Desmond Kuek - Leadership Failure

[Charlie99]

This is very true. I know of one case whereby a HI of a land div was ordered to change his assessment of an OMS. This HI, as with those who worked with this OMS knew this chap wasn't an officer and a gentleman. Years late, this OMS had to resign as a result of his case which was reported in the ST.

Similar things happened in the SAF during my time (old days), where the following probably explained why very few SAFOS are ranked less than o/s or excellent:
1. say a CPT or a MAJ who is a non-scholar indicated that the SAFOS LTA is above average, not excellent, the senior officer has to provide a detailed explanation as to the reasons that the SAFOS officer is not excellent; and
2. eventually, numerous non-scholar officers do not write performance appraisals for scholars which are other than excellent or outstanding, also because in a few short years, the scholar officers or SAFOS officers will be promoted faster and higher than his previous superior.

 

[GoldenDragon]

For those of us who were in 1 SIR or HQ 2 SIB, when the former CP was in 1 SIR, we are very puzzled indeed as how Mr. K. could ever be promoted to be CP.

With regards to the present CP, I am not familiar, but possibly, there are no other SPFOS in the running for that position.

Not only appointed CP, but he lasted for more than decade which is even more puzzling.

Wrt current CP, no other contenders. Most left the SPF. His only rival would have been Lock Wai Han.

 

[Charlie99]

Not only appointed CP, but he lasted for more than decade which is even more puzzling.

Wrt current CP, no other contenders. Most left the SPF. His only rival would have been Lock Wai Han.

But Lock already left the SPF when they appointed NJH as CP?
Why not SWW?

 

[GoldenDragon]

But Lock already left the SPF when they appointed NJH as CP?
Why not SWW?

Yes, you are right. LWH wasn't in the SPF when NJH was appointed. Think he was DS somewhere then. He would have been a challenger for the CP post if he had stayed. All other contenders left much earlier. SWW was never in the race.

 

[Wildfire]

Strikes are a minor issue. They occur in NZ on an almost weekly basis and CEOs never get involved. They simply appoint a company spokesperson to handle the press and get on with more important tasks.

CEOs get involved only when there is a major incident such as an accident which has cost lives.

Yes, I agree ...

That's what happen in a country when sheep are more than brains

 

[eatshitndie]

If anything, the Singapore authorities have been far too lenient. They should have arrested every single striking worker the day it happened in a display of shock and awe.

sinkies don't have a clue what they're missing from strong no-nonsense governance.

in all 5 cases i cited, non of the ceo's were involved directly with labor dispute negotiations. they have experienced and highly trained professional negotiators to do the job as strikes are regular occurrences, especially after elections when dems (party of unions) win.

 

[scroobal]

Why are you so blur?

Common sense will tell you that CEOs will never engage in negotiations directly. I am sure you are not expecting the Commissioner of Police to undertake hostage negotiation with criminals. The decision on an outcome or compromise must come from the leadership team who are not emotionally attached to the negotiation. They make decisions in the cool light of day.

Desmond Kuek as the CEO failed to address his customers. He failed to create a profile of a good leader. This was the first strike since the 1980s, its a one off event and not the usual that you find in highly unionised countries where negotiations, go-slow, strikes etc are routine every other day when wage contracts expire. This strike occurred because of management incompetency. With such onerous rules forbidding industrial actions as the first course of action, this management failed to have lines of communication open to sense what was going to happen.

Singapore Laws benefit the employer and yet SMRT could not even capitalise on it. Thats incompetence for you. It requires the CEO to step forward and show remorse to the public who were inconvenient. None of which he did.

in all 5 cases i cited, non of the ceo's were involved directly with labor dispute negotiations. they have experienced and highly trained professional negotiators to do the job as strikes are regular occurrences, especially after elections when dems (party of unions) win.

 

[Bigfuck]

Why are you so blur?

Desmond Kuek as the CEO failed to address his customers. He failed to create a profile of a good leader. This was the first strike since the 1980s, its a one off event and not the usual that you find in highly unionised countries where negotiations, go-slow, strikes etc are routine every other day when wage contracts expire. This strike occurred because of management incompetency. With such onerous rules forbidding industrial actions as the first course of action, this management failed to have lines of communication open to sense what was going to happen.

Singapore Laws benefit the employer and yet SMRT could not even capitalise on it. Thats incompetence for you. It requires the CEO to step forward and show remorse to the public who were inconvenient. None of which he did.

