Desmond Kuek - Leadership Failure

[Confuseous]

TCJ slaps Desmond Kuek, says he has no common sense.

He also said:

"The SMRT could have done better in managing the drivers' woes and it must prevent such a severe breakdown in labour relations from occurring again. Companies should not allow labour grievances to fester."

But then again, who is this young punk, straight from the Army himself to tell another equally blur military guy how to run companies?

 

[watchman8]

Re: TCJ slaps Desmond Kuek, says he has no common sense.

He also said:

"The SMRT could have done better in managing the drivers' woes and it must prevent such a severe breakdown in labour relations from occurring again. Companies should not allow labour grievances to fester."

But then again, who is this young punk, straight from the Army himself to tell another equally blur military guy how to run companies?

TCJ must be sore that Kuek ranked kee Chiu higher than him back in the army days. So TCJ took this opportunity to screw Kuek.

 

[Confuseous]

Desmond Quek's failure highlights SMRT Board's defective selection criteria

When the breakdowns happened, the board indicated that as the Malaysian Saw was retail based (never mind she made tons of money for them and Temasek) there was a need to replace her with a technical person, preferably someone with engineering background. That Lucky Sperm Desmond was swimming around and was caught after a global search. Desmond is an insult to people like the engineer-CEO of Capitaland.

So, now that there are human capital issues, should Desmond be fired and the brief for the next global search for CEO should have experience in human resources?

And if, 6 months down the line, Muddy Waters decide that SMRT's finances are flawed, we look for someone with finance background?

The board should realise, LEADERSHIP is leadership, no ifs and buts.

But then again, the board itself has not demonstrated leadership either in the past week.

So how, so how?

 

[watchman8]

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

This forum is full of them.

That makes you an armchair critic of armchair critics. Double fail leh. Now get out of your armchair and sit on the real critic's armchair.

 

[Leongsam]

That makes you an armchair critic of armchair critics. Double fail leh. Now get out of your armchair and sit on the real critic's armchair.

I created this platform for armchair critics before I got into my armchair to critique so I was productive to begin with.

 

[kukubird58]

hahaha...again my idol taking the opportunity to anyhow whack.
for this particular case, it is obvious that DK was at the wrong wrong place at the wrong time......
he is less than 2 months in his post and on overseas leave when it happened....
yes we can critisize for all we want...but we must know what we are talking and look at things in perspective rather than behaving like opportunists.

 

[Charlie99]

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.

In terms of seniority (year joined the SPF), who is most senior, or what is the order:
SWW, LWH, NJH ?

 

[Charlie99]

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.

I am aware of KBH and CCK, but not Goh, since those 2 were in 1 SIR.

Who was that Minister of the MHA when the SAF transferred KBH and CCK to the SPF?
(If you are uncomfortable posting it here, please send a private msg to me. Thank you)

 

[Charlie99]

Re: TCJ slaps Desmond Kuek, says he has no common sense.

TCJ must be sore that Kuek ranked kee Chiu higher than him back in the army days. So TCJ took this opportunity to screw Kuek.

I do not believe CCS and TCJ were from the same batch of SAFOS

 

[ahkow]

hahaha...again my idol taking the opportunity to anyhow whack.
for this particular case, it is obvious that DK was at the wrong wrong place at the wrong time......
he is less than 2 months in his post and on overseas leave when it happened....
yes we can critisize for all we want...but we must know what we are talking and look at things in perspective rather than behaving like opportunists.

SMRT management virtually was absent en masse during the first few days of the strike.I would have expected a senior mgmt guy to be there on the very first day in the morning to work things out. Showing DK talking to SMRT bus drivers in their bunks after the incident blew over smack of hypocrisy in media reporting.

 

[kukubird58]

SMRT management virtually was absent en masse during the first few days of the strike.I would have expected a senior mgmt guy to be there on the very first day in the morning to work things out. Showing DK talking to SMRT bus drivers in their bunks after the incident blew over smack of hypocrisy in media reporting.

hahaha...it is obvious that SMRT was not well managed for a long long time already......
but my point was very clear....for this particular case, DK was at the wrong place at the wrong time....period.

 

[watchman8]

Re: TCJ slaps Desmond Kuek, says he has no common sense.

I do not believe CCS and TCJ were from the same batch of SAFOS

Same batch, same jc

 

[Charlie99]

Re: TCJ slaps Desmond Kuek, says he has no common sense.

