Sept 12, 2020.
The MCO extension had made me wonder when can I meet with the original MHS Team again. On and off I'd met the old MHS staff at weddings and some reunions organized by the clerical group.
Yoke Ling has been a regular whatsapp correspondent for the last year or so. She hasn't aged, when last I saw her during the last meeting mentioned. So, it seemed natural that I turned to her and about two weeks ago suggested she arrange lunch or something with 5 - 6 of these people. She quickly got hold of Ramlee, Hussein and Mala, and sent word to a few others staying in the Kelang Valley, to meet for lunch at the "Pizza vs Satay" in Subang Jaya, Thursday 10.9.20. The place turned out that it's close to where she stays.
I got hold of Sam, and we rendezvoused at Subang Parade. I held on to my "waze" as he drove to "Pizza vs Satay". Four of the 5 of us who eventually made it arrived almost at the same time. Ramlee came last as we sat at one of the tables, and ignored the sop seating arrangement.
Mala couldn't come because she had to take her daughter to the dentist. Onn and Mas didn't read Yoke Ling's message in time, and could't make it. The next one we asked Husein to arrange in December. We should try to pull a few more, but not too many. Ramlee had suggested to call some of the girls staying around Shah Alam-Kelang, and I quickly agreed.
The lunch we individually ordered was great, and disappeared fast, but we lingered for a while. Nobody wanted dessert. Everybody seemed satisfied with his/her single portion, but it was the talk that was enjoyable..
It's been 29 long years since I was given the task of heading the management to run MHS, the land-based operation by sea-bound MISC. Hussein said he was in the MISC Planning team that drew up the paper on MHS, so he got pulled in to be the Admin Manager, one of the 3 original executives. Ramlee was also from MISC. He became the Operations Manager. I was the GM of Felda Transport and was picked by the MISC Chairman to be the GM. The MISC Chairman happened to be also the Felda Chairman.
The four and a half years at MHS had been the most fulfilling of all my salaried appointments. This was the company that I ran from day one. Sure, a team of managers were in it, too, but I set the tone for work, putting to practice all that I had learned from my previous jobs and from my readings and studies. I had 22 years of Felda experience and had attended numerous short management courses in the country, and two lengthy top-management courses in England and the Phillipines. Hitherto, I took over my jobs from previous managers. This time I started from scratch. I could set my own style, and did.
My style was to share the workload with all my managers. I made sure that my table was cleared of all papers before I leave for the day, so I came to office with a clean desk every morning. The files belonged to the 3 managers. They must deal with them. They welcomed the trust and the responsibilty
This was my style in the previous job, the GM of Felda Transport Corporation. Hussein said a relative who was one of the staff there had called him, having heard that I was coming to MHS. He was more than happy to see me go. I don't know who this chap was, and I didn't ask Hussein. To my mind, this was just his version of my management style. He didn't see my perspective, obviously. I reponded to Hussein's story with one of my own. My No.2 Son is now with UTM, with offices in both the old campus in KL and the new larger one in Senai. When he visited the Senai campus, a female lecturer approached him and asked if he was "Zainal Mokhtar's son"? Affirmed, she said her husband had related to her that I was the best boss he ever had. The lecturer's husband, I found out later, was Fuad Hamid whom I had personally picked and put in charge of the Johore operations. I'd told him to run Johore and only come to me if he had a problem.
The fact was, the MISC Chairman had a full trust in me that I didn't betray. In turn I gave my managers the full trust that they, too, didn't betray. The late Othman Abdul came slightly later the Ramlee and Husein to become the Marketing Manager, and I gave him full reins. Yoke Ling, in his team, should testify the high spirits of the marketing people. I believe there was an atmosphere of trust and enterprise that was palpable, and it went right down to the drivers, the ones who were really responsible for our performance in the industry that we were in. As far as I was certain of, our expensive equipment were run at optimal capacity, and we threatened our 4 rivals in the haulage business at that time. Sadly, a totally new management came to MISC after I left, and they decided to off-load the land-based operations of the sea-based company.
