Honoring Prof. Dr. Amir Bashah Ismail

I was invited to attend a dinner honoring and commemorating the retirement of my former boss Prof. Dr. Amir Bashah Ismail from the company at Holiday Villa on Tuesday night. The dinner was organised by several friends of mine who are also ex-staff and colleagues of the esteemed professor. I personally knew Prof. Amir way back in 1988 when I first started my carrier with the company.

Prof. Amir is a very technical, philosophical and religious person. Almost on daily basis, I would see him reading the Quran early in the morning in his office as I was walking to my working cubicle. He was among the senior people in the department who I felt very comfortable to work with because his attitude towards people is always constructive.
I say this because when I first started, I did not have a Master's degree let alone a PhD degree like him but I can actually feel that those qualification did not really matter to him. In fact, he was among the first few people I knew that encouraged me to further my knowledge and supported me when I wanted to pursue my MSc degree.

My first overseas trip with him was to India in 1990. In fact, that was the first international conference of which Dr.Amir and myself jointly published a paper and presented it at the conference. We were also in many other business trips together and I still remember during one trip to Bangkok with him where he carried a 'Tupperware' with food inside to a restaurant as supplement for his meal to the curiosity of the Thai hosts.
The reason, well he is very strict in terms of getting halal food and the tupperware is his version on n-1 for getting halal food! Like any other bosses I used to have, Dr Amir has many positive attitude albeit there were times when I kinda feel a bit confused on his behaviour. I guess a good hearted and smart person like Dr Amir has his bad days also like the rest of us human.


But nonetheless, those are actually the kind of things that shape us as a human when we grow older. 19 Years has past since I know this man and all I can say is that he is not only an asset to the company but also to the whole country. His knowledge in power system engineering is not easily surpassed by many and I am very sure that his service is still needed in many universities as well as consultants in Malaysia.


In his speech during the dinner, Dr Amir mentioned about how thankful he is to the company. He said that the retirement benefit was good as he is now in the 1M club and does not have any debt to worry. However, he still believes that he can contribute and at the moment he is considering few offers already on his table.


There were also several speeches made by friends reminiscing his contributions to the company. I was also asked to talk and I did tell the audience our experience together when we were in India. But, I was also asked by the organiser to be the official photographer for the night and hence my speech was not well prepared...

In summary,the dinner was a very good and nicely organised. I sincerely feel that Dr Amir Bashah should be treated with a much bigger occasion befitting his contribution to the company. If anything, I will always respect him as my boss, brother and also as a devout Muslim who really knows the real purpose of why he is being created. May Allah bless him always...Amin..

Unsuccessful Try...

How do you make a still object looks moving in a photo ? The answer is zooming and longer shutter speed timing. I was trying this technique late Sunday afternoon just before sunset near the Gerbang Utama roundabout in BJ. Well actually, this was not on purpose as we were driving back from Ikano and as we were reaching the roundabout, the view of the sunset suddenly caught my attention. I quickly pull over by the roadside and looking for a good angle for composing the frame. I found one location behind a tree with the view of the sunset partially blocked, ideal for the snapshot format I was trying to compose. However, my tripod was not with me and this was not good because the view I was about to compose requires at least 0.5s shutter speed. Without a tripod, it's very difficult to have a consistent focus and steady image. Despite this setback, I tried few snaps on the zooming effect and only 1 photo I think deserved to be shown here albeit a sub-standard one.


The view without the zooming technique will be something like this..


Insha'allah, I will give it another try once the opportunity arises. Only this time I must remember to bring my tripod along...

Dinner & Appreciation Night

On Saturday night, me together with my other half attended the IEEE Malaysia Annual Appreciation & Award Night 2007 at Blue Wave Hotel Shah Alam. We were actually occupying the table bought by MNC-CIGRE as a kind support to the IEEE-Power Engineering Malaysia which last year had also brought a table during the MNC-CIGRE Person of the Year Award dinner.


The dinner was supposed to start at 8.30PM after arrivals of VIPs but when we arrived there at 8.10PM, there were still not many people inside the banquet hall and in fact we were actually among the early birds ! This situation might have happened because it was actually raining outside and probably many guests were still on their way at that time. Nonetheless, at about 9.00PM, the dinner finally started, half an hour later than scheduled time.


