Reversing brain drain boosts transformation drive towards high-income economy

Brain drain threatens Malaysia’s aspirations of becoming a high-income economy with quantum leap of US$7,000 per capita annual income to US$15,000 in nine years’ time

SINGAPORE (26 April 2011) – In 2010 alone, some 200,000 Malaysians emigrated. Since 1957, it is estimated that a whopping two million Malaysians had left the country and settled down abroad. This massive talent outflow is attributed by some to institutional policies based on race quotas that see scores of non-bumiputera flocking to Singapore and Australia which have since capitalised on the influx of Malaysian talent.

This brain drain shrinks Malaysia’s talent pool and exacerbates Malaysian businesses’ succession quandary, though challenges with succession planning are not a unique affliction – global companies like Amazon.com and News Corp too face a dearth of successors which jeopardises business continuity. It is no wonder then that Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew once remarked, “What is a leader’s toughest job? Ensuring succession.”

Michael Dell, founder of Dell best sums up, “Perhaps the best measure of a founder’s success is not how bright the star shines while they are there – no doubt this is certainly an important trajectory – but what happens after they are long gone from this earth.” Indeed, a leader’s true legacy lies beyond his/her tenure and goes far into the posterity left behind through those who follow as successors.

The brain drain conundrum also puts the spotlight on training talent. Accenture’s global High Performance Workforce (HPW) Study 2010 found that Malaysian companies were lacking in HR and training functions which results to slow them from promptly adapting to change and keeps Malaysian business from effectively mobilising and executing key business strategies which require nimble corporate footing.

For more effective training and talent utilisation, Malaysian companies begin to relate training and business outcomes. In a phone interview, Wendy Khoo, Group HR Director at Symphony House, emphasises Malaysian organisations like hers should “better develop internal resources, link training and organisational goals.” According to a veteran management trainer, SMEs comprising more than 90 per cent of Malaysian companies mostly focus too much on quality and relationships to drive business. He further adds, “If they can learn to think differently, they will get more out of their untapped innovation skills in their human capital.”

Indeed, it is about time Malaysia draws on its talent and brings them back rather than continue to chase them away, to prepare for the further phases of country’s transformation drive towards a high-income economy.

Undergoing this transformation drive, the Malaysian business community asks:

• Are structural weaknesses hindering our economic progress?

• Which are the points of impact we need to drive to maintain/increase growth?

• Are succession plans in place for business continuity and stability?

• What more can be done to attract and retain talent?


Malaysia’s top SMEs, regional MNCs, GLCs and government agencies who are major employers will be converging on the HR Talk Show come Wednesday, 25 May 2011 in Kuala Lumpur, to proactively remodel business and HR strategies and secure new competitive advantage in Malaysia’s quickening growth market.

The HR Talk Show series is a high-impact interactive platform bridging the gap between government and business initiatives to drive human capital best practices and actionable insights into talent, technology and strategic HR. In a unique talk show format, CEOs, HR Directors, CIOs/CTOs and their CFOs from Malaysia’s most admired companies will be working with 400 participants to interactively walk through the most current human capital challenges in a fast-growing economy like Malaysia’s to ensure that the most important leaders in businesses and public organisations can:

• Drive improved talent productivity and leadership succession

• Cast off accident-prone legacy strategies for talent management

• Secure proper methodologies to evaluate and implement HR technology and services

• Resume their strategic roles with a greater clarity of thought and vision

all with the aim to support, harmonise and put into action the initiatives from both government and private sector to transform and grow Malaysia into a high-income economy and grow the local highly-skilled workforce to 33 percent by 2015 and 50 percent by 2020 as outlined in the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP).

The series is organised by the Center for Business Strategy and Tactics and promoted by Arc Media Global with a high-profile network of international and local partners and supporting organisations, including sponsors Northgate Arinso, Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise, Ramco Systems and SuccessFactors; exhibitors KZEN Solutions, StepStone Solutions, Orenda, and Business Formula Adaptive Partnerships; and strategic partners Corporate Executive Board, World HRD Congress, and Young Business Owners – ASEAN; among many others. Please call the production team at +65 6844 2080, email hrtalkshow@arcmediaglobal.com or visit the official website www.arcmediaglobal.com/hrtalkshow for details on programme, attendees, and other key features of the May 2011 talk show.

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If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with the speakers at the HR Talk Show,
please call Eunice Wee at (+65) 6844 2080 or email Eunice at hrtalkshow@arcmediaglobal.com

The Center for Business Strategy and Tactics (Center for Business) is an industry research centre (IRC) that works to bring top executives together in communities of learning and practice to act as a catalyst for generating high-value energy business insight and channel top expertise to where the world needs it most. Center for Business meetings are powered by Arc Media Global, a B2B/G2B integrated international marketing specialist headquartered in Singapore.

Contact: Eunice Wee
Arc Media Global
Robinson Road. PO Box 176. Singapore 900326
(+65) 6844 2080
hrtalkshow@arcmediaglobal.com
www.arcmediaglobal.com/hrtalkshow

This release was published on openPR.