MUSNAH KAH TNB AKHIRNYA DI TELAN IPPs?

Pengeluar Tenaga Bebas (IPPs)

Dilulus terbit pada Saturday, July 26 @ 08:48:57 MYT

"Oleh : Lord Azaab

Sebenarnya saya merasa sedikit hairan kenapa media berbahasa melayu jarang menyentuh isu ini. Setelah sekian lama Pengeluar Tenaga Bebas (IPPs) menikmati keuntungan berlipat kali ganda, nilai cukai yang rendah serta penerima subsidi gas terbanyak. Kita seolah-olah lupa bahawa, subsidi kepada

IPPs ini juga sebenarnya melibatkan wang kita sebagai rakyat Malaysia. Kenapa kerajaan begitu cepat bertindak untuk menaikkan harga petrol & amp; diesel? Kurang 12 jam dari pengumuman penstukturan semula subsidi yang dibuat pada 4 June lalu, harga petrol/diesel sudah meningkat lebih 40% di stesyen-stesyen minyak.

Bertambah hairan apabila cadangan kerajaan untuk mengenakan Levi Keuntungan Luar Biasa (Windfall Profit Levy) kepada IPPs masih belum ada khabar berita.Menurut Laporan Kewangan Tahunan Petronas, IPPs telah menerima subsidi gas terbesar negara dengan jumlahnya sebanyak RM8.1 Billion pada tahun lalu.

Ini menjadikan jumlah keseluruhan yang di terima oleh IPPs semenjak tahun 1997 ialah RM35.7 Billion.

 

Bilangan IPPs [1]

IPPs ditubuhkan untuk membantu TNB membekalkan tenaga electrik selepas berlaku beberapa siri ganguan bekalan yang besar di sekitar tahun 1990an. Menurut laporan Suruhanjaya Tenaga di dalam laman web rasmi mereka, untuk tahun 2003, Malaysia memiliki 23 buah IPPs di seluruh negara.Antara IPPs terbesar (selain dari subsidiary TNB) ialah YTL Power yang mempunyai plant di Paka dan Pasir Gudang, Genting Sanyen di Kuala Langat dan Segari Energy Ventures (subsidiary Malakoff) di Lumut. Malakoff juga mempunyai kepentingan sebanyak 90% di dalam Stesyen Janakuasa Tanjung Bin, Johor dengan kapasiti 2100 MW.

4 June 2008 : Pengumuman penstukturan subsidi oleh PM [2]

Semasa PM mengumumkan penstukturan semula subsidi itu lebih kurang jam 4pm itu. Ada 2 perkara yang menarik perhatian saya.

1. PENSTRUKTURAN SUBSIDI PETROL DAN DIESEL DI PAM

Berkuatkuasa, 5 Jun 2008, harga petrol akan meningkat sebanyak 78 sen dan diesel sebanyak RM1.00 setiap liter. Harga baru petrol dan diesel di pam adalah RM2.70 seliter dan RM2.58 seliter.

2. SUMBANGAN SYARIKAT PENJANA TENAGA BEBAS (IPP)

IPP dijangka menjana keuntungan lebih daripada pulangan pasaran. Selaras dengan penstrukturan semula subsidi bagi gas, Kerajaan telah memutuskan untuk melaksanakan peruntukkan di bawah Akta Levi Keuntungan Berlebihan 1998 (Windfall Profit Levy Act 1998), ke atas IPP, sebagai sumbangan mereka

terhadap kenaikan kos bahan api untuk menjana tenaga elektrik. Kuantum bagi levi itu adalah 30 peratus daripada lebihan pulangan aset pada nilai threshold melebihi 9 peratus berdasarkan akaun mereka yang diaudit.

Perkara (1), tidak perlulah kita bincangkan disini, susah ada banyak laporan dan ulasan mengenainya. Perkara(2), insyaAllah saya akan kupas semudah mungkin.

Berapa keuntungan IPPs? [3]

Sila rujuk rajah dibawah.

p/s : tiada pengesahan mengenai angka-angka diatas. Ia cuma dilaporkan oleh Persatuan IPPs Malaysia (Penjana Bebas) tanpa sebarang sokongan Audit Luaran.

Berapa harga gas yang dijual oleh Petronas kepada IPPs?

Sila lihat rajah dibawah

Menurut laporan yang dikeluarkan oleh Petronas. Gas dijual kepada IPPs dengan harga yang sangat murah. Ada pihak mengatakan, harga gas yang dijual oleh petronas kepada IPPs sebagai “tidak masuk akal”.

Harga pasaran bagi gas asli ialah dilingkungan RM63.17/mmbtu (juta British Thermal unit). Sedangkan Petronas menjual kepada IPPs pada harga RM6.40 MMBTU sebelum dinaikkan kepada RM14.31/mmbtu. Ini bermakna, IPP masih menikmati subsidi sebanyak RM48.86/mmbtu walaupun selepas harga

disturkturkan semula.

Jadi, tidak hairanlah IPPs adalah penerima subsudi gas terbesar negara. Dan,tidak hairan jikalau mereka mendapat keuntungan yang berganda saban tahun.Untuk rekod, 20% gas yang dibekalkan ke semenanjung (termasuk ke IPP) adalah di import dari Indonesia.Gas yang belum diproses itu diimport dari Lapangan West Natuna, Indonesia itu disalurkan melalui platformDuyung di luar pantai Terengganu dan disalurkan ke Gas Processing Plant(GPP) Kerteh sebelum dibekalkan kepada pengguna (termasuk IPPs) di Semenanjung Malaysia melalui sistem pipeline yang dinamakan Peninsular GasUtility System (PGU System).

Ini bermakna, Petronas membeli 20% gas dari Indonesia dengan harga pasaran,tetapi terpaksa menjual sebahagiannya dengan harga yang sangat-sangat murah kepada IPPs.

Gas yang belum diproses itu di import dari Lapangan West Natuna, Indonesia itu disalurkan melalui platform Duyung di luar pantai Terengganu dan disalurkan ke Gas Processing Plant (GPP) Kerteh sebelum dibekalkan kepada pengguna (termasuk IPPs) di Semenanjung Malaysia melalui sistem pipeline yang dinamakan Peninsular Gas Utility System (PGU System). Jadi, di dalam urus niaga ini, mengikut perkiraan saya,Petronas mengalamikerugian. Ia juga bermaksud, Petronas, kerajaan dan rakyat terpaksa menyerapharga gas yang tinggi untuk dibekalkan kepada IPPs. Secara tidak langsung, hasil kepada Petronas, kerajaan (dan rakyat) juga akan menurun.

Apa itu windfall profit levy? [4]

Di dalam bahasa mudah, windfall itu membawa maksud perumpaan bahasa melayu iaitu durian runtuh.Berapa wang rakyat dapat diselamatkan jika levy ini berkuatkuasa?

Menurut Unit Perancang Ekonomi (EPU) Jabatan Perdana Menteri, sebanyakRM600 juta dapat dikumpulkan jikalau levy ini berkuatkuasa.

Isu hendak menjaga kebajikan 26 juta rakyat Malaysia atau pemegang 

bond & IPPs?