There were several VIPs joining the dinner including Dato' Aishah Rauf and husband, Dato' Zainal Azirun and wife, Dr. Philip Tan and several professors from the local Universities. The table purchased by MNC-CIGRE was supposed to be occupied by ten people. However, due to a last minute change, four seats were unoccupied. Nonetheless, this was not a big problem since the dinner was a seven course Chinese and some of us were really hungry especially that we have to wait until 9.30PM before we can start eating. There was a brief dinner presentation show done by the hotel staff using the 'Beauty and Beast' popular song ' Be our Guest' just before the dinner and I thought this is something catchy and unexpected.


The outgoing Chairperson for the IEEE Malaysia, Prof. Dr. Norman Mariun of UPM gave the opening remarks and later announced that the new chairperson for this year would be Prof. Dr. Mohd Nasir Taib from UiTM. While the guests were having their dinner, the organiser made several announcements honoring the IEEE members who have contributed to this society and presented them with token of appreciation in the form of plaques. There were also several rounds of lucky draws but so unfortunately, my other half and me were not lucky enough :-) Perhaps, next year our luck could be better insha'allah. Oh yeah, sitting with us on the same table were Sharifuddin and wife, Zamri from SIEMEN and Dr Aznan the technicall adviser to the CEO. Only Zamri got something to bring back from the Lucky draw to the delight of his wife definitely !

Trengganu Kite !...Black & White

While in KT, I took at least 300 photos in color. However, I converted few of them in monochrome and some came out to be quite nice. The pictures include images of the Masjid Terapung in Ibai, portrait of my nephew and also Gondai Jr having a splash at the swimming pool. Here they are for your viewing pleasure...

Trengganu Kite !...Sightseeing Day

One thing that I noticed during this trip was that there were so many cars with Singaporean plate numbers. I was told by the hotel reception staff that the hotel was fully booked especially with the Singaporean Malays as they also took advantage of the long holidays in the republic. On Sunday morning after Subuh prayer, I was looking through the glass window overlooking the South China Sea and suddenly noticed that the sun was about to rise. I quickly gathered my camera and told my other half that I want to go to the beach immediately to capture the morning views. These are what I captured through my lenses.


As it was still very early in the morning, there was practically nobody on the beach except for the kampung folks and several local fishermen going about their business. I also brought along my tripod and set it up quickly for a quick photography session alone by the beach.


Our Sunday was quite hectic with visits to relatives and sight seeings around KT town with my sister in law acting as our tourist guide. Although we have been going to the Masjid Terapung near Ibai for so many times, this is one place that I never fail to visit each time we are in KT. I took many photos using this beautiful mosque as the main object and one of them was used as the background for Gondai Jr's photo on the run.


I also tried to snap some night photos of Masjid Terapung but accidentally I forgot to reset the exposure compensation of the 350D and hence result in slightly overexposed image.


The late evening photo of the masjid however, is quite OK and enough to compensate for the failure of its night scene taken earlier.



Another favorite place especially for my other half's shopping need is Pasar Payang. This is one place that I think all women especially of the Malay origin would love to patronize as many shops here carry latest design of silk fabrics way below the price offered in KL. A bit of bargaining and negotiating skills are required here if you want to get a good deal. Speaking the local dilect will definitely help but we left the bargaining work to my sister in law as she is very good at it. However please be warned that this place is always overcrowded especially during holidays and with such a poor ventilation system one can get exhausted and dehydrated pretty quickly, physically and financially :-))


We also spent sometimes at the newly open Trengganu Equestrian Club (TER) near Ibai about 3 minute walking distance from the Masjid Terapung. Near the entrance gate of the TER, many locals espscially kids were seen engaged in the 'miniaturised speed bike' race. I have seen this type of small motorbike in KL and I was totally awed at how fast this little bike can actually run. I also feel that the standard of living among the Trengganu folks has probably gone up in the last couple of years to allow them to engage with such an expensive recreational activity.




