Re-coup

The institution on last Wed & Thursday organized a workshop with aims to prepare a 5-year plan/strategy to re-coup expenses i.e. to ensure break-even position in a specified time. The 1 ½ day workshop, which is related to the last AAC meeting on financial sustainability, was held in Telok Dalam Resort in Pangkor Island.

In the effort to position itself as a leading institution to serve the petroleum industry in this region, the management has strived for Research University status started off with the Transformation Plan back in 2009. Since last year, we have engaged in the execution of the Transformation Plan and everyone seems to be motivated in achieving the RU status. Simultaneously, the management has also been asked to reduce or recoup its expenses as the current increase in revenue was not parallel as compared to the increase in the cost. Eventually, we were asked to secure a breakeven point in a specified period (of which most of the participants view this situation as a slow but surely departing process with the parent company)

As usual, the workshop schedule was very hectic that on the first day we ended up at about 11PM. Nevertheless, we surreptitiously took our time to play beach volleyball and flying some kites (under the good initiative by En Md Akhir).

I do not wish to describe the output from the workshop cos’ for me it’s a decision that need to be made by the management. All I can say that every situations require in-depth study and analysis (kinda chicken and egg situation) before we can bring down the strategies to became an initiative/action plan.

See follows some nice pic taken from iP4..

 

P/s- Selamat menyambut Ramadhan Al-Mubarak. Semoga dengan kedatangan Ramadhan yang mulia akan membawa seribu rahmat kepada kita semua. Oh ya..selamat hari lahir Fadil Ariff :-)



Ketenangan

Minggu lepas sememangnya menuntut tenaga sehingga ke titisan peluh yang terakhir. Habis saja dengan AAC dan post-AAC, datang pulak accreditation visit untuk program-program Pasca Siswazah. Finally, hari Jumaat barulah dapat bernafas dengan sempurna. In between sessi accreditation, aku sempat bersembang dengan Dr M Noh. Dr M Noh ni kaki sembang tapi seronok sebab dia memang tahu detail, sometimes too detail. Dr M Noh bercerita tentang insiden 2007 masa dia kena endio sebab banyak artery yang dah block. Dia berumur dalam lingkungan 45 tahun ketika itu. Dia kata banyak block sebab setiap satu blockage kosnya sekitar RM20K. UTP kena bayar kos keseluruhan almost quarter million!

Anyway, seperti biasa Dr M Noh bercerita tentang detail in & out pasal fat, kolesterol dsbgnya yang amat mengconciouskan aku. Tapi di sebalik kejadian yang menimpa dirinya, Dr M Noh melihat bencana yang datang sebagai satu peringatan tentang kematian dan dalam masa yang sama betapa banyaknya rahmat Allah kepada manusia. Setiap hari selepas itu bagi Dr M Noh merupakan satu bonus dari tuhan kepada hambanya. Dia sentiasa membuat yang terbaik dan bersyukur dengan apa yang diberi.

Aku pula sebaliknya. Masih belum prihatin terhadap diri ini secara fizikal & spiritual. Bersyukur juga masih suam-suam kuku bergantung kepada naik turun iman di dada. Aku melihat kerja sebagai ibadah tapi terlalu mendesak diri sehingga kadang-kadang aku merasakan semua ini bukan lagi ibadah tetapi lebih kepada personal glory. Itu tidak sihat tu..

Aku perlukan ketenangan di kala beberapa hari lagi untuk menyambut Ramadhan Al Mubarak. Ketenangan yang menuntut aku mengurangkan desakan fizikal melampau dan keletihan minda. Seikhlas hati aku mohon ampun kepada keluarga & rakan taulan yang terkesan dari tempias ’desakan fizikal melampau dan keletihan minda’ minggu lepas.

P/s – Handy Black punya ketenangan,

Dibaham

What a pathetic displayed of football by the national squad in the first leg of the world cup qualifier just now. It was a wrong choice of tactical, wrong choice of players lined up in the first half of the game. Both central defenders played like a school boys although Qiu Li (age 30 with bulging tummy) and Alexsandar Duric (age 40) are two ‘old school’ forward, who could run as slow as donkey. And midfield…there were no midfield at all, a big loopholes in the middle of the field. Amar, Ismail Faruqi and captain Shafiq did not have the edge over Shahril, Mustafiq, Shia Jiayi and the rest of the Singaporean. Ismail were all over the pitch with no clear vision on how to score goal (or at least to assist in scoring goal). But then I guess, in overall, two things need to be considered carefully in the second leg, leadership and mindset change.

