It is the first working day in 2022 and it has been quite a hectic day =)

Year 2020 and 2021 has been a challenging year for all of us – for majority of companies worldwide. With the pandemic, and major shifts in how businesses are run, companies can no longer afford to stay still or take a “wait-and-see” strategy. It has been a fast year – either you’re on the bandwagon, or you’re going to be left behind.

Technology has become something very important, very crucial. It is no longer just a tool – it’s an integral part of the organisation – from back office tasks to generating revenue for the company. OfficeCentral has grown from providing back office solutions for our customers such as HR, Payroll and Accounting, to modules that focus on generating revenue for the companies.

The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed us, all of us, to embrace technology – it does not matter whether you’re a business, or an individual. During the difficult time, technology has enabled us to continue our businesses and communicate with our family and friends. And technology is here to stay (Although, we hope Covid-19 will go away).

At Authentic Venture Sdn Bhd, we start the year 2022 with a huge restructuring in the company. It has been our dreams to move the company to the next level, and the restructuring is done with this in mind. We are putting forward our best, so that we can deliver the best to our customers and stakeholders. We want to deliver the best to you.

Alhamdulillah, effective today, I am the new Chief Executive Officer of Authentic Venture Sdn Bhd. It is a huge responsibility, and a huge challenge for me. Our former CEO, Ir Aziz Ismail, will be moving up to be the Executive Chairman of the company.

With these changes, there will be a lot of work to be done. Pray for us!

We believe that in order to go far, we will have to work hard together – And I am looking forward to working with you, our partners, our customers and more in order to provide the best to you and to be the best in the industry. As per our motto, your success is our success.

Thank you.

business #business #technology #thankyou #work #leadership #success #growth #strategy #ceo #officecentral #authenticventure #authenticventuresdnbhd

Each person is different from another person. What we can observe is a person’s behavior – how we behave, how we talk and do something. However, what actually make up a person’s behavior conststs of several factors which are not visible.

Much like the iceberg below:

Our knowledge and skills, attitude and values, beliefs and personality are the factors that make up our behavior. These are the reasons why we act the way we do, and why one person is different from another.

Let us go into detail on Personality factor that influences our behavior.

Personality is…

• relatively stable across different situations;
• enduring across time; and
• expressed through patterns of behaviours that distinguish one person from another.

From our own observation, we can actually see / describe the personality of people close to us, as it actually relatively consistent across context.

We also normally observe that certain personality types gets along well with certain types of personality.

Personality differences, for example, can lead to interpersonal antagonism, which can stymie the formation of productive teams. However, the appropriate balance of personalities can lead to the formation of effective teams.

In the personality theories, there are 2 major approach:

1. Nomothetic approach: This approach strongly supports the view that personalities are fixed and determined by heredity, and cannot be significantly influenced by environmental factors.
   
2. Idiographic approach: This approach takes the opposite perspective – It recognizes that individuals do have unique innate charateristics, it also suggests that personality can be moulded and that both personality and behavior and influeced by specific environmental experiences.

(Organisational Behaviour, Individuals, Groups and Organisations by Ian Brooks)

There are various studies on personality, which I will share in my next post. By understanding this and how to apply this in your hiring and team development, it will greatly help you and your team to achieve better fit and becoming more productive team.

Today I am feeling a bit patriotic.

I love my country, Malaysia.

Malaysia is great. And I believe all of us Malaysians are striving so that we can always improve and be the best version we can ever be. So that Malaysia can be the best country we can ever be.

I always believe Malaysia is the best country to live in, to build my family, to give my children the best environment to grow in.

I hope I can contribute to helping Malaysia to be better too.

When I was younger, someone said to me “Don’t ask what your country have done for you. But ask, what have you done for your country?”.

I felt that I have not achieved much in my past 35 years of life. But I hope every single step I took and will take, will be towards achieving my dreams – of contributing to Malaysia and to the Muslims all over the world. To bring up my beloved country to be the best, and to help all the Muslims wherever they are.

This has been my ambition, and it will always be.

Let’s work together to grow Malaysia together. It’s our future. It’s our children’s future.

Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan yang ke – 64, Negaraku Malaysia.

A few years back, I used to visit counsellors to get counselling sessions. Those years were very challenging years as I was tested not only in work-related areas, but also friendships, financial and more.

The first counsellor I met, opened my eyes to the world of counselling. From that day onwards, I believe counselling plays a big role in mental and emotional health.

During the first session, one of the question that was asked to me,

“What if you were an apple tree?”

Person A came to you and water you. How would you respond?
Person B came to you and climbed you to get the apples. How would you respond?
Person C threw sticks at you to get the apples. How would you respond?