Saya bukanlah seorang yang pakar untuk memperkatakan tentang systempasaran kewangan dan bond. Namum, tekanan telah diberikan oleh beberapapihak dari bank, pemengan bond dan IPP sendiri kepada pihak kerajaan agarLevy Keuntungan Berlebihan ini dikaji semula.Alasan-alasan yang diberikan oleh

sekumpulan kecil rakyat Malaysia ini ialah diantaranya, nilai bond IPPs itu akanmenurun tarafnya (derating), ganguan kepada system kewangan dan kebolehanIPP situ sendiri di dalam membayarhutang-hutang mereka dan pelbagai lagi.Diantara individu yang lantang menyuarakan isu ini ialah Ketua Executive CIMB,Datuk Seri Nazir Tun Razak. CIMB adalah pengeluar bond terbesar bagi IPPs ini.

IPPs dah untung besar, dapat banyak subsidi, berapa banyak lagi mereka mahu?

Seperti yang kita tahu sebelum ini, IPPs telah menikmati subsidi yang besar darikerajaan.Cara perniagaan yang boleh boleh saya katakana sebagai ‘no risk existing” inicukup mudah. Ini kerana, bekalan yang diberikan kepada TNB akan dibeli tidakkira sebanyak mana TNB pakai, harga bekalan bahan bakar yang dibeli lebih

murah dari harga pasaran serta cukai yang rendah. Jika dilihat dari Laporan KewanganYTL Power International 2007. Keuntungan sebelum cukai mereka adalah sebanyakRM1,296,757,000. Cukai yang dibayarkepada kerajaan (dalam & luar negara)sebanyak RM27,543,000 (selepasbeberapa pengecualian). [5]

Menurut 1 temuramah akhbar The Star dengan bekas CEO TNB, Tan Sri AniArope. Semasa perjanjian pembelian tenaga (Power Purchase Aggrement –PPA) di buat. Dia hanya diberi seperti, ini harganya, ini jumlah tenaganya dan ini jumlah tahunnya, kamu hanya perlu setuju sahaja. [6]. PPA yang berat sebelah antara IPP dan TNB itu dikatakan menjadi punca Tan Sri Ani meletak jawatan sebagai CEO TNB. Dalam temuramah tersebut, Tan Sri Ani berkata – TNB dipaksa untuk menerima harga yang ditetapkan oleh IPP

sebanyak 16 sen seunit (kWh). Jika TNB menerima harga tersebut, TNB terpaksa mengenakan harga kepada pengguna sebanyak 30 sen seunit selepas dicampur dengan beberapa kos penghantaran dan kos TNB yang lain.

Sedangkan, pada masa itu, TNB sendiri dapat mengeluarkan tenaga elektrikdengan kos 8 sen seunit dan dapat dijual kepada pengguna dengan harga 17sen seunit. Berapa agaknya gaji big-big boss IPP ini?

Dari laporan kewangan YTL Power International, imbuhan kepada pengarah pengarah syarikat mereka adalah seperti berikut adalah seperti berikut :

Dan, ini pula gaji bos-bos di TNB

Jadi, tidak hairan jika kita pernah terdengar ura-ura gaji CEO TNB hendak dinaikkan sebanyak 100%.

Penutup

Sila betulkan maklumat saya jika ada sebarang info yang tidak tepat agar pembaca artikel ini mendapat maklumat yang lebih tepat. Saya juga mengharapkan kerajaan dapat mengkaji semuala kandungan PPA agar ia lebih memberi manfaat kepada pengguna dan rakyat Malaysia.

Terima kasih.

KESATUAN DAN PERSATUAN TNB MENOLAK KEPIMPINAN DATO' SRI CHE KHALIB!

4 November 2009 : Penentangan Kesatuan dan Persatuan TNB terhadap CEO Terbaik Syarikat GLC Malaysia semakin memuncak bila mereka secara beramai-ramai telah pergi berjumpa Perdana Menteri di bangunan Parlimen hari ini. Sehubungan dengan itu, Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Abdul Razak – Perdana Menteri Malaysia telah mengadakan pertemuan tertutup dengan pemimpin Kesatuan dan Persatuan TNB yang terdiri dari TNBJOU,KPPPTNB,PETNB dan PERUNIKA di bilik mesyuarat pejabat Perdana Menteri, Tingkat 4, Bangunan Parlimen, Kuala Lumpur. Sdr Md Zamri Yasin - Presiden TNBJOU, Sdr Abu Hussin Nikmat-Presiden KPPPTNB, Sdr Abd Shukur Hassan–Yang DiPertua PETNB dan Sdr Nekmat Mohd Seh–Yang DiPertua PERUNIKA telah hadir bersama-sama dengan 27 Pegawai Utama Kesatuan dan Persatuan ke pejumpaan tersebut.

Tujuan utama perjumpaan tersebut diadakan adalah untuk mendapatkan penjelasan terperinci dari pemimpin Kesatuan Dan Persatuan TNB terhadap isi kandungan memorandum yang telah dimajukan oleh Majlis Jawatankuasa Kesatuan Dan Persatuan TNB kepada Perdana Menteri pada 23 Julai 2009. Pemimpin Kesatuan dan Persatuan TNB telah menjelaskan secara terperinci butiran kandungan memorandum yang mengandungi perkara-perkara berikut :-

1. Perlantikan orang luar mengisi jawatan tertinggi dan pertengahan (Top and middle management) di TNB.

2. Kenaikan Pangkat.

3. Tindakan Tatatertib.

4. Sistem Pengurusan Prestasi – Performance Management System (PMS).

5. ‘Outsourcing’ Dan Kerja-Kerja Kontrak.

6. Syarat-Syarat Pinjaman Yayasan TNB (YTNB).

7. Penjualan Harta Syarikat.

8. Pembatalan Usahasama Pemilikan Lombong Arang Batu Di Indonesia.

9. Penutupan Gudang Simpanan Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.

10. Isu-Isu Tertangguh

* Tuntutan Elaun Kos Sra Hidup (Cost Of Living Allowance-COLA)

* Usia Persaraan Pilihan 58 Tahun.