We visited the Muzium Negeri in Losong and enough said that although the museum is the largest in Malaysia as far as it floor coverage, there are not much artifacts on exhibit to live up to that status at present. Who knows, maybe in 2-3 years time, things could change for the better.


If anything that I find very encouraging about KT nowadays is on how well the keropok lekor business is doing. My sister in law took us to one of the delicious keropok lekor shop at Seberang Takir with the intention to buy some. Unfortunately, we were greeted with a big sign of the word 'Habis' at the entrance. I guessed the owner of the shop has in fact anticipated the rise in demand and quickly ordered a properly printed signage to get his message across to all customers !


There are so many images and memories from our latest homecoming to Trengganu that putting them in this blog would be impractical. But perhaps, the visit to my other half's ailing aunt at Seberang Takir was the most solemn but nonetheless very meaningful to us. We just hope and pray to Allah for her well being and perhaps we should be able to visit her again next time in much better health and condition...Alhamdullilah..Amin

Trengganu Kite !...The Journey

The last time we made our annual 'homecoming' to Trengganu was during Aidilfitri of 2005. My other-half was born and raised in Trengganu before she left home to enroll at TKC and later to the states for her degree. Since both of my in-laws have already passed away more than a decade now, our trips to Trengganu have reduced in frequency over the years for the obvious reason. Nonetheless, we always try our best to make it a point to come back at least once a year so that our children will be able to know part of their roots and also, to strengthen the family ties among my other-half's siblings and their children.

We made our journey on Saturday morning on the eve of Chinese New Year celebration. As expected, the traffic was a bit busy especially along the KL-Karak highway enroute to the Genting Sempah Tunnel. You can see how busy was the traffic in the photo shown here.

Luckily, the weather on Saturday morning was a bit wet thus the journey was quite pleasant and not too hot and sticky especially at this time of the year. We made few stops along the way and noticeably the rest areas along the East Coast Expressway were also crowded with people heading towards the east coast.
At the rest area, we took the opportunity to stretch out from the tiring journey and especially so for Gondai Jr. You can see how happy he is getting out of the car and jumping and running around with joy !
After few more hours on the road and also a few more stops along the way, we finally made it to the Grand Continental Hotel in the middle of KT close to 7.00PM. GCH will be our home for the next three nights. This is probably our most preferred hotel in KT as its location is perfectly suitable for us. The family room rate is quite reasonably priced on top of its spaciousness and most importantly we only have to get one room for the whole family. The hotel is also located very near to the beach and the surrounding neighbourhood is mixed with modern buildings and also old kampung houses. In fact just behind the hotel, there still exists one dilapidated house reminiscing the old nelayan village where it was once before. I managed to capture this scene of which a modern building stands side-by-side with an abandoned home. The image is almost surreal as the photo was taken using morning sun and clear sky as the light source.



Oh yeah..we also prefer this hotel because it has a small swimming pool on the third floor much to the delight of the kids. Well nowadays, only my son will really enjoy this facility as his three othe sisters are already teenagers and prefer not to swim in the public as they used to be doing not so many years ago. Time really flies. For all you know, the children are already becoming young adults and soon, they will also leave home. The pool was facing the sea and as you sit by the pool, you can actually feel the sea breeze blowing into your face. What a delightful place to be !

Long Holidays and off to Trengganu

We will be taking a break this CNY in Trengganu. I don't see that I can write while on the road and for everybody reading this blog, Happy Chinese New Year,and insha'allah I will start writing back and possibly with some holiday news from Trengganu once I am home again next week...

Sweet 35 !

Today our unit celebrated the birthday of Mr Hasbi a.k.a Zinedine Zidane in the office. Although not everyone was there, I thot the celebration was very joyful and full of graciousness. Our Chief Engineer himself read the doa' and what a touching and memorable doa' it was. Today it was a chocolate cake treat with some nachos and keropok. Understandably, two of our members are away thus the budget to have a big party was slightly unachievable. Yeah, but what is important is not the food but the thots :-)


Hasbi has been with us for over a year now. He is known to be 'fatherly' like, cool, composed and collected and nicely fit as the trusted and dependable first-officer. So far I have never seen him losing his temper nor I have I observed him to act against his fitting image. What I observed though that he is losing his hair rapidly by the day and now the image is changing to a more mature and contemplative individual.



