(This is reproduced from the posting I made on my Facebook Page on 21st October 2024.)

I came across the front page of this old issue of The Edge, which ran a cover story of my appointment as the head honcho of the Star Publications (now Star Media Group), which was the most profitable media company in Malaysia at that time. Time really flies. Of course, the STAR now pales in comparison to those days when it was the dominant media company, making over RM250 to RM300 million in nett profits a year, with a market capitalization of about RM1.8 billion, compared to its current market value of a mere RM290 million.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of questions were asked about my ascension to the then prized position. I was already CEO of SEGi education group at that point, so my designation at the STAR was an added executive role I had to concurrently undertake. Why was it that a Sarawakian and non-MCA member had been chosen to take charge of MCA’s biggest asset? Shouldn’t a local or one of MCA’s 1 million members be better able to read the pulse of the media landscape in the Peninsula?

During my tenure, I served under presidents Tan Sri Ong Tee Kiat and subsequently Tan Sri Chua Soi Lek. They had different leadership styles, traits and skills. Due to health issues towards the end of my 2-year contract, I had to take a backseat for a while. That was the time when my medical misdiagnosis and subsequent surgery complications occurred. I remember attending my last board meeting after 3 months of hospitalization and seeing the shock on the fellow directors’ faces as they took in my skeletal figure, having lost 12 kilos during that period.

I had tried to push the group toward digitalization, including listing its “new media” arm, but those efforts probably were a bit premature, as no one then expected the digital media transformation to hit so fast and so hard. As for the appointment of outsiders, I think sometimes, an unbiased perspective can be a breath of fresh air to the tried and old ways of doing things. Many fallen corporate giants would realize, often too late, that continued survival and growth demand that they relentlessly see things with new eyes.