ABC

I was greeted by news of Isa Samad being found guilty of corruption on The Edge this morning and just 24 hours before, I attended an Anti Bribery and Corruption (ABC) course conducted by Time.com for all their contractors and suppliers. 

Having been involved and responsible for the contract awards in mega projects in so many countries around the world in my previous life, I must say that I do know a thing or two about bribery and corruption! In fact I was subjected to constant audits due to the position that I was in.  

The worst was when I was doing some PRO BONO work for World Bank and AusAid (Australian Aid) to rebuild the Solomon Islands after an earthquake and tsunami in 2004.  

The project, for a contract specialist such as myself, was considered a huge success for a few reasons: 

1. It was within the budgets provided by AusAid. 

2. It was awarded in the shortest time possible without compromising any of the processes that could raise the red flag. 

3. The design chosen took into account the local culture, traditional know-how skills and yet the supplier had managed to interlace the modern disaster resistance to ensure that the structure would withstand the next earthquake. 

4. The structure was built at the suppliers' premise to overcome the supply issue in Solomon Islands, flat packed and shipped to Honiara with all the necessary tools, bolts and nuts, IKEA style!  

BEFORE & AFTER:

It was a work of genius! 😀

Throughout this project, I was working from Sinclair Knight Merz office in Melbourne with my daughter Natasha, being installed at the nearby Intercontinental Hotel. While I was burning the midnight oil, the hotel butler was raking in cash by taking Tasha to watch Cirque du Soleil, visits to the Aquarium, Zoo, McDonalds and the list went on. 

On the last day, we had a meeting with World Bank and AusAid to finalise the payment to the Supplier when my colleague, Paul Mulgrew casually asked about my daughter. I jokingly told him  how she was making me bankrupt by ordering room service 3 times a day and using the butler service at her whims and fancies! 

The representatives from World Bank overheard the conversation and for months after that they never left me alone. It was almost like it was their ultimate goal to find dirt on me! 

Anyway, after a few weeks, all was resolved and I was given a clean bill of financial health and invited to undertake another project by them. Errr..."thanks but no thanks", was all I could muster after all the energy being drained in trying to defend myself against the bombardment regarding my financial status! So much for doing pro bono work, huh.      

The point is that this ABC policy is good but applied overzealously, it may put people (like me) off from doing the world a lot of good completely. So, the question I asked Time.com yesterday was, where do you draw the line? 

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THE DEPARTURE

My last blog entry on work related subject was in March 2012. It was not because that was my last date at work but it was because I was so busy building my empire that I didn't even have time to breathe, let alone blog. So busy that I was clocking 18 hour day, 7 days a week, travelled to 12 countries in 10 months, spent more time hearing foreign languages than my own mother tongue and slept in hotels more than in my own bed!

After endless pleas for more help which fell on deaf ears, I gave my notice to leave that shocked most people, including my husband because I loved everything that I was doing - the company, the nature of work and my team. My bosses grovelled for me to stay, my colleagues arranged for endless training during the transition period to make sure they cover all bases and my PA was too distraught to even do anything except to make sure I had a smooth exit. 

The only people who were happy I was leaving was the Client Shell. I thought it was because they felt I was not good enough for them. It turned out that they had been waiting for the moment so that they can offer me a position within their organisation. And as soon as I left the company, they did....

However, I had worked in Caltex (later known as Chevron), I know what it takes to survive there and I don't think I want to go to that same place again.

So, thanks for the offer but perhaps no thanks, for now. 

INDIGESTION

Mohan and I sent a few training packs to our Program Manager in Europe, Paul Mulgrew who by the way is the sweetest guy on earth:

Paul: Are they all critical for translation in the respective European languages for Contractors' training?

Me: Yes for all of mine. The contracts must be done by a professional legal translator. The rest, you can have any Joe to do it.