To Hasbi, please celebrate this birthday with the thought that each passing day is a blessing from Allah. As we grow, we are nearer to Allah than to our own selves. Remember, rumah kata pergi, kubur kata mari..."Happy 35th Birthday"

Towards Better System Reliability and Security

While I was attending the MDP Course at MIM last week, I received a message from the office of the VP that I am invited to present a paper at our division Technical Conference on 13 February to be held in Holiday Villa Subang on behalf of my Chief Engineer and also the department. Knowing that I won't be back to the office not until last Friday, I felt a bit of uneasy on the prospect of giving a presentation without much preparation. However, since the 'message' came from the very top of the division, there's not really much choice for me except to do it. Having done so many presentations before, I didn't really feel apprehensive about the audience but I am a bit particular in the beginning about the topic which was chosen for me to deliver. I was asked to deliver a presentation on the topic of 'Security and Reliability' and this topic is very dear to me as it's actually my job and I know this topic could
be 'heavy' for many who are unfamiliar with the nitty -gritty of power system planning. I was also subtly hinted to make a 'simple' presentation as possible as the audience will be mixed and was asked to send the copy of the presentation by last Thursday, while I was still at MIM.


















Thus, the ball started to roll quickly when I called up my trusted assistants to gather the necessary resources and to come up with a 40-minute presentation material by Thursday morning. They did a good job and completed the task on time as I managed to send the file to the organiser,albeit I need to do some changes to suit the theme of the conference.

Today was the day for me to present the material. I was asked to present the paper at 11.30am but only managed to start my speech at 12.30pm, an hour behind schedule because of improper control of time by earlier presenters. Actually I did a massive 'overhaul' of the original materials prepared by my team and I was quite happy with it having given so much thoughts on what will be the best message to deliver.

I renamed my presentation to 'Towards Better Transmission Reliability and Security' with the emphasis on the processes and procedures already develop to tackle this
issue at our department. I started my presentation by asking the audience ' Why do we need better reliability and security' not expecting anyone to answer but rather for everyone to gathertheir thoughts. Well to me, we need better reliability and security for the following reasons.





















1. Meeting Statutory Requirement
2. Meeting Stakeholders Satisfaction
3. Maintaining Good Image and Credibility
4. Improving Company’s ‘Bottom line’
5. Securing our Presence & Relevance
6. Setting the Footprint for Future Growth
7. Foundation for Going Global


I also followed up with another question on ' How to achieve the above?' and provide them with the following answers.


1. Ensuring Adherence to Statutory Requirements and Limits
2. Balancing Cost and Reliability
3. Good Internal Processes
4. Continuous Innovation
5. Continuous Staff Competency Improvement
6. Sensitive to Surrounding Changes

Having said and deliberated the above, I proceeded in highlighting the 'importance' of understanding the so-called 'statutory requirements' and showed the audience some major principles that need to be followed and adhered to. I didn't realise that I have taken more than the time allocated for me until the session chairman politely asked me to wrap-up. In my concluding remark, I stressed the importance of having a
structured maintenance program in the transmission division and as much as possible to avoid any ad-hoc planning as this has great impact on the operation planning and thus the company's bottom-line.

I think I have generated some interest among the more senior audience judging on the questions that was asked to me during Q&A session. Alhamdullilah, I managed to answer those questions and hopefully that have provided them with some insight of how professionally and dedicated my department conduct our duty to achieve the company's objectives.


















My participation in the conference ended after lunch at slightly after two. I really hope that my presentation has opened up many eyes on the importance of having proper processes and understanding the role of the company in meeting the stakeholders
expectation. Only through understanding of these key principles that we can channel our energy towards realising a better transmission in this beloved nation of ours.

Jangan Mengeluh...

Sahabat baik saya menghantar peringatan ini untuk saya melalui email. Saya rasa elok kalau saya muatkan di dalam blog ini untuk tatapan semua....