Pemimpin Kesatuan dan Persatuan telah meluahkan kegelisahan mereka terhadap tindak tanduk serta corak pentadbiran CEO TNB yang semakin menimbulkan masalah dalaman di TNB. Jurucakap Kesatuan Persatuan TNB telah meminta Perdana Menteri mengusahakan sesuatu yang positif sebelum masalah dalaman ini berlarutan dan mampu menjejaskan sokongan pekerja TNB terhadap kerajaan yang ada. Mereka berpendapat CEO terbaik mestilah bukan sahaja mampu menjadikan syarikat untung berbilion ringgit tetapi ianya juga mestilah mampu mengekal dan meningkatkan sokongan pekerja terhadap parti pemerintah. Apakah maknanya jika seseorang CEO itu terkenal dan popular di kaca mata korporat dan kerajaan tetapi dalam masa yang sama ianya gagal memberikan impak kepada sokongan pekerja terhadap kerajaan yang ada? Pemimpin Kesatuan dan Persatuan juga menjelaskan fakta kajian yang dilakukan oleh pengurusan TNB sendiri membuktikan sokongan pekerja TNB terhadap Dato' Sri Che Khalib telah jatuh ke paras bawah 50%. Agenda CEO syarikat GLC selain mencapai keuntungan syarikat hendaklah juga mengambilkira kepentingan nasional melalui pembentukan masyarakat pekerja yang menyokong sepenuhnya dasar-dasar negara terutamanya ketika Perdana Menteri melaungkan slogan 1 Malaysia. Pemimpin Kesatuan dan Persatuan juga mengambil contoh pendekatan bijak dan berhemah yang dilakukan ketika Dato' Sri Jamaluddin Jarjis menjadi Pengerusi TNB. Ketika itu sokongan pekerja TNB terhadap kerajaan merundum kepada kira-kira 15% sahaja kerana pengaruh parti pembangkang yang ujud di TNB.  Dato' Sri Jamaluddin Jarjis telah mengambil pendekatan berhemah dan toleran dalam menyelesaikan permasalahan dan menjaga kebajikan pekerja dan hasilnya terbukti memberi manfaat kepada kerajaan yang ada sehingga sokongan pekerja meningkat kepada hampir 100%. Semangat kerja berpasukan di TNB menjadi kukuh dan berjaya menyediakan asas dan landasan yang kukuh terhadap pembentukan syarikat pemilikan kerajaan.

Perdana Menteri turut bersama-sama dengan pimpinan Kesatuan dan Persatuan menikmati juadah sarapan pagi yang disediakan. Keprihatinan Perdana Menteri terhadap isu-isu yang dibangkitkan amat terserlah dengan memberikan ruang kepada pemimpin Kesatuan dan Persatuan meluahkan isu-isu yang dibangkitkan secara satu persatu. Perdana Menteri juga mencatitkan beberapa maklumat yang diperolehi dan memaklumkan akan meneliti isu-isu yang dibangkitkan dan menimbang tindakan sewajarnya. Kesatuan dan Persatuan TNB merakamkan penghargaan dan terima kasih terhadap Perdana Menteri atas kesudian mendengar dan berbincang mengenai isu-isu yang dibangkitkan. Semuga satu penyelesaian dapat diusahakan supaya Kesatuan dan Persatuan dapat bersama-sama menjayakan slogan 1Malaysia, 1TNB dengan kerjasama rapat pemimpin negara.

Khalib has not been approached for Petronas job!

The Star

Thursday September 3, 2009

By YAP LENG KUEN

PETALING JAYA: Just as French “Spiderman’’ Alain Robert was arrested after scaling the Petronas Twin Towers, the rumours on a successor to current Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) president and CEO Tan Sri Hassan Marican are swirling again.
Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) CEO Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohd Noh’s name has resurfaced after a nine-month silence when he was earlier speculated to be leaving TNB one year ahead of the end of his contract, possibly to join Petronas.
“I can confirm that I have not received anything (pertaining to his rumoured appointment to Petronas) and I am still the CEO of TNB,’’ Che Khalib told StarBiz late Tuesday in reply to a query.
“I am not sure why the rumours surfaced in the first place,’’ he said yesterday. “Tan Sri Hassan has and is still doing a fantastic job managing Petronas.’’

Datuk Seri Che Khalib ... ‘I have not received anything.’

On whether he had been approached at all, Che Khalib emphatically said: “No!’’
Petronas, when contacted, declined comment on such “never-ending rumours.’’
About two months ago, board members of Petronas were reported to have politely turned down a bid purportedly by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to admit key political aide Omar Mustapha Ong as a director.
Omar was reported to have defaulted on a scholarship loan agreement with Petronas two decades ago, which he has subsequently repaid. Around the same time, an online news portal had named Felda Holdings Bhd managing director Datuk Mohd Bakke Salleh as Hassan’s possible successor.
Hassan, whose contract ends next February, has indicated that he favoured an internal promotion, according to reports which cited examples of internal succession plans at Shell, ExxonMobil and British Petroleum.
However, the Prime Minister has the last say in making appointments at Petronas.

Bakun dam to be much worse than PKFZ scandal-BN boleh?

Posted by Kua Kia Soong

Dr KUA KIA SOONG is director of Suaram. He was member of parliament for Petaling Jaya from 1990 to 1995.

Highland Clearance

Nearly 50 years after independence for Sarawak, we see a comparison with the ‘Highland Clearances’ in Scotland during the 18th century when the highlanders were driven off their lands for capitalistic sheep farming.

The English did it with brutality and thoroughness through “butcher” Lord Cumberland and even obliterated the ‘wild’ Celtic mode of life.

Similarity with what is going on in Sarawak – native as wage labourer

What we have seen in Sarawak recently has the same capitalist logic, namely, to drive the indigenous peoples out of their native customary lands so that these lands can be exploited for their commercial value and the indigenous people can be “freed” to become wage labourers.

Government went ahead to displace 10,000 Dayaks

Thus, even though the accursed Bakun dam had been suspended in 1997 due to the financial crisis, the government still went ahead to displace 10,000 indigenous peoples to the Sungai Asap resettlement camp in 1998.

Well, there is a reason for this – the contract for the Sungai Asap camp had already been given out to a multinational company. After all, the whole Bakun area, which is the size of the island of Singapore and home to the indigenous peoples, had already been thoroughly logged…

All this happened while Dr Mahathir Mahathir was the prime minister. Wasn’t he a liability to the BN government then?

I was part of the fact-finding mission to Sungai Asap in 1999 and even then we could see the destruction of so many unique indigenous communities and their cultures, including the Ukit tribe.

There was only one word to describe what had been done to these indigenous peoples and their centuries-old cultures… wicked!

Banned from my own country

As a result of my concern for the indigenous peoples and the natural resources of Sarawak, I was told at Kuching airport in August 2007 that I could not enter Sarawak . So much for 1Malaysia! So much for national integration! So much for nearly 50 years of independence! I was not even welcome in my own country.

Tax Payer money amounting to 1 billion was paid to Ekran

But the contracts for the resettlement scheme and the logging are chicken feed compared to the mega-bucks to be reaped from the mega-dams. Even before the Bakun dam ever got started, Malaysian taxpayers had to compensate dam builder Ekran Bhd and the other “stakeholders” close to RM1 billion in 1997.

How much does it cost to pay our ‘mata-mata’ (police) to investigate the alleged scandalous rape of our Penan women?

The contracts from building the Bakun dam and the undersea cable run in excess of RM20 billion. Malaysian taxpayers won’t know the final cost until they are told the cost overruns when the projects have been completed.

But if the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal is anything to go by, the leaks and non-accountability all along the line will result in Malaysian taxpayers paying billions for the same kind of daylight robbery.

BN has poor monitoring mechanism – because of corruption

Likewise today, if the government cannot monitor a project in Port Klang just half an hour from Kuala Lumpur , how can they assure us that they can monitor a project deep in upriver Sarawak and through 650km of the South China Sea ?

How can we be assured that we will get to the bottom of politically-linked scandals when the Sarawak police tell us they don’t have the resources to investigate the rape of Penan women and girls?