Mohan: Well, the top 3 in the list is critical, but the rest is nice to have

Me: Paul, you should know by now, Mohan is all gravy and I am all meat

Mohan: I cannot be all meat, I am vegetarian

Paul: At some stage I will get indigestion with you guys

MILLION, BILLION, ZILLION

Panicking that I am not going to receive the Client approval for the Contract in a timely manner, I wrote to Mr. Client:

"The Contractors (L3) engagement in South Africa is scheduled for 2nd April. Ideally I would like to send the contracts to L3s next week so that they have one week to review. That way, the contract familiarisation session during the engagement will be more meaningful for them.

In the event that you are not able to complete the review by Monday, can I send out as “DRAFT” to them?"

Mr. Client: "yes"

Me:" great, 1 problem down, a zillion more to go"

Mr Client: "wow...not a million, not a billion but a zillion...we are an aweful lot, aren't we?"

I refrained myself from responding for fear of losing my one and only Client!

CPM LEADERSHIP WORKSHOP 2011

This year’s CPM workshop was held in exotic Bali from March 3rd to 7th. It was also the Nyepi weekend in Bali – a celebration that requires all residents and visitors in Bali to observe a day of silence and non-activity whereby all is required to refrain from turning the lights on, going out in the streets, working, feeding the senses, engaging in entertainment, making noise that might disturb others, travelling or getting out of the house. For those who are very serious about Nyepi, they also refrain from speaking.

Despite the restraints, the team was able to utilise the time together to discuss topics such as total cost of ownership, category management, program management and the purpose of central design office (CDO). To break the monotony, Edric challenged the team with mind boggling activity in the midst of his Value Management session.

The workshop however is not all work and no play. Thanks to SKM People’s effort, our team had a day of cultural immersion with activities ranging from dancing to traditional farming which brought a lot of smiles and laughters, and untapped potential to a new height.

Thanks to all for making the workshop a success. Special thanks to Barry, Ed and Adri for their presence which reflects the epitome of our journey towards stronger Shell / SKM partnership.

Written for: Leaderboard March 2011

FLEXIBLE WORK PRACTICE

After spending half a year writing guidelines for flexible work practice and accumulating tips for the SKM managers and staff to make this practice a success, the proposal was tabled to the Regional Leadership team last Friday, 21st January 2011.

That date will now be a new milestone for SKM. The leaders and managers are now committed to embrace this work practice.

As Kak Lina, an ex-TKCian whom I play golf with quite regularly said on my FB trail "Diversity is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity for forward looking companies....."

I believe her. Time is changing and so are the needs of the employees. I have been waiting for this moment to happen within SKM and now that we have finallly arrived, it is time for me to put in my application to work from home!

I am so looking forward to that.

19th MAY 2010

Probably the worst day of my professional life. The event was too stupid to be repeated here but one of the outcomes served as a revelation for me.

While I was being bashed by the Clients (I won't get into details here cause I don't want you to think that our Clients are a bunch of insecured jokers!), he stood by in my defence while the rest of my team scrambled to sell their soul (and mine) to save their skin.

SHELDON KRAHE - You are the best boss ever.

TEAM BUILDING

The team building for my Asian team members which took place in Broga Hills in June 2010 was a real eye-opener for me.

Carrie from Hong Kong, is really petit with a small voice, so small you could hardly hear her speak during our regular teleconference. But of all, she surprised me the most. She was on my team and boy...was I eventually glad to have her on my team! She was really the bravest of the hearts!

Then I have Feby from Indonesia, who was afraid of heights but went on to climb a ladder 60 feet high and did a flying fox from that height! She made everybody laughed constantly and had so much confidence that she could even laugh at her own faults. That is 5 star quality right there.

Beybs is the "most serious" of the lot, or at least that was the image she wanted to project and I really believed it. In fact, I now know that of all, she is probably the one who knows how best to have fun! Her dance move is world class...but then again she is a Filipino and I believe every one of them is born with music in their head.

