SINGAPORE (10 February 2011) – What will drive business success in 2011? is the most popular question that CEOs, HR Directors and CITOs in HR from Asian Wall Street Journal’s most admired company list—as the global economy slowly rebounds and emerging markets are seen to carry much of the recovery—will address at the HR Talk Show, held 9 March 2011 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
2011 marks a critical period of Transformation for Malaysia—a quantum leap from the current US$7,000 per capita annual income to US$15,000, and a spate of debates has sprung recently on how best to approach the very ambitious transformation of Malaysia into a developed nation that would require Malaysia to grow by 8% per year during this decade. Reports mention that this level of growth will require major private investment from both domestic and foreign sources, resulting from confidence in upgraded human skills and significant economic reform.
Several enthusiastic government initiatives already was set to propel this growth, such as the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP), the National Key Results Areas (NKRAs), the National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs), the New Economic Model (NEM), the Government Transformation Programmes (GTP), and the Economic Transformation Programmes (ETP). The establishment of PEMANDU and the newly minted Talent Corp—driving these serious initiatives—is expected to drive serious growth trajectories in Malaysia.
Whilst PEMANDU has been resolutely driving growth with 19 more projects and worth RM67 billion in investments, RM36 billion in Gross National Income (GNI), whilst contributing to almost 35,000 new jobs, the challenge is on for Talent Corp, tasked to encourage overseas Malaysians to return home, after almost 500,000 Malaysians reportedly left the country between 2007 and 2009, more than doubling the number of Malaysian professionals who live overseas—exacerbating the country’s brain drain problem. It will have to bridge this massive talent gap.
Talent Corp’s Chief Executive, Johan Merican will be joining the most globally admired companies in Malaysia at the HR Talk Show to address current HR professional challenges three years ago, what those issues are today and what they will be three years from now to provide strategic clarity for Malaysian business leaders.
“Today, 80% of the workforce has education only up to SPM qualifications, Malaysia’s equivalent to the O-levels,” said Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. Over the next five years, the aim is to raise the number of highly skilled workers to 5 million— now standing at 3.1 million among the 12 million workers in the country.
But it is, however, easier said than done. The New Economic Model adhering to “market friendly, merit-based, transparent and needs-based” principles of promotion through its inclusive affirmative action policy has yet to generate buy-in from various stakeholders.
The private sector is being cautious in going about this major change, especially given that the new global economy’s “bigger, better, faster, cheaper” demands which put a downward pressure on companies’ profit and liquidity prospects. In IBM’s 2010 Global CEO Study, CEOs turn back to innovation driven by creative leaders who thrive in uncertainties and experimentation to stay relevant in a highly volatile market. Prime Minister Najib Razak declared last year as the Year of Innovation and Creativity for Malaysia, saying, “Innovation creates jobs and boosts national competitiveness. This is why we, too, must make a creative impact in a competitive global economy. We must not allow ourselves to be left behind.”
Technology is another challenge given the new trends that require further collaboration, clarity and transparency, visibility and ubiquity amidst drive to cut costs without cutting effectiveness. HR will constantly be asked of hard numbers before taking up expensive server-based technologies from which they turn towards enterprise Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products as cost effective alternatives to ERP software systems for human resource management. In fact in a global survey, about 40% of HR executives plan to implement SaaS for core needs between now and end of 2011, to simplify software management and reduce costs. However, there are challenges along the way, which include security/ privacy concerns, offline support availability and expensive initial implementation costs.
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Contact: Rex Ian Sayson
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“If the new economy is to regain its soul, we need to ask ourselves some tough questions,” award-winning author Jim Collin wrote. During this critical period of Transformation in Malaysia, do we ask ourselves tough questions to be the first trillion-dollar company?
Our role as leader in our organizations is to clarify your people and business management direction for 2011-2012 and determine how we can future proof our business and people strategy, against the global drivers that will affect our organization in the coming decade.
The HR Talk Show series is a high-impact interactive platform that bridges the gap between the government and business initiatives to drive best practices and actionable insights into talent, technology and strategy. In a unique talk show format, Anne
Edwards of Bernama TV will facilitate thought-provoking questions to most admired companies to ensure that you:
• Drive improved talent productivity and leadership succession
• Cast off accident-prone legacy strategies for talent management
• Get a methodology to evaluate and implement HR technology and services
• Resume your role with a greater clarity of thought and vision
The Center for Business Strategy and Tactics (Center for Business) is an industry research centre (IRC) that works to bring top executives together in communities of learning and practice to act as a catalyst for generating high-value energy business insight and channel top expertise to where the world needs it most. Center for Business meetings are powered by Arc Media Global, a B2B/G2B integrated international marketing specialist headquartered in Singapore.
If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with the speakers at the HR Talk Show, please call Rex Ian Sayson at (+65) 6844 2080 or e-mail Rex at firstname.lastname@example.org
Succession planning, talent management, HR technology, compensation and benefits, 1Malaysia, 10MP, GTP, ETP, Talent Corp, New Economic Model, 10th Malaysia Plan, Pemandu, Vision 2020, Johan Merican, Nestle Malaysia, Telekom Malaysia, One Malaysia, Idris Jala, Bernama TV, Anne Edwards