6 more days and I'm gone to Bali. Can't wait to leave the work place. Hopefully this trip will reboot my demotivated mind and come back with the force to move forward.
Drank my first bowl of herbal chicken soup from the newly bought slow-cooker. Nothing as warming as to be able to drink some steamy hot soup. Yummm.... If you ask me what's the best invention to me right now, it would be the "Slow-cooker"!!! Hahaha.... Easy to please aren't I?
Alright, here's one motivational article on the Chairman of my company. Errm... Wonder if this would happen in the Malaysian society...
The tale of 'an ordinary bloke who got lucky'
By Alison Maitland
Published: April 10 2006 03:00 Last updated: April 10 2006 03:00
Financial Times
John Bond's mother used to worry that he was too shy to get a job. At school, he failed O-level maths and his entrance exams to Oxford University. His first job in banking involved stamping bills in the import-export department.
From such unremarkable beginnings, he made his inexorable ascent to the summit of HSBC, the world's third largest bank, from where he steps down after 45 years next month.
In an interview in his 41st floor office, with its bird's eye view over Canary Wharf and the Thames, Sir John recounts his youthful setbacks with gusto, saying they taught him how to deal with failure. They probably also contributed to his disarming capacity for self-deprecation. "I'm an ordinary bloke who got lucky," he insists, apparently expecting to be believed.
For most of his eight years as chairman of HSBC, overseeing ambitious expansion into the US and China, he has shunned any personal limelight. "I think egos get in the way of successful businesses," says Sir John, who takes over in July as chairman of Vodafone, the telecommunications group that last week announced its second reorganisation in 18 months. "In my experience, you meet two types of people: people who seek power for power's sake - I find them potentially dangerous - and people who seek it for the power to do good."
Critics of financial titans might balk at his broad definition of "good", which includes running a business for the satisfaction of being part of a successful team, rather than for self-aggrandisement. However, his old friend Bill Dalton, the Canadian former head of HSBC Bank in the UK, says Sir John does not have a huge ego. "You have to have a decent ego to get to that position," he says. "But John is not a 'John' guy, he's more of a 'you' guy. He asks your opinion. He doesn't have 'chairman-itis', the disease where people say: 'I'm the chairman, therefore I must be right.' "
In his white-collared blue shirt, spotted tie and pin-stripe trousers, Sir John could be the archetypal old-school banker. Yet there is something different: a wiry energy that belies his 64 years, the hair worn slightly long on the collar, his preference for motorbike taxis to get round town in a hurry.
He professes a hatred of corporate politics. HSBC has been assiduous at building teamwork, he says. "It's almost a given that teamwork is very hard to induce if there are people who want to play politics."
Surely an organisation the size of HSBC, with more than 250,000 staff in 77 countries, must be awash with politics? "I don't doubt that there are some games of politics going on in some areas of the company," he replies. "But I think politicians know they will get very short shrift at the top of HSBC."
Sir John, who likes to quote Chinese proverbs, speaks of the bank's policy of "growing its own people" in dynastic terms. "The top 50 people in HSBC have been here 1,000 years. We know each other extraordinarily well, which is what makes teamwork possible."
Only one in five of the top team started their careers elsewhere, he says. "You need enough people from outside to challenge the status quo but, as long as we're successful, not enough to cause a revolution. Balancing those two things is an important part of one's job."
Isn't there a danger of complacency when long-serving insiders dominate a company? "You're looking at a firm believer that every company should have a board member who is re-sponsible for 'corporate insecurity'," he replies. That is his job: to remind people that a quarter of the FTSE 100 from 20 years ago have gone, and that if the 141-year-old bank does not keep changing it could face the same fate.
He claims his own career has been driven by a fear of failure, coupled with a strong desire to discover what he was capable of. After training in London, he arrived in Hong Kong in early 1964, spending four weeks at sea because it cost less than flying. It was an example of the bank's legendary frugality, which he has enthusiastically perpetuated. "We bottle our own water here - it's cheaper," he says, removing the stopper from an unmarked bottle and pouring me a glass.