My Indian fellow, Mithoon is the coolest and the most collected of all and remained that way through out while we were shouting, yelling and laughing our heads off. It is always good to have a sensible head in times of euphoria.

I remember my phone bill last year was enormous because of the constant calls to Riaz in Pakistan. This is the person who used to confide in me on all decisions, big and small. This year, he did a turn around and in fact during the team building, went on to take the lead when we had to build a raft to save the team members' lives.

Unfortunately, Nattha from Thailand injured her ankle in the beginning of the activities, otherwise I am sure she would have wowed me as well!

As for the PMO team, Edric's knotting skill that he acquired during his boy scout days came in handy when we had to build a raft, Ganesh didn't wash himself up as often as I thought he would given the mud and dirty water that we had to play in (which is a big achievement for someone who is anal about cleanliness - I know this because I live with one) and Terence participated in almost all the activities despite his health condition.

So kudos to all SKM Shell Asia Procurement team and thank you to the SKM People Team for the organising such a fun event.

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT

Can't help but to let this one out after staring at the award that I had received just a week ago for "outstanding performance".

It was supposed to be a recognition of outstanding work but I guess the operative word "outstanding" is not really understood by the Section Managers as they dished out rewards for staff who delivered the project on time, or for handling a difficult client, or for putting a system in place.

I am still trying to figure out where the outstanding element in all of these? Isn't it expected of them to deliver on time and to deal with all hardship and difficulties?

In my world, delivering a project on time is a prerequisite for a half decent Project Manager. However, delivering a project ahead of schedule in remote areas such as the islands of PNG where the tsunami occurence is as frequent as the rain in Malaysia - that's outstanding performance...

Putting a system that cut time spend on a particular activity by 50% - that's outstanding performance, but putting a system in place which requires more work by the users because it requires more useless information - that's a freaking waste of everybody's time.

Am I missing the plot again?

THE LAST WORKING DAYS 2009

My 5 week holiday was fast approaching and my trip to Singapore for the Global Procurement Forum with the Client, that was scheduled 2 days before I left for my vacation, was approaching even faster.

Whilst I was excited about my long awaited vacation, I knew I had a huge hurdle before I could even think about packing my woolies. I had to convince the Client of 2010 Work Plan and without their sign off, all vacation deals with my boss would be called off.

So, off we flew to Singapore for the video conference as the Client was everywhere but in KL. The plan was to spend 8 hours sharing my Work Plan with the Clients and to facilitate global participation, the call had to be scheduled from 4 pm to midnight for the East. Alas...they are the Client.

As we entered the Halo Room, my heart sank when I saw all the top dogs from around the world sitting around the virtual table. Judging from the e-mails and teleconference preceeding this event, I knew everybody had full loaded guns under the table. So, I rehearsed my presentation a million times and played Devil's Advocate with colleagues a billion times more.

I started the Forum with a smile especially directed to the 2 GMs sitting in The Hague and London and told them this story, "A few weeks back I sent my 2010 Work Plan to London for a preliminary discussion, a Plan I was proud to share as it would bring values to all of you in more ways than thinkable. I was confident that I was going to be receiving comments like a job well done, let's cancel the Forum and let you focus on delivering the fabulous Work Plan. Instead, I was accused of starting a guerilla warfare for reasons known only to all of you. To set the record straight, I am a lover, not a fighter, but I am also known for not taking NO as an answer". So, let this Forum begins and let us all speak or forever we shall keep the piece."i

FRIENDLY CHAT WITH THE BOSS

2009 focus at work was to provide strategies to take advantage of the market. The target was to deliver savings amounting to USD 7.5m. With a capex of USD 150m to spend, that translated to a price reduction of 5% which was quite a challenge considering I have to deliver the same across the board - Pakistan included! The fancy term used for the cost savings in Shell's world is VI which stands for Value Improvement!

The incentive for the Consultant was a fee of 10% for every dollar spent if we hit the USD 7.5m mark. It was not just about strategies, operationalising the plan, it was a race against time since, by year end, if we hit below the mark, even by a penny, we will get nothing.