How can we be assured that the Sarawak state government cares about its indigenous peoples and its natural resources when NGO activists are banned from entering Sarawak to investigate a part of their own country?

It makes no economic sense

In 1980, the Bakun dam was proposed with a power generating capacity of 2,400MW even though the projected energy needs for the whole of Sarawak was only 200MW for 1990.

The project was thus coupled with the proposal to build the world’s longest (650km) undersea cable to transmit electricity to the peninsula. An aluminum smelter at Sarawak’s coastal town of Bintulu was also proposed to take up the surplus energy.

In 1986, the project was abandoned because of the economic recession although the then PM Mahathir announced just before the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit) in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil that this was “proof of Malaysia ’s commitment to the environment”.

So what happened to that commitment, Mahathir?

In 1993, with the upturn in the Malaysian economy, the government once again announced the revival of the Bakun dam project. To cushion the expected protests, then Energy Minister S Samy Vellu gave Parliament a poetic description of a “series of cascading dams” and not one large dam as had been originally proposed.

Before long, it was announced that the Bakun dam would be a massive 205-metre high concrete face rockfill dam – one of the highest dams of its kind in the world – and it would flood an area the size of Singapore island.

The undersea cable was again part of the project. There was also a plan for an aluminum plant, a pulp and paper plant, the world’s biggest steel plant and a high-tension and high-voltage wire industry.

Have feasibility studies been done to see if there will be adequate local, regional and international demand for all these products?

Six years later, after the economy was battered by the Asian Financial Crisis, the government again announced that the project would be resumed albeit on a smaller scale of 500MW capacity.

Before long in 2001, the 2,400MW scale was once again proposed although the submarine cable had been shelved. Today we read reports about the government and companies still contemplating this hare-brained undersea scheme which is now estimated to cost a whopping RM21 billion!

More mega-dams to be built

The recent announcement that the Sarawak government intends to build two more mega-dams in Sarawak apart from the ill-fated Bakun dam is cause for grave concern.

Apart from the human cost, ultimately it will be the Malaysian consumers who pay for this expensive figment of Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud’s wild imagination. Indeed, enough taxpayers’ money has been wasted – Sarawak Hidro has already spent some RM1.5 billion on the Bakun dam project.

Right now, the country is being fed conflicting reports about energy demand.

There is supposed to be a 43 percent oversupply of electricity capacity in peninsula Malaysia . Experienced Bakun dam watchers will tell you such conflicting and mutually contradictory assertions have been used by the dam proponents to justify every flip flop of this misconceived project.

Apart from the economic cost and the wastage, how are investors supposed to plan for the long-term and medium term?  What is the long-term plan for Bakun? Can Bakun compete with the rest of the world or for that matter, Indonesia ?

The suggestion for aluminum smelters to take up the bulk of Bakun electricity have been mentioned ever since the conception of the Bakun dam project because they are such a voracious consumer of energy. Even so, has there ever been any proper assessment of the market viability of such a project with the cheaper operating costs in China ?

Does it matter that the co-owner of one of the smelters is none other than Cahaya Mata Sarawak (CMS) Bhd Group, a conglomerate controlled by Taib’s family business interest?

Sarawak’s tin-pot government

Clearly, Bakun energy and Sarawak ’s tin-pot governance do not give confidence to investors. First it was Alcoa, and then Rio Tinto – both giant mining multinationals – had expressed second thoughts about investing in Sarawak .

Concerned NGOs have all along called for the abandonment of this monstrous Bakun dam project because it is economically ill-conceived, socially disruptive and environmentally disastrous.

The environmental destruction is evident many miles downstream since the whole Bakun area has been logged by those who have already been paid by Sarawak Hidro.

Sg. Asap is a wicked testimony of Taib’s politics of development

The social atrophy among the 10,000 displaced indigenous peoples at Sungai Asap resettlement scheme remains the wicked testimony of the Mahathir/Taib era. The empty promises and damned lives of the displaced peoples as forewarned by NGOs in 1999 have now been borne out.

The economic viability of the Bakun dam project has been in doubt from the beginning and the announcement to build two more dams merely reflects a cavalier disregard for the indigenous peoples, more desecration of Sarawak ’s natural resources and a blatant affront to sustainable development.

When will Malaysians ever learn?

Change WE Must.

BAGAN PINANG OH BAGAN PINANG!

Ramai yg tidak percaya pengundi Bagan Pinang begitu mudah menerima lamaran UMNO/Bee End dlm pilihanraya kecil ini. Bukan lamaran UMNO/Bee End yang diterima oleh pengundi Bagan Pinang tetapi lamaran Isa Samad yang diterima oleh mereka. Hakikatnya apa yang boleh diterjemahkan oleh pengundi tersebut adalah memulangkan 'paku buah keras kepada pucuk pimpinan UMNO' dan Parti PAS dan rakan PAKATAN merupakan 'instrument' yang kebetulan memenuhi ruang atas tersebut kematian ADUN UMNO untuk berada bersama di gelanggang Bagan Pinang. Pengundi nyata mahukan Isa Samad dikembalikan ke pentas perjuangan UMNO dengan caranya sendiri termasuklah penerimaan bawaan RASUAH ke dalam UMNO. Ini hakikatnya yang mesti diterima oleh pucuk pimpinan UMNO kerana bagi pengundi Bagan Pinang yg mengundi Isa Samad, hukuman yang dijatuhkan pada Isa adalah merupakan satu konspirasi dalaman UMNO untuk menjatuhkan Isa Samad bagi membolehkan regu Muhyiddin/Najib merencanakan UMNO dan negara termasuklah membawa MB Hassan ke N9.


Hakikatnya UMNO merampas jawatan Naib Presiden dan jawatan MB dari Isa! Fikirkan dimana kedudukan Isa Samad jika beliau masih kekal selaku Naib Presiden Umno sebelum perlantikan Muhyiddin selaku Timbalan Presiden dan Timbalan Perdana Menteri. Itu pandangan masyarakat N9 yg diterjemahkan di Bagan Pinang. Sokongan 'plastik' ini bukan kerana UMNO/Bee End tetapi kerana Isa Samad. Yang pasti UMNO/Bee End sebenarnya tewas kepada Isa Samad kerana terpaksa menelan semula ludah sendiri dan terpaksa menjadikan Rasuah sebagai teknikal. Bayangkan jika satu parti besar UMNO boleh tewas atas kehendak seorang individu perasuah bernama Isa Samad maka apakah yang boleh dilakukan oleh PAS dan PAKATAN dalam PRU13? PAS & PAKATAN bukan sahaja akan menewaskan UMNO/Bee End tetapi UMNO sendiri sebenarnya akan hancur setelah 63 tahun memerintah Malaysia. Dengan syarat PAS dan PAKATAN perlu mempertingkatkan hubungan sesama mereka dan menetapkan supaya segala tindakan dan 'statement' akhbar yangg menyentuh prinsip dan polisi di'centralise'kan di pejabat Perhubungan Negeri PAKATAN dan bukan pejabat parti masing-masing. Ini ada baiknya dalam menyeragamkan sebarang kenyataan dari diputarbelitkan oleh media yang dahagakan berita perpecahan rangkaian PAKATAN RAKYAT. Sebagai PAKATAN yang masih baru, sewajarnya tatacara komunikasi ini diselia dengan baik agar yang mendengar dan membaca sebarang berita dari PAKATAN mempunyai tafsiran yang positive terhadap prinsip dan polisi rangkaian ini.


