Category: Management

Randy Pausch

Randolph Frederick Pausch (October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was an American professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a best-selling author who achieved worldwide fame for his “The Last Lecture” speech on September 18, 2007 at Carnegie Mellon. The lecture was conceived after, in summer 2007, Pausch had learned that his previously known pancreatic cancer was terminal.

Pausch delivered his “Last Lecture,” titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” at CMU on September 18, 2007. This talk was modeled after an ongoing series of lectures where top academics are asked to think deeply about what matters to them, and then give a hypothetical “final talk,” i.e., “what wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?”

Neutrality

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

~ Desmond Mpilo Tutu, Winner of the 1984 Nobel Prize in Peace

Optimism bias

Optimism bias is the demonstrated systematic tendency for people to be over-optimistic about the outcome of planned actions. People tend to see the future through “rose-colored glasses,” as the saying goes. Optimism bias applies to professionals and laypeople alike. Optimism bias arises in relation to estimates of costs and benefits and duration of tasks. It must be accounted for explicitly in appraisals, if these are to be realistic. Optimism bias typically results in cost overruns, benefit shortfalls, and delays, when plans are implemented.

In a study in search of the brain regions responsible for optimism, researchers noted that “humans expect positive events in the future even when there is no evidence to support such expectations. For example, people expect to live longer and be healthier than average, they underestimate their likelihood of getting a divorce, and overestimate their prospects for success on the job market.”

In a debate in Harvard Business Review, between Daniel Kahneman, Dan Lovallo, and Bent Flyvbjerg, Flyvbjerg (2003) – while acknowledging the existence of optimism bias – pointed out that what appears to be optimism bias may on closer examination be strategic misrepresentation. Planners may deliberately underestimate costs and overestimate benefits in order to get their projects approved, especially when projects are large and when organizational and political pressures are high. Kahneman and Lovallo (2003) maintained that optimism bias is the main problem.

A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure

Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam : ‘A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure’

India Knowledge@Wharton: Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?

Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India’s satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India’s “Rohini” satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources — but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.

By 1979 — I think the month was August — we thought we were ready. As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch. At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts — I had four or five of them with me — told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal. It was a big failure.

That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at 7:00 am, and the press conference — where journalists from around the world were present — was at 7:45 am at ISRO’s satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure — he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization.

The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite — and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, “You conduct the press conference today.”

I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.

Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

“Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course.” Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I’ll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!

~ Lee Iacocca, Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

Theory of Constraints

Theory of Constraints (TOC) is an overall management philosophy. Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt introduced the theory of constraints in his seminal 1984 book entitled ‘The Goal’. It is based on the application of scientific principles and logic reasoning to guide human-based organizations. The publicity and leadership behind these ideas has been dominated by Dr. Goldratt through a series of books, seminars and workshops.

According to TOC, every organization has – at any given point in time – at least one constraint which limits the system’s performance relative to its goal. These constraints can be broadly classified as either an internal constraint or a market constraint. In order to manage the performance of the system, the constraint must be identified and managed correctly (according to the Five Focusing Steps below). Over time the constraint may change (e.g., because the previous constraint was managed successfully, or because of a changing environment) and the analysis starts anew.

The Five Focusing Steps

One of the most important process of the Theory of Constraints is based on the premise that the rate of goal achievement is limited by at least one constraining process. Only by increasing throughput (flow) at the bottleneck process can overall throughput be increased.

The key steps in implementing an effective process of ongoing improvement according to TOC are:

0. (Step Zero) Articulate the goal of the organization. Frequently, this is something like, “Make money now and in the future.”

1. Identify the constraint (the thing that prevents the organization from obtaining more of the goal)

2. Decide how to exploit the constraint (make sure the constraint is doing things that the constraint uniquely does, and not doing things that it should not do)

3. Subordinate all other processes to above decision (align all other processes to the decision made above)

4. Elevate the constraint (if required, permanently increase capacity of the constraint; “buy more”)

5. If, as a result of these steps, the constraint has moved, return to Step 1. Don’t let inertia become the constraint.

Liebig's Law of the Minimum

Liebig’s Law of the Minimum, often simply called Liebig’s Law or the Law of the Minimum, is a principle developed in agricultural science by Carl Sprengel (1828) and later popularized by Justus von Liebig. It states that growth is controlled not by the total of resources available, but by the scarcest resource. This concept was originally applied to plant or crop growth, where it was found that increasing the amount of plentiful nutrients did not increase plant growth. Only by increasing the amount of the limiting nutrient (the one most scarce in relation to “need”) was the growth of a plant or crop improved.