We achieved the magic number in the month of November.

That was just a prelude to what was to follow:

Barry, our Client's rep needed to provide a short article of our key achievement for 2009. His e-mail to Sheldon, our Programme Director, read:

"If you have ready articles I can just copy - that will be great. Clear issues I will include are (1) cost reduction (2) VI achievement (3) time reduction (4) HSSE (5) Innovations? More?"

Sheldon in turn forwarded to us Barry's e-mail:

What do you think? Are we able to help out? I think I have all the HSSE material. I have the latest VI as well. Not sure if there are further cost reduction information.

Since he had the latest VI update,

Lini: I haven’t really done anything else apart from VI this year! So, nothing from me.

Sheldon: Slack ass! Playing golf all year have we?

Lini: Yeah...tough to juggle VI in between my golf and tennis. Imagine how much more VI we can get if I had done it on a full time basis!

RAINY DAYS

It has been raining oh so much these last few weeks. Enough for me to pour out my frustration on this blog!

Since we had to cancel so many games due to nocturnal rains, I shifted some of my tennis sessions to the mornings. With that strategy, I managed to play a fair amount of tennis (Yeeha!) but the setback is that I didn't get into the office until 9.30 a.m.

My boss had never really imposed working hours on us - he just expected all of us to behave professionally! I took advantage of that fact sometimes but I also traded a lot of times with graveyard shift to accommodate our European or American counterparts. So, all is square, or at least that's what I thought. So, when my boss called me into his office on one of my 9.30 start day, my heart missed a bit!

"Shit!" I uttered loud enough to get a few faces peeking from the cubicle to see what was going on. I walked solemnly to my boss' room in anticipation of a long lecture on work ethics etc etc. I formulated a speech in my head to counter every argument I could think off during that short walk.

"The Client has agreed to pay an additional USD 750k in fee for the result of your strategic effort this year!" he announced. With news like that I expected him to be jumping with joy, give me a hug and tell me I am a hero....but he just remained seated and serious.

I looked at his frown and enquired "What's the catch?"

"The catch is that.....whoever gave you a hard time about marching in at whatever time you desire, tell them to sod off!" and with that he finally broke into a smile and offered me a handshake.

"You got me there, you really got me" I shouted as I sprinted out of his office to break the news to my team. A big bonus is coming despite the rainy days, guys....

TEAMBUILDING AT FRIM

SKM Shell team is big on team buidling. We have this session almost every other month at varying degree. The one in Bangkok in March only involved PMO and the Country Program Managers as it coincided with our Leadership conference. The activities were more extensive and it blew our budget for the whole year. So, last month, we organised one for the PMO and Malaysia Shell team closer to home - at FRIM.

Well done team for being the CHAMPION and thank you FRIM for being so organised and making the activities fun.

BADMINTON MATCH

SKM has been beaten up by Shell in futsal game a few times in a row - not becasue we have a weaker team but we normally do not have enough player turning up for the game!

So, we asked around for a popular choice of game and decided on badminton to ensure we have the number to play against Shell team. They took on our challenge.

The place was Ara Courts and the date was 24th June 2009. We had more than 15 players from SKM and almost the same number from Shell. Indeed it was a good turnout. The question remained whether we were able to prove that we are the KING of the Court.

After we bagged the ladies' doubles, men's doubles and mixed doubles, we knew that dinner that night would be on the Client!

DEDICATED TO PAUL MULGREW

To my Sifu

You would have been proud of me a couple of days ago.

The Clients were being anal and I decided to tell them as is!

They laughed thinking it was a joke, but they didn't hear me laughing.

The laugh stopped and there was a moment of silent.

Time for digestion and the moment of truth.

I didn't lose my job for I am your Pendekar who has learnt how to survive in the sea full of sharks.

Thank you for the invaluable experience.

