Navigating through crisis in business

Ngian (top row, middle) and Prof Cheng (top row, far left) with the participants

The Institute of Management and Leadership Development organised a webinar titled “Turnaround Management: Navigating Through Crisis” on 9 October 2021 via Zoom and Facebook live. The webinar, which was moderated by IMLD Director Prof Dr Cheng Ming Yu, was presented by Ngian Siew Siong who is an independent and non-executive director of Nam Long Investment Corporation and consultant to the Board of Management.

This Covid-19 pandemic has changed not only our lifestyle but also the way we work towards the new working norm, digitalisation and working from home. Hybrid work practice may be the way forward and it can be more productive if properly managed. This pandemic has not only impacted the work culture but also consumers’ behaviours and the financial aspect of most organisations. In this talk, Ngian shared about a productive journey through an economic crisis, the challenges and experience of navigating through the crisis, developing the human resource by re-skilling and up-skilling the staff in order to capture the recovery opportunity and digitising the internal and external supply chain.

Ngian sharing the strategy used in his journey

Ngian also spoke about the wellbeing of staff, recovery opportunity, post-crisis journey, cash flow, asset monetisation, supply chain management and topics related to bankers, investors and customers. He said, “Economy is cyclical; business landscape will change and there is no one way of doing business. It is important to reskill and upskill employees in order to retain talents. You have to be strong internally to be ready to go beyond your boundary. Simplicity is the key to success, and I believe in the Pareto principle of the 80-20 rule. Every cloud has a silver lining.”

He went through three financial crises which were the 1985 economic crisis, the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 global financial crisis. “In a crisis, it is important to know how to navigate through the crisis, prepare for what is coming ahead and seize the future opportunity after the crisis. If you do not digitise your business, you can not move forward. The three key assets of an organisation are the brand of the company, the people within the company and knowledge of the company. If people are the biggest asset, thus the company needs to know how to attract, develop and retain talents,” shared Ngian.

Ngian added, “In this fast-changing world, nothing is future-proof. The world is looking at digitisation such as Big Data, IoT, AI and robotics to improve efficiency in the work process and the delivery of services. Employees must constantly seek new knowledge and new skills to make themselves relevant. Likewise, employers also need to change to reskill and upskill the staff with new capabilities. Employers need to move towards digitisation instead of headcount. This will reduce the risk of downsizing in the event of a crisis.”

Ngian was attached to MBF Group’s property division for six years before moving to Sunway Group in 1985, as the first and only employee of the Property Development Division, to start and lead the property development business. After 27 years of service with the Sunway Group, he retired in 2012 as the Managing Director of the International Division. He experienced three major economic crises in his 27 years with the Sunway Group. After his retirement, he served as an advisor to Chairman/Group Managing Director of four real estate public listed companies till December 2020. Ngian has also served as a past National Council Member of REHDA Malaysia (Real Estate & Housing Developers Association), the past Chairman of REHDA Selangor and a Board member of PHS (Lembaga Perumahan &- Hartanah Selangor).