Welcome to Pricion Ng's Space: Industry Talk by Dato’ Noorizah Hj Abd Hamid

“Reality Of Corporate World And Impact Of Corporate Branding – A Plus Experience”

29^th October 2013 (2.30am-4.30pm)

By: Dato’ Noorizah Hj Abd Hamid

Managing Director, Plus Malaysia Berhad

Dato’ Noorizah Hj Abd Hamid was appointed to the Board of Directors of PLUS Malaysia Berhad on 29 November 2011. She is also the Managing Director of PLUS Expressways Berhad (“PEB”) since 1 April 2007. Prior to that, she was the Managing Director of Faber Group Berhad from 17 March 2003 and Faber Hotels Holdings Sdn Bhd from 3 August 2002. She holds a Master Degree in Business Administration, majoring in Finance and Management and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from Central Michigan University, United States of America. Currently, she also sits on the Board of Commissioners of PT Lintas Marga Sedaya, PEB’s subsidiary in Indonesia; Board of Directors of PLUS BKSP Toll Limited, Indu Navayuga Infra Project Private Limited & Jetpur Somnath Tollways Limited, subsidiaries of PEB in India; Board of Directors of Projek Lebuhraya Usahasama Berhad, Projek Lebuhraya Utara-Selatan Berhad and Konsortium Lebuh Raya Butterworth-Kulim (KLBK) Sdn Bhd.

Dato had share a lot of knowledge and experiences during the talk. Firstly, she had briefly described the company of Plus Berhad. The mission of Plus Berhad is “To be a premier expressway group in global arena”, while its vision is “Providing efficient and safe expressway network that enhances quality of life”. Besides, the corporate value of Plus is passion for success, integrity, caring, trustworthy, teamwork, sincerity of intent, and financial prudence. According to Concession Agreement 1988, Plus was the largest privatization project in Malaysia which had begin its operation since year 1988. It was the backbone of Malaysian road transport system whereby the expressway network span 986.5 km running the length of the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. In addition, Plus highway was the catalyst for major industrial, commercial and transportation hubs and it links to major seaports and airports.

Furthermore, according to Dato, Plus Berhad had owned 5 main expressways of 28 main highways in Malaysia. In other words, Plus had own about 56% of market of highway in our country. Plus Berhad was owned by two main organization which is UEM group(khazanah), 51% and EPF, 49%. On the other hand, Dato had mentioned also why we need to pay toll with the chart of breakdown of every RM1 toll collection. There are about 11sen is pay for shareholder, 48sen for debt payment, 22sen for maintenance, and 19 sen for upgrade the highways. Besides that, Plus Berhad also offered the graduate program to those fresh graduates. Normally, the program will took about 2-3 years time of training and those qualify candidates will be absorb or selected to be the permanent worker of Plus Berhad.

For the part of branding, Dato had stated that “Brand is not what you say it is, it is what they say is”. Corporate Branding is the practice of applying Company’s name to a product and using vision, mission and values (culture) of the company explicitly as part of its unique selling proposition. By having the strong or good corporate branding, it will help to increase awareness of product, create brand recognition, familiarizes consumers with product, and also help to increase the brand loyalty. Dato had make the example of Colgate’s branding as well. In addition, she had stated that a good branding must able to:

Ø Confirms its credibility by producing consistent quality of products/services

Ø delivers the message clearly

Ø Connects your target prospects emotionally

Ø Motivates the buyer

Ø Concretes User Loyalty

Ø Continuously improving its products and services

Ø Listens to its customers

Continuously, according to Dato branding is more important than logo and a good branding must able to deliver the promise and quality of branding. On the other hand, public perception are important too because it is reality and normally people will only state or mention about the best or good quality of brand. As the way to success, a firm or company must always or continuously do the improvement to fulfill the customer needs and wants. Besides, Dato had talk about visual identity development of plus also. She had mentioned the meaning of logo, symbol, color and etc of Plus Branding. The slogan of Plus is “Drive with us”. It is important to have good brand identity for ensure that Plus able to reflect its own brand name to be famous and know by everyone in the world.

Furthermore, Dato had share also about the current employment demand and she had stated that industry today are most looking on those multitask employees. That is because now days holding a degree or master are very common since the market was so crowded and in order to get the offer (jobs) we must have extra talent or skills. A smart employee must able to make him or her employable and distinct from others. Reading was the important skills or behavior that employees should have in order to get extra knowledge about the current market or things occur around us. In addition, there are few tips which shared by Dato about the aspects to make ourselves employable, which are make your CV portable, get recommend, use social media to network, attend trade events, evaluate your goals, go for enrichment courses, know the trade, and know your strengths.

Besides that, Dato had shared also about the tips when attending for an interview. As a smart candidate, we should know what should be asked and what should not be asked during the interview. During the interview time, we should tell all the extra things we have and promote or sell ourselves, but do not overdo. In addition, we must conscious with the verbal and non-verbal communication during interview. For instance, the things that we should ask during interview is like the company management flow or plan to show that we are going to growth with the company, while the things should not be asked is like the salary paid, what is the company doing actually and etc. Once we had success shortlisted by the company to be their staff, we should set the objectives and know the organization’s expectation, keep an open mind, make ourselves presence felt, and etc.

So in overall, Dato had stated that the most important things is read, read, and read to know what is the latest things occurs in the industry today. As an employee, we must always be humble and positive mind because attitude had played the important role in our daily life. In addition, as a smart staff we should work smart rather than work hard and do not over analysis toward something. In order to succeed, we must adapt, adopt, and approach. The world of average is over, so we must able to show our expertise in order to succeed or survive in any organization or firm. Besides that, we should always ask to do more and volunteer with the positive ethic because employers today are focus on that kind of staff. For them, happy staff will be the performance staff because they work without pressure or bad feeling.

On the other hand, Dato had give some advice to us such as improve our soft skills as strong as possible because the communication skills was the big gap in industry today. Besides, we must always give full commitment toward the job given and do more than asking but do not overpromise if we cannot do it. In addition, do not argue when many work or tasks are given and if possible try to be volunteer even it is not relevant. Besides that, Dato had advice also do not always ‘job out’ (change job) because it will affect our CV and do not easily give up until we have give our best. We should not go away when facing problem. The four important keywords that given by Dato in order to success is like integrity, commitment, passion, and cooperation.