Setting the right CEO for Malaysia Airlines (MAS)

Essentially, there is little time to shape up MAS before its competitors eat into its share of business. Khazanah should cast its net wider beyond the GLC fraternity and also look globally.

Don't compromise on setting things right for MAS. The airline needs a true blue aviation expert as new CEO

MALAYSIA Airlines (MAS) needs a true blue aviation expert as its new chief executive officer (CEO), and that is something Khazanah Nasional Bhd has to come to terms with.

The time to test the waters by hiring non-airline experts is over.

MAS is like an injured entity that needs to be operated on fast.

The national carrier needs a leader who knows the trade given the complexities of the airline business – someone who can differentiate between a full-service airline and low-cost operation.

The person must not be cajoled into believing that selling seats at the expense of yields is the best business strategy, and at the same time get the workforce to rally behind him to achieve success.

This is critical if Khazanah wants to see returns from its RM6bil investment that will go into saving MAS.

Bear in mind that Khazanah has not recovered the RM7bil investment it had already poured into the airline.

No doubt Khazanah does not want to set a new record for investing RM13bil in MAS without getting anything in return.

To recap, Khazanah had announced a 12-point plan to revive MAS. It will take it private, delist it, transfer the airline into a new company and relist it later.

It will cut 6,000 jobs, focus on regional profitable routes, and hopefully pay market prices for supplies.

To do all that and return to profit in 2017, it needs a new man at the top, someone with impeccable abilities and knowledge of the industry. The obvious choice will be someone from within the company, if there is one.

It will be hard to believe that Khazanah cannot find one person to run the show from the nearly 20,000 employees in MAS.

If that is the case, either the airline’s succession planning is non-existent or absolutely hopeless.

Airlines will normally employ from within the company or from other airlines to fill the top post.

In the case of Singapore Airlines (SIA), it has often been a home-grown candidate that has worked for 20 to 30 years with the airline.

MAS and SIA were formed from the same parent company decades ago.

SIA has become one of the best airlines globally although it grapples to keep its feet on the ground.

The current SIA CEO Goh Choon Phong came on board in 1990, worked 20 years, and became CEO in 2010.

His predecessor, Chew Choon Seng, joined SIA in 1972, and after 31 years became the CEO.

Chew took over from Malaysia-born Dr Cheong Choong Kong. Cheong was a mathematics lecturer in Universiti Malaya before he joined SIA in 1974.

After 29 years with the SIA, he was appointed CEO.

Unlike MAS, SIA has an unbroken record of profitability even through turbulent economic times.

Qantas head Alan Joyce is also a true aviation man, after his stints at Jetstar, Ansett Australia and Aer Lingus.

If no one from MAS can fit the bill, then obviously Khazanah will have to search from within the government-linked company (GLC) fraternity.

But should Khazanah make that compromise again?

Khazanah is said to be talking to several local and foreign candidates. Datuk Seri Shazally Ramly’s name has been mentioned several times although no deal has been hammered out yet.

Essentially, there is little time to shape up MAS before its competitors eat into its share of business. Khazanah should cast its net wider beyond the GLC fraternity and also look globally.

If Maxis Bhd can have Morten Lundal in its payroll, surely MAS can find someone prominent in the airline industry as its CEO, as long as it is willing to make that compromise.

Rob Fyfe, the former Air New Zealand CEO, is someone who has a proven track record in the aviation industry as are some people in SIA and even Cathay Pacific.

Khazanah must get the most capable talent to help MAS recover and for the agency to recoup its investments. Hopefully this will be the last revamp for MAS as nobody can stomach yet another restructuring three years down the road.

Contributed by BK Sidhu Reflections, The Star/Asia News Network

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World's Simplest Management Secret

Forget what you learned in those management books. There's really only one way to ensure that everyone on your team excels.

Management books have it all wrong. They all try to tell you how to manage "people."

It's impossible to manage "people"; it's only possible to manage individuals. And because individuals differ from one another, what works with one individual may not work with somebody else.

Some individuals thrive on public praise; others feel uncomfortable when singled out.

Some individuals are all about the money; others thrive on challenging assignments.

Some individuals need mentoring; others find advice to be grating.

The trick is to manage individuals the way that THEY want to be managed, rather than the way that YOU'd prefer to be managed.

The only way to do this is to ASK.

In your first (or next) meeting with each direct report ask:

• How do you prefer to be managed?
• What can I do to help you excel?
• What types of management annoy you?

Listen (really listen) to the response and then, as far as you are able, adapt your coaching, motivation, compensation, and so forth to match that individual's needs.

