How has your life experience made you the leader you are today?
My father was the owner of a motorcycle workshop and I started fixing motorbikes and bicycles at a very young age. Some lifelong lessons learnt while doing so were:
1. Getting yourself familiarised with the mechanics or the system, and try to master as many aspects as you can.
2. Always be curious and be responsible for everything that you do. By not screwing on a bolt properly to a motorcycle could cause the rider to have an accident. Hence, it is more than just “doing the job”. One has to do the job in the most precise and meticulous way because one’s actions could affect others’ welfare. Besides looking out for yourself, it is only right to look out for others whenever you can.
3. Think “out of the box” and find workable solutions. With motorcycles and bicycles, there may be parts you need to modify – but do so only with utmost precision and do not cut corners.
My belief is that leaders are not born but made. It is a matter of personal decisions, having the motivation to improve oneself and having the discipline to see things through. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea to be a leader, but my fundamental principle of being a leader is to own up to responsibilities and be fully accountable for all decisions made.
What traits do you look for in your talent or how do you decide who is right for a job?
Ethics, honesty and loyalty come first, followed by expertise and skillsets. Skills can be learned, but ethics and other values define a person’s character and inner personality. It comes from personal upbringing, culture, and individual values.
How do you think the industry you are in will evolve?
Cybersecurity is an unregulated industry. This itself is making the industry interesting and, at the same time, dangerous.
It is interesting because there are plenty of opportunities for cybersecurity services and solutions to be applied across different sectors. As long as any industry sector is using computers and networks, cybersecurity is needed, and demand will only continue to flourish with more and more organisations digitising their operations.
However, it is also dangerous due to the lack of a regulated framework.
Security products resellers are selling based on FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt), and at the same time, dressing their “solutions” as if they were security consultants to provide security assessments and advisory to their prospects. There is no clear separation of independence in the field of cybersecurity, and certainly conflicts of interests among cybersecurity business vendors are obviously not made known to the buyers.
Like what Warren Buffett said: “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”
In the cybersecurity business, when devastating attacks happen, that is when organisations would experience whether they had been fully protected along – or had been sold inferior solutions that left them vulnerable to cyber criminals.
My professional advice to organisations evaluating whether they are truly safe or not is to conduct a penetration testing (pentest) exercise. Pentest essentially is about testing and evaluating how secure an organisation’s digital infrastructure and network truly are. It is set out to determine whether unauthorised access or other malicious activity are possible and whether hackers are able to gain control through “back doors” within the IT infrastructure.
What advice can you offer those looking to start their career/own business?
Be practical and work hard on the fundamentals. Only with a solid foundation would one be able to truly expand. And as mentioned earlier, there are no short cuts to success. Instead, short cuts can backfire and prove costly for one’s career.
Similarly, be genuine in your dealings and engagements with others. Do not put up a façade – because such facades can collapse one day. In a number of organisations, there tend to be “politics”.
Politics in the office tends to be played by people who have false facades and are not capable in their jobs. The truly professional ones who stand to go far in their careers are those who stay away from office politics and instead devote energy to improving themselves, the organisations they serve and even try to better their fellow colleagues.
Also, make it a point to reskill and upskill. The world is moving at a tremendous pace, more so with technology impacting almost all aspects of life and business. Skillsets that are relevant today may not be necessary in, say, five or 10 years’ time due to automation and artificial intelligence, even machine learning. Hence, stay abreast of latest trends and always try to stay ahead of the curve to continue being relevant to the employment market.
The world is progressively becoming “borderless”. To go far in your career, you have to be as good and even better than others in the same field from developed countries.
We all know about the industrial revolution, are we in for a technological revolution? Your thoughts.
Indeed we are. Since the 19th century, three different industrial revolutions had taken place and influenced how work was done due to the introductions of disruptive elements: The steam engine, the assembly line followed by computers which paved the way for where we are today: The Fourth Industrial Revolution which is shaped by smart technologies and encompass “man and machine” workforce, even though “machine” may not be visible and quietly working efficiently in the background.
