Noise. Just Noise.
A company should be run like a company and not like a charity organisation or a political party. And I personally believe that that is what the Malaysian government should learn to do. Look at how the government runs Malaysia Airlines and Proton and you will know what I mean.
I know, some of you might say that, if the Malaysia Airlines did not get any help from the government, the company will go bust. The problem is, when the national carrier had a severe cash flow problem few years back, it was due to mismanagement by the management team. And not because of the company is incompetent to compete in the market. Granted, Malaysia Airlines might not be the best airline in the world, but it is not an embarrassment as well.
Why am I talking about this? Well, I heard a news that finally MAS will withdraw the New York-Stockholm-Kuala Lumpur route in due time. They actually wanted to axe the route during the 2006 route rationalisation plan but the government decided to meddle and asked the airline company to maintain that route, presumably for prestige reasons. But now, I guess, if you cannot turn a product (the New York-Kuala Lumpur route) from loss-making into profit-making, you have no choice but to cancel it altogether. I am sad, but I hope that this is for the best for the airline company.
As for Proton, their problem is huge. The car company produces relatively cheaper cars in a not-so-high-income country but still trails behind other carmakers in terms of market share. That is so weird. Well, not that weird, considering Proton cars are not that good anyway (quality wise). I mean, Proton can actually produce a decent car (ride and handling wise) but when it comes to quality, they just suck. Few days ago, Proton launched “Zero-Defect” campaign in order to drive up the quality of their cars. I wish them a lot of luck with that.
Finally for Petronas, the government needs to wake up and realize that the oil compny is not a huge piggy bank. It is company and should be run as one. Petronas needs to retain their profits to fund their oil exploration programmes because, let us face it, oil exploration is becoming more and more expensive these days. Petronas’ job is to find oil and sell them for profit and find more oil and sell them for more profit. Not to give ‘loan’ to government on ‘as needed’ basis.
There you go, another one of my ranting.
P.S. I’m leaving for Kuala Lumpur tomorrow.
I know, some of you might say that, if the Malaysia Airlines did not get any help from the government, the company will go bust. The problem is, when the national carrier had a severe cash flow problem few years back, it was due to mismanagement by the management team. And not because of the company is incompetent to compete in the market. Granted, Malaysia Airlines might not be the best airline in the world, but it is not an embarrassment as well.
Why am I talking about this? Well, I heard a news that finally MAS will withdraw the New York-Stockholm-Kuala Lumpur route in due time. They actually wanted to axe the route during the 2006 route rationalisation plan but the government decided to meddle and asked the airline company to maintain that route, presumably for prestige reasons. But now, I guess, if you cannot turn a product (the New York-Kuala Lumpur route) from loss-making into profit-making, you have no choice but to cancel it altogether. I am sad, but I hope that this is for the best for the airline company.
As for Proton, their problem is huge. The car company produces relatively cheaper cars in a not-so-high-income country but still trails behind other carmakers in terms of market share. That is so weird. Well, not that weird, considering Proton cars are not that good anyway (quality wise). I mean, Proton can actually produce a decent car (ride and handling wise) but when it comes to quality, they just suck. Few days ago, Proton launched “Zero-Defect” campaign in order to drive up the quality of their cars. I wish them a lot of luck with that.
Finally for Petronas, the government needs to wake up and realize that the oil compny is not a huge piggy bank. It is company and should be run as one. Petronas needs to retain their profits to fund their oil exploration programmes because, let us face it, oil exploration is becoming more and more expensive these days. Petronas’ job is to find oil and sell them for profit and find more oil and sell them for more profit. Not to give ‘loan’ to government on ‘as needed’ basis.
There you go, another one of my ranting.
P.S. I’m leaving for Kuala Lumpur tomorrow.
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