any multi national company, you have indeed had to be very good. That really shows his caliber.

This confirms what I always believe. In order to excel, you need to go through a competitive environment and only by doing so, can a person’s true potential be cultivated and realised.

If Idris Jala can be successful, so can all others Bumiputra provided they are willing to go through fair competition and meritocracy.

I have mentioned a success story of a Malay Entrepreneur in New York earlier in my blog, how this fellow managed to become a big tauke in New York against all other competition, purely on his own merits.

To make our Bumi brothers fully capable of standing on their own and excel, perhaps the first thing to do is to introduce true meritocracy in schools and matriculation.

Headmasters of schools, university lecturers and professors should be appointed on their merits, their results and perhaps their published work (in the case of professors).

Only by doing this , can we start to cultivate a culture of competitiveness, a culture of excellence in schools and tertiary education.

At the same time, we can slowly remove the clutches in the economic field, government services etc.

By slowly doing that, a new generation of competitive Bumi can be produced.

I am sure a lot of them will be better than many of the Chinaman and the Indian traders.

What we need is just the political will to institute change and to arrest the deteriorating academic as well as work standard.

I am sure if we do that, we could have unearthed many worthy Bumi talents , both in academic fields as well as in the business arena.



Mr. IDRIS JALA - Profile

Mr. Idris Jala, aged 47, is a Malaysian. He graduated with a Bachelor Degree (Hons) (B.Soc Sc) in Development Studies/Management in University Sains Malaysia in 1982.

He later obtained a Masters Degree in Industrial Relations from University of Warwick, United Kingdom in 1986.

Prior to MAS, he was attached to Shell MDS (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. as Managing Director and Executive Director of Shell Malaysia Ltd, Gas & Power from 2003 to 30 November 2005.

He joined Sarawak Shell Berhad in 1982 and 1987 as Industrial Relations Officer and as Head Staff Development.

In 1989, he was appointed as Human Resource Advisor of Shell International, Holland and Head HR Planning of Sarawak Shell Berhad in 1993.

From 1995 to 1997, he was appointed as Business Re-engineering Manager, Retail Area Manager and Senior Manager, National Retail Sales of Shell Malaysia Ltd.

In 1998, he was promoted as Chairman/Managing Director (LPG) of Shell Sri Lanka.

From 2000 to 2001, he was transferred to London as Vice President Business Development Consultancy and Vice President Retail Marketing, SRI of Shell Int. Pet. Co, United Kingdom (London).

He was appointed as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Malaysian Airline System Berhad on 1 December 2005.

1 comment:

muststopthis said...

Hi & Good day, fellow Blogger.
Any blogger United to walk with Rocky, is a friend to me!
Thanks for droppin in my blog to find out about Audra Atkinson V MAS.
Thanks to you, I now know about Idris's experience in Industrial Relations!
It will make our case seem more relevant given his exposure!

Anyways, the main reason I dropped in is this tag thingy that is going on around bloggers united. I think it is a nice way to break the ice between fellow bloggers. Well, hopefully you are game for this, because zorro tagged me, and I am tagging you and five others.

If you need more info about tagging, find out from zorro..or drop in my blog..again!

So hopefully we will walk together with Jeff come March 6. C u.

Tony Yew a.k.a alliedmartster