8/04/2006

we will never have our own bill gates or warren buffett

Singtel still searching for CEO to replace Hsien Yang. Hsien Yang is a brilliant scholar, and a very able soldier. With these credentials, he went on to be the CEO of Singtel without any previous experience in the private sector or in the telecommunications industry. Singtel is now looking for a replacement with his resignation. There are two very experience and able CEOs in Chua Sock Koon and Allen Lew. Both have been in the industry and Singtel for many years. And both have proven their worth and risen to their present position. Though they are being considered for Hsien Yang's vacated position, the nuances are that they are not good enough. And Singtel is seriously looking for a foreign talent. Why are these two CEOs who have ample experience in Singtel and the industry not good enough? We will never have our own heroes and world beaters if we keep looking down on our own talents. World beaters need a chance. If we don't give our people the chance, we are doing injustice to our talents.

2 comments:

utwt said...

well, warren buffett and bill gates did not wait for someone to accept them as talents before they got going ... they started their own businesses. for that reason i disagree with your comment

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

bill gate and warren buffett are very exceptional talents. for the next 100 years it is unlikely that we will be able to produce anyone like them.

take a more realistic example in our pop industry. if mediacorp or then tcs did not give our locals the chance to play lead roles in the dramas produced and keep hiring foreign talents, there will be no zoe tay, li nangxin, mark what? or jack what?

in the corporate world, especially in management, what's so great about foreign talents? sim wong hoo will not be a talent given his background. he created his own chances and now can sit in the same table as bill gate. but he is self made.

now we have so many huge locally set up companies, grown by our own talents. and we want to surrender them to foreigners after driving so far? shall wee cho yaw hand his uob to a ft to run? this is a stupid asian mentality that grows out of our colonial days when angmoh is best. the mentality of a subject people. lack of confidence in our own people. the hongkies are better than us in this aspect despite the fact that they were colonised longer than us. they are supremely confident of themselves.

if we aspire to be in the first world, we need to nurture our people to be in the first world. never mind that many are only good to be leaders in the kampongs and hdb estates.

what makes a ft an international figure? it is the chance and opportunity given to them. the americans are hiring many indians to head their organisations. and these are asians who happened to be in the usa.

give our local talents the opportunity and exposure and dress them well, with wine glasses in hand and a $10k suit, and they will look world class. (just kidding)

we have many good talents and many useless talents. if all the straight As and first class graduates among us are not world class, we need to pack up and close shop. these are people who have competed with the best in ivy league universities in the west. they should be pushed up the corporate ladder, given the right exposure as honchos of our own mncs. or they are only good enough to run hdb estates?