September 2011 - MINDA Malaysian Directors Academy ...

article threeMALAYSIAN DIRECTORS ACADEMY 10company in relation to the industry and/or sector. It is alsouseful to assess that the candidate possesses the interestto take care the interests of the stakeholders includingshareholders, employees, and customers. However, theassessment by the Nomination Committee has to be ona continuous basis whereby along the way, the director’scapacity and capability can be assessed, among others, interms of his commitment, effective participation in board’sdeliberation, positive values that the director is able toadd to the company, the right attitude, and the continuousattempt and interest to educate and train himself in theareas relevant to the company.The assessment will enable the company to identifydirectors who are committed to its mission; it also drawsdirectors who are relevant to the needs of the companyand also the otherwise. The relevant directors tend toaddress the changing external environment and evolvingstrategic priorities of the company and also seek tocontinuously improve the performance of the company andits interconnectedness with community and stakeholders itservices. In short it is imperative that directors must possessthe attitude to be proactive and continuously to search foravenues to enhance the effectiveness of the company.While the company can do its assessment of the directors inorder to have the right directors, it is equally acceptable thatthe directors must also assess themselves. It is acceptablethat the selection process to appoint directors will notalways result in the appointment of the right candidatesdue to a number of possible reasons. As such directorshave an important role to play to ensure the existence ofrelevant boards. Directors have to be objective in appraisingthemselves as individuals in order to facilitate the companyto have effective and relevant boards. Directors have toask themselves (no doubt it is difficult) as to whether theyhave the right capability and capacity to be the directorsi.e. can I make an impact to the company; or do I have theopportunity to make the difference to the company; or doI add value to the company; or what skills, contacts, andperspectives do I have that will be useful to the company. Itis not denied that these are difficult questions for directorsto objectively answer them, but if they can put the interestsof the company above their personal interests, it is perhapsactions that can facilitate the company to strive its journeyfor the benefits of the stakeholders. This proposition maysound to be ideal but sooner or later the reality will existbecause capability and capacity could be noticed easilyin the operations of the boards of directors. In the finalanalysis it is the directors that can ensure that the existenceof the board is relevant. It is safe to say that interventionswill always be prevalent if boards of directors are assessedto “not doing things right and not doing the right thing”.Interventions by the other parties to activate boards ofdirectors may be one of the ways but is it effective?ConclusionThe primary objective is to incite discussion on the rolesthat boards of directors and to suggest (perhaps notcomprehensive enough) ways how directors can facilitateto make boards of directors as a relevant entity. Views andconstructive comments on the article will certainly providea better and deeper understanding on the issue.Datuk Dr Syed Muhamad Syed Abdul KadirYBhg Datuk Dr Syed is the Chairman of CIMB IslamicInvestment House BSC (C), Bahrain and CIMB-PrincipalIslamic Asset Management Sdn Bhd. He is also a Director ofBumiputra-Commerce Holdings Berhad (BCHB), CIMB Groupand CIMB Bank, Euro Holdings Berhad, Solutions EngineeringHoldings Berhad and a number of private companies.Datuk Dr Syed graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons)degree from the University of Malaya in 1971. He obtaineda Masters of Business Administration degree from theUniversity of Massachussets, United States of Americain 1977 and Ph.D (Business Management) from VirginiaPolytechnic Institute and State University, United Statesof America in 1986. In 2005, he obtained a Bachelor ofJurisprudence (Hons) degree from the University of Malayaand obtained a Certificate in Legal Practice in 2008.