Hussein and Ramlee mentioned about the "Kalmar story". I related about what transpired in the board room. The Chairman had chided that I wanted to buy "a Rolls Royce". Kalmar quoted a price three times that of a rival producer. We had studied the machinery, and I had even gone to Sweden to check up on it. This was a proven product. I said to the board members, an expensive machine that would perform well and last longer, and in the end becomes cheaper to maintain. They bought it. And so we bought it.
Then there was the purchase of the 2 pieces of land in Butterworth and Air Keroh. I had confidently presented my cases to the board each time. Air Keroh was straight-forward. The location was central to our Peninsula routes. Butterworth towards the end became a bit dicey. This was because by then Khalid Dahalan, my old nemesis from Felda, had come to MISC, thanks to the Chairman. He became the DMD, and MHS came under him. He questioned the proposed purchase of the Butterworth land, citing flood risks etc. I knew it was just to sabotage me. Fortunately, by then the preparatory studies were well advanced, and the findings positive. This was an operational hub to the northern peninsula area, with Penang and Thailand as important links to container haulage operations that Khalid knew nothing of. So the proposal went through. But clearly, the seeds of battle had been replanted. The revenge Khalid wanted because of my resistence to his show of power when in Felda had been halted when the Felda Chairman moved him to Boustead, because this Chairman was also the Boustead Chairman. When Felda's shares in Boustead were bought over, the Chairman left, leaving Khalid stranded. In his short stay in Boustead, Khalid, fully aware of the fact that the Chairman was behind him, had his way and in no time irritated the long-serving Boustead MD. So when the Felda Chairman left Boustead , the MD lost no time in making Khalid feel the heat. Khalid ran back to the Felda Chairman for help, and thus was put into MISC, because he was also MISC Chairman. But the Butterworth purchase was appreciated by the Chairman, so much so MISC wanted to buy more there. They didn't. I had left.
Incidently, Khalid moved back again to Felda when the Chairman also left MISC because of the transfer of Felda's shares in MISC. This hiding under the skirt habit finally ended when Khalid contracted come deadly virus while camping in Terengganu. I was told that in the final months of his life, he was no longer aware of his surroundings because of the damage to his brains.
As we were walking out of the restaurant, Hussein also mentioned about the case of the supplier suing MHS for some supplies bought by marketing. After about 10 years, the courts have awarded the supplier damages of about 200,000. This case also came about because of Khalid. He wanted to stop the purchase simply because it came from my team. Part of the purchase, I think, were golf umbrellas meant for customer relations. Khalid, an accountant (not a Chartered accountant), had said "marketing is nothing". When I heard this at that time, I'd said to my managers "you have to market to make money, before you count the money". If I bother to know where he's buried, I'd take one of the umbrellas and put it on his tombstone to shade it.
After all these years, here at lunch I learned some new tit bits. Zahrah was our first clerk when we were still in Jalan Conlay. Now I'm told she had been married at 18 and was a single mother when taken in by Hussein out of sympathy. At Port Kelang apparently she had a few affairs with the drivers. Ramlee said she stays nearby. I said call her for our next makan.
Ramlee mentioned Suraya, my secretary in Port Kelang. He also mentioned Maya, my first secretary while at Jalan Conlay. Maya was Hank's gf. Hank had called and asked if I could take her. I found her to be qualified and took her. The short time we were in Jalan Conlay, I found her work ok. But she didn't want to move to Port Kelang. That was why I took Suraya. Ramlee has followed her in fb, and said she looks different now. I said it's the digital touch-up, because I've met her, though many years ago, and she looked her old self. But Maya was known for her firm breasts (I said sorry to Yoke Ling for mentioning this). I was told she challanged those who doubted their authencity by asking the doubters to go with her to the toilet and see for themselves. But I wasn't told if the challange was accepted.
It was a nice get-together. We should do it again.
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