Have the hunger to learn
What do you want to accomplish in the next five years? Working in BSN is challenging. There are many new ideas that my boss is always bring up to us. BSN is not a top-notch bank in terms of technology. We started as a post office savings bank, being run like a government agency. Now under our current CEO, we are looking into catching up and being more like a commercial bank, to be more relevant.
What I want to accomplish in the next five years is to bring the bank to another level so that people would not look at BSN as a government bank. We don’t want to be seen as a bank that gets funding from the government. We want to let customers know when they bank with us, we are on par with other commercial banks.
Best piece of advice you ever got on your career. The denial concept. I had a boss from Hong Kong who always tells me that he would employ people who make mistakes. When people make mistakes, the others (mostly) do not repeat them. So when that person comes to an organisation, he/she would require less training. That is something quite interesting.
Most-admired business leader? Why? I’ve got a few. Google, Chrysler and Steve Jobs. Jobs is someone who’s very brash and knew what he wanted. His management style was very autocratic because he was so confident of himself. Not everyone can do that and be successful. The thing about him was that he copied. Not all the ideas came from him. The touch screen didn’t come from him, it was actually another company that invented it but he saw the potential and was able to incorporate that into his product.
How do you stay abreast of issues affecting your industry? I read a lot and talk to people, exchanging ideas all the time. My boss always encourages the younger employees to read. Another thing is, you really have to look at everything that is relevant to the industry, not only on regulations and by-laws, but also the technological advances. Talking to vendors is very important to keep abreast of all the applications and software that are used by other banks.
A must-read for every business owner/ manager is… First, Break All the Rules by Gallup. They did research on that by two guys called Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. When a person in an organisation hires someone, look at their talents, not their weaknesses. A lot of leaders try to correct the weaknesses of their subordinate. What they should focus on is to identify their strengths and maximise them.