Sudah tentu kesan dari kemenangan Isa Samad ini akan lebih banyak membawa kebaikan dan hikmah kepada PAKATAN RAKYAT dalam PRU13. Biarkanlah mereka berbangga dengan kemenangan ini yang diyakini akan meniupkan semangat untuk menebus kekalahan kerana kemenangan dengan tiupan semangat RASUAH tidak akan kemana malah akan memudaratkan mereka sendiri. Cuma yang perlu dilakukan adalah cara kita mengutarakan isu RASUAH ini secara berkesan dan mudah terutama kepada mereka yang tidak memahami sangat mengenainya dalam konteks masyarakat biasa dan bukan orang politik. Masyarakat perlu terus disedarkan kesan RASUAH ini kepede nilai kehidupan, kesan kos sara hidup dan proses pembangunan negara kerana ramai lagi rakyat yang melihat kesalahan rasuah itu adalah antara pengamal dan undang-undang tetapi seolah-olah tiada hubungan lansung dalam kehidupan mereka. Kemenangan Isa Samad ini juga akan membuka laluan luas untuk UMNO terus bergelumang dengan isu RASUAH. Mereka akan kekal mengamalkan RASUAH dalam parti mereka dan inilah yang kita mahukan supaya RASUAH ini dapat terus menjadi sebati dalam UMNO/Bee End dan Al-Quran telah menjanjikan pengamal RASUAH dengan hukumannya dan kehancuran mana-mana organisasi dan negara telah banyak terbukti berlaku hasil dari amalan RASUAH. Selagi kita percaya ajaran Islam bahawa RASUAH itu membawa kemusnahan, maka tiada sebab kita perlu merasa bimbang, ragu-ragu atau takut berdepan dengan parti yang mengamalkan RASUAH.


Majoriti pengundi Bagan Pinang sebenarnya antara 'ditolan mati omak, diluah mati bapak!'Mereka juga faham dan akui bahawa RASUAH itu tidak baik kepada masyarakat dan negara serta ditegah agama tetapi oleh kerana niat dendam kesumat mereka kepada UMNO begitu tinggi, maka lebih mengutamakan tuntutan emosi untuk 'Reveal' dengan mengundi Isa Samad. Begitu juga dalam amalan adat pepatih yang mempunyai pertindihan dengan kehendak agama, maka mereka terbukti mencari jalan selamat untuk tidak dilihat bertentangan antara adat pepatih dan kehendak agama. Inilah dia cara dan budaya adat N9 yang memberi kesan sedikit sebanyak kepada keputusan di Bagan Pinang. Tarbiah perlu ditingkatkan dan benteng adat perlu dilunturkan untuk memenuhi kewajipan tuntutan agama dan kemudian barulah kita mungkin melihat hasilnya melalui konteks perjuangan yang di redhaiNYA.Bukankah pepatah N9 ada menyebut 'biar mati anak, jangan mati adat' dan pegangan ini dibawa bersama di N9 termasuklah jajahan antara sempadan N9 ke Melaka. Sejarah membuktikan N9 mempunyai 9 jajahan dan setiap jajahan sering bertelagah dari dahulu dan kekuatan pemuafakan antara jajahan ini diikat oleh Ketua Adat masing-masing. Hal-hal tempatan sebegini perlu diselidiki oleh mana-mana parti yang bertanding kerana 'lain padang, lain belalangnya' dan kita berdepan dengan belalang adat di N9 tetapi kita tidak bersedia mengikut rentaknya. Mungkin kita ada kekuatan tetapi kekuatan kita perlu menerjah masuk dengan penuh adat ke halaman adat tempatan.


InsyaAllah janji Allah terhadap balasan mereka yang mengamalkan RASUAH akan tiba juga dan sesungguhnya kita perlu muhasabah diri dalam mempertingkatkan perjuangan untuk memenuhi tuntutan agama, bangsa dan negara. Semuga Malaysia tanahairku ini bersatu menentang amalan RASUAH dalam PRU13. HANCUR UMNO, HANCUR BEE END, HIDUP RAKYAT, ALLAHUAKBAR!

SEKITAR BAGAN PINANG

The GLC CEO Hunt

Saturday September 5, 2009

By ANITA GABRIEL



CORPORATE Malaysia is facing a serious crunch, not the much-bombarded credit kind, but that of fresh talent.

The last time we saw a new crop of CEOs in the GLC (Government-Linked Companies) frontier was back in 2001 in a plan rigorously aimed at dismantling the failed owner-run company model for one that is professionally managed. This was later followed by a grander, finely articulated and more thoroughly thought out plan called the GLC Transformation Programme which began in 2004 and saw the entry of a couple of fresh faces while many of the chosen ones in 2001 were shuffled around.

Since then and in the absence of net additions of fresh-faced CEOs, the same pool of talent has been playing the revolving door act. Some are even on to their third leg of what they refer to as “national service”.

It is because of this that, whenever a rumour floats around of an imminent shake-up in a GLC or state-owned enterprise, it almost always involves this small circle of CEOs from the “List of 2001/04”.

One such rumour (it actually found its way back to the grapevine last week following months of quiet (or was it disquiet?) since it first got out) was that Tenaga Nasional Bhd president/CEO Datuk Seri Che Khalib Mohamad Noh is tipped to succeed Tan Sri Hassan Marican as Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) head honcho. Khalib is, of course, one of several names bandied about as potential candidates for the most powerful seat in the national oil company, a position held by Hassan for a good 14 years now. Hassan is also acting chairman of Petronas.

Talk of a potential shake-up in the oil company has been making its rounds for years but it has become more incessant in recent months and particularly since the change in the country’s leadership in April this year. In fact, if there’s a prize for the most widely-speculated issue in corporate Malaysia, I’ll place my bets on these wags.

But why is there, if at all, such a clamour for change at Petronas? Unlike the deafening siren of change in the case of many GLCs that had financially floundered on weak management post Asian crisis, Petronas, a Fortune 500 Company, is an institution that is widely recognised for its solid management track record. In fact, its top management line-up boasts of highly experienced and skilled vice-presidents (about 10 of them), many of whom have served the oil company for years. You may not recall, but Hassan himself joined the fold of Petronas back in 1989 as vice-president of finance and was groomed to succeed Tan Sri Azizan Zainul Abidin as the CEO, a post the former eventually took up in 1995. Is the CEO search happening from within as well?

Probably a clear example of talent management within GLCs would be the recent appointment of Datuk Izzaddin Idris, former TNB chief financial officer as CEO of UEM Group.

More recently, we witnessed a smooth transition at the helm of Malaysia Airlines. Datuk Seri Idris Jala (his appointment as CEO of Malaysia Airlines in 1995 was one fine example of broadening the lens in the GLC CEO hunt) was recently appointed Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and CEO of the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu). There was no agitation or uncertainty about who would succeed him as MAS MD/CEO and it was not surprisingly Tengku Datuk Azmil Zahruddin.