Three earlier matches with the EPL top four did not earn the boys the needed confidence to overcome the fear of playing in a full capacity crowd at Jalan Besar Stadium…(max 6K?). Deyy, pegang bola control game daa…

Leadership is another issue. The back four need leader. They need an experience leader to tell them when to push forward and when to calm down in a situation. The defenders are in dire strait of getting the service of the likes of Aidil or Norhafiz Zamani.

Let’s focus on the next game coming 28th July without the service of Shafiq and Aidil. No doubt Raja will push his boys in the first 20 minutes to look for the two deficit goals. Kunanlan & Amirul should start in the wing where they would expect lots of thru balls from the backline. Both of them should push forward every time they have the ball on their feet. Safee will be their target man. In the midfield, we should have the service of both Amar Rohidan and Shakir as defensive midfielder to provide extra support to the backline. Baddrol Bakhtiar and Amirul Hadi should at all time swap places in the midfield to support Safee. To provide extra power in counter attack, probably Wan Zack from Harimau Muda should be given a chance to show what he is made of.

The backline should have the service of Subramaniam in the right half for the first 30 minutes to neutralize Qiu Li and Duric. Mahalli can have his place back to support Hadi in the wings on the second half. Fadhli Shas is a good player but lack of leadership quality. He needs Norhafiz to play alongside him. Asrarudin Putra is a confirm player in left back.

Sharbinee is a no go and to be replaced by Apek or Farizal simply because both the latter are better in having effectively communication with the central defenders.

So Datuk Raja must go for 4-5-1 to have supremacy in midfield until Harimau Malaya ease the deficit and go back to the usual 4-4-2 (or vice versa have the bus ready in front of the goal post) after that. That’s my 2 cents.

P/s – Bring back the glory of the 70s (Harimau Malaya was ranked in the top 50s in 1978).

Selamat Pengantin Baru Siti

Ada sepasang suami isteri yang baru kahwin. Si isteri sengau. Sebelum masuk bilik tidur utk pertama kalinya si suami pun berkata pada isteri.. "Yang, kalau saya cakap kongkek maknanya..kita main yer?” Isterinya mengangguk faham.. Dan pada malam itu si suami kegersangan dan bertanya pada isterinya 'Kongkek boleh tak yang?' Si isteri pun 'ok je' so setelah penat projek mereka pun mandi bersama.

Waktu mandi isteri nya yg sengau itu pun berkata ”Yang nak kongkek” Beliau pun terperanjat.. tapi oleh kerana sayangkan isterinya..beliau pun balun isteri dia sekali lagi. Isterinya pun membiarkan sahaja.. Setelah abis isterinya mandi dan berkata dgn suami nya... ”Yang nak kongkek” Suami nya berkata..”Laa tak puas lagi ke?” Isterinya menggeleng gelengkan kepala sambil berkata ”Kongkek!Kongkek!Kongkek”! Si suami got no choice so terus melakukan lagi..

Selepas itu isterinya berkata.. ”Boleh tak awak kasi saya kongkek?” Beliau mula naik radang dan tak faham dgn nafsu isterinya. Apabila beliau hendak start lagi.. isterinya pun menahannya..

”Saya bukan nak kongkek.. Saya nak ....”

SITI & AIN’s WEDDING

Nasib baiklah both Siti & Ain tidak ada masalah sengau lagipun depa guna toothpaste Darlie. Huhu. Anyway Selamat Pengantin Baru dan congratulation on the wedding. Just a tip of advice daripada ‘wise ol’ man’. The first five years should be the most critical period in marriage sebab pasangan perlu saling kenal mengenali. There are so many tips untuk kebahagiaan rumahtangga tapi ada satu tip yang nak saya share bukan saja buat Siti & Ain, tapi juga kepada semua pasangan suami isteri (termasuk juga diri saya sendiri) - kalau satu pasangan marah maka satu lagi lebih baiklah berdiam diri. Begitu juga sebaliknya dan ini telah terbukti sejak 14 tahun perkahwinan saya.

