By Stephanie Jacob
Over two interviews which included a site visit to Westports at Port Kelang, G.Gnanalingam tells Kinibiz how he turned three diverse challenges into resounding successes, often bucking industry trends and surpassing the expectations of doubters and supporters alike.
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Here are some of the interesting or significant moments from Kinibiz’s conversations with the affable and witty Gnanalingam.
Prior to undertaking the privatisation of Westports Malaysia, you were serving on the board of the Port Klang Authority. How helpful was your stint there in relation to taking on Westports?
It was only to provoke me into realising where we were going wrong. When 1994, the port was privatised but I had no intention of taking it, and I made every attempt to find others to take it on. But at that point no one wanted to take it on – so I did and I had to go abroad to find people. I went to Sri Lanka and got one guy to become the general manager, and one guy from Dubai and a couple from Hong Kong.
There are suggestions that you were awarded the privatisation because of connections to key government figures?
The connection is always made between Ling Liong Sik who was the transport minister at that time, because he attended Royal Military College (RMC) like me.
They say that we were both RMC boys – but when he was there I was not there (studying there). Also contrary to a lot of opinion, the (individual) ministries have nothing to do with privatisations, it is under the Economic Planning Unit.
I just did a paper on how the privatisation should be done and presented it to the government and if they had taken my paper and gone elsewhere, I would have thought ‘fine,go’. But when that paper was presented to the cabinet it was well received and I was told to go and start the privatisation, along with four other individuals and groups.
Were you hesitant to get into a business that you were not familiar with, in this case ports?
Go to Harvard Business School. When I was there, we used to do case studies on the various different industries every week, and at the end of 200 cases you realised that there are only a few things that matter.
One is people. You do not have the right people, you can forget about the entire thing.
Then you have positioning. Say you go to a supermarket to buy 10 things, but when you go in I can bet that you will not buy two out of those things but will end up buying (a different) eight things. How you position (a product), has an impact on people’s minds.
Third is cash flow, which is very important. It is not just profits alone, it is about the cash generated. Which is why Dell (Michael Dell of Dell Computers) was such a smart guy, he made you pay for the parts first, and only then delivered the computer to you. So when you understand cash flow, then you understand economics – a businessman must understand cash flow.
The other word is commitment. Here (at Westports) we always say, “we, we, we”. For an organisation to succeed you only need five committed guys all thinking the same thing.
So even if I were to go to a coal mine, I would do the same things. Because you might think you are in the coal mining business, but I think it is the coal selling business. Even if you are an excellent miner unless you have buyers, you will not mine!
What was your original stake in Westports?
Ten percent. I did not want more than that, in fact I did not even want that! (laughingly)
It took nine months after construction for the first ship to call, how did you keep going in that time – with bank obligations for example?
Well I think we were quite smart, when we took bank loans we asked for a moratorium period for the first two or three years to not pay (the loans). Even the government soft loan we took, we did not pay for five years.
Was there a point when you wanted to give up on Westports?
In 1995/1996 when we waited nine months for a ship to come.
I am thinking, here I have built a port with nine cranes and spent all that money and I am wondering what the hell I am doing. I did not mind waiting, but my staff (must have) wondered, what did I get myself into?
But they told me nine months was not too bad because Dubai took five years and Laem Chabang took three years and that is how long shipping lines can take to reconfigure their moves, you know.
Is there anything that you would change or do differently?
Well, I never understood the IT business and I am a guy that needs to understand the ins and outs, or I will not get into it. I still do not understand the IT business (laughs) – but I tell them (his staff) you do the IT business and I will do the Amazon.com business – because you will still need a warehouse for Amazon (to store the books).
Looking back over your career, how would you define it?
One thing I can tell you is that my life is on someone elses plan. Till today, I do not know if I was pushed from RTM or pulled by Westports!
I did not know I was going to join a tobacco company…my mother freaked out when I did. But I stayed with them for 19 years and then after the World Cup in 1986, I felt that there was not much left to do and I went to RTM. Then in 1994, Ananda Krishnan started Astro and I knew it was time to get out or join him.
So you could say that it might have been in desperation that I took over Westports ! But whether I was pushed or pulled from one to another is a question that I have not been able to answer, even till today.
Yesterday: Making Westports a success
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