Liebig used the image of a barrel—now called Liebig’s barrel—to explain his law. Just as the capacity of a barrel with staves of unequal length is limited by the shortest stave, so a plant’s growth is limited by the nutrient in shortest supply.

Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a business management strategy, originally developed by Motorola, that today enjoys wide-spread application in many sectors of industry.

Six Sigma seeks to identify and remove the causes of defects and errors in manufacturing and business processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization (“Black Belts” etc.) who are experts in these methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified financial targets (cost reduction or profit increase).

DMAIC is used to improve an existing business process; DMADV is used to create new product or process designs.

DMAIC

The basic methodology consists of the following five steps:

* Define process improvement goals that are consistent with customer demands and the enterprise strategy.
* Measure key aspects of the current process and collect relevant data.
* Analyze the data to verify cause-and-effect relationships. Determine what the relationships are, and attempt to ensure that all factors have been considered.
* Improve or optimize the process based upon data analysis using techniques like Design of Experiments.
* Control to ensure that any deviations from target are corrected before they result in defects. Set up pilot runs to establish process capability, move on to production, set up control mechanisms and continuously monitor the process.

DMADV

The basic methodology consists of the following five steps:

* Define design goals that are consistent with customer demands and the enterprise strategy.
* Measure and identify CTQs (characteristics that are Critical To Quality), product capabilities, production process capability, and risks.
* Analyze to develop and design alternatives, create a high-level design and evaluate design capability to select the best design.
* Design details, optimize the design, and plan for design verification. This phase may require simulations.
* Verify the design, set up pilot runs, implement the production process and hand it over to the process owners.

5S

5S is a method for organizing a workplace, especially a shared workplace (like a shop floor or an office space), and keeping it organized. It’s sometimes referred to as a housekeeping methodology, however this characterization can be misleading because organizing a workplace goes beyond housekeeping (see discussion of “Seiton” below).

The key targets of 5S are workplace morale and efficiency. The assertion of 5S is, by assigning everything a location, time is not wasted by looking for things. Additionally, it is quickly obvious when something is missing from its designated location. 5S advocates believe the benefits of this methodology come from deciding what should be kept, where it should be kept, and how it should be stored. This decision making process usually comes from a dialog about standardization which builds a clear understanding, between employees, of how work should be done. It also instils ownership of the process in each employee.

In addition to the above, another key distinction between 5S and “standardized cleanup” is Seiton. Seiton is often misunderstood, perhaps due to efforts to translate into an English word beginning with “S” (such as “sort” or “straighten”). The key concept here is to order items or activities in a manner to promote work flow. For example, tools should be kept at the point of use, workers should not have to repetitively bend to access materials, flow paths can be altered to improve efficiency, etc.

The 5S’s are:

Seiri – Sorting. Refers to the practice of going through all the tools, materials, etc., in the work area and keeping only essential items. Everything else is stored or discarded. This leads to fewer hazards and less clutter to interfere with productive work.

Seiton : Set in Order. Focuses on the need for an orderly workplace. “Orderly” in this sense means arranging the tools and equipment in an order that promotes work flow. Tools and equipment should be kept where they will be used, and the process should be ordered in a manner that eliminates extra motion.

Seisp: Sweeping, Systematic Cleaning, or Shining. Indicates the need to keep the workplace clean as well as neat. Cleaning in Japanese companies is a daily activity. At the end of each shift, the work area is cleaned up and everything is restored to its place, making it easy to know what goes where and to know when everything is where it should be are essential here. The key point is that maintaining cleanliness should be part of the daily work – not an occasional activity initiated when things get too messy.

Seiketsu: Standardising. This refers to standardized work practices. It refers to more than standardized cleanliness (otherwise this would mean essentially the same as “systemized cleanliness”). This means operating in a consistent and standardized fashion. Everyone knows exactly what his or her responsibilities are. In part this follows from Seiton where the order of a workplace should reflect the process of work, these imply standardised work practice and workstation layout.