Same batch, same jc

Thank you.
All I read about is that CCS went to RI, but totally unaware that TCJ same batch.
Wow, same batch but one rank below CCS.

 

[watchman8]

hahaha...it is obvious that SMRT was not well managed for a long long time already......
but my point was very clear....for this particular case, DK was at the wrong place at the wrong time....period.

Two months, not two days into the job. And this is not OjT, and his title is not CEO for nothing.

First question, why go on a long overseas holiday when only two months into CEO of a critical company that is widely known to have been badly managed? Shouldn't he thoroughly go through the issues, implement and see through the solutions before taking off? At least hold that holiday till after first year in office. Any commander worth his salt would know this basic.

Second, he should have al least gave a phone interview with the media within first day of strike to give public impression that as CEO, he is taking charge. Don't tell me can't even do Skype video?

 

[Leongsam]

Second, he should have al least gave a phone interview with the media within first day of strike to give public impression that as CEO, he is taking charge. Don't tell me can't even do Skype video?

Let it go. The strike is a small issue. How would you like it if you had to work while you were supposedly on holiday.

 

[watchman8]

Let it go. The strike is a small issue. How would you like it if you had to work while you were supposedly on holiday.

Haha, many people already on 24/7 standby even on holidays. And I'm not referring to top executives only. And this guy is a million buck CEO who went on long overseas holiday within two months of taking over smrt. Even lowly execs also wouldn't go on long holidays within 2 months of new job. We are not talking about bintan or genting short weekend breaks.

After the first series of mrt broke down and overcrowding from 2008 to 2011, everyone also said small issue.

 

[Satyr]

@TFBH
Worse still when you mollycoddle people into top political leadership. IMHO military careers are the worst kind of preparation unless you have come through actual combat.

 

[kukubird58]

Two months, not two days into the job. And this is not OjT, and his title is not CEO for nothing.

First question, why go on a long overseas holiday when only two months into CEO of a critical company that is widely known to have been badly managed? Shouldn't he thoroughly go through the issues, implement and see through the solutions before taking off? At least hold that holiday till after first year in office. Any commander worth his salt would know this basic.

Second, he should have al least gave a phone interview with the media within first day of strike to give public impression that as CEO, he is taking charge. Don't tell me can't even do Skype video?

hahaha.....i am not here to defend DK.
if you are objective enough....u should agree that he happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time for this particular case.

 

[Leongsam]

After the first series of mrt broke down and overcrowding from 2008 to 2011, everyone also said small issue.

It is a small issue. Trains break down the world over. Even the Swiss who are famous for the clockwork precision of their railway system have problems from time to time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4121072.stm
http://genevalunch.com/blog/tag/breakdown/

If you think you're such a smart ass, why don't you apply for the job. Talk is cheap.

 

[watchman8]

It is a small issue. Trains break down the world over. Even the Swiss who are famous for the clockwork precision of their railway system have problems from time to time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4121072.stm
http://genevalunch.com/blog/tag/breakdown/

If you think you're such a smart ass, why don't you apply for the job. Talk is cheap.

You are confused. There are certain transport systems that demand very high level of reliability and safety. The Tokyo, Seoul and sg city train systems are some of these. Many riders depend on these critical systems and the cities will be paralyzed if the trains are down because the alternative transport system can't cope. The reliability demanded is close to that of a passenger aircraft.

The Swiss has much lower density population and if the trains are down, there are viable alternatives. And don't bring in the London tubes and NYC subway. Their systems have so much redundancy that if a line is down, people can hop onto an alternative line, maybe walk a couple of blocks or take a bus. Singapore does not have such a high redundancy network, and hence the reliability requirement is very high.

So I think it is right to demand that Kuek be on the ball and clearly the transport minister knew the seriousness of smrt, that's why he got a heavy weight in Kuek to handle the job. Unfortunately, the so-called heavyweight has proven himself to be worse than a lowly exec, thus exposing the myth of super scholar prowess.

The CEO smrt job is a tough one now given the screw up by old auntie. So if one accepts this job with the high pay, then one better be prepared for some basic requirements of the job, such as not going on long holidays within weeks of taking over, being contactable and on the ball 24/7.

If the govt cuts Kuek so much slack, then what is the message to all other scholars in top posts?