Leegime does not treat people with Singapore passports as citizens or Singapore as country like Sang Nila Utama. Time for passport holders of Singapore to realize not necessary to treat Leegime as government of Singapore.

 

[eatshitndie]

Why are you so blur?

and why are you so blurrer?

the root cause is heavy dependence and trust on prc labor (to operate services critical to the day to day livelihood of sinkies) which is highly unreliable and prone to tantrums in the 1st place, and it has nothing to do with the leadership quality of the current ceo. any incoming ceo will inherit the issue and heshe would have little to no power going against the grain of a national policy already being implemented and in full embrace by all glc's.

instead of finding a single scapegoat and leading a character flaw hunt, why don't you identify the root cause and deal with solving the root cause issue?

but, oh wait a minute. you're only capable of character assassinations, and nothing else.

 

[tualingong]

Its not a crisis. Its a minor issue. If a CEO has to appear at every minor issue where only less than 5% of the bus services were affected, then who will take care of more important strategic direction of the company? Lets move on and not politicise this unnecessarily.

whole bunch of your employees didnt turn up for work.

not crisis then what is it? pulling your legs?

not publicising but PAP govt screwed it up this time.

the whole world knows now.

 

[scroobal]

Bro, I think I mentioned this before.

Khoo, Goh and Chua were taken out of the elite wrangler scheme and sent to SPF. Nearly 10 years later old man revealed without naming names that they had to move those who did not meet the standard of the wrangler scheme to SPF and there are only 3.

At that time MHA had a lazy cabinet minister who hardly spoke in parliament and obviously did not put on a fight.

Subsequently MHA under a new Minister and Perm Sec fought back and started their own scheme. SAF began dumping the flops into GLCs.

Similar things happened in the SAF during my time (old days), where the following probably explained why very few SAFOS are ranked less than o/s or excellent:
1. say a CPT or a MAJ who is a non-scholar indicated that the SAFOS LTA is above average, not excellent, the senior officer has to provide a detailed explanation as to the reasons that the SAFOS officer is not excellent; and
2. eventually, numerous non-scholar officers do not write performance appraisals for scholars which are other than excellent or outstanding, also because in a few short years, the scholar officers or SAFOS officers will be promoted faster and higher than his previous superior.

 

[Bigfuck]

Bro, I think I mentioned this before.

Khoo, Goh and Chua were taken out of the elite wrangler scheme and sent to SPF. Nearly 10 years later old man revealed without naming names that they had to move those who did not meet the standard of the wrangler scheme to SPF and there are only 3.

At that time MHA had a lazy cabinet minister who hardly spoke in parliament and obviously did not put on a fight.

Subsequently MHA under a new Minister and Perm Sec fought back and started their own scheme. SAF began dumping the flops into GLCs.

Did the old man meet standards of Her Majesty's services and that of Uncle Sam? I am sure that he failed PRC standards but is being tolerated to serve the monetary interests of some PRC individuals.

 

[scroobal]

What happened to the 5 cases you spent time researching?

and why are you so blurrer?

the root cause is heavy dependence and trust on prc labor (to operate services critical to the day to day livelihood of sinkies) which is highly unreliable and prone to tantrums in the 1st place, and it has nothing to do with the leadership quality of the current ceo. any incoming ceo will inherit the issue and heshe would have little to no power going against the grain of a national policy already being implemented and in full embrace by all glc's.

instead of finding a single scapegoat and leading a character flaw hunt, why don't you identify the root cause and deal with solving the root cause issue?

but, oh wait a minute. you're only capable of character assassinations, and nothing else.

 

[nirvarq]

The entire issue is actually a minor issue if ISD intelligence manage to spot the problem, there are suppose to be people monitoring. Maybe they put too much attention to certain site /hint.. wrongly lol....

They start posting in Chinese forum inciting strike vs SMRT for a while but no one notice. Is it they don't read Chinese well ? lol

CEO and Red Indian Chiefs are suppose to stay back and only appear when things are in control they have to leave someone behind to blame the lower ranks if something goes wrong. Its the normal procedure. Just common sense...... :p

 

[eatshitndie]

What happened to the 5 cases you spent time researching?

unfortunately, those 5 unions don't have the luxury and privilege to recruit conscientious, longsuffering, compliant and obedient sinkies to work in their ranks.