Shitsuke: Sustaining. Refers to maintaining and reviewing standards. Once the previous 4S’s have been established they become the new way to operate. Maintain the focus on this new way of operating, and do not allow a gradual decline back to the old ways of operating. However, when an issue arises such as a suggested improvement or a new way of working, or a new tool, or a new output requirement then a review of the first 4S’s is appropriate.

Cognitive restructuring

Cognitive restructuring in cognitive therapy is the process of learning to refute cognitive distortions, or fundamental “faulty thinking,” with the goal of replacing one’s irrational, counter-factual beliefs with more accurate and beneficial ones.

The cognitive restructuring theory holds that your own unrealistic beliefs are directly responsible for generating dysfunctional emotions and their resultant behaviors, like stress, depression, anxiety, and social withdrawal, and that we humans can be rid of such emotions and their effects by dismantling the beliefs that give them life. Because one sets unachievable goals — “Everyone must love me; I have to be thoroughly competent; I have to be the best in everything” — a fear of failure results.

Cognitive restructuring then advises to change such irrational beliefs and substitute more rational ones: “I can fail. Although it would be nice, I didn’t have to be the best in everything.” [Ellis and Harper, 1975; Ellis 1998]

This is accomplished by leading the subject to:

* Gain awareness of detrimental thought habits
* Learn to challenge them
* Substitute life-enhancing thoughts and beliefs

The rationale used in cognitive restructuring attempts to strengthen the client’s belief that 1) ‘self-talk’ can influence performance, and 2) in particular self-defeating thoughts or negative self-statements can cause emotional distress and interfere with performance, a process that then repeats again in a cycle.

Mark of a leader 'not in his top grades

ST April 4, 2008
Mark of a leader ‘not in his top grades’
That is the assessment of those who were top students. They value competence, leadership qualities, including EQ, more
By Jeremy Au Yong

ACADEMIC grades are a useful measure for identifying a potential political leader but it should not be the topmost criterion.

That assessment came, interestingly enough, from people who were top students, with four As in their A levels.

They were reacting to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s statement on his urgent search for a successor in an interview on Tuesday, when he also highlighted the brain drain among the 4As students. PM Lee had also indicated that based on past experience, it would take about three elections to groom a leader.

The Straits Times interviewed 10 people who had 4As, and the key traits they seek in the country’s leaders are competence, capability and leadership qualities, including emotional quotient or EQ.

Top grades are not critical, they added.

Even a PM without a university degree is not anathema to civil servant Jenny Tan.

BIGGER WORRY

Another civil servant, Mr C.L. Lian, 31, put it this way: ‘The person must have demonstrated intellect and problem-solving ability, but the emphasis doesn’t have to be on grades. I’m sure Bill Gates would be someone you want.’

Mr Gates, co-founder of software giant Microsoft, is one of the world’s most famous university dropouts.

Mr Lian added that though the current selection system was sound, the grooming period might have to be shortened.

‘Currently, there is this grooming period but we may not have 20 years to give,’ he said, referring to PM Lee who entered politics in 1984 and became PM in 2004.

Mr Lian said it was important for the political leaders to decide which parts of government need leaders with knowledge and experience in government, and which ministries can do with leaders without government experience.

He cited Senior Counsel K. Shanmugam – who is going straight from being an MP to Law Minister – as a case of a person who was not groomed to be a minister, but had the right skills and experience.

Some interviewed, like Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong, felt there may be a need to change the way leaders are chosen.

Said Mr Siew, who had 4As in his A levels: ‘Now, we seem to be going about choosing one like we go about giving scholarships. There’s this list of objective criteria.’

The answer to who should be the next PM will depend on how the question is framed, he added. ‘If we are looking for technocrats and managers, then you’ll be competing with the world. If you frame it differently, if you’re looking for leaders of the future, you probably could come up with a different characteristic.’

MP Baey Yam Keng, another top scorer, said academic excellence was a ‘necessary although not sufficient’ criterion. Even then, he said exceptions could be made. ‘Grades are important at the entry point but over the years, they become less and less important.’

In his interview with The Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao, PM Lee had highlighted data that show one in four – 150 out of 600 – top A-level students yearly works overseas after their studies. ‘This flow is going to continue. So it’s a big challenge to find successors, particularly for politics,’ he said.

