Think Big Dream High,E55-The Sanctity Of  The Management System

Responsibility, Accountability, Transparency and Corporate  Governance. 

1.Responsibility is defined as the obligation to carry out a particular task wherein if that task is not carried out in a proper manner, we will be held responsible or be blamed.

2.For example a baker receiving an order to bake a cake weighing 1 kg, in several shapes and designs  fully coated with icing. He is therefore responsible to complete and deliver the order. Instead, if the bakery produced a bahulu (a simple cake without butter) coated it with icing, he would be blamed for not fulfilling the order.

3.Accountability is the extent with which a person is  willing to  be responsible and prepared in clarifying issues on matters that  they have been involved in making the decision or action.

4.As soon as the cake has been checked and discovered that it was a bahulu then the baker must produce explanation as to the wrong order. The baker needs to present as his defence that a cake has been delivered and not a bahulu. The Purchasing Manager confirmed that he received an order for 1 kg cake in several shapes and designs from this particular bakery.The Finance department upon receiving confirmation from the Purchasing department made the payment to the baker for delivery of the cake. When all documentations have been completed and fulfilled, the cheque was released without suspicion of any wrongdoings.

5.Transparency is the action that allows another party to observe, understand and be notified of the truth in a clear and simpler manner.

6.In this example obviously there was no transparency. The supplier had cheated the organization by delivering the wrong order. This deception cannot be detected with the naked eye as the cake was fully coated with icing. The delivery was not made in a transparent manner.

7.Corporate Governance  refers to the internal management system of an organization. It encompasses a set of processes, work culture, policies, procedures and the legalities influencing the operations, monitoring and management of the organization for the sake of its stakeholders or parties having interest in the organization.

8.If the organization that made the cake order does not have a good monitoring system, the cake deception case will not be detected. There is not much difference between the actual cake and the bahulu in terms of features and shape.

9.In its routine activities, the audit and surveillance department would have taken a sample of the cake and sent it to the laboratory for detail checking to comply with the specifications. With modern laboratory facilities, the deception was finally detected. The ingredient used was actually without butter as per the specifications. The supplier tried to cheat in order to receive more profit. However, with a good and transparent internal control system, the deception was uncovered. The Purchasing Manager was caught and brought to justice by the MACC (Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission) for collaborating with the cake supplier.      

   

Reality in Life

1.Our organization, a franchisor of a cake house requires 10,000 cakes monthly. The monthly order is worth RM2 million. “If you can give me a 20% commission,I will give the supply contract to you”. “You help me and I know how to help you”. ”You scratch  my back, I scratch yours”. All these phrases, showed that the four concepts described earlier cannot be implemented in a proper manner. It is no longer transparent. In the above example, highly likely the cake supplier and the Purchasing Manager had colluded to carry out the deception. This is just a small example on the supply of a cake. A more sophisticated and cunning approach has been practiced by the Corporate pirates and corrupt politicians. However, their activities remained undetected.

2.Misuse of power, non transparent business transactions, irresponsible activities and abusing a good, right and transparent working system are  a result of a corrupted management working culture. It is even worse than dirt.  Abuse of power due to personal interests and it is usually about money. Obviously money obtained the non halal way and  from an illegal source.

3.There have been leakages found in the non transparent management system. Sad to say that from public knowledge, these cases either small, big or excessively bigger do exist rampantly in our country. Those involved comprised of the small fish, big fish and the bigger fish.

     

Tips

1.As a professional who think big and dream high, all these four concepts must be understood and comprehended. A good comprehension of the concepts and its meaning will make us a professional who practices a good and transparent working culture and management system.

2.Transparent with ourselves, the community and with Allah SWT. Our profession is our ibadah. Throughout our lives we have been focusing on our profession. This implied that we have been praying throughout our lives. Non sincere in carrying out work activities and way of working also meant insincerity in praying to Allah SWT. Insincerity and defects found in our ibadah to Allah SWT make it difficult for Allah SWT to fulfill our doas of achieving happiness in this world and hereafter.

3.A professional who think big and dream high would not want to take the risk of losing his happiness and experience failure and disappointment in this world and hereafter. More so in the hereafter, where we remained eternally.