Saturday, December 29, 2007

2007 Takeaways - Hai 2008


Kuala Terengganu from Heritage

As usual every year we strategize and plan for best performance in terms of works, family and social achievements. Some of us pass with flying colors while others may just scrap through. But one of the most important aspects of the exercise is the lesson learnt and our ability to share it with friends who may benefit from our life experience.

I would like to kick the ball rolling by sharing some of my key takeaways for year 2007 and the lesson learnt from them, hopefully it’s a reminder for me and beneficial to my cyber friends. Further on I will tag three other friends to share their 2007 key takeaways that may be useful for us to navigate the 2008 challenges.

CORPORATE GAME - YOUR MOVE ……
After more then ten years of its inception the company I am working with decided to undertake major reorganization exercise to meet the current and future challenges and expectations. Being a subsidiary of corporate giant and member of the fortune 500 companies the exercise has to go through proper process, procedures and facilitated by the competent person from Holding Company. We spent a few days in Cameron Highlands, Kuala Terengganu and five star hotels in KL to brain storm on the reorganization. There were two school of thoughts on the reorganization, one in favor of putting all company business under one division (option 1) while the other putting it under two divisions (option 2). By putting the business under one division the Head of the Division will certainly get his grade promotion while by having two business divisions the Heads may get their promotion or may not depending on their hay points and accountabilities.

The option 2 will better suit the company for current and future business expansions while giving more opportunities for the young leaders to progress in their career. Of course there were big deliberations and arguments on the two options. Being the proponent of the option 2 it was rather tiring trying to convince what I felt was the logical path to be taken for the future of the company and staff. At last with some modifications option 2 was accepted and named Option 3.

Lesson learnt was that to push through noble ideas we need persistence, intelligence and majority support. You may end up not popular to small quarters but the majority will eventually see your sacrifice and in the years ahead you will be proud of your contributions to the organization. The set back be ready to miss your quick gain/promotion.

TRUE SUCCESS – ME FIRST OR FAMILY FIRST?
It is normal for working couples to strive very hard to ensure their career success at times forgetting that their children also need much attention and support to be successful in their studies and life. The beauty about God creations is that our children may look the same but they are full of differences in terms of their capability, endurance and emotional stability. My first daughter was smart, fast learner and scoring straight A’s is not much of a problem to her but my second daughter is a bit slow in learning. She did not get straight A’s in her UPSR but then worked very hard to ensure she did as well as her sister in PMR. With her determination, hard work and full support from us, especially my wife she scored straight A’s in her PMR. Her success gave a real joy to all in the family.

Lesson learnt we should not quickly give up when our children fail to achieve excellence in fact we must spend more time to assist them. We must help them overcome their weaknesses and sharpened their strength. In the process we will understand each other better. We must also be ready to sacrifice some of our personal success to ensure we could achieve more wholesome success for the family.

GIVING IS BETTER THEN RECEIVING ….. BETTER STILLL GIVE DIRECT TO THE NEEDY.
For many years my family and I have been blessed for being able to give out some Zakat to the less fortunate. The sweetness of giving could only be felt by those blessed being able to give ….. actually the amount doesn’t matter but most importantly the spirit to give, what more to give when our business or financial position was on the decline.

Usually I will give part of my Zakat to “ Pusat Pungutan Zakat” and the rest to less fortunate family members and orphanage centers. In 2006 I have decided to give all my Zakat to the “ Pusat Pungutan Zakat “ and my less fortunate family members only. It was an easier option without going personally to the orphanage centers and most of my payments can be deducted from my income tax. The result was my life was less cheerful and blissful in comparison to the previous years. May be it was just a coincidence or my subjective feelings for the year.

In 2007 I decided to go back to my formal routine and improved on it by giving more to the less fortunate directly. I was also given the opportunity to give to a Madrasah in Myanmar when I met the Principal by coincidence at my in law house. Despite the various challenges and trying times, 2007 has been a wonderful year for my family and me. The good old feeling is back in me, I guess the lesson learnt here is that the more we give direct to the needful the more blessed we are …….. blessed in knowing the real person who received our gift and seeing the light in their eyes.

I hereby cordially invite - Zabs, Elviza & Mat Salo to share their 2007 Key Takeaways to our bloggers friend. Happy New Year & All The Best for 2008 to all my bloggers friends.
Some of the Takeaways 2007 from our bloggers friends. Many thanks for sharing .

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

jafflam,
This is a great post but it is a tough cookie to chew so I prefer to come in as anonymous so that nobody among the three that you have tagged will get the idea to tag me next. I have never done the tags before so I dont want to make this as my first.
It is great of you to share such experiences with us here. It is definitely a sure way to learn from others who had personal experience about it.
Without doubt many major companies especially GLC's in Malaysia need complete revamp to remain not only competitive but more important to ensure its very existence. Bad management brought about by bad leadership is the core issue.
Lets hope the task given to you company brings in good result.

Iskandar Syah Ismail aka DR Bubbles said...

Thanks for sharing your takeaways with us. Lots of lessons learnt there...

jaflam said...

Dear Anon,
Understand your worries about the tagging, it's my first as well. It's very true finally the good leadership will instill good followers and good governance. We are still quite a long way on that.

jaflam said...

