Giving back to the society!

"Age is just a number, and "retirement" is a state of mind. Some are already mentally or psychologically "retired" while still physically working and earning a salary. Others continue to pursue their passion way after their gainful engagements" -.Dato' Jaffar Indot, President /CEO MACD

Your 10 Questions with Dato' Jaffar Indot
By MACD Public Relations
Monday, March 19, 2012


1. Why is it important to unite corporate directors and have an umbrella body for them? Tan, Selangor
There are numerous non-government organisations and directors education/training organisations offering various membership benefits and programmes to corporate directors in Malaysia. Some are regulatory-driven, others are more market-driven but they invariably contribute to equipping directors for their roles on the board. Directors and market players, however, need more than just educational input; they need a common platform to have a voice in the development of the Malaysian capital market, in which they are the direct stakeholders.

The Malaysian Alliance of Corporate Directors (MACD), a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, offers that common platform (an umbrella body) to positively engage other stakeholders, including the regulators, with a common voice that resonate a positive development of the capital market.

2. What keeps you going as an active participant on boards and other organisations despite the fact that you're nearing 80? No retirement plans on the horizon? Yeoh Cheow Tim, Subang Jaya
I am not 80 yet still three more years to go! But then again, age is just a number, and "retirement" is a state of mind. Some are already mentally or psychologically "retired" while still physically working and earning a salary. Others continue to pursue their passion way after their gainful engagements.

TIP: Manage Without Micromanaging

Both new and experienced managers can struggle with how be involved in their employees' work without micromanaging. You want to be hands-on and provide support, but still give them autonomy to make decisions. There are two stages where it makes sense to engage more deeply: preparation and review. When the employee is laying out the plans for her work, your role is to ask crucial questions: Who should be involved? How does this fit into your goals? These conversations will assure you the employee is prepared and ready to act on her own. When the project is complete, do a post-action review. Reflect on what worked, what didn't, and what the employee learned. There's no need to get involved in between unless the employee is a novice or problems arise. Read more>

Effective Non-Profit Mission Statement

"Mission" for nonprofits is the same as "profits" for private sector companies. In the private sector, corporations achieve their goals by carefully designing business operations that are reflected in a budget and then regularly reporting on how actual profits compare to that budget. If mission accomplishment is as important as profit attainment, why do most nonprofits not spend equivalent time in mission creation and monitoring?

In reality, nonprofits often completely mess this up. As important as missions are, nonprofits frequently go off in ineffective directions by relying on mission statements that can be little more than slogans. At a time when nonprofits around the world are struggling both to stay afloat and to achieve their missions, they are missing out on one of the most valuable tools to available to them. Read more..

Political Funding

Press Conference: NKRA Corruption-TI Malaysia

PUTRAJAYA, May 19 — Federal and state governments should provide funding for all candidates running for parliamentary and state elections regardless of political affiliation, Transparency-International Malaysia (TI-M) has said. http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/ti-m-wants-state-funding-for-election-candidates/

TIP of the DAY

MARCH 24, 2011 Turn Your Competitors into Allies When a colleague's agenda is seemingly opposed to your own, it can be tempting to demonize him. Distorting other people is a common response to conflict, but not a particularly productive one. In fact, doing so undermines your ability to exert influence. Instead of deciding that everything about a colleague you don't get along with is hateful, get to know him better. Sit down and talk about what he cares and is concerned about. You may find that the source of your conflict is actually an area of mutual interest and rather than being enemies, you are natural allies.

Fukushima Nuclear Accident

Fukushima Nuclear Accident – 15 March summary of situation

The situation surrounding the Fukushima Nuclear Accident, triggered by Japan’s largest recorded earthquake and the resulting 10 m high tsunami, continues to develop rapidly. This post is intended to be a concise update of the situation as of 12pm Japan Standard Time, 15 March 2011. For a summary of the situation prior to today, read these posts...

Click HERE for details

GCB 2010

Read for details.. The GCB 2010 Report

Malaysia's CPI 2010

Malaysia’s 2010 CPI score has declined slightly from 4.5 to 4.4, with the country ranking remaining at 56th (of 178 countries). This is on the back of last year’s plunge of 0.6 and 9 places in the country ranking.


In the past year, the government announced initiatives to address corruption, including:

• Integrity as a National Key Result Area (NKRA), with improvement of the CPI score from 4.5 to 4.9 as a Key ProductivityIndex
• TI’s Integrity Pacts (IP) to be implemented in government procurement (Treasury directive dated 1 April 2010)

Revenue Watch Index (RWI) 2010

Revenue Watch Index (RWI) 2010 - Government disclosure of oil, gas and minerals management

RWI and Transparency International (TI) have ranked Brazil and Norway highest among 41 resource-rich countries for government disclosure of oil, gas and minerals management. Malaysia ranks 22nd, below Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, in the middle category of Partial Revenue Transparency, where revenue information is disclosed but there are major transparency gaps. (The table for the 41 countries is attached). However, it was noted that Malaysia has been able to build highly functioning oil industries.

The 56-page report compares public disclosure transparency of 41 governments of oil, gas and minerals revenues and information about contracts and other basic data. Full report available at:
http://transparency.org/content/download/55256/882980/RWI+Index+2010.pdf