WHAT IS MEANT TO BE A CEO?

The unfortunate event of MAS Airline Company with the missing MH307 and the mishap of MH17 has made the company broken beyond repair. It is already making huge losses prior to these 2 unfortunate events. Like most of the GLC companies, unlike our neighboring SIA and our homegrown AirAsia are reaping huge profits, such heavy losses occurred under the purview of the largest shareholder – the sovereign fund of Khazanah.  The question is what make 100% ownership by Khazanah would make any different? Well, they may probably rope in a new CEO and this is what he may do taking reference to what a situation may have been in private entity.

The Observation phase (the 1st Four months) – He will give a throughout analysis of the situation and establish himself as the knight on silver armor. Salvage whatever salvageable. Identifying what are the assets and liabilities. Rock the establishment to the core shaking up status quo, placing the previous management on the chopping block under CBT. He will suddenly stop payment to all non-productive supplies that the earlier management has entered upon. Renovate his new office and bought himself a new car under company expanses. Recruit his panel of Yes-man and he will continue to strive the value of its share further downward so that it reaches the ocean floor. On top of such, he will buy these shares in an under value state with bank facilities and he sits in his make-shift office, usually a 5 stars hotel lobby and start dishing out statements of how he is going to make a comeback to the media. Follow-up by luncheons and dinners with bankers, lobbyist, political agents and proxies, striking deals after deals to strategize short and midterms plan to dissect the valuable leftovers, pawn the liabilities, camouflage its commitments and so forth. The immediate goal is to make the company off from the red.

The Execution phase (the 2nd Four months) – He will disposes some and if not all the valuable assets the company has to 3rd party (could also be his benefactors) and reported to the shareholders as debt management. He will also enter into rearrangement with bankers with these potential sales for more bridging facilities that can bring him through over his tenure as the CEO. Such deal makings may and may not materialize in kick-backs and so forth. He may also renegotiate terms with the existing suppliers, who are by such time may have to resort to legal recourse, with a win-win situation including bringing in his preferred suppliers, swapping contracts. He will undoubtedly recruit new talents, motivate existing work force, draw up a new plans that cover every aspect of the company as his mission and vision statement. Continue to be the media darlings so that his effort not only being implemented but seen to be implemented with new ventures steam rolling out from the company. Such selling of assets is rated the most effective means to bring the company back to the blue and the question is how many assets can one disposed?

The Evaluation phase (the 3rd Four months) – It is time to reap his benefits. As the value of shares rose up from the abyss, he is in the position to demand more and he will pocket a chunk of huge bonuses from the shareholders. He and his merry men are ready to “rape” the company so that by the time he is no longer needed, everything will fall back to where he begins with. He will release his shares at market price progressively. All the sudden deals are cut short or rather didn’t materialize, assets are bought back at exorbitant price and the outflows such as debt repayment start to escalate. That is a good portrayal of what is happening in most distress companies run by professional CEOs.

The same can be applied anywhere else from running an architectural practice to running a country (with a longer period of 5 years). Such paradigm is not new and it is reflected in Chinese Metaphysics for century, a topic I shall discuss some other times.