Dr.Bubbles
I am happy that the sharing was useful .... actually I am doing it in response of the tagging put on me by Ruby sometime back. I change the revelling to my 2007 key takeaways only.... even that was quite a difficult decision to make.

For all the noble things you have done at MAKNA ... I wish you every success on your CSR Master program. In fact I look forward for you to carry on to your PhD ..... so that you will be the real Dr.Bubbles PhD.

ZABS said...

Salam Jaflam,
Thank you for entrusting me with this taggy thingy. I will do my best to share some of my takeaway from 2007.
The three that you shared with us are invaluable and I hope that I can share some too, even if it is not as good. Happy New Year to You and Family and may 2008, be a more successful year to you.

jaflam said...

Zabs, thanks for agreeing to share, I am sure if most of us can contribute 2 or 3 takeaways each we will have a rich collections 2007 lesson learnts for the benefit of bloggers community. Salam 2008 to you & family.

Pak Zawi said...

Jaff,
A thousand apologies for coming in as anonymous in the above comment as I wanted to hide away from being tagged but can't bear to leave your site without a word of appreciation for what you have written hahaha. I will do the tag after completing my 'I Have A Dream' post.

Unknown said...

Salam,
These experiences worth to live by. Thanks for sharing your takeaways, they are really inspiring. Happy New Year.
Best wishes.

jaflam said...

Zawi,
Look forward on your takeaways sharing. I knew your will have some very useful 2007 lesson learnts for benefit of all. I have benefits from your many postings ... the latest make me put KB as one of my 2008 destinations. Salam to you & family.

jaflam said...

Akmal,
Thank you for coming by and happy that my sharing has been useful to you. Although we have not been able to talk much in our last meeting but I am proud that you are able to mix and communicate well with friends from different generations. You will acquire a wealth of experience and connections by keeping up the attitude. How I wish more youngsters will follow your traits. Wish you Happy New Year & Every Success in your Studies.

Anonymous said...

Ah Jaff, diam2 dia tag kan kita...

Heh! :-) Will do it soon (read: I thought I am untaggable?)

Happy New Year

jaflam said...

Elviza, thanks for coming in ... we need the generations and gender variance too.... welcome to the Bloggers Learning Institute ....

Mat Salo said...

Bang DJ, Got your email. Working on it. Banyak nak kene perbaiki diri ini. Looks like this BLI (Bloggers Learning Institute) is a progressive and equal opportunity employer *wink*. Thanks for sharing. Very inspiring as seen from a Fortune 500 company perspective. But all this might beyond me. I'm just a blue collar worker, Bang..he..

Oh! Wishing you Success and all the Best that 2008 has to offer. Insya'Allah. For me I hope to acquire an appreciation of Fine Arts and perhaps even able to translate this to an actual purchase.

Lee said...

Hello Jaflam, Happy new year to you and your family. All my very best regards. Enjoyed reading your this post and pics of your loved ones. You have a beautiful family Jaf.
By the way, I love your last painting, of the Thai house and figures around it. Beautiful painting.
You sure got nice paintings on the side here too. Love them.
Keep well, Jaflam. Lee.

jaflam said...

MS, actually there is so much in you than a blue collar worker that have not been exploited. Like drilling some time we have to go deep down and even directional to get to the well.

Happy that you are looking at fine arts as one of the avenue but I believe you have much experience, drive, network and integrity to become entrepreneur of your choice in the mid to long term plan. All the best and give some time for self strategic planning & drilling hahhhaaa.

jaflam said...

U Lee, thank you for the visit & kind wish. Hope 2008 will be a wonderful year for you and love ones.

The Thai painting was from mural in the Grand Palace, Bangkok. It was a series of beautiful paintings telling the whole cosmology of Thai life and belief. Its just too beautiful to be kept for my eyes only. Take care U Lee.

jaflam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Pak Zawi said...

D Jaff,
Please visit Pi Bani's site and read what she wrote about her takeaways that was initiated by you.

jaflam said...

Zawi,
I like her sharing and has listed all the Takeaways here for easy reference. Thank you for alerting, Tuan.

FiSHY@iKe said...

Jaflam, muiz aka fishy@ike (saw your fishy and unbreakable fish glass, that was nice, where do you get those?), I'm a friend of akmal (he was my classmates actually). Read you takeaways just now (I"m polishing my memories because I got tagged by akmal) to search some ideas for my own takeaways. Your "corporate game-your move" reminds me of my father, he kept having those meetings in those hotels and resorts (and usually he brought us together for work cum vacation). And coincidently, he was also always the one who, are not popular to small quarters due to his strong principle of doing things the right way. If you and him was on the same table chatting, I would see that he will have a good chemistry with you. Thanks for sharing your takeaways, now I think I've had ideas to write mine, take care...

jaflam said...

Hello Muiz,
Thank you for visiting and sharing your Takeaways soon. The glass fish was taken at one of local art exhibition ... i thought it was cute.... you are free to use it too.

You are lucky to have a father with high principal.... a good model to follow. It’s ok not to be popular but known for our integrity and good principles. I look forward for your sharing & postings. Take care and Selamat Menyambut Maal Hijrah.

Anonymous said...

I agree with you.

Anonymous said...

Hi, very interesting post, greetings from Greece!