Alternative Views! mengucapkan semoga anda berdua (++anak cucu, a lot..) bahagia sampai ke akhir hayat. Amin.

Enjoy some nice wedding pic below.

P/s – Pity Jafni. Kereta Grand Livina dia kena sondol dari belakang masa konvoi ke wedding Siti & Ain. Takpe Jap bonus dah nak mari..

Meeting Tun

After more than couple of week of ‘hard labor’ preparation, last July 7th we finally had our annual meeting with Tun M and the rest of the AAC members. At some point during those weeks, my blood boiled so high that I barely can eat during the day and sleep at night. But Alhamdulillah, everything goes well as planned. We had a fruitful 3 ½-hour discussion on the 6th and 2 ½ hours meeting with Tun with this year theme ‘Financial Sustainability’.

The Council members expressed their gratitude towards the institution’s achievements on teaching, learning as well as in its Research & Development since the last time we met. Tun Mahathir started the ball rolling and conveyed the idea of having a University-town in UTP, a concept adapted from university-towns such as in the Cambridge and Oxford. He added, with clever planning, UTP can be a catalyst for new growth areas which eventually will attract visitors and industries. Developer should be given opportunity to invest and develop the surrounding land through building shops and residences for staff and students. This should also be alternative revenues for the institution rather than being too dependent on the students’ fee.

The Chairman were then invited all Council members to discuss openly and provided advice or suggestion on the theme ‘financial sustainability’ and other related matters that will be beneficial to UTP and its students. We talked a lot that day. Below are some of the salient points of discussion that I could not agree more: -

a) The establishment of UTP is a large investment for PETRONAS and the country. However, value created from the investment in education i.e. by its contribution to society and the nation in the area of teaching, researches and services, will take time. Therefore, any investment made for UTP is also considered an investment for the future of PETRONAS and the nation.

b) Massive and arduous staff recruitment by hiring outstanding individuals as senior faculty members is critical for UTP to reach the next plateau of excellence. In doing so, UTP should look for quality rather than quantity e.g. CALTECH has only 150 faculties but is able to make a global impact through its teaching, learning as well as R&D.

c) The 20th century Asian only played catch up in Science and Technology with their Western counterpart. With superior economic and intellectual strengths, it is quite natural that Asia viewed the West as the ‘standard of excellence’. Institute of Higher Education in Asia needs to educate the Asian students what it means to become Asians in the 21st century. Therefore, there are four (4) values need to be given a priority (i) Education Integrity; (ii) Intellectual Agility; (iii) Academic Courage; and (iv) Intrinsic Self Confidence.

– A very interesting notes by Prof Feng Da Hsuan from Tsinghua University, Taiwan. I plan to have another write up on these values in the coming post.

d) UTP is urged to establish the Technology Target Group for specific areas to ensure funding acquisition focusing within the energy industry. UTP should also identify projects and/or equipment that will enable UTP to do research and simultaneously commercialize the usage of the facility. Collaboration strategies and tactics are immensely important. It may take time but most importantly UTP need to identify the suitable target group to collaborate with. The Council members noted that there is still a gap between research in PETRONAS and UTP. Therefore, the link between UTP and PETRONAS researchers should be made very clear.

e) In a broader perspective, education and infrastructure are the two main elements for any country to be highly competitive in meeting future challenges. Education and infrastructure (aka Public Goods) will eventually encourage other economic activities to flourish. UTP is contributing to Public Good or Sectoral Good by fulfilling PETRONAS and the nation’s human capital in the oil & gas industry. PETRONAS should consider the financial gap as the value representing benefits in investing and should not be interpreted in accounting value of dollars & cents. Therefore, UTP is recommended to re-visit and re-negotiate the understanding with PETRONAS and Petroleum Research Fund (PRF) with regards to the above matter.

Obviously the item (e) above really made the day meaningful for me and UTP management. We just need to pray hard for the parent company to open up their heart and try to understand that sometimes it will not always the ‘bottom line’ that matter most.

Below are some unedited snapshots from the above meeting. Enjoy (as I do). Thanks to Hazrin for nice pic taken.