Wahid to corporate leaders: Have clear-cut plan, coherent vision
KUALA LUMPUR: A clear-cut delivery and succession plan is key for the success of any transformation exercise, be it national or corporate.
Maybank’s corporate transformation plan ensured that the financial services group maintained its market share and not lose out to CIMB Bank and Public Bank, said Permodalan Nasional Bhd group chairman Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar, who was former Maybank president and chief executive officer.
A clear vision of where to be and how to get there, and leadership by example, had helped as well, he added.
“Although we were the market leader at the time, our growth rate was slow and we could have slipped to the No. 3 position at any time,” he said during a panel discussion at the Global Transformation Forum, here, yesterday.
Maybank is now among the top five banks in the Asean region, with total assets of more than US$150 billion (RM663.75 billion).
In order to achieve their transformation targets, Wahid advised corporate leaders today to guide their organisation.
“Even then, complacency can set in and, thus, from time to time, there is a need to set a new (target).”
Wahid was also involved with the government’s transformation programme after he left the bank to take up a cabinet position.
“Key performance indicators (KPIs) are important to measure success and sustainability,” he said, adding that a succession plan was also necessary.
One of the questions put forward by Khazanah Research Institute managing director Datuk Charon Wardini Mokhzani, who moderated the session, was what would be the scenario if countries were run by billionaires.
Billionaires, said Wahid, could transform economies, but they would first need to enter politics and secure the public’s mandate.
At the same event, Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) chief executive officer Datuk Sri Idris Jala said Malaysia was the only country in the world to have self-imposed limitations of not borrowing more than 55 per cent of the country’s gross domestic products (GDP).
“If the world were to have that law, we won’t have the situation like in Greece,” said Idris, in reference to the European country’s high sovereign debt, which in 2015 had ballooned to 176 per cent of its GDP.
“Before the National Transformation Programme (NTP), which was Pemandu’s first mandate, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of private investment was at 5.5 per cent,” said Idris.
“After the NTP, however, the CAGR of private investment more than doubled, which is a phenomenal growth.
“The trick to growing the economy, therefore, is to allow the private sector to invest in the economy, and that’s what’s happening in Malaysia right now.”