The philosophy of an airline CEO

 

The man himself briefing and answering questions before playing the guitar (that picture can be seen here)

If you have read my post 2 days ago, it was more about a personal overview of this guy, by the name of Idris Jala who turned around the fortune of Malaysia national airline, called Malaysia Airline System or MAS. MAS was long in existence before there was THAT other airline, which now seems to compete with MAS, by the name of AirAsia. I was one of the many audience 2 days ago who wanted to ask his thoughts on his closest rival. It was the elephant in the room which was brought forward by this one guy before I had the chance to ask it. The person who post the question did try to be tactful but Idris himself named names. So, it was quite candid.

Basically for that question, he tactfully said that they should work together on certain matters and compete on certain matters. He brought forward an analogy on how he did the same thing when he worked for Shell in Sri Lanka in which one of the place he was managing was so small that the Shell and a rival company shared a storage tank but compete once the oil in it was send to each other's station. This was just one of the example in which he compared his tenure with MAS to his old job.

Some of the other thing that he told us was about what philosophy he holds dear such as telling everyone how one should always try to do the impossible. And do not hide the fact from anyone else. When enough people say that it is impossible, try to do it. If you did not succeed, it is okay as it was impossible in the first place. If you succeed, you have managed to attain a place in doing the impossible. He also quoted 2 books which everyone should read. One is a book by somebody called -something- Goss (a lady) which is where he got the idea about doing the impossible and one is by Paulo Cuelho, the Alchemist which is known throughout the world. I can relate to the Alchemist as I believe in what that book tries to tell (which I should blog about another day).

The question and answer session went on for nearly an hour as they were letting anyone answered anything and he gracefully tried to answer each one of it.

The Q&A session, with him sitting on a stool

All the senior management of MAS were there which I knew a few of them by reputation or through the mass media. It was rare to see senior management coming to an event in which their CEO is speaking. I think it was more due to the event being held by MAS itself and they did invite the airline's Facebook group, among others. There were college students and bloggers. 

However, although he did show his soft side and everything, I saw the look in all his staff which shows that he is quite tough on them. He did say, he believe in keeping his staff on their toe all the time and he did this by buying 10 Blackberry on the first day he was in office. He also said he is the most dangerous when he was on holiday as he will be shooting 'sharp' email all day long (and night).

I believe, to be a good CEO, you must be a taskmaster no matter how people hate you and if they managed to love you, then that is a bonus. If you work well, then you will get your bonus. He did pointed out that the share of MAS has risen from RM2++ when he came in to nearly RM6++ recently (which is quite decent by Malaysian standard). I bet a lot of the employees who are eleigible for their ESOS had managed to gain some money out of it. If not that, I hope they did get some bonus.

Who is this TED guy?

I was invited on Wednesday for a session call TEDx. I was actually puzzled when I first heard of this thing called TED as I never knew what it was. Ever....

I mean, who is this Ted guy? Why is he so famous? Does he speaks anything relevant to me?

How I start to know TED was through another person. Last Friday, I met a new friend called Kid Chan. He is famous around the world as a wedding photographer. Yes, that type of photographer. We met at an event where the   From that day, I was exchanging twitter with him. Even up to my Sunday programme which is about whether I should go shopping or just lay down in bed. I find Kid is a hilarious guy, but knowledgeable too.

Suddenly, on Tuesday, I got a message in my Facebook from a group which I joined called Malaysian Entrepreneur. They did have events all year long which I never joined but thanks to Kid, I was intrigued to see what TED is. So, I send an email to register one day before the event. And I got in. I was ecstatic (without knowing why)

I found that day that TED stood for Technology, Entertainment, Design. They are a website which asked people to talk not to just the audience in front of them but they will then spread it througout the world using their website after taping them. Seeing it live was awesome. Check it out more at TED.

But, a caveat here. That event on Wednesday was not a TED event. It was an endorsed event which is called TEDx (notice the X there). The speakers were of diverse background. There was Kid Chan (the photographer), Yasmin Ahmad (the storyteller, according to her) and a few others. One of the most intriguing and got a standing ovation was a blind guy from India, who is advocating open source software by the name of Krishnakant Mane. All of the speakers were impressive and hail from all over Asia. 

I urged you to follow these guys closely and I bet you will be intrigued too. As for me, I just can't wait for another TED or even TEDx event.

HERE are some pictures :

The venue

Clockwise : Daniel (the person who brought TED to Malaysia); Yasmin Ahmad (Malaysian filmmaker); Krishnakant Mane (an advocate of open concept from India) and Kid Chan (celebrity photographer)

Idris Jala : Turned around an airline and plays guitar too

I was invited by Youthsay, an internet survey and advertising company which has membership for bloggers with age between 18 and 35. As I am still at the last threshold age, I managed to join before the window is close to me. Hence, I managed to get a seat for an event which was very unique. A talk and a very private Q&A session with the CEO Malaysia's national carrier, Malaysia Airline System, better known as MAS. The name of the guy is Idris Jala and he came from Borneo, another part of Malaysia which people always mistake for Indonesia and is known for its orang utan. He came from a small village which mode of reaching it is by flying in small Fokker plane by the name of Bario.

Idris Jala was an oil man before he was asked to do the impossible. He worked with Shell in various place in the world but the one place he kept on repeating was the work that he did in Shell Sri Lanka. He was very candid with what he did there and he feels that he already accomplished the impossible there. Politics, rebels, strikes and bribery was the order of the day when he worked there, he said. So, taking over an ailing airline like MAS which bleeds nearly a million Ringgit Malaysia a day (USD285k) per month was like an accession to a worse problem but was not something unnatural for him.

