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'Leaders and Managers Need To Examine Their Actions, Says Dr Mahathir'
Released by : Bernama
Date : 3 October 2005
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 3 (Bernama) -- The 21st century has brought changes which requires a new
mindset and a need to examine the ways leaders and managers were doing things, Tun Dr
Mahathir Mohamad said.
The former prime minister said they may be doing the right things and maybe not.
Their decision to change the way they do things or not to change would depend on their own
analysis of how thing should be done. That really is the challenge faced by leaders and
managers today, he said when delivering a speech entitled "Malaysia Incorporated:
Leadership and Management Demands in the 21st Century" at the Tunku Abdul Rahman
Lecture Series, here Monday night.
Dr Mahathir said leaders and managers in the 21st century must not always choose the
beaten path if they wished to succeed.
He said if leaders stuck to the beaten path it would it easy for them to be ambushed.
"If you break off and cut a path in the `blukar' (bushes), you are not
likely to be ambushed. You might reach your destination slightly behind time, but you will
reach your destination. If you are ambushed you may not reach it at all," he added.
Dr
Mahathir said conventional wisdom was good but leaders and managers must also consider the
unconventional.
He said Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) who took over a company must think of something
they would do and not do to the company they took over.
"If you do this, I am sure you will find many things that you are doing presently
which need to be checked, changed or improved. |
"If you look at your own company as if you have just taken (it) over, you are
going to see things in a different light. You will see a need to make changes," he
said.
Dr Mahathir said it was the same with leaders, who had led for too long, if he looked
closely, like any new leader would, he would find that there were things that needed to be
done differently.
"On the other hand, he might find what he is doing is the right thing to do. Nothing
is worse than changing for the sake of changing," he said.
He said the 21st century would be full of challenges where the rich and powerful countries
would come with all kinds of new ideas and proposals. "If you care to examine them
carefully you will find that it is they who will be the greatest beneficiaries. You may
gain too, but not as much as them. More frequently and in the long term you may
lose," he said.
Dr Mahathir urged leaders and managers in Malaysia and other countries to find out how the
Japanese could stay in markets where they had knocked out the Europeans and the Americans.
He said Malaysia now also had to compete with China.
"We know China's low cost. If we know how the Japanese managed to stay in the Chinese
market, maybe then we can compete with China," he added.
Related links:
'Welcome Address by Yang Amat Berbahagia
Tun Haji Mohammed Hanif bin Omar, President of MIM'
'Introduction of the TAR Lecture Speaker,
YABhg Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, by YBhg Dato'
Dr Mohamed Munir bin Abdul Majid Chairman,
Organising Committee, Member, Court of Fellows'
'SPEECH
BY THE HON TUN DR MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD AT
THE TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN LECTURE SERIES AT SHANGRI-LA HOTEL, KUALA LUMPUR ON 3 OCTOBER 2005
"MALAYSIA
INCORPORATED : LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT DEMANDS IN THE 21ST CENTURY"
'Word of
Thanks by Ir George Lee, Chairman, General Council, Member, Court of Fellows'
'MIM Hosts
Lecture of the Year'
'Don't Stick to Beaten Path, Says Dr M'
'Dr M: VW stake in Proton is fine'
About MIM Tunku Abdul Rahman Lecture
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