BTW, a savvy employee won't wait for you to ask; he or she will tell you outright what works. When this happens, you're crazy not to take that employee's advice!

Unfortunately, most individuals aren't that bold, which is why it's up to you to find out how to get the best out of them.

And you'll never get that out of a management book.

There is no one-size-fits-all in a world where everyone is unique.

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Geoffrey James writes the Sales Source column on Inc.com, the world's most visited sales-oriented blog. His newly published book is Business to Business Selling: Power Words and Strategies From the World's Top Sales Experts. @Sales_Source

To teach or to manage?

The Education Ministry should come up with guidelines that strictly define the role of teachers who are assigned to carry out administrative tasks and those who teach.

HAVE teachers not enough to teach that they are crying out to be “allowed to teach”? Or, have teachers been so drawn away from their teaching duty that they are pleading hard to “get (back) to teach”? Sadly, it is the latter that is of concern.

Teachers lament that they are not able to concentrate on their teaching because too many non-teaching activities and responsibilities are thrust upon them. There are the numerous analyses to do, reports to write, data to enter online, meetings, functions, seminars and workshops to attend. They also complain that they have co-curricular activities and games to manage and students to counsel.

Granted that some of these activities do have educational value that may indirectly contribute to classroom teaching effectiveness, teachers are not happy at the seemingly uncoordinated and inordinate manner by which they are called upon to be involved.

The contention is that much of the “paper work” teachers are required to do serve only the purposes of officials higher up. Teachers do not see any benefits to their charges at all.

With all these distractions, the committed teachers are worried sick that they may labour in vain in their classroom teaching; or they may themselves be burnt out. Others may already have thrown in the towel.

On the other hand, the less-than-responsible ones are enjoying the “outings” and “deviations” and unashamedly claiming that teaching is after all an “easy” life.

For the newly recruited teachers, this is indeed a confusing scenario!

There is indeed a case for the Ministry and education authorities to better coordinate and reassess the true needs of the paper work given to schools and expecting their feedback to be uploaded usually within short notice.

On the other hand, teachers must also recognise that some extracurricular activities are essential and therefore rightly become part of their duties.

Yet, with consent, approval and support from the authorities higher up, schools can do better. Here are my thoughts and suggestions.

A normal secondary day school with a student population of around 2,000 and running two sessions will have a principal, three senior assistants, an afternoon supervisor, four heads of academic departments, five student counsellors and a teaching staff of about 120.

This means that the school has 14 administrator-teachers, that is 12% of the staff.

Premier and other schools of acclaim may even have more academic and administrative staff. Smaller schools need no afternoon supervisors, have a proportionate number of counsellors whilst other positions are all intact.

These school administrators are called administrator-teachers because besides administering and managing their respective “office”, they are required to also teach some (10 to 14) periods a week. This may seem minimal as compared to a normal teacher’s load of 24 to 28 periods.

But, consider the minds of these administrator-teachers. Their first concern must be that they administer well the “office” they have been promoted and assigned to. They must also realise that what they do and decide now affect more than their own classes. They are helping to administer the whole school.

Their teaching periods may average two per day. But the timetable could be such that it is one period in the early half and the other period in the latter half of the day. Being conscientious and committed, they are teachers who want to perform well in their given tasks.

So, it is not just about going into classes for 40 minutes per period. There must also be necessary preparations to ensure that each lesson is enriching and benefiting to their charges.

Usually, they are torn between the demands of their administrative offices and the teaching needs of their classes. More often than not, our school structures and expectations being such, their administrative duties take precedence.

To accommodate, the more experienced administrator-teachers opt to teach “less important” subjects and classes.

This has resulted in their teaching becoming, much to their own chagrin, less than exemplary to their colleagues. Worse, there are some teachers who use the situation to justify their own lackadaisical demeanour.

This sad scenario begets the question: Why not allow administrator-teachers to be full-time administrators? They can then focus on the administrative tasks, take over the paper work now being assigned to teachers, “represent” teachers in many out-of-school activities and most importantly reduce the burden from teachers who are not “teaching-centric”.

After all, these administrator-teachers have to prove their administrative prowess rather than teaching for their next career move.

And, may I point out that former teachers who have taken on administrative positions in the ministry or the various education departments are not required to teach at all?

So why should teachers carrying out adminstrative work be expected to teach even if its just a few periods a week?

We really need a transformational change here. Would the Education Ministry allow schools to be administered by full-time administrators who were teachers before?

By LIONG KAM CHONG

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