It proves that if the CEO pickings from outside are not rich or are limited due to various reasons, then the best way to widen the talent pool is to groom people from within the organisation. Because if the old pool gets taken up, where would one find the replacement? And if there are no net additions, where would the next level of key talents come from?

In a recent report, Korn/Ferry Institute highlights that the widely publicised shortage of specialist skills is a great challenge facing the CEOs in Asia over the next three years and is contributing to the emphasis on people as much as profits.

“The most effective Asia Pacific CEOs have a clear, strategic view of their current and future talent needs – up to at least two to five years out. The best of the best have implemented a systematic talent management process ...” it says.

Is it high time to have a KPI on that aspect for our CEOs?

•Business editor Anita Gabriel wonders what if Datuk Seri Nazir Razak suddenly decides to call it a day at CIMB Group. Who could fill the shoes of the man synonymous with the banking group? Poor bloke.


________________________________________________________________


What do CEOs do? A CEO Job Description.

Responsibility, duty, and all that…

• Part 1: A CEO Job Description

• Part 2: Measuring Success as a CEO

• Part 3: Pitfalls and solutions for the CEO

• Part 4: Coaching tips to stay sane and skillful at the top of the heap.

Related podcast "What is a CEO's job?"

Related article The Executive Mind-Set

Related book on business leadership, It Takes a Lot More than Attitude...to Lead a Stellar Organization.

This essay is written using “she” to refer to CEOs. There is no deep agenda hiding here. I’m in the business of helping people think outside the box, and gender is an obvious place to start.

Admit it. We all feel a touch of awe when someone has it: the CEO title. The power, the salary, and the chance to Be The Boss. It’s worthy of awe!

Too bad so few CEOs are good at what they do. In fact, only 1 in 20 are in the top 5%[1]. Many don’t know what their job should be, and few of those can pull it off well. The job is simple—very simple. But it’s not easy at all. What is a CEO's job?

More than with any other job, the responsibilities of a CEO diverge from the duties and the measurement.

A CEO’s responsibilities: everything, especially in a startup. The CEO is responsible for the success or failure of the company. Operations, marketing, strategy, financing, creation of company culture, human resources, hiring, firing, compliance with safety regulations, sales, PR, etc.—it all falls on the CEO’s shoulders..

The CEO’s duties are what she actually does, the responsibilies she doesn’t delegate. Some things can’t be delegated. Creating culture, building the senior management team, financing road shows, and, indeed, the delegation itself can be done only by the CEO.

Many start-up CEOs think fund-raising is their most important duty. I disagree. Fund-raising is necessary, but the CEOs contribution is in building a superb business with the money raised.

What is the CEO’s main duty? Setting strategy and vision. The senior management team can help develop strategy. Investors can approve a business plan. But the CEO ultimately sets the direction. Which markets will the company enter? Against which competitors? With what product lines? How will the company differentiate itself? The CEO decides, sets budgets, forms partnerships, and hires a team to steer the company accordingly.

The CEO’s second duty is building culture. Work gets done through people, and people are profoundly affected by culture. A lousy place to work can drive away high performers. After all, they have their pick of places to work. And a great place to work can attract and retain the very best.

Culture is built in dozens of ways, and the CEO sets the tone. Her every action—or inaction—sends cultural messages (see “Life Under a Magnifying Glass”). Clothes send signals about how formal the workplace is. Who she talks to signals who is and isn’t important. How she treats mistakes (feedback or failure?) sends signals about risk-taking. Who she fires, what she puts up with, and what she rewards shape the culture powerfully.

A project team worked weekends launching a multimedia web site on a tight deadline. Their CEO was on holiday when the site launched. She didn’t call to congratulate the team. To her, it was a matter of keeping her personal life sacred. To the team, it was a message that her personal life was more important than the weekends and evenings they had put in to meet the deadline. Next time, they may not work quite so hard. The emotion and effect on the culture was real, even if it wasn’t what the CEO intended. Congratulations from the CEO on a job well done can motivate a team like nothing else. Silence can demotivate just as quickly.

Team-building is the CEO’s #3 duty. The CEO hires, fires, and leads the senior management team. They, in turn, hire, fire, and lead the rest of the organization.

The CEO must be able to hire and fire non-performers. She must resolve differences between senior team members, and keep them working together in a common direction. She sets direction by communicating the strategy and vision of where the company is going. Strategy sets a direction. With clear direction, the team can rally together and make it happen.

Don’t underestimate the power of setting direction. In 1991, at Intuit’s new employee orientation, CEO Scott Cook presented his vision of Intuit as the center of computerized personal finance. Intuit had just 120 employees and one product. Ten years later, it’s a billion-dollar company with thousands of employees and dozens of products. Worldwide, it is the winner in personal finance, bar none. The success is due in no small part to every Intuit employee knowing and sharing the company’s vision and strategy.

If vision is where the company is going, values tell how the company gets there. Values outline acceptable behavior. The CEO conveys values through actions and reactions to others. Slipping a ship schedule to meet quality levels sends a message of valuing quality. Not over-celebrating a team’s heroic recovery when they could have avoided a problem altogether sends a message about prevention versus damage control. People take their cues about interpersonal values—trust, honesty, openness—from CEO’s actions as well.

Capital allocation is the CEO’s #4 duty. The CEO sets budgets within the firm. She funds projects which support the strategy, and ramps down projects which lose money or don’t support the strategy. She considers carefully the company’s major expenditures, and manages the firm’s capital. If the company can’t use each dollar raised from investors to produce at least $1 of shareholder value, she decides when to return money to the investors. Some CEOs don’t consider themselves financial people, but at the end of the day, it is their decisions that determine the company’s financial fate.



Footnotes for Part 1

[1] Pay no attention to the math background peeking from behind the curtain… back



Measuring Success as a CEO.

Knowing the job description is a good first step for a CEO, but to know how she’s doing, she needs to design her own measurement system.

Unlike inconvenient lower-level jobs, no one tells the Chief Executive how she’s doing. Do managers let her know she’s undermining their authority, making poor decisions, or communicating poorly? Not likely. Even when a CEO asks for honest feedback, the fear is there: non-flattering feedback may stall a promising career[1]. Even when a company uses 360-degree feedback, no one penalizes the CEO if she doesn’t act on the feedback.

The Board of Directors supposedly oversees the CEO, but they are far removed from day-to-day actions. Over time, they can evaluate performance, but they look mainly at share price and company strategy. They are rarely interested in—(or qualified to comment on!)—the CEO’s daily behavior.

But the CEO’s daily behavior will make or break the company! The CEO’s duties don’t change because they are unmeasured. Indeed, lax measurement makes it easy for the CEO to feel confident, even when she shouldn’t. Good feedback is the only way to know what’s working, but share price simply doesn’t do it. External measures measure the company, not the link between the CEO’s actions. A low share price tells her something’s wrong, but it doesn’t help her figure out what.

