Dato’ Sri Idris Jala was rather an unknown name until his sudden rise to national prominence when he accepted the appointment as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Malaysia Airlines, MAS on 1 December 2005, under a 3-year contractual agreement. He undertook the helm from Datuk Ahmad Fuaad Dahlan who retired 4 months earlier.
Before joining MAS, Idris, who is from the Kelabit ancestry, was attached with a major oil company, SHELL since 1982 and has hold a various number of key positions in the company, serving across different divisions and regions. He was overseeing Shell Malaysia’s business in the LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) and the downstream sector, as well as holding posts in human resource, business development, retail, consultancy, LPG and re-engineering. He also hold the position of Vice President, Business Development Consultancy for SHELL International, which was based in London. His string of portfolios in SHELL, among others, are as follows:
- Head, Staff Development & Industrial Relation Officer, Sarawak Shell Berhad, 1982 – 1987
- Head, Human Resource Development, Sarawak Shell Berhad, 1993
- Senior Manager, Retail Sales, Shell Malaysia, 1997
- Chairman & Managing Director of LPG, SHELL Sri Lanka, 1998
- Vice President, Retail Marketing, Shell International, 2000
- Managing Director and Executive Director, Shell Malaysia (Gas and Power), 2003
The appointment of Idris as the Managing Director of MAS initially caused a national stir as he himself does not come from the aviation industry. Further, MAS was somewhat troubled with a financial crisis and had been suffering loss for years, as well as embroiled with the declining performance culture of its staff. But people who have known and worked with him knew that Idris is someone who always deliver the results, especially his work in turning SHELL’s operation around when he was attached with the oil company.
But he did not wait long to make his mark. Among one of his very first moves after taking over at MAS is to implement cost cutting measures, which included putting the MAS building and its other assets for sale. He introduced Voluntary Separation Scheme or VSS which trimmed 2600 employees from MAS’ workforce, cutting more than RM600 million in expenses, as well as implementing new pricing structures.
With the strategies, MAS returned to profitability for the 2007 fiscal year, exceeding all expectations and estimates. But they did not stop there. On May 2008, Idris appeared in the national television announcing their first ever ‘zero fare’ for domestic and a selection of international flights, a move that raised his spat between him and Air Asia’s boss, Tony Fernandes to a new level. With MAS to set to record new profits, their employees can await a windfall of bonuses.
Dato’ Sri Idris Jala graduated from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang in 1982 with a Degree in Management, finishing with an award as one of the top graduates. He later obtained a Masters Degree from University of Warwick, UK, 4 years later. (Image: Daylife.com)
Yes.. I agree.. He is such a low profile guys..
Low profile yet he has to rank as one Malaysia’s business greats. Especially for what he has done for MAS. Now he’s got Tony Fernandes running around in circles with his low fares strategy by selling his unfilled seats for cheap. Kills 2 birds with one — turn wastage into profit and sweat the competition.
Good article. His achievements for MAS near miracle – huge mess left behind by former leadership. Cleaning up other people’s mess is harder than building a company from scratch.
I know Idris childhood days but he is 7 yrs older. From day one at work after finish his uni days, he has always focused at his work. I i progressed through education and enter the labour market, i cannot ignore news about what a excellent worker he was among his team and in shell. Being from a minority race one has but proud to have someone like him to emulate and spur one moving forward in careers.
Whatever modern management practice and tools Idris is using to implement change, and as a “business mechanic” and i can testify here that he has most of the basic requirements to be successful and seen to be successful. Such as : Very good balance of work and social life, holding high moral ground, very down to earth with anyone he deals with, very mild mannered, always trying the impossible, very humble, conducts himself professionally in everything he does and very ambitious of his target set.
Compare him to that creative Tony Fernandes and if i look at all the press , media ,interviews, comments both of them did the past 3 years…Idris is miles away on Transparency of his management strategies and sometimes you feel like he’s been in the airline industry for much longer, he does not volunteer comments on others like competitors, he is very clear on what his plans under the BTP in 2005.2006 and later he is explaining in details how those plans are working and how these plans worked out and delivered results. We all know also that he delivers on average far far faster turn around of business than many people of his calibre.
Idris is one of those successful business leaders that the younger generation should emulate. Put simply these are work ethics and the importance of humbleness to every fellow man you meet or work with.
While striving to be a top scorer in school, he also reads alot , thus equiping him with enormous vocabulary, which in turn makes his writing memos effective in communicating his wants and nots and ofcourse he is just a brilliant presenter as well. But all these the young people can take note and practice and one has nothing to loss but a lot to gain. Thats why from these personal experience as observed similar high acheiver like Idris..i undertook to teach and encourage my children to acquire the habit of reading. And it works ! because they see the person on Tv and announcing positive results.
Idris or people like him can do a lot for alot of organizations to give them new lease of life, turn around or improved their bottom line. Personally i have no doubts of his ability to help DRASTICALLY improve the next GLCs. Too bad we dont have enough people brought up and trained in such ways.
my mom says he’s kelabit!!& im kelabit too…yay!!!!
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i believe so beside he is a very talented business thinker
he is a ‘man’..and also he is an idol to be followed with..
not many people knows his background. if looking his minority ancestry (kelabit), never thought born a greatest business leader. Kelabitian should be proud! ..make him as a role model.
It’s mesmerizing to look at his achievements over the years.
Coming from a minority ancentry (Kelabits are only over 5000 worldwide), he had made the Kelabit community and overall Malaysian proud. Kudos!
He’s one of the greatest the community and country had ever known. Indeeed his achievement/feat has brought him an international recognition and definitely the kelabit community is very proud of him. The younger generation should emulate his ways of doing things.
he rock