IT seems like our boards have a tough task choosing CEOs. Or is the problem their shareholders? Let’s face it, no CEO can normally be appointed to his position without the tacit approval of the shareholders.
In the Malaysian context, a case in point is the appointment of Datuk Mohd Bakke Salleh as CEO of Sime Darby Bhd announced by its chairman Tun Musa Hitam, our former deputy prime minister. But there are curious things to the appointment and unanswered questions.
First, we don’t know when Mohd Bakke will come aboard. To quote Musa, it will take effect “as soon as practicable”.
Now what kind of a statement is that, and is that a new first for a large public listed company in Malaysia where the appointment is announced without a date for when it comes into force?
The immediate question that comes to mind is why such haste in making the appointment when you can’t even set a date for the appointment to take place? There are other questions of course.
Is the Sime Darby board totally free to make the appointment or does it make its recommendations and the shareholders, Permodalan Nasional and eventually the Government, make the final decision? Probably the latter.
And the billion-ringgit (Sime Darby has already lost several billion ringgit in market value since the start of its problems) question: Is Mohd Bakke the right person to lead Sime Darby out of the wilderness? If he is, fine, but if not who else?
To help the board, the Government and anyone else decide whether someone is of CEO material, here are 10 key criteria we outline for an assessment to be made. For each criteria score between zero and ten, ten being the best score and then total up the individual scores for an overall percentage score.
The criteria are drawn up with Sime Darby in mind and equally as well apply for any large public listed company, and especially a government-linked one.
We suggest that for a company like Sime Darby, a candidate should score at least 80% to be considered and that the final candidate should approach 90% or more. That’s high but it is time we raised our standards.
Fill up the table below, total up the score and see how anyone fares. It does not have to be Mohd Bakke. See if you qualify. Or your own CEO. And how does your CEO rate against others?
But remember, this is a fun quiz, although it can provide some good results if scored properly.
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