What I have always wanted to say about the GLC's

I was reading Kadir Jasin in Malaysian Business, and I have to admit that I have a love-hate opinion about his column. He recently remarked about how the GLC’s and PLC’s (Party Linked Companies) was being treated by these professional managers that seems to have forgotten about the legacy and heritage of the companies, and especially the sacrifice that the past politicians and businessmen have taken to ensure we are where we are today.

First something about the PLC acronym. What’s next?

Crony Linked Companies – CLC
Minister Linked Companies – MLC
Minister’s Son Linked Companies – MSLC
Minister’s Wife Brother In-Law Linked Companies – MWBILC
The Guy the Minister owes a Favor Linked Company – TGTMOAFLC

Seriously folks, we have to stop this. A company is exactly that, just a company. It should not be tarnished with such acronyms that bring to notion that we are less then willing to be transparent and measure ourselves from the returns the companies make. A company is profit rather then losses, and assets against liabilities. That is it, not a Ringgit more. When a company decides to rationalize its assets, whether selling a building or selling a subsidiary; then that is what a company is doing - rationalizing. It is attempting to return to its stakeholder’s profits and dividends that keep people employed. Employed citizens in turn help to keep the same loud politicians that are meddling into the company’s decision in office.

We hire CEO’s and put them on a stage, and have juries run verdicts on them not unlike a reality show, soon we might even have SMS’ sent in judging their performance. Let’s get real. Do these forty-something boys carry a magic wand that will make all the woes in these giants we call GLC’s go away? No. They are simply professionals, making a living incidentally in the limelight offered to them albeit involuntarily by the media, and when the time comes, have their performance report plastered in business journals commending or crucifying their decisions. I wonder sometimes if it is worth it?

I wonder too where is our Jack Welch, Lou Gertsner, or Michael Eisner? True professionals that have led their companies through the vigor of what the market have thrown at them over the years. They led, managed, and preached their way through and in the end, grew the size of each of their companies by a hundred fold.

We live in a sensationalized economy. Scandals and failures attract us. A quiet steady-Eddie running a company, one small decision at a time is to us a nonchalant knight, doomed to fail as he or she is unable to please our notion that extravagant news is good news. Reorganize, restructure, and re-brand that gets our attention. Not sell more cars, sign more joint ventures or perhaps even make a tad more profit. These are par for the course, you as a CEO-elect has to perform these activities anyway, but as you do so you cannot retrench, sell a building that has “sentimental” values, and by the way the next time you feel like buying a painting, please do give us a tinkle and we will let the Cabinet decide if its worth its weight in oil and canvas.

Am I in defense of these new kids on the block? Well, yes and no.

Yes, I think they should be given the leeway they need to do their job. No they should not be allowed to sell the shop away. There are enough matrices to measure their performance, the quarterly and annual financial reports would suffice.

Yes, I would like to see our telecommunications company venture into growing economies the world over, and return a healthy profit as it does so. I would also like to see us making new cars, instead of churning the old clunkers and force the public into buying them, and perhaps while we are at it maybe the airline company could also introduce new routes and establish an attractive mileage program that would entice me to fly them, and an upgrade to Business Class once in a while wouldn’t hurt either. I would be a more loyal customer I am sure.

Yes, we would like to sit and watch these newbees get their job done in the next two years, or even a year down the road as some of them are forced to pledge – but the reality of it is that took Welch a decade to come close to achieving his initial goals with GM, and Gertsner had to spend the first five years just reorganizing IBM to change its culture. Eisner on the other hand watched Disney move from a theme park into the blitz of the media business, and had his fair share of competition from the Japanese.

No, it will be a few more years before we breed our own Welch, Gertsner and Eisner. Looking on the bright side though, the boys are young and I see a lot of talent in Abdul Wahid, Idris Jala and Syed Zainal Abidin.

Yes, I would like to think that given a chance; maybe just maybe we will have our own CEO-supreme. A CEO that will be around a tad longer then his three years contract, and spend a decade or so growing his company to a size that would compete in this ever shrinking borderless economy.

Yes, and please stop calling them GLC’s – just TM, MAS and Proton would do I am sure.