There is a malaise in SPH that goes deeper than the CEO, speaking as one who had formerly worked in the organisation. The senior management overseeing the media business are misfits. The Dy CEO, who heads the media business, is an ex senior civil servant parachuted into SPH. He was probably given the hint that he would not make it to Permanent Secretary. Sources who have worked with him say he is opinionated, thinks highly of himself and behaves as if he knows the media business, but in reality, he is mostly all talk. Since coming on board, he has been instrumental in signing many MOUs with the likes of Samsung, Starhub, etc. These MOUs, typically civil service style, say sources, are meaningless, and have not added a single revenue dollar to the company. The MOU with Samsung cited above is one such example. But more harmful than ignorance, is his management style. Typically elitist civil servant, he manages by perceptions formed from inputs from a close coterie of vested interest underlings.
Next, the current Chief Marketing Officer, who reports to the Dy CEO, is an ex journalist who was moved from the Newsroom to his current appointment two years ago. But to call him a journalist would be insulting the profession. Someone has put it aptly his brand of journalism is the male version of Sumiko Tan. When it comes to the media business, he too is a square peg in round hole. He has not held a position in a revenue generating department, let alone held P&L responsibility in his entire working life. Those who have worked with him say he is highly excitable by ideas he come across in literature, but is unable to accept that not all ideas can be transplanted with the same desired result. His greatest weakness is his lack of objectivity and tolerance for alternative views, which is a surprise for someone whose background was a journalist. Those who speak their minds and advocate a different view to his are seen as uncooperative and obstructionist.
Between these two key appointment holders, who are bereft of real solutions and ideas, lies the fate of the media business, which is already facing severe external challenges. It is no wonder that media revenue is dropping sharply quarter by quarter. The latest retrenchment, coming barely two years after another massive layoff, will not be the last. The CEO's failing is in allowing the ineptitude and mismanagement of his two key appointment holders to continue unabated, while innocent employees are sacrificed and retrenched in the name of restructuring.