Monday, August 01, 2005

On MBA hiatus

I really want to finish this more than anything else in my life right now.
This ain't your run of the mill business school MBA. It's a school that within the Financial Times' 2005 Top 50 MBA. And it ain't no twinning distance program whore-university MBA, so I want to do it justice.
I fear mediocrity more than I fear death....................

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The reader claims that the bumis dominate the banking industry, which I agree. And dominate the automobile industry in Malaysia.

Out of the 10 anchor banks in Malaysia, only Hong Leong Bank, Public Bank Bhd and Southern Bank are controlled by non-bumis.

Again, after Oriental Holding Bhd lost it franchise and dealership of Honda. Hyundai franchise has been acquired by Sime Darby. Only Tan Chong which holds distributorship of Nissan remain under non-bumis.

Actually, it is ridiculous to excluded Government Link company (GLC) on it calculation on 18% ownership. If included GLC, bumis control more than 50% of Malaysia economy. All GLC are head by bumis and majority of its staff comprises bumis plus it has the bumis culture.

Other than the two industries highlight, the reader fail to included plantation industry. With the GLC control of Sime Darby, Guthrie and Golden Hope, bumis actually control the majority of the plantation land in Malaysia.

It just that it yield of the company unable to compete with those control by non-bumis like IOI Group, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd and PPB Oil Palms Bhd. Thus, it's time to improve efficiency and competitiveness rather than improve percentage of ownership.

All the plantation company also has a property development arm to capitalize on the landbank like Sime UEP, I&P and Gutherie Land.

Bumis also control all the free to air TV via Media Prima Bhd. Holding company of TV3.

At one point of time, bumis control the whole Kuala Lumpur transport system via IntraKota and Park May Bhd. However, both have been acquired by the government due to inefficiency and unable to pay it debt. Again, this is a question of efficiency and not a question of ownership percentage.

I have several remarks to make on Vision 2020. However, with the present state of mind in the country in which alternative views are seen with deep antagonism, I doubt we can make it. We cannot have sound advice and have prejudice in its implementation. Our stumbling block is our prejudices, racial or otherwise.

To talk about the NEP and achieving a 30 percent share of the wealth sounds myopic to me. If the third-rate politicians are allowed to continue with this propaganda to get elected, the electorates deserve what they get. By continually shouting these slogans, they actually give the bumis a sense of inferiority complex.

We are only less than half a percent of the world population. Why don't we open our eyes and look at the other 99 percent of the world market instead of looking just at the wealth of the non-malays in Malaysia.

The solution lies with the politicians and the people.

Edmund Terence Gomez says it who owns corporate Malaysia, and he is absolutely correct in observing that the Chinese Malaysian entrepreneurs have not managed to develop brand names or move up the technological ladder as a result of the NEP.

And I am glad to read that the likes of executive director of the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) agrees that another NEP policy like the kind that we have had before is not a wise move.

If not for the NEP, one would argue that by now, Malaysia would already have produced super companies and super brand names like Samsung and Sony.

Instead, Malaysia continues to drive her most gifted Malaysians such as engineers, entrepreneurs, managers, researchers, scientists, etc out of the country to work for other world-class companies.

If the whole idea of another NEP policy is still to try to get the bumis to own 30 percent of corporate Malaysia, then we'd have missed the big picture altogether.

Because there is a bigger pie out there and corporate Malaysia has to get serious about competing globally rather than to still try and decide how to divide our own little pie amongst ourselves.