Thank you for giving me the courage to tell the Client as is.

THE AMAZING BANGKOK RACE

FIRST DAY

After some head scratching sessions when Mohan gave his talk on HSSE, the first teambuilding exercise organised by our HR team was the Project Runaway. Given what we have to work with (and who) I think the result was pretty amazing!

The first day ended with dinner with the Client where Barry got a bit drunk and wouldn't let go of his potent cocktail.



SECOND DAY
After the the invigorating talks on Procurement Strategies, Cost Management and Value Improvements, Trails of Asia organised an event ala "The Amazing Race" to add some spice to the trip.

We were split into two groups and had to come up with a team dance. We chose to replicate the All Blacks, but instead with the catchy phrase Simply Red, Simply the Best. Our opponent on the other hand, came up with the sissy song " Yellow Submarine" No comparison......

The highlight of the event was when we had to choose 3 bravest team members to take up a challenge that we know would disgust most people. I stepped in only because there was no volunteer and LOSING WAS NOT AN OPTION. How did I do it? All I know was that when the cover of the tray was open, and I was just about to back off, my team leader John turned to me and said those very same words and with that I started digging into the tray.

After traversing Menam Chao Phraya in striking pink life jackets and hustling the Bangkok traffic in the tuk tuk, we arrived at Wat Po for our next challenge.

We were required to build a bridge using straws and transport a vehicle carrying an egg using remote control on the bridge. I was expecting the bunch of enginners I was with to find the task easy, but engineers will always be engineers. They were so focused on optimising the design that they lost sight of the very essence of the bridge being able to support the load i.e. the remote controlled vehicle. So, our bridge collapsed as soon as the vehicle hit the ramp!



While we were laughing our heads off, the Clients were also there to witness the falling bridge and they were not amused.....

TRIP TO BANGKOK

Everybody in the PMO Office in KL is getting all frenzied about our trip to Bangkok next week. 3 days, 27 participants from 9 countries. I have two slots of an hour each to talk about Strategic Procurement and Value Management. Trying to make the forum more interactive but with such dry topics, trying to keep them awake would be a challenge in itself.

The other half of the time, there will be a SKM Amazing Race challenge. The organisers are not opening their mouths about what tasks lay ahead of us. As long as there are no eating slimy food and no handling of reptiles, then I should be ok. I even asked my secretary to rig the team to make sure I am not in the same team as one particular person whose verbal capabilities can become a distraction! Yes...it gets very competitive I might add.

For the weekend, Franco and Tasha will be joining me there. We did the temples and the palaces the last two times we were there, so, we are quite culturally oriented with Thai's history. This trip, we'll probably visit a tailor to make a dozen of pants and shirts, do the chatuchak market, cruise the menam chao phraya, walk around Patpong and eat and eat and eat.

I am not looking forward to the conference cause that is a lot of work but I certainly can't wait for the holiday with the family that follows.

BACK TO THE GRIND

William and I had been on skype for the last month, negotiating my package to rejoin the establishment that I left less than a year ago. We finally came to a settlement a few hours ago.

My husband congratulated me. He seemed to be more excited than I am.

Why am I not feeling elated about going back to the corporate world, about being the only lady in the man's game, about leading a team of players from every corner of the mother earth, about getting an increment without even having to fight for it or justify it.

A year ago, this prospect would give me a high for days and days but now, it just doesn't give me anything. In fact, it might have given me a low! What is wrong with me?

The answer came when I spoke to Tasha. She bawled almost as soon as I uttered the 4 letter word and in between sobs, asked, "Who is going to surprise me at the door when I come home from school?"

I felt my tears welling, but I fought it so that I could reason things with her, without making a big scene. I finally managed to convince her of all the good things that would come out of it. By the time we were finished she was all smiles again, kissed me good night and jumped into bed. I managed to muster a smile back at her while thinking, the one person that really needs to be convinced is yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It all seems to be rather dim at the moment...