The changes during his career are "beyond anything I'd have believed possible", he says. For the first 32 years, most of the bank's business was in Hong Kong. "Clearly that was a business which you could get your arms around. Now, roughly half the profit is made when I'm asleep. That gives you an idea of how important it is to have people you trust out there."
It was in the early 1980s that he crossed what he calls his Rubicon of leadership. Appointed to sort out the group's troubled investment bank in Hong Kong, he had to remove half the executives, rebuild the business and restore clients' trust. "I learned that if you were going to do the right thing it was going to be hard to be popular at the same time. That's not always an easy passage for a human being to make."
One of his guiding principles is to keep in touch with customers and employees. "I know who the 200 top clients of the bank are and every year I make sure I've had some form of contact with them. I try to make sure I speak to a client every working day," he says. "I'm constantly talking to people who serve on the counters, the super people that help us with our security. I'm on the canteen floor collecting coffees. The lift is a great place to ask people: 'What's news in your part of the world?'"
Either he or Stephen Green, the chief executive who is succeeding him as chairman, spends time with every graduate recruit, listening to their presentations, discussing values, an-swering questions. "I believe very firmly that each successive generation of management should be better than its predecessors," he says.
The succession at the top of HSBC caused a few ripples with investors who feared it might set a precedent that ran counter to UK corporate governance best practice, which discourages chief executives from moving up to the chairmanship.
Sir John says that, although he understands the desire for a common set of rules on governance, companies differ. If codes and regulations impede the successful running of the bank, it will continue to make its case against complying.
As he is still "just a non-executive director", he will not comment directly on Vodafone, where Arun Sarin, chief executive, is under intense pressure to improve performance and shareholders are complaining of poor communication. But Sir John's views on resolving boardroom conflicts provide pointers to what can be expected. "If they're polarised arguments, you listen to both the arguments," he says. "If somebody has to say: 'This is the way I believe this company should go,' that's the role of the chairman. In my HSBC experience, we've had some very long debates about issues but we've never had a situation where that has arisen."
Directors must be shown everything, warts and all, he says. "We do papers on mistakes we have made, on how we keep the corporate culture of HSBC alive, on whether size is a good thing or a bad thing."
He says he is looking forward to returning to "the real world" after 45 years of global travel and 6am starts. In that time, he has taken five days of sick leave, when he had his appendix out.
Given this commitment to his work, it is surprising to hear him say that he views business life as "ephemeral". "The only visiting card that I'll leave on this planet will be my children," he adds.
Then he makes a final quip at his own expense: "You could headline the interview 'Accidents Happen'."
Leadership lessons of an HSBC lifer
Sir John Bond does not believe in a "cookie-cutter" approach to leadership. "Leadership comes in different shapes and sizes," he says. "It's hard to do it by imitation - you have to do it your own way. Organisations and individuals should try to tread the path that hasn't been trod."
Nonetheless, there are things that every leader requires, he says. Asked by graduate recruits what it takes to get to the top, he offers the following list: a lot of luck; a high level of energy; the ability to be decisive, even if it means upsetting people; curiosity; communication skills; emotional intelligence; and sensitivity to other cultures and points of view.
He says he has gained a lot over the years from what he calls "reverse mentoring" - or learning from mistakes made by people above him.
His experience of boardroom dynamics comes not only from chairing HSBC but also from serving on the boards of Vodafone and Ford. "In my judgment you should make a board completely candid, present the board with all the mistakes as well as all - hopefully - the successes, you should try to avoid giving them any surprises whatsoever and you should engage them," he says.
One of Sir John's favourite sayings comes from Lao Zi, the ancient Chinese philosopher. "He said: 'When the best leader's work is done, the people will say: We did it ourselves.' You'd pay about $50,000 for a management consultant to get that advice today."