JANGAN MENGELUH ...........
Kita selalu Bertanya....................dan Al-Quran sudah menjawabnya.................

KITA BERTANYA : KENAPA AKU DIUJI?
QURAN MENJAWAB
"Apakah manusia itu mengira bahawa mereka dibiarkan saja mengatakan; "Kami telah beriman," ("I am full of faith to Allah") sedangkan mereka tidak diuji? Dan sesungguhnya Kami telah menguji org2 yg sebelum mereka, maka sesungguhnya Allah mengetahui org2 yg benar dan, sesungguhnya Dia mengetahui org2 yg dusta."
-Surah Al-Ankabut ayat 2-3

KITA BERTANYA : KENAPA AKU TAK DAPAT APA YG AKU IDAM-IDAMKAN?

QURAN MENJAWAB
"Boleh jadi kamu membenci sesua tu padahal ia amat baik bagimu, dan boleh jadi pula kamu menyukai sesuatu, padahal ia amat buruk bagimu, Allah mengetahui sedang kamu tidak mengetahui."
- Surah Al-Baqarah ayat 216

KITA BERTANYA : KENAPA UJIAN SEBERAT INI?
QURAN MENJAWAB
"Allah tidak membebani seseorang itu melainkan sesuai dengan kesanggupannya."
- Surah Al-Baqarah ayat 286

KITA BERTANYA : KENAPA RASA FRUST?

QURAN MENJAWAB
"Jgnlah kamu bersikap lemah, dan jgnlah pula kamu bersedih hati, padahal kamulah org2 yg paling tinggi darjatnya, jika kamu org2 yg beriman."
- Surah Al-Imran ayat 139

KITA BERTANYA : BAGAIMANA HARUS AKU MENGHADAPINYA?

QURAN MENJAWAB
"Wahai orang-orang yang beriman! Bersabarlah kamu (menghadapi segala kesukaran dalam mengerjakan perkara-perkara yang berkebajikan), dan kuatkanlah kesabaran kamu lebih daripada kesabaran musuh, di medan perjuangan), dan bersedialah (dengan kekuatan pertahanan di daerah-daerah sempadan) serta bertaqwalah (be fearfull of Allah The Almighty) kamu kepada Allah supaya, kamu berjaya (mencapai kemenangan)."

KITA BERTANYA : BAGAIMANA HARUS AKU MENGHADAPINYA?

QURAN MENJAWAB
"Dan mintalah pertolongan (kepada Allah) dengan jalan sabar dan mengerjakan sembahyang; dan sesungguhnya sembahyang itu amatlah berat kecuali kepada orang-orang yang khusyuk"
- Surah Al-Baqarah ayat 45

KITA BERTANYA : APA YANG AKU DAPAT DRPD SEMUA INI?
QURAN MENJAWAB
"Sesungguhnya Allah telah membeli dari org2 mu'min, diri, harta mereka dengan memberikan syurga utk mereka... ?
- Surah At-Taubah ayat 111

KITA BERTANYA : KEPADA SIAPA AKU BERHARAP?
QURAN MENJAWAB
"Cukuplah Allah bagiku, tidak ada Tuhan selain dari Nya. Hanya kepadaNya aku bertawakkal."
- Surah At-Taubah ayat 129

KITA BERKATA : AKU TAK DAPAT TAHAN!!!

QURAN MENJAWAB
"... ..dan jgnlah kamu berputus asa dr rahmat Allah. Sesungguhnya tiada berputus asa dr rahmat Allah melainkan kaum yg kafir."
- Surah Yusuf ayat 12

One Cool Gadget!

I was an astronomy buff, well still is unfortunately, since many years back. My first telescope was a reflector type (cheap optic with no computer control) and with that telescope I was able to see for the first time, the moon craters. Later, I upgraded my telescope into a small, computerised scope called MeadeETX -70AT and with that the view of the moon was even clearer and better. However, the 70mm scope was not good enough for me as I was venturing into deep space objects such as the nebulas, galaxies as well as the nearby planets such as Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus. Sometimes in 2001 I sold off my ETX70 to a friend and later bought the Meade ETX125-AT costing US$899 and that is still my telescope until today. With that scope, I saw Saturn rings, Orion Nebulae, Jupiter and many other objects. I also did a bit of astrophotography back then and captured many beautiful objects of the heavenly sky but so unfortunately, I lost all the files due to a corrupted portable hard-disk.

