This is not a typical ‘outgoing CEO’ message because I’m not going anywhere.
After 30 years of being CEO, I’ve decided that it’s time to hand the baton to the next generation while I continue to play another role on the management team.
30 years is a long time to be CEO. Then again, it’s not such a long time when you’re having fun – and it certainly is fun being part of this firm.
When we started thinking of my successor some years ago, one of the first considerations was whether the next CEO should necessarily be an L&D practitioner. For this, we eventually decided to model another profession that teems with specialist practitioners – medicine. We discovered that private hospitals are not necessarily run by doctor-CEOs. In fact, in the US, only 5% of private hospital CEOs have a medical degree. That settled the issue – our next CEO need not be an L&D practitioner.
Next, the process of selection. We did something unusual – we asked for nominations. Three individuals were nominated and the final selection was done by a 7-person team.
After deliberations, we had our Acting CEO in August 2021. Six months later, in February this year, our acting CEO, Melanie Aloysius, previously our head of sales, was made CEO.
In effect, it’s been a year since Mel took over my role and I have to say that her strengths in sales and finance have filled a gap that we’ve had since our inception. And the results are already showing.
In case you’re wondering, I’m still full-time in People Potential. Aside from continuing to facilitate training programmes, I’m still part of the management team, playing the role of Director of Organisation Development & Strategy. It’s a role that I’ve always played informally. Now it’s formal and I’m relishing having more time to devote to it.
With 20 full-timers (and growing), we’re probably one of the larger L&D firms in Malaysia. With Mel at the helm, and a bunch of young leaders in the pipeline, we’re optimistic that we’ll keep growing as a firm. More importantly, in a world filled with all sorts of disruptions, I’m confident that we’ll continue to evolve creatively and deliver value to our clients.
Not-going-anywhere,
Terry Netto
P.S. Mel, our new CEO wrote a message too, read it here.