FOR a young and small nation we have done remarkably well.                                                                                            
Many critical commentators have made the observation that we                                                                                          
are blessed with good natural resources. They are right, but                                                                                          
only up to a point.                                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                                                      
Throughout the beginning and the major portion of this                                                                                                
century, our economic and social life revolved around rubber,                                                                                         
oil palm and tin.  Kuala Lumpur was born out of nature's                                                                                              
abundance of tin and many of our major towns began as centres                                                                                         
for mineral extraction and agricultural development.                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                      
The management challenge was to extract as much as possible                                                                                           
from Mother Nature in the shortest possible time. It was the                                                                                          
first phase of management for this country. The job of                                                                                                
management was easy and quite comfortable with stengahs for                                                                                           
lunch and happy hours to follow.                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                      
The excitement then was the Emergency of the communist                                                                                                
insurgency or the occasional strike due to industrial unrest.                                                                                         
For the individual manager, routine quickly set in and he                                                                                             
became, in essence, only a factor of production.                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                      
Much more exciting was the life of the entrepreneur, the                                                                                              
people with vision who chased their dreams. Such dreams have                                                                                          
created the Sime Darby, the Guthries, the Golden Hope, the                                                                                            
MMC, and the many well-known public companies of today.                                                                                               
                                                                                                                                                      
Even for the entrepreneur of yesterday, things could be taken                                                                                         
at a measured pace. you start with one estate, then acquire                                                                                           
another, and you grow and evolve. It has-taken several                                                                                                
generations to nurse and continue with the dream of the                                                                                               
founder.                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                      
How different it is with entrepreneurship and with management                                                                                         
these days in which time, complexity, and instruments are so                                                                                          
vastly changed and fortunes can be made or lost overnight.                                                                                            
Gone are the days of evolutionary change; we are now                                                                                                  
confronted with the phenomena of takeovers, mergers and                                                                                               
acquisitions, management buyouts, swaps, options, derivatives,                                                                                        
and a-host of few mechanisms to squeeze time and Maximise                                                                                             
opportunities.                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                      
The second wave of management began when we achieved                                                                                                  
statehood. As an independent nation we had to develop our own                                                                                         
managers to look after the twin pillars of our economy, rubber                                                                                        
and tin, and a rapidly-growing manufacturing sector.                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                      
We also had to manage to the public service, including                                                                                                
statutory bodies and the armed forces. As a young nation with                                                                                         
abundant natural resources, the concern then was to ensure                                                                                            
that we had the human resource talent to marshall our                                                                                                 
resources to provide a higher standard of living for our                                                                                              
population.                                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                                      
The concern for economic growth was expressed in our national                                                                                         
planning documents-the First, Second and subsequent Malayan                                                                                           
and Malaysian Five-Year Plans. A convenient and understandably                                                                                        
acceptable paradigm was the Western model of management and                                                                                           
its focus on the hard aspects of production, marketing and                                                                                            
finance.                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                      
It was a technology that worked as demonstrated by the state                                                                                          
of development and economic dominance of the United States and                                                                                        
Western Europe.                                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                                      
And Malaysians bought the technology of a manager whose                                                                                               
primary role is to increase shareholders' wealth and whose                                                                                            
tools were returns on investment and profit maximisation. It                                                                                          
is a technology that is easy to quantify and measure. But it                                                                                          
also suggests that the ends justify the means.                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                      
When we introduced the Western model of management into our                                                                                           
organisations, we unconsciously introduced Western norms of                                                                                           
behaviour into our operating systems. We assume, somewhat                                                                                             
incorrectly, that the Malaysian manager is only concerned with                                                                                        
maximising shareholders' wealth and that he perceives his                                                                                             
total performance in terms of turnover and net profit.                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                      
Born into a tradition of a social rather than the individual                                                                                          
person, the Malaysian traces his roots to the rich social                                                                                             
kaleidoscope of Asia and into the millennia of cultural                                                                                               
influences to shape the community-oriented person he has                                                                                              
become. For him, the means are equally important as the end                                                                                           
because he places value on relationships, reciprocity and                                                                                             
goodwill.                                                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                      
The Malaysian is a creature of social evolution, finely                                                                                               
crafted and finely tuned to be sensitive to the aspirations                                                                                           