western labor unions that frequently go on strike are led and peopled by lazy fat bums who only care about their paychecks, benefits and pensions. these prc scumbags are just like their western counterparts, always asking for more when opportunities are open to them. hostess did the right thing by closing the business down and firing all the union workers. the school districts just lay off teachers who don't show up. afterall, there are so many temp teachers ready to fill in. the oakland port authority just hire more contractors who are non-union. the high end hotel has so many temps and contractors in their labor pool to rely on that they don't need to negotiate. hmo and hospital can easily activate qualified temps and contractors that have been jobless and waiting for the call. all unions kwai kwai beg to go back to work after the middle finger is shown at them.

the sg leaders are doing the right thing. take some time to understand the root cause, get the facts right and find the ring leaders. instead of shooting from the hip. the only mistake is to trust these uncouth prc thugs and not insert spies and bugs among them for monitoring purposes. now that they are known trouble makers, a strong stand needs to be taken to fire and deport all of them. ah tiongs are calculative cumsuckers. it's better for the smrt to hire and import bangla, burmese and pinoy drivers. they speak english and are very conscientious and punctual workers who don't ask for much.

 

[watchman8]

Strikes are a minor issue. They occur in NZ on an almost weekly basis and CEOs never get involved. They simply appoint a company spokesperson to handle the press and get on with more important tasks.

Then why this time so many members of cabinets and entire media machinery also involved not just in background work, but also front line appearances? The smrt team can't handle or ministers too free?

Not too long ago the supreme leader himself was involved in direct negotiation with the fly boys.

 

[eatshitndie]

Then why this time so many members of cabinets and entire media machinery also involved not just in background work, but also front line appearances? The smrt team can't handle or ministers too free?

Not too long ago the supreme leader himself was involved in direct negotiation with the fly boys.

because in sg, it happens once in 50 years.

when it starts happening on a weekly basis, and ceo's and gov officials don't care one sh*t and start delegating talks to lowly jokers, you'll know sg has arrived at 1st world status. and it's time to worry. :o

ceo and ministers don't care, sinkie losers kpkb. ceo and ministers care, sinkie losers kpkb. sg has too many armchair critics who don't have real life experiences of dealing with strikes on a regular basis.

 

[watchman8]

This is very true. I know of one case whereby a HI of a land div was ordered to change his assessment of an OMS. This HI, as with those who worked with this OMS knew this chap wasn't an officer and a gentleman. Years late, this OMS had to resign as a result of his case which was reported in the ST.

To be fair, the PAP founders designed the scholar system to avoid or address other problems, such as cronyism, sabotage of scholars by non scholars and to quickly bring up the education standards of the civil and military services. It also become a national obsession to make sure the kids study hard as this is one of best way to get out of poverty. To these objectives, this scholar policy succeeded very well.

However, pap always go to the extremes (e.g. Two child policy, sovereign wealth funds, FW), and the scholar system is one such extreme that is still not properly addressed today. The entire govt service becomes so choked full of overseas scholars and so many of top crop at 18 years old got co opted into it, the entire nation's top brains are moulded into the same shape. The red carpet laid out for overseas scholars also ensured that these people are hardly trained in reality, but instead only honed a narrow set of skills to impress the perm sec and minister. The narrow focus of Old man ensured that this small group of elite scholars are monitored closely on his famous thumb drive, and they are pushed into the entire nation seats of power in govt services, GLCs and cabinet, to the extent that it becomes rare to find anyone not cut from the scholar mould.

I believe the PAP realized this problem in the late 90s and proceeded to actively looked for private sector leaders not from this mould. A high profile catch was someone from a large oil firm, but after a short while in cabinet, woody f this poor chap on national tv because he was pushing hard for more national universities. He left after one term. Thereafter, very few dare apply, and we are back on same situation of scholars in all top seats of power.

Till now, I have not gotten any confidence that PAP will scale back the excesses of the scholar system. This system is slowly strangling the entire nation. In fact you can trace the roots of many current problems such as PSLE stress, over emphasis on academics, lack of entrepreneurship, weak political leadership etc. largely to the over extended scholar system.

 

[Leongsam]

ceo and ministers don't care, sinkie losers kpkb. ceo and ministers care, sinkie losers kpkb. sg has too many armchair critics who don't have real life experiences of dealing with strikes on a regular basis.

SG has too many armchair critics who don't have real life experiences in dealing with real life.

This forum is full of them.

 

[Jagdpanzer]

Yes, I agree ...

That's what happen in a country when sheep are more than brains

NZ and Sinkapore are different. We have a dictator here to oversee almost every aspects of our lives.