How did you come to hold your current position?
‘Eventually everything connects.’ In my case, my journey started back in the 1980s, when I was offered the ASEAN scholarship as a teenager. I lived on my own since then and quickly understood how to take care of myself and others around me. Doing well in a new place helped me gain the confidence to reach for new heights – the courage to take a step back knowing it would propel me two steps forward. In fact, I did exactly that when I traded in my first job, as a manager in Singapore Airlines, to become a consultant. I then took a ‘demotion’ to join a more prestigious firm, confident that it would take me higher and further. I joined the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in 1999 and became a partner six years later. I became Managing Director of BCG in Malaysia in 2006 and, over the next five years, tripled it in size, before being appointed to lead BCG across South-East Asia. It’s hard to imagine all those dots adding up but, looking back, indeed, eventually everything connects!
Share with us your strategy and roadmap in your first 100 days as Managing Director.
I believe in the vision thing, the ability to imagine a much brighter future and, then, in retropolation, figure out the game changing moves that must be made today to arrive at that future. This is distinct from an extrapolating strategy, which almost always results in incremental actions and similarly limited results. So, envisioning that we would triple in size compelled me and my team to fundamentally rethink how we should hire and develop our people, and how we should serve and create value for our clients. The rest was just about ensuring the follow through and, here, I am privileged to have a team of smart, motivated self-starters. Realising a strategy is just as hard as formulating the right one and I have them to thank for where we are today.
How does BCG Malaysia fit into the overall strategy of the Boston Consulting Group in Asia?
Malaysia is one of our most important markets within Asia. This is measured, not just in terms of the size of our business here, but also the groundbreaking nature of our work. We have had opportunities to serve leaders (in both private and public sectors) who believe in a better future and have the courage to shape it. A number of our clients pioneered innovative business models that have set examples for others in their industries, not just at home, but also across the region and even globally.
What are some of the latest developments coming out of BCG globally that you are most excited about?
BCG is world-renowned for generating breakthrough management concepts, be it the growth share matrix, time-based competition or breaking the reach versus richness compromise. There are many developments but, right now, I am most excited about three:
Transformation: It is a much abused word and, in fact, many transformations fail; but we have a profound three-step construct to help clients set up for success by clearly prioritising what can deliver results now to keep funding the journey, especially innovations that will enable clients to win in the long term and, more importantly, getting the team and people dynamics right to sustain the transformation.
Smart Simplicity: This is a favourite of mine and it’s about six simple rules all leaders can apply to help their organisations manage complexity without adding complications to their processes.
Challenger to Leader: This is especially pertinent to Malaysian corporations in this era of ASEAN economic community. We have a few companies that are good enough to challenge for regional supremacy; now is the time to become regional leaders and we have a framework to help them prioritise what they need to do and how they can do it (without being complicated, I may add).
What are the strategies undertaken by BCG, as the world’s leader in all areas of management consultancy, in order to continuously stay ahead of the competition?
Just as we help to enhance the success of our clients, we constantly sharpen our own model. We have, over the last decade, been moving beyond insight formulation to impact realisation and capability enablement. So, beyond crafting the right winning strategies for clients, we have increasingly been asked to help them make it happen and to sustain this impact by enabling their team and institutionalising our methods. In fact, we find the latter sort of engagements to be the most mutually satisfying as the clients get results and lastingly so. As our business evolves towards impact and enablement, we have launched a series of Global Enablement Centres, where our clients can specifically send their key staff for capability building. For instance, we have sited the Leadership and Talent Enablement Centre right here in South-East Asia, knowing that it is human capital (or lack thereof) that is the most significant bottleneck to the continued development of our economies. At these centres, executives connect with other like-minded talents and go through an intensive combination of hands-on learning, which they then directly apply back at their workplace, usually in a project we are undertaking with them, thereby ensuring that the learning is immediate embedded and, just as importantly, the results are tangibly realised.
What must you do as Managing Director to stay on top of your game?
The title is such a misnomer, don’t you think? I don’t see my game as either to manage or direct. I am privileged to be working in a firm with colleagues who are driven self-starters. All I have to do is to ensure that our high performance and motivation culture remains and even further heightened. To do so, I am constantly looking to understand why and how everyone is performing and to create such conditions that they are able to continue to perform well. An example would best illustrate this: Gen-Ys are said to have different motivations from us Gen X-ers and, certainly, the baby boomers. I took it upon myself to understand that and then went ahead to create the environment they want in order to do well, including providing flexi-leave, open communications and teaming. Having defined this as the ‘game’ (as you call it), it’s easy to stay on top of it as I naturally am keen on knowing and bringing the best out of our people.
Which movie, in your opinion, best serves as an important lesson for a CEO and why?
Remember the Titans struck a real chord in me. No one succeeds alone. That movie showed how a team was forged and how it played together, with victory the inevitable outcome. For those of you who enjoyed this movie, you’d know that the team was initially divided, not just into offence and defence but also along racial lines. The odds were against such a team forming, let alone winning. Leadership from the coach and the captain made it happen. This is a true story and it’s repeated every time people are able to put their differences aside and work together for a common good. If I may add, we need this at the company as well as the country level. I am proud to say that I am a supporter of affirmative action. No society can be developed if there is a segment of society (especially the majority) left behind. But I am reminded of something Einstein said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different resultsâ€. We have a necessary affirmative policy in Malaysia and it should stay until no one is left behind; but to really get a different result, we need to rethink a new set of strategy and actions. Perhaps this is one area where we all need to take a step back to go two steps forward.
Why do you think CEOs need a dose of James Bond in their lives?
I am sure many boys and men (and some girls and women, too) walk out of a James Bond movie wishing they could be like him: the hero that saves the world (and a few damsels in distress along the way). So, if you mean, becoming a role model for one’s colleagues, then yes. All CEOs need to inspire and, therefore, must lead inspiring lives.
What keeps you awake at night?
I find that I sleep well, especially after I say a prayer, sometimes accompanied by a deep examination of conscience. It means something to know you have done the best you can for the day.