The extent of this brain drain does not surprise those interviewed, who added that it is not at the heart of the problem.

Said corporate tax associate Sarah Seow, 26: ‘I believe the greater problem isn’t the brain drain, but the political apathy of my generation.

‘I know that among my peers still staying on in Singapore, many of us are talented and intelligent enough to become the Government’s next tier of leaders – the only problem is that we may have become so caught up in our own careers and desires that we don’t see a reason to get involved in politics.’

SIA shoddily handled extra baggage allowance request

I HAVE always associated Singapore Airlines (SIA) with exceptional customer service, but was disappointed before even boarding my flight.

I am a student going overseas on a six-month study attachment and am facing great difficulty in squeezing all my necessary baggage into SIA’s 20kg Economy Class Checked Baggage Allowance. Hence, I wanted to see if there was any solution other than paying high overweight baggage charges. This was the start of my frustration.

First, I called the Baggage Office number on their website. The baggage officer informed me that I could request for a Baggage Allowance Waiver with valid reasons by calling SIA’s Reservation Hotline. Several attempts to call the hotline were met with a dead tone. When I finally managed to get an officer on the line, I was informed that they had no authority to grant such waivers. He then said that I should call their ‘baggage department’ and directed me to SIA Cargo.

The officer at SIA Cargo directed me back to the Reservation Hotline. The second reservations officer then told me that if I required additional baggage allowance I should have booked my ticket via a travel agent, as there was some extra baggage benefit. Having booked my ticket several months back, this was not a viable alternative. Upon further enquiry, I was told that I should e-mail SQ Reservations with my request. The short reply to my e-mail was that they could not grant my request due to ‘high operational costs’.

My issue is not with being denied the waiver but with the constant redirection of my request to yet another inappropriate department and the shoddy way in which it was handled. With its reputation as a world-class airline, I expected better of SIA. I can only hope that such substandard service is the exception rather than the rule.

Angela Ang Jie Ling (Miss)

Ministry of Sound sues Singapore licensee

MoS Int’l takes suit against S’pore licensee to High Court
By Chua Hian Hou

A LONDON-BASED nightlife company is taking its lawsuit against the firm running the Ministry of Sound (MoS) club in the Republic to Singapore’s High Court.

Ministry of Sound International earlier filed a suit against the Singapore licensee in the British courts, but it seems it has now moved this legal action over to the courts in the Republic.

The MoS outlet at Clarke Quay, which opened in 2005, is run by LB Investments, a subsidiary of listed Singapore firm LifeBrandz.

LifeBrandz told the Singapore Exchange last Friday that Ministry of Sound International has served a writ of summons on LB Investments.

It said the writ ‘alleges breaches of certain terms and conditions of a licence agreement pertaining to the ‘Ministry of Sound’ brand’.

LifeBrandz said it would ‘vigorously defend’ the ‘unmeritorious’ allegations.

The same announcement also said that Ministry of Sound International had ‘discontinued’ its ‘entire claim’ against LB Investments. These claims had been originally filed with the High Court of England and Wales in mid-November.

The lawsuit earlier filed in Britain alleged that LB Investments had violated its licensing guidelines. The alleged violations included not playing the right type of music, not maintaining a stable website and not using the right staff uniforms.

Ministry of Sound International was reportedly suing LB Investments for damages and to force it to stick to its licensing guidelines.

A LifeBrandz spokesman could not be reached for comment yesterday.

LifeBrandz shares closed unchanged at 5.5 cents yesterday.

Reflections of a Recycled Bureaucrat: Leadership Lessons from Hon Sui Sen

When I joined the service, my first permanent secretary was Hon Sui Sen. When he died in harness, in the mid-1980s, he was the Minister for Finance, and I was one of the permanent secretaries in that ministry. He was my boss for most of the intervening 25 years. He was, without doubt, the best reporting officer I had, a perception that most of my contemporaries who served under him shared. I have tried to apply his template of leadership and management in the many areas where I have worked, albeit with nowhere near as much success.

Nonetheless, I was fortunate to observe that template at close hand and to try to replicate it. I suppose that is how traditions in an institution are built, and a culture of good governance is fostered. Like most good things in life, the concept is deceptively simple, the application a matter of discipline. It is a distillation of principles and practices that have stood the test of time. But for success, the environment has to be wholesome.