Yesterday afternoon after returning back from a disastrous golf tournament, I suddenly felt like watching the night sky again now that the weather is getting hot and the sky is getting clearer from the thick cloud. I also wanted to know what is the latest gadget on astronomy that is worth a look and sure enough, I found this in the Internet. In case any of you is interested, the product is called Celestron Sky Scout Personal Planetarium and here is some detail of the new gadget.

Product Description

From the Manufacturer
The SkyScout is a revolutionary handheld device that uses advanced GPS technology
with point and click convenience to identify thousands of stars,planets,constellations and more.

Identify
Simply point the SkyScout at any star in the sky and click the target button. The SkyScout will tell you what object you are looking at.

Locate
To locate a star or planet, select the object's name from the menu and follow the directional arrows through the viewfinder. SkyScout tells you when you are on target. It's that easy!

Learn
Once you have targeted an object the real fun begins. The SkyScout includes entertaining and educational audio and text information, including facts, trivia, history and mythology about our most popular celestial objects. A fun learning tool for all ages, theSkyScout personal planetarium puts the knowledge of an expert astronomer in the palm of your hand.

SkyScout features
Identifies celestial objects with the click of a button.
Locates over 6,000 stars, planets and constellations from built-in celestial
database and provides scientific information for each object. Provides comprehensive text and audio descriptions providing history, mythology and other entertaining information for the most popular objects.
Tonight's Highlights: a customized list of the 20 best objects to view for your
exact date, time and location anywhere in the world.
Constellation lessons: if the star you identify or locate is part of a constellation
like the Big Dipper, you can actually take a guided tour through all the stars in that constellation and even see an onscreen map of the constellation.

Built-in field guide includes:
Introduction to astronomy: a six part audio lesson on the origin and history of astronomy
Glossary of terms: text defining popular astronomy terms including planets, comets, galaxies and more
Great Astronomers: text bios on some of the world's greatest astronomers including Galileo, Einstein and Copernicus
Man-made space objects: text description of some of the coolest objects man has
sent into space including the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Space Shuttle
Comet guide: text descriptions about history's most famous comets including Halley's Comet and Comet Hale-Bop
SD card slot: for optional Sky Tour audio presentations that provide hours of entertainment on a variety of topics
USB port: allows database to be updated with new objects as they are discovered, comets, etc.
Simple enough for all ages: just turn it on and it's ready to use
Built-in help menu: includes a quick start instruction guide for using the SkyScout
Bring it anywhere: compact and light design makes it easy to carry and
durable construction makes it safe for rugged environments
Backed by Celestron's 2-year warranty

Cool isn't it ! The price is about US$399. I contacted one of the vendors in US for this and here is their response.

Thank you for your interest in our
products. We do apologize, however, our manufacturer's will not allow us to ship any telescopes outside of the United States. The warranty on these products will become void as soon as it leaves our borders. We do recommend searching for the home page of the manufacturer you need. They will have a list of international distributors on their website that you can contact for their products.

We can ship most of our spotting scopes and all of our astronomy binoculars out of the country. If you are interested in any of these, please let us know and we would
be happy to help you out.

Thank you again for your interest in our products and have a great day.

Best Regards,

Well,so much with the world without borders. Looks like that either we have to go to the states or wait until the local agent get it for us and with of course, a very much inflated price!

Morning Views of Bukit Jelutong

Early Saturday morning, my other half and me were on our way to Ali's Corner for a quick breakfast before continuing with our weekly grocery shopping at the nearby shop. As I was negotiating the round-about at Persiaran Singgahsana, my attention was struck by the beautiful morning sun rising in the east, slightly blocked by the Guthrie Pavilion. The view was breathtaking and I quickly made a nine o'clock turn to the unused road leading to Jalan Jendela to capture the moment with my camera, which happened to be with me. These are some photos that I took for your appreciation.