As a normal human being, of course I feel like throwing sticks back at Person C. Haha.

But, as an apple tree, our objective is actually to produce apples. So, who cares what other people do? Why do we need to retaliate or respond negatively when we perceive other people as treating us negatively? Sometimes that’s the only way that they know how to get something or to get response from us.

Person A came. We give them good apples.
Person B came. We give them good apples.
Person C came. We give them good apples.

At the time when Person D came with an axe to chop us down, Person A, B and C will inform that we produce good apples and stop us from being cut down.

This story opened my eyes. Why do we treat people like how we feel they treated us? No matter how they treat us, we should always treat them well.

Sometimes, this is easier said than done. As usual, to develop a new habit, you need to consciously make the good decision, until it comes naturally to you.

Alhamdulillah, the multiple counselling sessions I had attended over a course of few years managed to help pull me out from depression that I faced at that time.

I know, sometimes I tend to forget the teachings and reacted like any normal person would. But as always, I try to reflect back to the counselling sessions and remember all the helpful councillors.

I am grateful.

If you are constantly sad, stressed or depressed, and have never met with a counsellor before, you should.

counselling #apples #react #positive

Everything I learned about leadership, I learned them hands-on.

In Venture, starting 11 years ago, until now, many things that I have learned, I learned hands-on throughout my time in Venture.

Of course, not everything is perfect. Benefits of hindsight, some decisions seem stupid too. As time goes on, I learned to grow, deal with mistakes, and always looking on the bright side on how I can use those blunders to improve. Reading a lot of books help me too.

Hands on learning is tough – You have to go through the heartaches and experience all sorts of difficulties (which, if I know how to deal with it earlier, probably would have made my life easier).

However, by learning through experience, it is much more ingrained in me instead of just learning theoretically. Insya Allah, I will remember the lessons better.

Now, we are working on developing leaders in Authentic Venture Sdn Bhd. I know how hard it is sometimes to make some tough decisions. And that is probably what other people are facing too.

We hope with more structured learning & leadership development, our team are able to do this – achieve results faster, and hopefully will help all of us in our leadership challenges. I too, am still learning, and will never stop.

Pejam celik pejam celik, dah dekat sebulan dah Perintah Kawalan Gerakan (PKP) dijalankan di Malaysia. Kerajaan baru je umumkan hari jumaat minggu lepas yang PKP akan disambung lagi 2 minggu.

Perasaan? Saya pun tak tahulah nak cakap apa. Banyak yang terkesan dengan PKP dan masalah Covid-19 ni. Homestay saya pun kosong terus sepanjang PKP (dan besar kemungkinan akan terus berkurangan booking selagi masalah Covid-19 ni belum betul2 selesai). Bersyukur sangat kerajaan Malaysia bagi moratorium bayaran loan rumah, kalau tak, pengsan jugakla nak membayarnya 😭

Dari perkongsian Majlis Keselamatan Nasional, nampak gaya kes positif Covid-19 ni masih lebih kurang 100+.

Ni update terbaru hari ini:

Selepas PKP ni, banyak lagi nak kena replan semula. Bagaimana nak naikkan semula ekonomi negara. Bagaimana nak pastikan Covid-19 dapat dilenyapkan terus dari mukabumi ni.

Saya pun tak tahu berapa lama lagi masa yang diperlukan untuk selesaikan masalah ini. Harap-harap ekonomi Malaysia dapat melonjak balik naik semula dengan segera selepas ini.

Marilah kita berdoa agar Allah menghapuskan Covid-19 ni dari mukabumi dengan kadar segera, dan semoga ekonomi Malaysia dan dunia dapat naik semula insya Allah. Amin…

One of my regrets is not reading much non-fiction books during my college years apart from the books that I have to study for my electrical engineering degree.

Now I have discovered more and more as my passion for reading grows bigger.

And kindle plays a part in helping me to finish reading the books too. I listen to my books while driving. Believe me, when you’re driving in traffic jams, kindle is a godsend. Previously I have managed to finish one whole book while driving from kuantan to kota bharu in traffic jam to attend my colleague’s wedding. (Besides listening to books, kindle helps me to get the books that are not available in Malaysian bookstores)

These are some of the books I have read. I have finished reading/listening almost all of them, and I am at second round of reading them to get the ideas presented (that I found during my first reading/listening) to be implemented in my life and our company.

If you’re in university now or freshly graduated, nurture your interest in reading. You can be surprised of how much knowledge there is in the world and how much they can help you in your life. Even if you are not fresh graduate anymore, it is not always too late to start picking up a book and read.