The example must come from the top. If that vital element is missing, good deeds below decks may ameliorate the situation, but cannot make up for that critical deficiency. So, what was it in Hon Sui Sen’s leadership style that many of my contemporaries and I admired?

Without doubt, integrity—not just moral, but intellectual. Some will say, “What is so unusual about integrity?” Surely, leaders must have integrity to get to their lofty position. Integrity is more than keeping the hands off the till, although scary examples in recent times suggest that some leaders cannot even refrain from doing that. Consider Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Parmalat.

Then, there are shades of grey—ethical issues that do not transgress any law except one’s sense of honour and straight dealing. But intellectual integrity goes further than that. It is a matter of quietly defending your position no matter how unpopular it may be to the institution.

A second outstanding quality of Mr Hon was his ability to delegate a large measure of authority to his subordinates, to leave them to run their show, and to avoid breathing down their necks. Of course, they were held accountable for their actions, and Mr Hon was no namby-pamby when it came to disciplining people. Yet, he would always support subordinates who made an honest error, and did not shield himself by assigning blame to others. He took the rap for anything that went wrong in his bailiwick.

You may well imagine that such behaviour comes from enormous self-confidence, without arrogance. It is the measure of a person’s generosity of spirit, modesty, the even tenor of his ways, and a forgiving nature. At the same time, while Mr Hon was prepared to defend his officers and ministry, he was respectful of authority, following the age-old principle of rendering unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.

A third, key attribute was his skill in drawing out ideas from his officers through a heuristic approach, gently challenging assumptions, and urging thinking out of the box. He got the best out of his people.

That, in a nutshell, is what characterises an outstanding leader and manager. Textbooks, management consultants, workshops, seminars, and executive courses, all play a role in the effort to learn about management and leadership; or, if you like, in the context of present-day Singapore, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. But above all, keep the eyes and ears open. There are always many examples of outstanding leadership around.

The attributes of good leadership are eternal and universal. They stem from traditional norms embellished by sound management-practices that have evolved and been refined with experience.

The starting point is clarification of the mission, based on a realistic assessment of the environment, and courage in pushing the envelope. Strengthen the organisation, paying particular attention to how people are managed and endowed with authority. Encourage openness, do not fear dissent within limits, and allow those now-cherished attributes of creativity and innovation to flourish. Finally, define and know your customer, and respond to his legitimate needs.

When I look back on the institutions in which I have worked, I do not see any fundamental difference in the package of leadership and management skills that contributes to success. Of course, each institution is unique, with its own mission and culture. An adaptable leader can, within reason, certainly function in many environments. The civil service, or at least the administrative service, testifies to that dictum. The key to successful leadership lies in the individual, the experiences he has been exposed to, the environment. Management gurus, seminars, consultants, and so forth, may be useful tools. They cannot substitute for the real thing.

~ JY Pillay, Reflections of a Recycled Bureaucrat, April 2004

Bonuses for top lawyers hit 9 months

More propaganda to stem the loss of talent. It does not say what proportion of lawyers get nine months. Usually 1 or 2.

Straits Times, 29 Dec
Bonuses for top lawyers hit 9 months
Business boom leads to larger payouts this year, with big firms paying 5-1/2 months and upwards
By K.C. Vijayan, Law Correspondent

BIG law firms, buoyed by the business boom, are handing out bigger year-end bonuses this year, with the best payouts breaching the nine-month mark.

The Straits Times understands that top performing lawyers in top-league firms like Drew & Napier and Rajah & Tann are getting high payouts across the board as rewards to recognise good work when the going is good.

Other firms like Harry Elias Partnership (HEP) and KhattarWong also awarded fatter bonuses of between 5-1/2 and eight months to its lawyers.

HEP’s managing partner Latiff Ibrahim said its top performers are in the ‘booming corporate, construction and litigation practices’.

KhattarWong’s Subhas Anandan said the bigger bonuses also spilled to the non-legal support staff, with the best receiving up to 5-1/2 months.

Lawyers generally attributed the fat bonus cheques to the strong economy, increased revenues and the need to pay high performers for ‘all the hard work and all the nights they have put in’.

WongPartnership, one of the biggest firms here, has had an ‘extremely good year’ in terms of the transactions and briefs received, said Mr Chou Sean You, a partner in the firm.