Almost week earlier on Sunday, we also spent few minutes in front of Masjid Negeri Shah Alam and snapped few photos just before Maghreb time. As the weather was a bit overcast, I could not get enough shutter speed for comfort as I did not bring my tripod. Nonetheless, I tried my luck and managed to capture 1 or 2 photos which IMHO, kinda caught my eyes.








As usual, my other half was the obedient assistance and while I was busy snapping, she was busy reading !

What Does it Take ?

The final day of the Management Programme started with a good note at least to me as I managed to join the morning breakfast prepared by the organiser with the rest of the participants. The Friday morning rush hour was no different than any other weekdays as it took me almost an hour an a half to arrive. I made it a point to tell the organiser that for Phase 3, please use the company's conference venue in UNITEN to avoid this non-productive hours spent on the road. I sincerely hope that they got my message loud and clear.

The class started with a question asked by Tuan Syed Hamid Al-Habshi, the course instructor. The question was "what does it take to be a world class company?". To answer this question, Tuan Syed played a video presentation for about 20 minutes and asked us to observe key points highlighted in the video. Well, I did not write down the name of the person in that video but enough to say that he is a Caucasian from South Africa. His video content is superb though and I managed to list down the seven criteria for becoming a world class company.

1. Differentiation - Every successful company today has some sort of uniqueness in their product. Take Coca-cola for instance.

2. Focus - A successful company always gives a lot of focus in their product to maintain an edge over the others.

3. Thinking Global - To be successful, always have the global target no matter how small the company is. IMHO, this is an understatement. We must not be content with the'juara kampung' attitude as the real challenge is in this small planet but not limited to our backyard only.

4. Perpetual Spirit of Innovation - I totally agree with this idea. By right, we should have the constant paranoia to improve in every aspect be it in reduction in operating cost or maybe just to improve our existing work processes. The Japanese know this very well indeed as they have the word 'kaizen' to illustrate it in their language. For now, I can't think of any word in Malay that could explain this.

5. Sensitive Radar System - Knowing the changing environment and people's changing behavior are critical for any company's survival. Strategy must always be reviewed and revised to cope with change. Microsoft for instance totally dropped out their plan for Microsoft Net when they realise that the era of Internet is on the horizon and quickly strategy's their business in the Internet related software.

6. Retention of Talent - This is what I feel the most important point for any company's to adopt. Good talents are best to be kept and nurtured for they are the future leaders of the company. The key is retention and NOT recruitment.

7. Social & Environmental Responsibilities - For some reasons, I do feel this is a bit difficult in the Malaysian context as companies within the GLCs are always subjected if not haunted by the political masters and subjected to all sort of regulations. I wonder it's the same for other private companies or IPPs.


To compete with the reputable global companies, one must at least achieved the 5x10x10 target, which means 5% ROR for ten consecutive years, and 10% annual growth rate. Impossible?...well not because this number is minimum compared to companies like INTEL, Coca-Cola, 3M and Microsoft.

Later, we were asked to derive and list down the company's so-called Strategic Priorities after much discussion and deliberation amongst the five subgroups in the class. The priorities were listed in a 'tilted Pyramid" format as shown in the picture.


Out of so many visions, contradicts, strategies and plans, we finally managed to nail-down the most important things that we believe can be done fast and without requiring large budget request. We were also asked to come up with a project to address the strategic initiative or plan and this assignment is due in three month time. My group has appointed me as the convener and we are to develop a kind of Web-Portal for members of the MDP2 to upload or download any information on management and business, a kind of web-based resource center for MDP2.


The final act of the day was...showtime!...we were divided into three groups and our 3 final assignments were; to tell a success story of the company in the future as envisaged in our visions complete with photos and animations,to write a lyrics and sing the song in class, and the third one was to act as in a drama, with the theme of the company already being successful. My group was assigned to write the lyrics and we did not do a great job for this as understandably, writing a song is not exactly a child's play. Nonetheless, we did what we have to do and complete the task albeit not to our satisfaction.

At about 5.25pm, the MDP programme is officially over. I personally thanked Tuan Syed for the class and hopefully we can meet again in a different occasion...Alhamdulillah.