YB DATO' MUKHRIZ MAHATHIR
DEPUTY MINISTER OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND INDUSTRY

OFFICIATING MALAYSIA ENTERPRENEURSHIP AND LEADERSHIP CONVENTION
(MEALCON 2010)

29 JANUARY 2010

UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA (UUM), SINTOK, KEDAH DARUL AMAN

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Assalamualaikum W.B.T and Salam 1Malaysia.

1.    First of all, I would like to thank SIFE UUM for extending an invitation to me to officiate the Malaysia Entrepreneurship and Leadership Convention 2010.
2.    To my mind, entrepreneurship and leadership are intertwined. These two elements are perhaps the most important issues confronting the youth today because the former is widely regarded as a driver of economic development and growth while the latter is about Malaysia’s future overall prosperity and stability in this ever-challenging world.

3.    However, entrepreneurship and leadership aren’t just abstract ideas. Many young people have made the mistake of romanticizing them both and eventually fail to achieve their goals or ambitions.

4.    Allow me to outline my thoughts. Entrepreneurship is not another buzz word. It is neither a profession nor a vocation per se. Some people are born entrepreneurs while others learn entrepreneurship from experience or through formal education. Entrepreneurship may mean different things to different people but one thing is for certain - and that is that hard work, perseverance and innovativeness are keys to success in any entrepreneurial endeavour.

5.    The renowned American inventor, Thomas Edison once said that “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration!”. This does not mean that we should under rate true innovation. It is now more common for great ideas to simplify the effort needed to make an endeavour successful. So, perhaps genius can also be defined on a ratio of 50:50 for inspiration and perspiration respectively. The Prime Minister’s speech on Innovation Malaysia outlines the possibilities succinctly.

6.     The other aspect of focus in this convention is to nurture leadership qualities.  We are all leaders in one way or another in our family, amongst our peers, in our professional lives or in our communities. In my opinion, leadership is an innate characteristic that we all possess. What is required is to harness that leadership quality and gain the confidence to make the right decisions as well as to take responsibility for our own failures and transgressions. To paraphrase Shakespeare, some people are born leaders, some achieve leadership, and others have leadership thrust upon them.

My young friends,

7.    It is said that we are no longer in the Digital Age and are now in the throes of the Information Age. To be honest, I believe that young people such as yourselves will find it harder to compete and excel in world that is as Thomas L. Friedman put it – “Hotter, Flatter and Crowded”. In today’s world you have to be way smarter and quicker so to speak than the next person as information is available at the tip of your fingers - real time and 24/7.
8.    So, how does one thrive in the Information Age? I have two propositions to share with you.

9.    Firstly, I believe that the future employee or entrepreneur will not be one who is merely a knowledge worker but instead a knowledge thinker. I say this because what may be required to succeed in today’s world are employees, professionals and entrepreneurs that act in their best judgement based on reliable data and sound knowledge and not have them be slavish to raw data and knowledge without insight.

10.    Alvin Toffler, the far-famed futurist said that - “You can use all the quantitative data you can get, but you still have to distrust it and use your own intelligence and judgment. I hold this to be true. As an example, much as we acknowledge the World Wide Web to be a treasure throve of information, we must always remind ourselves that not everything on the net is true.

11.    Secondly, a nation that can nurture a culture of innovativeness is poised for greatness.  Experts believe that in this hyperintegrated world in which all aspects of production such as raw materials, design, manufacturing, distribution, fulfilment, financing and branding - have become commodities that can be accessed from anywhere by anyone. However, imagination still can’t be commoditized. The power of creative thinking and vision is immense.

12.    But how do we achieve this on a personal level? I would advise you to keep thinking out of the box. There is strong evidence to suggest that formal education may restrict our ability to think creatively or confine our thoughts to what is deemed as established ideas and accepted facts. This may sound radical and I am in no way suggesting that you abandon your studies and neither am I encouraging you to be anti-establishment for the sake of it. Take my advice positively for the sake of your future.  I have practiced this in my career and it has served me well. There is always room for contrarian views and novel ways of doing things. That’s just how we evolve as the human race.

My friends,

13.    I am told that the theme of this conference is ‘Reborn, Reform and Reenergize’. Those are the three ‘Rs’ that you have decided on. I’d like instead to point out the two ‘Rs’ which I believe is crucial for your future.  They are read and research. We must go back to the basics. I am concerned that despite information being easily available thanks to the advent of the internet, we still do not read sufficiently. In an Information Age many of us choose to remain uninformed. Where we do read, we opt for worthless material that impedes our intellectual development to discern facts from misinformation and knowledge from inane writings.

14.    This predicament will then preclude us from developing the discipline and habit of research, deep study and reflection which could ultimately lead to innovative ideas. This is a vicious cycle that we must break free from.

My young friends,

15.    As I have outlined in my speech at the onset, we must not embrace entrepreneurship or leadership superficially. They are not just of symbolic meaning but must be actively practiced in our daily lives to really understand what it means to be an entrepreneur and leader. We must go back to the basics and get the fundamentals right before we can hope to attain any degree of success. As masters of this beloved country, I implore you to continue the struggle of our founding fathers. We may have gained independence from the yolk of colonialism and modernised Malaysia considerably, but the struggle is far from over. Therefore, I am always open to hear your views on how we can move forward. Please do keep in touch. You can register your ideas at my official fan page linked to my website at www.mukhriz.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

16.    In conclusion, I hope that all of you will thoroughly gain from the breadth of experience and wisdom that this distinguished panel of speakers bring to this conference. And so with that, it is with great pleasure that I declare the Malaysia Entrepreneurship and Leadership Convention 2010 open!

Thank you.