By measuring her performance based on her duties, a CEO can learn to do her job better. As explained in part 1, the CEO’s job is setting strategy and vision, building culture, leading the senior team, and allocating capital. The last of these is easy to measure. The first three are more of a challenge.

How does a CEO know she’s doing the vision thing? It’s hard. Having vision isn’t enough—that just takes a handful of mushrooms and a vision quest. Communicating the vision is the key. When people “get it,” they know how their daily job supports the vision. If they can’t link their job to the vision, that tells a CEO that her communication is faulty, or she hasn’t helped her managers turn the vision into actual tasks. Either way, a CEO can monitor her success as a visionary by questioning and listening for employees to link their jobs with the company vision.

Culture building is subtle, the culture a CEO sees may be very different from the culture of the rank-and-file. One company had a facilities policy that all equipment within 450 feet of the senior management offices was kept in top working order. Senior managers saw a smoothly running company, while everyone else saw neglect and carelessness.

Surveys about openness, values, and morale can be used to develop a measure of culture. The questions to ask aren’t rocket science. The book First, Break all the Rules gives a great questionnaire for measuring overall culture. Also, check turnover. When 95% of your workforce says they can’t wait to get to work, something is going right. If people rarely leave, and if it’s easy to attract top talent at below-market prices, you can be sure the culture plays a large role. If people leave (especially your top performers), again—look to culture. And don’t underestimate the power of walking around and counting smiles. If people are having fun, it will show.

The CEO’s success at team-building can often be measured through the team. Teams usually know when they’re effective. They can also rate their team using assessments that measure specific behaviors. For example, “I can trust my teammates.” “My teammates deliver their part of the project on time.” “Every member knows what is expected of them.” Regular team self-assessments can help the CEO track the team’s progress and hone her abilities to keep the team running smoothly[2].

Easiest to measure is a CEO’s capital allocation skill. In fact, financial measures are the ones made public: earnings and share price. But how can a CEO link those to her actual decisions? Working with her CFO, a CEO can devise financial measures appropriate to her business. Sometimes traditional measures are most appropriate, such as economic value added or return on assets (for a capital-intensive company). Other times, the CEO may want to invent business-specific measures, such as return on training dollars, for a company which values state-of-the-art training for employees. By monitoring several such measures, a CEO learns to link her budget decisions with company outcomes. Ultimately, the CEO’s should be creating more than a dollar of value for every dollar invested in the company. Otherwise, her best bet is to return cash to the shareholders for them to invest in more productive vehicles.

In startups, earnings begin low to nonexistent, and share price is more about salesmanship and vision than earnings. So the CEO gets almost no useful feedback about her capital allocation wisdom. She doesn’t know whether a dollar spent on a slightly nicer-than-necessary copy machine is wasted or is a wise investment in a long-term. Careful attention to the design and tracking of financial measures can help her prepare for the transition to an earnings-driven company.

In his 1988 Annual Report, Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett included an excellent essay on CEO accountability. Click here to read Mr. Buffett’s observations on CEO measurement.





Footnotes for Part 2

[1] The CEOs don’t help the problem. Many of my CEO clients highlight the value of honest feedback from their coach. Yet they complain about employees who disagree with them, just don’t “get it” or don’t have enough information “to understand the real issues.” In a coaching call, they can hear feedback and consider it. At work, they treat disagreement as dissension, and then wonder why everyone’s a “Yes man.” back

[2] There are dozens of team effectiveness surveys. You can start by checking out http://www.cambriaconsulting.com, http://www.ccl.org, and http://www.pfeiffer.com. back



Pitfalls and Solutions for the CEO

A CEO can tank a company by not understanding their duties, or failing to set up good measurement systems. But it’s also true that the job itself can screw up the person, as well. It’s said that power corrupts, and few positions are more powerful than CEO. While the USA may be a democracy, our companies are legal dictatorships with the CEO calling the shots(1). While she may be having a great time playing Boss, the position may be taking a very human toll.

It’s all too easy for the CEO to become a … jerk(2) … without realizing it. They can forget—if they ever knew—what it was like to have a boss. They are free to ignore feedback that they don’t want to hear, and no one will call them to task for it. They can bypass the chain of command when they want to meddle. They can give themselves raises and genuinely believe they deserve it. And most dreadfully, they can forget what it is like to be “one of the little people”:

worker I have to leave early today.

CEO Why?

worker To pick up my kids from daycare.

CEO Oh… looks genuinely perplexed … Why

don’t you have your nanny do that?

worker I don’t have a nanny.

CEO Oh… wanders away with a mildly confused expression

The worker was an incredibly productive person. She worked harder than the CEO, got more done, yet couldn’t have afforded a nanny if her life depended on it. The CEO didn’t intend to be a jerk, but his lack of empathy didn’t win many supporters.

A CEO can become arrogant by externalizing blame

Having no day-to-day accountability for her actions can also turn a CEO sour. When things go wrong, she can blame everyone around her without facing her own shortcomings. “My employees just don’t get it,” proclaims the CEO, never thinking for a moment that she is the one who hired them. Did she hire incompetents? Or has she failed to communicate goals consistently and clearly? “Market conditions have changed.” she declares. A nice excuse, but isn’t it the CEO’s job to anticipate the market and position the company for success under a variety of scenarios? Without someone to keep her honest, she can gradually absolve herself of all responsibility.

Believing in a title can lead to overconfidence

Arrogance also threatens a CEO. “Because I am CEO, I must know the business better than anyone else.” It has been said, but it just isn’t true. No CEO can be an expert in all functional areas. A CEO who is doing her job is spending time with the big picture. If she knows the details better than her employees, she’s either hiring the wrong people or spending her time at the wrong levels of the organization. It’s appropriate for a CEO to manage operations if absolutely necessary, but she should quickly hire good operational managers and return to leading the whole business.

If she also comes to believe that the CEO title grants infallibility, watch out. Even the Pope is only infallible a couple of times each century. But CEOs can reinforce their delusions of grandeur by giving themselves higher salaries (surely she deserves it! After all, salary benchmarks show how underpaid she is) and more perks. Then when layoffs come, the CEO wants applause for having the moral strength to make “hard choices,” quietly overlooking how her own poor decision making led to the need for layoffs.

CEOs can stop learning well

Of course, once infallible, there’s no more to learn, and a CEO may quietly stop learning. Without daily oversight and high quality feedback on how she does her job, she can mistakenly believe her actions lead to success. In reality, she may be doing the wrong thing, but her staff may be working around the clock to cover for her.

Furthermore, sins of omission aren’t penalized. A CEO who does an adequate job, but far less than she could/should have done—goes unnoticed. In hindsight, XYZ Software(3) could have had a $1 billion market niche, and gone public with a valuation of tens of billions. Instead, it stuck to one product, had little understanding of its markets, and ignored competition. Yet it still went public in a $300-million IPO. Was management penalized for a lack of vision and market responsiveness? Hardly! The top managers walked off with $60 million apiece, reinforcing the notion that they had done a great job. Yet with a slightly grander vision, the company might have been 10 or 100 times its size.