and the needs of others. It is generally not in his character                                                                                         
to seek self-aggrandisement at the expense of others. But the                                                                                         
best in us is now under seige.                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                      
With increasing globalisation and contact with other cultures                                                                                         
through the mass media and direct social interaction, we are                                                                                          
in danger of losing our cultural balance as we begin to copy                                                                                          
the behaviour of more materialistic societies. Our young in                                                                                           
particular are vulnerable and our leaders and managers have to                                                                                        
act to ensure that hedonistic pleasure is not the purpose of                                                                                          
life and that every individual can and must seek fulfilment                                                                                           
through contributions to the welfare and prosperity of the                                                                                            
larger community and the nation.                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                      
The Western management model, which worked for us in the past                                                                                         
because we ourselves neglected the nobler challenges of                                                                                               
nation-building in favour of pure economic prosperity, is no                                                                                          
longer adequate. In fact it is no longer adequate in managing                                                                                         
the Western world.                                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                                      
It is ironic that the success of the Western model of                                                                                                 
development carries its own seeds of destruction as                                                                                                   
self-interest produces corporate barbarians, material                                                                                                 
well-being induces moral decay and laxity, and high living                                                                                            
standards yield an unwillingness to be bothered with the wider                                                                                        
concerns of society..                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                                      
More and more Western authorities on management are seeking                                                                                           
inspiration from Eastern practices, persuaded in part by the                                                                                          
rapid emergence of the new crucible of development-Asia in                                                                                            
general and Asean in particular-and in part by the failure of                                                                                         
Western concepts of management.                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                                      
The era of relaxed management that typifies the first half of                                                                                         
the century is now obsolete and the Western approach to                                                                                               
management, over much of the second half, is becoming                                                                                                 
inadequate and even irrelevant to the demands for a vigorous,                                                                                         
progressive and united society that we want to forge over the                                                                                         
next generation.                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                      
We urgently need to fashion a new paradigm of management that                                                                                         
will couple the science of production with the art of humanity                                                                                        
to take us into the 21st Century and beyond.                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                      
In my view, the Malaysian manager of tomorrow has to fulfil                                                                                           
the following key roles:                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                      
COMMITMENT to his organisation and a belief in the nobility of                                                                                        
its purpose;                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                      
PROFESSIONAL application of his talents, competence and skills                                                                                        
to further the mission of his Organisation;                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                                      
ABIDING concern and interest in contributing to the welfare                                                                                           
beyond self, to benefit all stakeholders-employees, customers,                                                                                        
suppliers, creditors and the community-besides shareholders;                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                      
LOVE for the nation and a consuming desire to protect the                                                                                             
values that bind our society and the relationships that keep                                                                                          
us in balance as Bangsa Malaysia.                                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                                      
Fulfilling these roles is not going to be easy. It will demand                                                                                        
from the manager a skilful blending of the best features of                                                                                           
Western management and, in particular, the use of the emerging                                                                                        
information superhighway together with the best of our                                                                                                
cultural heritage. It will require a fusion of hard                                                                                                   
professional management with soft humanity to develop a new                                                                                           
genre of the Malaysian manager in the mould of the Renaissance                                                                                        
Man, supported by technology but guided by culture and                                                                                                
tradition.                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                      
We have to seek out the identity of the Malaysian manager,                                                                                            
configurate his style and uniqueness and ultimately export him                                                                                        
into the international arena as our most precious resource.                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                                      
We have been blessed with natural resources and for three                                                                                             
quarters of the century we have gained from the exploitation                                                                                          
of our physical wealth. But the real wealth of the future is                                                                                          
derived from Man's ingenuity in pushing the borders of science                                                                                        
and technology, in accumulating intellectual property and in                                                                                          
managing change, complexity and chaos.                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                      
I believe that we can master the newer contributions to                                                                                               
economic prosperity and that our management community can                                                                                             
respond to the challenge of our vision for a much better                                                                                              
tomorrow.                                                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                      
Economic and social prosperity is not the cause but the                                                                                               
consequence of good and effective management. We have had our                                                                                         
fair share of good managers. Our challenge for the future is                                                                                          
to handle the generational change that comes about from the                                                                                           
transformation of our economy and society.