‘We expect to remunerate our lawyers well for all the hard work they have put in throughout the year,’ he said, adding that his firm traditionally declared its bonuses in January.

The upturn has benefited small and medium-size firms as well, especially in conveyancing work, said senior lawyer N. Sreenivasan.

‘Whether the property boom continues into the new year remains to be seen,’ he added.

He said that ‘with expected rental and salary increases next year, law firms will have to be more efficient, to reduce the impact of these increased overheads on the cost of legal services’.

Small firms which may not be able to match the fat bonuses of their bigger counterparts are unfazed, with some noting the hidden toll in work-life balance for those working in the top league.

Said Mr R. Kalamohan, who has run his own firm for more than 18 years: ‘I don’t know how many ‘handicaps’ I have compared to big firms, but when you look at the work-life balance, it is a different issue.

‘I am not constrained to burn the midnight oil every day unless there are exigencies. I do not think income is the main criterion for a good life.’

Give that man a Tiger.

David Viniar

Man in the News: David Viniar
By Ben White in New York
Financial times
Published: December 21 2007 19:41 | Last updated: December 21 2007 19:41

Call up Goldman Sachs and ask to chat with David Viniar, chief financial officer, and this is the first response you will get: “David hates publicity and would probably rather amputate one of his arms than be interviewed.”

Ring up friends and colleagues and the answers will be similar. “I’ll talk to you,” said one former Goldman executive. “But you cannot possibly quote me. David would rather self-immolate” than be the focus of attention.

Yet there is no avoiding the limelight. In a nightmare year for most investment banks, Goldman just set another earnings record. While others tallied ever-bigger mortgage losses, Goldman made an early call to hedge its mortgage exposure and turned a tidy profit in the process. While no one man, woman or child was responsible for Goldman’s golden call (a fact the bank wants no one to forget), Mr Viniar was certainly a central player, along with Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive, and Gary Cohn and Jon Winkelried, co-presidents.

Mr Viniar was the one who convened the now famous meeting on December 14 2006, in which senior members of the mortgage trading desk, the risk department, the controller’s office and others gathered to discuss the US housing market. They decided that it was time to put hedging strategies in place to prepare for a housing downturn given information from the controller’s office and early losses showing up in Goldman’s mortgage book. The call to hedge was a collective one, but as one senior executive put it: “If it hadn’t been for [Mr Viniar], it probably wouldn’t have happened.”

The hedging worked in fits and starts and eventually produced a profit in the third quarter and left Goldman with a net short position against the mortgage market, a fact Mr Viniar took the rare step of acknowledging when the bank announced earnings.

This week, he returned to form and would not say what Goldman’s stance was on the housing market and added it was unlikely he would ever again acknowledge a proprietary Goldman position.

Mr Viniar, 51, is more than a traditional chief financial officer. He is also in charge of Goldman’s massive back office operations, an area referred to within the bank as “the federation”. (The phrase back office is never uttered at Goldman, presumably because it sounds pejorative.) At some banks being in charge of the back office would not be much to brag about. Not so at Goldman, which places enormous value on technical expertise and the power to crunch massive amounts of data.

John Thain, former Goldman president and now Merrill Lynch chief executive, rose to power through the federation after working as a banker. So did Mr Viniar after Mr Thain plucked him out of investment banking in 1992. So by virtue of what he oversees, Mr Viniar, is extraordinarily powerful for a CFO.

“He is the most influential CFO on Wall Street,” says one former Goldman executive who left recently. “That reflects not only his capabilities, which are enormous, but also Goldman’s treating the back office as an equal partner.”

The fact that other banks do not treat the back office in this way may also explain why they ran into so much more trouble with the mortgage crisis.

Like most Goldman executives, Mr Viniar operates almost entirely behind the scenes, save for his conversations with analysts, investors and reporters during earnings season.

Like Mr Blankfein, Mr Viniar was born in the Bronx. He studied economics at Union College in Schenectady, New York, where he played basketball, a sport he follows to this day with informal games near his home in New Jersey that often include other Goldman executives. He donated $3.2m to the college to build a basketball arena that bears his name. The passion and energy he invested in basketball, Mr Viniar insists, helped him get to the top of his career game. He told the student magazine: “I loved the team and my teammates. I was one of the first ones to show up at practice, the last to leave.”