Setting vision is the CEO’s job, but nothing tells her if her sights are too low. She isn’t penalized for missing the grander vision. Such sins of omissions are a CEO’s worst enemy. She can be lulled into mediocrity by not knowing what would have been possible. The four-minute mile was considered impossible…until Roger Bannister ran it. Now, it’s commonplace. Likewise, a CEO may limit herself by not realizing she can do her job better.

Though salary benchmarks are common, performance benchmarks are surprisingly rare. Quality learning demands a CEO benchmark herself against other superb CEO’s. Her central learning question is not “are you doing a good job?” but “are other CEOs doing a better job and if so, how can you learn to measure up?(4)”



Footnotes for part 3

(1) Ok, ok. Technically the Board of Directors has hire/fire authority over the CEO, but the Board can’t control day-to-day operations. And while there are certainly boards that replace inept CEOs, it takes sustained incompetence over a long time to move a board to action. So for practical purposes, the buck stops with the CEO. back

(2) Her employees may use less diplomatic terms. back

(3) Names are changed to protect the innocent. back

(4) An excellent book on management best practices is “First, Break All the Rules” available by clicking here to go to the books page. back



Coaching tips to stay sane and skillful at the top of the heap.

These coaching assignments will help an executive avoid some of the pitfalls of the CEO job. They are simple, easy, and won’t take much time. They’ll help a CEO stay connected with workers, keep herself humble, and increase her learning while becoming more successful. The suggestions strive to be quick and easy to do, while still producing real results.

Make Space to Practice These Assignments

Set aside 5 to 10 minutes, daily, to developing as a leader and human being. This will be the time you think about the below topics and set your mind for the day. Schedule the time if necessary. Just make sure that you do what’s right for your growth.

Pace yourself. Life is long. Adopt these suggestions one or two at a time, and practice until you make them your own. Then move on. Forcing won’t help; this is about developing at your own natural rhythm. Do one assignment for a few weeks, then move on to another. Keep the ones that work for you and drop those that don’t.

Staying connected with “the little people”

Cultivate an attitude of respect—your respect for them. The “little people” are the ones turning your vision into reality. Meditate on this for a few minutes and ask yourself whether you can their jobs as well as they can. If you can, then you’re not hiring the right people—go change that! Otherwise, once a day, go talk to one of your low-level employees—someone more capable than you in their area of expertise—and learn from them. Choose a different person each day. Get as close to the front line workers as possible.

Listen with an open mind and learn. Learn about their job. Ask what works for them and what doesn’t. Above all, listen to their comments without judgment. Your goal is to connect with their experience of the world, not impose your own. Learn about their life. Find out what motivates them. Why did they come work for you instead of somewhere else? Simply by spending a few minutes understanding their life, you can greatly increase your appreciation of how they’re different (and similar!).

Share your vision and job with them, from a position of service. Pretend that your job is to make this person a success. Ask them how their job fits into the work the company does. If they don’t know, take on the responsibility of helping them understand how their job links to the vision. Clarify any confusion they may have about where the company is going. And ask them what you can do to help them succeed at doing their best. Then do it.

Staying humble

Acknowledge, often! Without your employees, your dreams and plans wouldn’t amount to much. Take every available opportunity to acknowledge the contribution of those around you and give them credit, especially in public. Feedback is rare in most companies, and positive feedback is rarest of all(1).

“Get” that it’s all your responsibility. When things don’t go the way you want, take responsibility—whether or not it’s your fault. The mindset of responsibility will put you in a much more powerful place than the mindset of blame. Regularly review circumstances asking, ”What could I do differently (or stop doing) to make a positive difference?” Identify the action and then take it. You’ll be surprised how much more power you have over externalities, operating from responsibility rather than blame.

Gather honest advisors to held you accountable for your behavior. Sometimes a Board of Directors will give honest feedback, but they are removed from your day-to-day behavior. Actively solicit feedback from third parties: friends, peers, associates. Share your issues and how you’re handling them, and ask for an honest assessment. Everyone in a comany is accountable to someone for their behavior, except the CEO. Make yourself accountable as best you can.

Identify your limits. Ask, “can someone else in the world do my job better than I am currently doing it?” If the answer is Yes, seek out that person and ask for their guidance in getting better. If the answer is No, validate that answer by asking your advisors, competitors, suppliers, customers, and employees. Many companies have crashed and burn because they believe they were the best, for no good reason but pride and ego.

Create measurable performance criteria for your executive team, including yourself. Make sure people within the organization know your goals, and know what you can be counted on to do. Hold yourselves accountable. If you don’t meet your goals, withhold your bonus, take no raise, and treat yourself exactly as you would treat an employee who missed their targets. It sends a powerful message to the company than you’re serious about performance.

Ask your direct reports, your Board of Directors, and anyone else you work with for feedback a couple of times a year. You can use a 360-degree feedback process or simply ask in an e-mail. It’s a lot easier to hear feedback on your performance if you’ve explicitly asked for it.

Videotape yourself receiving bad news. Watch the videotape and decide whether or not you would want to work for that person. If the answer is No, learn to chill when you hear bad news.

Learning well

Study excellent CEOs. Call a CEO you admire and invite them to lunch. Exchange tips and adopt tactics that others have found useful. Read books like First, Break All the Rules, which are broad-based studies of habits of top-performers. Adopt at least one new habit a month.

Create systems for gathering feedback. Interview customers, competitors, analysts, and others in your industry to know how your company and products are perceived. Make sure you’re gathering feedback that will disconfirm your beliefs about the world, as much as confirms it. For example, if you think you’re #1 in your market, don’t just ask customers why they like your products. Ask what other products they use, and how your products fall short.

Spend time learning about the fundamentals of a CEO’s job:

• Setting strategy. The strategy and vision for the company determine where everyone will focus their efforts. Find a vision and strategy and use it to align your entire company.

• Creating the corporate culture. Your culture will determine what people do and don’t try, who will stay, who will leave, and how business will get done. Culture starts with you. Decide how you want people to act and start modeling the behavior publicly.

• Capital allocation. Every dollar you raise and spend should produce more than $1 of return for the company, or it’s a waste of money. Learn how to make these judgements.

• Hiring and Firing. The job of executives is primarily team and culture building. Hiring and firing are must-have skills. Read, take classes, and review past hiring successes and mistakes. Do whatever you can to hone your abilities.

Raise the Bar

Hold yourself to higher standards next year than you did this year. Challenge yourself to learn to get more done with fewer hours and fewer resources while creating a more balanced life for yourself.

These are just a few of the things you can do to increase your chances for success as a senior executive. I also believe in working with a coach to identify and overcome (or compensate for) blocks in your performance. Success can be had with many different skill sets. The more you learn about yourself and your capabilities, the better you will be able to shape a job that works for you. The more you learn about the capabilities of those around you, the better you will be able to build teams that produce spectacular results.

Do Great Things!



Footnotes for Part 4

(1) Social psychology has shown that rewarding desired behavior is far more effective than punishing bad behavior or non-performance. For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, our culture has evolved around using punishment as the main way of controlling behavior. Unfortunately, punishment doesn’t work very well. Interestingly, animal trainers have known this for years. For an excellent book on the subject, check out Don’t Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor.