The road less travelled

Dr Tan delivering his talk

The Faculty of Accountancy and Management’s (FAM) Centre for Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility in Business (CSDCSR) organised a talk titled “Taking the road less travelled” at Sungai Long Campus on 21 March 2017.

The talk was presented by Dr Victor Tan S. L., who is the Principal Consultant and Chief Executive Officer of KL Strategic Change Consulting (KLSCC) group. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Elmira College in New York, a Master of Business Administration from Ohio State University and a PhD from Akamai University. He has more than 25 years of experience in consulting, banking, strategic planning and training. He has held the position of Senior Corporate Planner for one of the leading commercial banks in Malaysia. He has won several public speaking championships from the Institute of Bankers Malaysia and has also won the Phi Beta Kappa Award, the highest academic honours given for overall achievement for universities in USA. He is a prolific writer who has more than 450 of his management articles published based on his experience as a management practitioner as well as an international consultant.  His articles have appeared in The Banker’s Journal, Malaysian Business, The New Straits Times, The Star, The Executive Today and the Malaysian Tatler.

Dr Tan is the author of six management bestsellers, namely Change to Win, Changing Mindsets, Releasing Trapped Minds, Changing Your Corporate Culture, The Change Wizards and The Secret Of Change. Some of his books have been used as resource materials for the MBA programme in the Malaysian Institute Of Management. His latest book, The Secret of Change has been accepted by the Malaysia Book of Records as the First Motivation Book in Rhymes.

FAM staff present at the talk included Dr Aye Aye Khin, Head of Programme for PhD and MPhil Dr Cham Tat Huei, Tee Peck Ling, Fitriya Binti Abdul Rahim and Alexander Tay Guan Meng, along with the faculty’s students.

The talk aimed to convey the management and practical skills for achieving personal goals and dreams to academics and students. Besides that, the talk promoted the importance of change management in pursuing dreams and sustaining personal goals.

In Dr Tan’s talk, he mentioned, “Your belief determines your reality. Don’t let fear stop you. Knowledge is potential power that needs to be incorporated with courage on the road that is less travelled.”

He shared a few lessons throughout the talk. Among them was to rise against the odds and find the courage to fight on. Besides that, knowing how to pull internal resources and do the extraordinary will change the mindset and transform you and others around you.

He elaborated on three significant journeys which have made him who he is today. The first journey was the blindfold drive, an extraordinary project which generated RM25,000 for the blind. The second involved getting inducted into the Malaysia Book of Records and the third harked back to his humble beginnings.

“There are blind spots in life that need to be overcome by engaging others to help ourselves see what we cannot see. Do not assume things cannot be done without trying. To overcome complacency, we need to strive to be extraordinary and not accept mediocre or ordinary results. If we don’t get the results we want, we should change the strategy and habits. To succeed in anything, we need to have a positive attitude in everything which includes goals, people around us and other resources,” remarked Dr Tan.

The talk continued with Dr Tan playing the harmonica followed by Q&A session and photography session.

Dr Tan playing Bridge Over Troubled Water using the harmonica

From left: Fitriya, Tay, Dr Cham, Dr Aye Aye, Dr Tan and Tee