1 million ringgit!

Dad told me about this event his company held couple of years back. Malaysia was chosen to host a meeting of an International Petroleum company’s Board of Directors (BODs). So my Dad’s company’s CEO had to coordinate the BODs’ visit. He had to make sure that there were no glitches or problems during their visit.

The BODs had a meeting in a hotel before lunch time. So after lunch time, they had a choice of 3 set meals, chicken, beef or vegetarian. There were about 50 people. The CEO had to ensure that everybody will get what they wanted. Having 20 sets of chicken or 20 sets of beef is not enough. What if 30 people wanted to have chicken? The CEO had an idea. He ordered the hotel to prepare 50 sets of chicken, 50 sets of beef and 50 sets of vegetarian. All in the company’s cost.

As for dinner, it was held at a posh Malay restaurant. However, it is well know that toilets in Malaysia are not up to Westerner’s standards i.e dirty toilet seats. The company ordered the restaurant to replace all the toilet seats and renovate the entire toilet. All in the company’s cost.

Since the BODs were from different time zones, they might have problem sleeping at night. Due to inadequate staffing of the hotel, the company had to hire their own people to take care of the BODs. In addition, they made the company staff remember the entire BODs’ names so that they could greet the latter by their names when they see the latter.

So the next day, the BOD was set to go for a tour around the city in an air conditioned bus. Checks and repairs were done to the bus and in extra the CEO hired an extra bus. The extra bus will follow the bus carrying the BOD around the city. This is to ensure that no passenger will get stranded or be exposed to the hot humid sun if the bus breaks down.

Everything went well. The BOD went home happy. And the total cost for this short event was, One
Million Ringgit.

Then one day, the parent company had a motivation talk. They were praising Malaysia’s good working ethics and service. So after the talk, a Question and Answer session was held. Everything went well until a trouble maker raised this matter, “The Company spent One million Ringgit just to make the BOD happy. This is a waste of resources! We could have used the money for something else.”

Everybody gasped in disbelieve.

Then the speaker answered. “The amount we spent is reasonable. This is a good investment in human relation. Since we made the BOD happy, they would have a good impression on us. Imagine next time when we require help or funding from them, they would happily grand us the help since to their eyes, we are efficient bunch of people. I strongly think that our investment was a good one”

The trouble maker was speechless. Few months later, he was forced to resign thru VSS (Voluntary Separation Scheme).