DKSH MALAYSIA WANTS ITS EMPLOYEES TO BE HAPPY!

By Hyma Haridas

To achieve its vision of being known as the world’s leading provider of market expansion services with a focus on Asia, DKSH upholds eight leadership principles that make up the DNA of the organisation and its people globally.

These principles are grouped into two clusters – leading oneself and leading others. Enjoy winning, staying hungry, write your own ticket, and grow and contribute make up the first cluster, while ensure performance, be deeply interested in people, perform at eye level and master deal-making form the latter.

Opportunities to explore career growth and chart one’s future are areas that DKSH looks into seriously for its employees. This is in line with one of its leadership principles, “write your own ticket”, where employees are encouraged to steer the direction of their career and future with the organisation.

One of the questions DKSH continuously asks itself, says C. Viknesh Nambiar, General Manager, Talent, Organisation and Performance, is “how we can create an empowering, challenging work environment for our people?

“What tends to happen (traditionally) is that most organisations keep people in the same role for many years because they get familiar then excel at it and find themselves trapped in a routine. This does not work for the younger generation. So, what we do is to provide them an environment where they can take on challenging new roles or assignments. Every two years, we empower our high-performers with options to grow and contribute locally or regionally within DKSH.”

By continuously raising the bar in this manner, Viknesh believes that DKSH is able to keep employees engaged – an important aspect in retaining its top talent.

DKSH also ensures its employees enjoy a continuous journey of professional and personal growth where every individual is given the opportunity to further enhance their leadership, soft and functional skills through its in-house learning and development centre, the Fantree Academy. What is unique about the Fantree Academy is that training programmes are internally developed and delivered by a network of DKSH master and associate trainers.

FINDING YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION

Viknesh says one of the most important questions that a fresh graduate should ask themselves when entering the workforce is “What is my value proposition to the organisation?”

“It’s not about asking the organisation what they can do for you, but rather [finding out] what your value is. You need to read more and get exposed to different people and situations in and out of work.

“It’s also important to know your facts and speak concisely – avoid the fluff. It’s not about how much you speak but how much it means in the little that you speak.

“When you are young, you have to be willing to work hard. It’s important to stay hungry and curious about the people, environment and world around you. You need to go that extra mile building your value proposition, be brave enough to challenge the status quo and shedding any limiting beliefs.

“Being successful is about knowing who you are, what you are capable of and allowing yourself to be vulnerable to learn and unlearn throughout your own journey – enjoy winning while staying humble and never rest on your laurels.”