The Bureaucrat of Sime Darby

Bakke Salleh who has been appointed as Sime Darby president and group chief executive, has been tasked to restore the financially-troubled government-owned conglomerate. There were misgivings because Bakke is a bureaucrat and his experience is confined to managing plantation and property divisions compared to Sime Darby, which is a multinational conglomerate. Still there are those who recognized his efforts in turning around Lembaga Urusan Tabung Haji (LUTH) and in the internal reorganization of businesses within the Felda group. Obviously these critics were favoring acting president and group chief executive Azhar Ismail from amongst their own tight Sime Darby circle. After all, as an outsider, Bakke can be expected to bring an entirely different leadership style and organizational approach – thereby potentially creating ripples of unhappiness and even dissatisfaction within Sime Darby.

To me, it is always better to have a new and even fresh perspective when attempting to solve Sime Darby’s financial quagmire – and he may very well be the change agent that this unwieldy organization is in dire need of. And if he is – then we can expect many changes. But whether he is the right candidate or not – only time will tell.

Spain dominated possession throughout this Wednesday match but the Swiss defense was stubborn and steadfast. Besides, Spain's potent attack couldn't score a goal, leaving the European champions and WC favorite with a 1-0 loss to underdog Switzerland when the latter mounted one of those rare counter-attacks. What a shocker! And regrettably, I didn’t watch this game! In another Group A match, Uruguay was convincing to whip a 3-0 victory over South Africa and push the World Cup hosts closer to becoming the first team to go out in the first round. Hmm, the matches are getting more exciting now...