The Zon Regency Grand Ballroom - The Burning Platform
It was on the 24th March, 2008 about 8.45 pm, the welcoming speech was delivered by the honorable Dato' KP... as usual my habit has always been to write down what were delivered for my own future references, I could not get the whole bunch on every sentences he could have said but the gists and facts amongst others are listed down in the structured form as follows :
- He thanked the commitee and BPM for convening this 3rd session and welcoming the southern zone participants from Johore, Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Selangor and KL's HQ.
- He stressed the importance and benefits that must be derived from the forum i.e. every participant selected and present played an important and vital role in deliberating and enhancing the living 'strategic plan' document, the document must all times be a guided reference source in order for the department to move forward in it endeavor to become a "WCO by 2010" and onwards.
- He questioned us all whether we are still relevant, making a point here that the organization had celebrated it's 75 years old anniversary in 2006 and we felt so complacent, we are proud being part of it ... but time has changed, we are in the limelight as always when comes to "flood woes", the central agencies are looking at us, everyone in the street are pointing fingers at the organization that we are in... can we deliver ? money is spent but problems still persist on end.
- About performance in expenditure; he adamantly pointed that we are ' Pandai mintak duit tetapi masaalah tidak selesai ' the annual performance has always been excellent above 95% but by looking into the overall RM9 midterm review we had spent only about 20% of the RM6.2 billion allocated. We have yet to handle the remaining 80% within the next 2.5 years from now i.e. the other second term .. can we be able to do it ?? He meant to do it strategically .. spent it with results delivered. He has seriously started a ' war gaming room' for monitoring every projects carried out... He gave all of us an ultimatum "take it or leave it"...a do or die kind of scenario !
- He then requested all of us to think in the right perspective, giving our thoughts about the matters that need be done, who else that can deliver if not us all here, meaningful strategists, we could not be doing and keeping inside the document, to look deep inside, possibly redo making it 'workable', living and relevant document.
- He further stressed on the importance of understanding of the SP at all levels of the organization in all the divisions, states and districts. This must come handy and its not meant to be shouldered by the top leadership only.. everyone at all levels no matter where he works must subscribed to it. It's the understanding of it will make matters worth deliberating, moving and leading forward with pride towards WCO.
- He mentioned the vital need of a succession plan, a well developed game plan for a well groom set of people to be leaders that are committed, able to deliver, knowledgeable, with the right attitude and values, and willing to push and work towards achieving our vision. A guessing game, a choice of leaders that come unexpectedly would not be beneficial for an organization like us now.
- He still feels that we have not proved enough on our delivery system and being leaders in our field we have got to ' Walk the talk ', leadership is an essential ingredient in the success of our SP, to be effective and credible, effective leadership and management are vital and subscribing to the rules and regulations is definitely mandatory. How well we do our role over the next two years depends on the decisions made today. Given the short span of time, it is critical that leaders and managers must act with full commitment, boldness and having sense of urgency for action.
- Many points were mentioned and noted especially about the importance of the SMART tunnel project to KL city folks that the department had contributed, the poor performance over the RM9 midterm review etc. BUT amongst all else, he had reiterated that we all are desperate now.. the WCO goal by 2010 is around the corner and to get rid from the barrier to our strategy execution and move on.
