1. Over the past 7 days have been the most stressful and exhausting time in my career since I first started work in 1999. I always thought that my Audit years in Ernst & Young were the most 'tiring' and 'burning' but a crisis last week proved me wrong.
2. A multi-billion contract was cancelled by a client in the Gulf States and caused confusions among stakeholders of my company. Shareholders, Analysts, Fund Managers, Bankers, Rating Agencies, Bondholders, Media, Gov Authorities, Other Clients. You name it. Everyone was on board the 'Air Crisis", destination - Shah Alam Glenmarie.
5. We decided that we shall not shy away as we believe the Company is not at fault. None of us avoided the issue but we all stayed focused to explain and clarify the true facts. Hence, a few of us, with respective roles, dealt with each stakeholders in the fastest and best possible manner to allay fear/ deny that the Company is in great trouble. We were racing against unwanted romours, speculations and wrongful facts.
6. On 6 Jan 2009 itself, I spoke on the phone from 7:00am to 10:00pm, only to break for lunch and water. In the washroom, I was still on phone conversations. I received 130 SMS and among these, 120 of these were messages with Missed Calls which many of the numbers are from Analysts, Fund Managers and the Media. Face-to-face Meetings and Call Conferences were common requests. We were open and had accepted all requests that reached us on the same day. Or else we scheduled these to the following days.
7. At these meetings, we answered each and every questions thrown at us. Some were nasty, illogical and baseless. But overall, those were fair and good questions.
8. On 7 to 9 Jan 2009, the next wave of crisis management was to clarify with the Press, Gov officials and all my friends who cared. I also arranged an exclusive interview with a Malaysian press for my boss to explain that it is business as usual at the Company and we will work even harder in the Gulf region. We have a bigger pie among other Malaysian counterparts in the region. The cancellation only took away 20% of the pie. The Company has moved on.
9. The events past week made me truly believe that in every crisis, there are opportunities and benefits. One can only see a crisis as positive if he or she thinks long term on these:-
- More of the global world knows the Company now. As and when the outcome is favourble to the Company, we would have spent zero cents for publicity;
- Chance to taste the worst (if not the worst) and is equiped to face other crisis along the byways;
- Learn more about people, bosses, colleagues and business associates - their leadership, character and composure when handling challenges;
- Strengthen unity among people within an organisation as everyone is now on board the same 'aircraft' facing common external problem/ enemy; and
- (More for me) I get to know that my Sony Ericsson P1i battery will die twice if used non-stop for 15 hours.
Thank you for flying Air Crisis.
2. A multi-billion contract was cancelled by a client in the Gulf States and caused confusions among stakeholders of my company. Shareholders, Analysts, Fund Managers, Bankers, Rating Agencies, Bondholders, Media, Gov Authorities, Other Clients. You name it. Everyone was on board the 'Air Crisis", destination - Shah Alam Glenmarie.
3. The problem with human is that when one hears a bad news, panic starts to flow followed by speculations, then rumours and ultimately wrong facts. And may I add that these usually travel really fast, faster than flying from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore.
4. The company shares were traded last at RM1.26, a limit down (30% of reference price) in the first 12 minutes of trading on 6 Jan 2009 and was suspended for the rest of the day. It was the first ever limit down by the Company's counter and for the first time, we made 2 public announcements to the stock exchange in one day, one in the morning and another in late afternoon, providing details to the public on the whole issue.
5. We decided that we shall not shy away as we believe the Company is not at fault. None of us avoided the issue but we all stayed focused to explain and clarify the true facts. Hence, a few of us, with respective roles, dealt with each stakeholders in the fastest and best possible manner to allay fear/ deny that the Company is in great trouble. We were racing against unwanted romours, speculations and wrongful facts.
6. On 6 Jan 2009 itself, I spoke on the phone from 7:00am to 10:00pm, only to break for lunch and water. In the washroom, I was still on phone conversations. I received 130 SMS and among these, 120 of these were messages with Missed Calls which many of the numbers are from Analysts, Fund Managers and the Media. Face-to-face Meetings and Call Conferences were common requests. We were open and had accepted all requests that reached us on the same day. Or else we scheduled these to the following days.
7. At these meetings, we answered each and every questions thrown at us. Some were nasty, illogical and baseless. But overall, those were fair and good questions.
8. On 7 to 9 Jan 2009, the next wave of crisis management was to clarify with the Press, Gov officials and all my friends who cared. I also arranged an exclusive interview with a Malaysian press for my boss to explain that it is business as usual at the Company and we will work even harder in the Gulf region. We have a bigger pie among other Malaysian counterparts in the region. The cancellation only took away 20% of the pie. The Company has moved on.
9. The events past week made me truly believe that in every crisis, there are opportunities and benefits. One can only see a crisis as positive if he or she thinks long term on these:-
- More of the global world knows the Company now. As and when the outcome is favourble to the Company, we would have spent zero cents for publicity;
- Chance to taste the worst (if not the worst) and is equiped to face other crisis along the byways;
- Learn more about people, bosses, colleagues and business associates - their leadership, character and composure when handling challenges;
- Strengthen unity among people within an organisation as everyone is now on board the same 'aircraft' facing common external problem/ enemy; and
- (More for me) I get to know that my Sony Ericsson P1i battery will die twice if used non-stop for 15 hours.
Thank you for flying Air Crisis.