In a rare personal interview three years ago, Mr Viniar told Institutional Investor magazine: “I’m a very slow, very small forward . . . But I can hit the 15ft jump shot.”

Mr Viniar went on to Harvard Business School and joined Goldman in 1980, where he began as a banker in the structured finance department before moving to head the Treasury department in 1992, the year he became a partner. He became co-chief financial officer in 1994 and chief financial officer just before Goldman went public in 1999.

Mr Viniar, who earned more than $30m last year, played a critical role in 1994 when Goldman was losing millions of dollars a day due to bad proprietary trading bets, an experience colleagues say shaped his approach to risk management. “When you go through a war like that it changes you,” said one former Goldman executive who was then in a senior position. “No one had any clue what was going on.”

The experience did not make Mr Viniar risk averse (Goldman is among the biggest risk takers on Wall Street), it just made him more dedicated to consistently monitoring positions and testing for the worst possible scenarios. Mr Viniar is known to say no often to traders who want to take big bets but also to be careful to ensure the bank is taking enough risk to weather downturns in other parts of the business.

He is known as a quiet, self-effacing family man who never missed a basketball game when the youngest of his four children was at high school. “He would always say we are in a marathon, not a sprint, so take vacations, take time with your family,” said someone who worked under Mr Viniar. “He really did the whole work-life balance thing.”

Of course, when he went to basketball games, he would work in the car on the way there and the way back home or to the office.

If there is criticism of Mr Viniar, it is one that also applies to Goldman as a whole and it is that he provides too little information to investors and analysts about how Goldman makes money in its proprietary trading operations, an area of the bank that some refer to as a black box. “They do a horrible job at investor relations. They refuse to take their investors in as partners,” said Dick Bove, analyst at Punk Ziegel in New York. He added that Mr Viniar “is strong-minded and has a clear sense of what he is willing to do and what he is not willing to do. He has some of that Goldman Sachs arrogance about him. But who cares? The job he has done as CFO is impeccable.”

Sim Kee Boon

ST Nov 11, 2007
A keen golfer with a mean swing

By Terrence Voon

MR SIM COULD NOT bear to stay away from golf for more than a week.
THE man who built a world-class golf course from a plot of barren land had a mean golf swing himself.

Mr Sim Kee Boon, who died on Friday at the age of 78, was an ardent golfer who could not bear to stay away from his favourite pastime for more than a week, say his staff and friends.

Even when he headed the civil service and, subsequently, Keppel and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, he still found time to tee off on weekends. One of his favourite putting grounds was the Garden Course at Tanah Merah Country Club (TMCC), which he founded in 1982 at the behest of then-prime minister Lee Kuan Yew.

His interest in the game first developed in the 1970s, when he joined the Ministry of Communications as permanent secretary.

‘He was one of the few perm secs who knew how to play golf,’ recalled TMCC captain Goh Hup Chor, who knew Mr Sim for over 20 years.

Mr Sim’s wife, Jeanette, also a keen golfer, is the club’s current lady captain.

According to his friends, Mr Sim’s handicap was as low as 11. Though it went up to 22 in the past few years, his technique remained as good as ever.

‘He was a short hitter, but he hit the ball straight. He hardly ever got into trouble on the fairways,’ said TMCC events director Edwin Khoo, who used to play a few rounds with his boss.

Mr Sim’s regular golf ‘kakis’ included former finance minister Richard Hu and TMCC president Tan Puay Huat.

‘Whoever won the game would pay for meals after that,’ said Mr Khoo.

Mr Sim played golf the way he ran TMCC as chairman – with precision and a keen attention to detail.

Said the club’s marketing manager, Ms Han May Leng: ‘He once came up to me and told me to fix the signages on the golf course because they were slightly tilted. He wanted them to be straight as an arrow. For him, everything had to be first-class.’

Mr Sim led by example, even picking up litter on the club grounds. He was often seen in a T-shirt or short-sleeved shirt – a dress code he also imposed on all male employees at the club.

‘His reasoning was that if you’re in a shirt and a tie, you would stay in the office and never get out to see how things really were at the club,’ said Ms Han.

Under his charge, TMCC membership rates rose from an initial $20,000 to $190,000 now. The Garden Course was named the No.1 course in Singapore for three years running by the United States-based Golf Digest magazine.