We were treated with a no hold barred session with him outlying his story of how he managed to make a company which had posted lost after lost each quarter to a company which make a profit every quarter since the second half of 2006. He also made savings and the savings that he made was nearing the RM1 Billion (USD285 million) mark in the next quarter. His presentation was outlined in 6 points and his first slide was about trying to conquer the impossible. It was such as high order and making it was a very significant cap in his career.

He put out a few philosophy which I think I better post in another posting tomorrow as what he says does make sense. I did not have a recording of his guitar playing which bordered toward the rhythm and blues which is kind of appropriate with him being said to be a failure and all before he managed to do the impossible. The lack of recording is also due to the MC asking us to not do any as they were doing a recording of their own. I think maybe we can expect to post them somewhere and I will update if I know where it is. For Malaysian, I know for a fact he plays his guitar occasionally at this one pub called Groove Junction in Hartamas one time or another. Maybe you can check him out there. I only have a picture of this airline's CEO playing his guitar, in which he played us 2 songs and 1 of it is about his village, Bario. And he was good....

My property investment story_Part 2

My first property investment was a disaster. It is my current house, which I have lived for nearly 4 years since the first day of 2005. I bought it with zero down due to a campaign by a bank which was celebrating its 50 years in existence and I did not have to pay any single cent including legal fees for the loan (though I used my firm and I could do it without a single cent naturally). What I did not counted on, as this was in 2004, in which I was quite naive in my knowledge of investing in property, is the fact that there is no such thing as a free lunch. The bank did not tell me that I actually am paying a good rate. The loan was under Islamic finance and although all Islamic finance loan is higher than conventional loan, this one was really high.

I did not take into account the fact that the rate was high and I had to pay more for the same price of property as I wanted to take advantage of the bank footing the bill for the stamping and the legal fees. I asked my neighbour after some times and was shocked to find out that they are only paying half of what I am paying monthly. The other factor which I did not counted on was the lock-in period which means that I couldn't sell the property within a certain period of time. If I did, I need to pay a penalty of RM6000-00 (USD1,700++) or 3.5% whichever is higher. That is if I redeem the property from the bank either through a sale or refinancing with another bank within 5 years I took the loan.

To make matter worse, the property did not appreciate as much as I hope. Using 8% per annum increase as a yardstick, the value of my house only increase between 1% to 2% per annum in the last 5 years. And taking a 100% loan make it even more worse as I have to really wait out the 5 years period if I want to refinance as only then would the refinancing amount can cover the loan I took from the first bank. It was bad. Financially.

However, the silver lining was the nighbourhood where my house is situated. Being at a cul-de-sac, there are no outside traffic as the only place anyone can go once they enter my housing estate is to a house within it. No vehicle can go through to anywhere. I also live fronting the original settlers' houses whose lands the developers have taken to construct our houses. Being cash rich as they got paid quite handsomely for their land, they are always at home. And being good neighbour to them, which comes easy for me, they watched out the empty houses, such as mine like a hawk, when most of us out for work. Then, the housebuyers such as me, are mostly easy to get along with. Which means, the people within the nighbourhood make up for the fact of my botched investment.

As an investment, my decision to pay 100% using the bank money was bad and not researching properly the value of the property at the outskirt of my housing estate, was bad. However, I don't think I would move out of this area anytime soon as I really, really, love the neighbourhood.

And as investment, as this year is the 5th year anniversary of my loan, I am taking a cheaper loan to refinance this house and it will free up my monthly liquidity. Which I have planned to clean up my monthly portfolio for my other investments.

This is my neighbourhood where my first investment in property is situated

My property investment story_Part 1

I believe in investing in properties since I have the money to invest. In my portfolio, I actually have 2 of my own (both of which I have sold) and 3 with my business partners. 4 residential and 1 commercial. 2 high-ends and 3 medium cost. Not all in the Klang Valley, which is considered as THE place to make money. Some are just a bit on the outskirt and one is really far out of town. Those I liquidated made money and those I am still holding is climbing up the chart in prices. How did I start to invest in it? Here is a part of the story...

My parents did it before when they were young and reaped the benefit. They are millionaires in their own right though they only drive a 7 year old car, locally made. They made their money buying and selling properties. With wisdom they managed to make ten-fold of the money the paid to buy those properties. The wisdom may have been handed down by someone but the risk they took was great and paid off. What they lack in finesse and brand-conciousness, they made up in their travel and capability to pay for almost any basic human needs. Especially medicine and health related expenditures, in their old age. Before I knew of Trump or the local equivalent of him, I have seen my parents 'flipping' properties to make money.

The difference between what my parents had done and what I did in the last few years is the time that it took for them to flip it. My parents bought most of the properties in 1970s and 1980s in growth area such as Bahau, Semenyih and a few outlaying areas which is not really within the growth area itself. These places really took some time to have significant impact on the price of properties. However, due to the insight of my father's father, who was my grandfather, they bought lands, not houses, unlike those former properties, which were mostly houses and this is where they made a killing. These properties were sold, during the time I am already a lawyer at 15 times their original prices. That is why I myself take a leaf from these lesson and follow suit.

Basically, this part one is just to show from where I got the know-how and the drive to invest in properties although I am far from being them....

Just one of the land which they bought which is 15 times the worth when they bought it as the current Kuala Lumpur International Airport was not even in the master plan when they bought this piece of land. Now KLIA is just 10 miles from this land