Against the background of today’s scenario where almost all computers and systems are interconnected, there is cyber warfare.
My team and I have personally witnessed and prevented hackers from using automated scanning tools to pound networks every few seconds. These cyber criminals are seeking security loopholes and are looking to exploit vulnerabilities for their own benefit.
There have been days – even weeks – when my team and I have hardly slept because we are just fully immersed in defending organisations’ systems from being hacked, or re-mediating systems that had been hacked to bring them back to life. On quite a number or occasions, these organisations would only call us after they had been hacked! Hence, my advice to all organisations at large is: With cybersecurity, prevention is better than cure. Yes, to cure is possible but it is much more tedious and expensive than doing a pentest at the initial stages to determine whether systems are secure.
We are constantly in battle to stay ahead of hackers.
How has mentorship made a difference in your professional life?
A huge difference although mentorship doesn’t have to come from a specific mentor. I like what Confucious said: Anyone can be our teacher, and we also can be a teacher to anyone. The most important mentorship comes from constant learning, self-reflection, and improvement.
What do you want to accomplish in the next five years?
We are aiming to move LGMS to the Main Market of the stock exchange, and to triple our current valuation for shareholders. That’s why we are in the process of expanding regionally, increasing our investments and workforce in the development of our own intellectual property (IP) and apps, and looking at strengthening our balance sheet.
Best piece of advice you ever received on your career.
Be hard on yourself so that you can improve; and be fair and help deserving people along the way.
Most-admired business leader? Why?
Robert Kwok and for good reasons. He runs the business with admirable ethics, takes good care of employees, imparts good virtues to his business operations. He is also kind and generous to clients and staff.
How do you stay abreast of issues affecting your industry?
Continuous learning, sharing, and listening to feedback, constantly doing self-assessment and reading and reflecting as much as I can.
If you could have an hour with any thought leader in the world, who would it be and why?
Used to be Steve Jobs; now, Bill Gates – he is a visionary and I would love to pick his brains on how he foresees global trends in the years and decades ahead.
What has been the biggest challenge you have faced? And what did you learn from it?
Chasing my then girlfriend, who is now my wife and best friend. She is an attractive person and I had lots of competition! I never gave up in the pursuit because she is the love of my life and I eventually learnt that our purpose in life is to start a family together and create a safer cyberworld for organisations at large.
What was the most outlandish business proposal you have ever heard of?
I received quite a few from market makers who had all sorts of ideas to get LGMS listed. In the end, we decided to take the long route and go through the IPO process ourselves. It was a longer route but my wife and I can proudly reflect on LGMS being our “corporate baby”.
What man-made innovation confounds you? Why?
The smartphone, a device many of us cannot live without these days. Having the power of computing in the palm of your hand is truly remarkable considering where the world was, say, even 20 years ago.
And because of the smartphone, we have seen more innovations come out through apps that have made our lives easier, more convenient and productive.
Malaysia’s greatest brand ...
If I may humbly say so, LGMS. Born and nurtured in Malaysia, LGMS has become a global brand and the “Grab” of cybersecurity. In recent years, we had received quite a few offers from international multinational companies seeking to buy us out but, even though the money on offer was quite attractive, we wanted it to remain proudly Malaysian.
A must-read for every business owner/manager is ...
Romance of the Three Kingdoms – it is embedded with so much wisdom, strategies, teachings, and philosophies that can shape anyone to be a great leader or even a great follower.
Also, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance due to my upbringing and which tries to tell the reader that, in whatever you do, be fully engaged and absorbed in the experience.
How do you expect policies on climate change to impact businesses in the future?
As the world races towards net zero by 2050, technology will continue to grow in relevance and pervasiveness. In this light, cybersecurity is expected to grow several-fold when we have more Internet-of-Things devices coming into our lives, for example smart home appliances, autonomous cars, 5G networks, smart cities.
What are the top three factors you would attribute your success to?
Be honest, work hard, maintain integrity, and always deliver on promises you make.