Tuesday, April 12, 2016

The Story Episode 3

Today was a very busy day for me. Not only I had an event at noon with Ustadha Rayhaanah on Empowering Tools for Stress Management (I blogged about it in my earlier post), but I also have another event at 8 pm, The Story Episode 3 by Generasi Bersatu Malaysia. The Story is actually an event which showcases successful individuals and them sharing on what makes them successful. This time the organisers have invited three successful individuals in various fields; Tan Sri Nadzmi Salleh, the Chairman of Konsortium Transnasional Berhad, Datuk Norman Abdul Halim of KRU Studios and Datuk Aznil Haji Nawawi, Malaysia's No 1 Celebrity Host.

Here are some of the things that I managed to pick up from tonight's event:


Tan Sri Nadzmi Salleh shared most of his experiences and successes from his earlier endeavours, one as the Marketing Manager and later CEO of EON (Edaran Otomobil Nasional) and Proton. Among the tips that he shared is that:

1. Turn the problem into opportunities. He shared one instance when he was at EON and they had to figure out how best to sell Proton (EON is Proton's authorised car distributor) when it had some issues with the car boot. The problem was, the car boot is designed to have a certain amount of space for the spare tyre and that space needs to be covered appropriately. They (at EON) called a manufacturer and asked him what would it cost if he were to manufacture a nice car boot tray to cover the spare tyre. The manufacturer quoted them a price. They then made a study asking buyers how much would they pay for the car boot tray. The buyers stated a price which is double the price of the manufacturer. They consigned the manufacturer to make the trays and then sold it to customers (bundled with selling the car of course) at double the price.

2. Know what is the vision and mission of the firm and move towards achieving that mission and vision.

3. Understand quality. It is knowing who the customers are and what are their expectations.

4. Not only to focus on marketing and sales, but also understand the economics of the business. An example which he shared is in the case of Proton, to manufacture one product line, it needs an investment cost of at least 800 million to 1 billion. Thus, when doing marketing, keep in touch with the numbers/ target that the firm needs to sell in order to break even and make a profit. For Proton, the domestic market is not enough for it to recover its costs. Therefore the firm has to sell overseas in order to meet the numbers. They sold the car overseas at a lower price than the domestic market because they needed to be competitive to the overseas market. And they knew that they only needed to sell above the variable cost because fixed costs becomes lower as more cars are being manufactured and sold.

5. Good performance and best practices must be complimented with innovation and ideas. Here he shared an example of Kodak and how the company had to file for bankruptcy simply because it wasn't keeping up with the changing times.


Datuk Norman Abdul Halim shared on his experiences with KRU, how they first started (with a RM2,000 loan given by the recording company) and how they moved to where they are today as KRU Studios doing films, animations and soon to be gaming and virtual reality. Here are among the things that he shared:

1. It's not necessarily the technology but the people. When they were producing their song AWAS, their recording was made under the stairs (at their home) and they actually used egg trays and pasted the trays on the walls and under the stairs and this helped them to record the song and capture the acoustics that they needed for the song.

2. Datuk Norman likes football, so he used a lot of football terms and jargons in his session. Among them is that, in football, everybody has a different role to play. The striker aims for the goal, the defender ensures no one is able to break through to the team's side, the goalkeeper ensures that the goalpost is safe. The same is for a business organisation. The striker would most probably be the sales and marketing department who ensures that sales targets are made while the defender would be those in finance and accounting, ensuring that the business does not go under and stays afloat. The coach would be the CEO and the management team, determining the strategy of the firm and it's direction.

3. When making decisions, be aware of the state of your mood. Usually wrong (or bad) decisions are made when you are angry, sad or even too happy. Calm yourself down before making a decision.

4. You are bound to make mistakes. That doesn't mean that you have to stop. You have to move on past the mistakes. Clean up and minimise the damage.


Datuk Aznil Haji Nawawi or better known as Pak Nil was the last speaker and the most energetic of them all. Here are among the gems that he shared:

1. The stage is never big enough. He shared on his experiences from working at MISC and being on tv commercials, then moving to becoming a news presenter with TV3. After that he moved to being a game show host with Popkuiz and then as the host of Akademi Fantasia and then having his own show Macam-Macam Aznil and later having his own show with Channel E! What you have achieved today is not enough. Go and try to achiever bigger and better things.

2. You only have one chance. Do it right. Grab it and don't let go. When you love your job, you will never let it go. Never ever.

3. You have to do things differently to make people notice you. In that he refers to the way he dresses and wears his clothes (which is always on point and up to the occasion).

4. Nobody else can measure you except for your own self.

5. Work hard for it and own it. An example is that he uses his real name (some performers choose to have a stage name) and with that, there's a lot of responsibility hanging on what you do as you have to make sure you do right by your name (and in his case, by his father's name as well).


What can I say about all three speakers? 

All three speakers, despite coming from different backgrounds, share a lot of similarities. For one, they are very, very passionate in what they do. They know where their passion lies and they focus in the area. So much that work, does not feel like work. They are not afraid to give their all in what they do. They are not afraid to fail. And most importantly, they work hard to ensure that they will be successful. Here, having the confidence in yourself and what you do is very important because a lot of people shy back from being successful simply because they do not have confidence in themselves. As Pak Nil says it best, most Malaysians would not want to sit in the front seat, instead, they prefer to sit at the back.
Another thing is that they know what are their strengths and weaknesses. Instead of lamenting on their weaknesses, they focus on their strength and make it stronger. So strong in fact, that it overcomes whatever weaknesses that they have.
They strive to improve and move forward. Identify what is the trend and focus towards being updated with the upcoming trends. If you make mistakes, do damage control, pick yourself up and move forward.
Lastly, never ever give up.

I've definitely had an inspiring day and I hope I was able to generate inspiration in you too =). To learn more on Generasi Bersatu and the good work that they do, do visit their website [here].


xoxo Mrs Fashionista

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