Though he demanded nothing but the best from his staff, Mr Sim also dished out compassion in equal measure. They recalled how he would often ask about their health and their families – a personal touch that made him a popular figure even outside the club.

Said Pan-West retail manager P.M. Samy: ‘Whenever he came to my shop, he would never fail to ask about my work, my family and my life.

‘He was a real gentleman – both humble and approachable – a man who had golf in his blood. His passing is a great loss to golf.’

S’poreans owe pioneer civil servants a big debt: PM Lee
Paying his respects, he says those like Sim Kee Boon saw the country change and made change happen
By Peh Shing Huei


SINGAPOREANS owe the pioneer generation of public servants such as Mr Sim Kee Boon an ‘enormous debt’, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday.

‘There was a certain cut of the people who were of that generation,’ he said, after paying his respects to the former civil service head who died on Friday.

‘They grew up, they saw the country change, they made the change happen.’

They were ‘the last of the Mohicans’: a phrase which another former civil service head, the late Mr Howe Yoon Chong, had used to describe himself and Mr Sim, both of whom were among the founding group of top administrators.

‘In a way, that’s true,’ said Mr Lee. ‘That generation of public servants, we owe them an enormous debt.’ Mr Howe, who was also a Cabinet minister, died three months ago.

Mr Sim was 78 when he lost his 17-year-long battle with stomach cancer on Friday.

MM Lee’s tribute to Sim Kee Boon
MINISTER Mentor Lee Kuan Yew paid his respects to the late Sim Kee Boon last night. He released a condolence letter to Mrs Sim and a tribute to her husband.

Letter to Mrs Sim

After retiring from the civil service in 1984 – which included a five-year tenure as its head – he joined Keppel Corporation as its executive chairman and turned the loss-making outfit into one of Singapore’s leading conglomerates.

From 2000, he was also a director of Temasek Holdings.

Mr Lee, who was accompanied by his wife Ms Ho Ching, said Mr Sim was not just doing a job but was sharing his experience, wisdom and perceptiveness as well.

While paying tribute to Mr Sim’s work in building Changi Airport, Mr Lee also praised him for setting the tone of the civil service and leading it to achieve many things.

‘Not everything was done personally by himself. But the leader’s job is not to do everything by yourself. It’s your job to enable other people to work and to be productive and he achieved that,’ he said.

‘He’s not a flamboyant person. He doesn’t put himself on a high pedestal. He’s very easy to get along with, chatty, gregarious, but very sharp mind, very clear what needs to be done.

‘And if you are dealing with a touchy situation, not just in Singapore but with our neighbours or with some other countries, you can depend on him to understand what the issue is, what the other side is trying to achieve, how we can get what we need and maintain the relationship.’

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and several other Cabinet ministers, including Foreign Minister George Yeo and Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean, as well as former deputy prime minister Tony Tan, who is also SPH chairman, were among those at the wake yesterday.

The wake, which continues until Tuesday, is at Mr Sim’s home at 114 Watten Estate Road.

Steve Friedman

If you are not constantly working for constructive strategic change, then you are the steward of something which must erode. Competitors will leapfrog over you, and clients will find you less relevant. If that was your approach, why would you even want the job?

– Steve Friedman, Former CEO of Goldman Sachs

Blue Ocean Strategy

The “ocean” refers to the market or industry. “Blue oceans” are untapped and uncontested markets, which provide little or no competition for anyone who would dive in, since the markets are not crowded. A “red ocean”, on the other hand, refers to a saturated market where there is fierce competition, already crowded with people (companies) providing the same type of services or producing the same kind of goods.

Their idea is to do something different from everyone else, producing something that no one has yet seen, thereby creating a “blue ocean”. An essential concept is that the innovation (in product, service, or delivery) must raise and create value for the market, while simultaneously reducing or eliminating features or services that are less valued by the current or future market.

More info: http://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/downloads/bos_web.pdf

Work is love

Work is Love made visible.
And if you can’t work with love but only with distaste,
It is better that you should leave your work
and sit at the gate of the temple and
take alms of the people who work with joy.

Kahlil Gibran

Laws

Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics
First law: A robot may not, through its actions or inactions, allow a human to come to harm.
Second law: A robot must obey any order given to it, unless in contradiction of the First Law.
Third law: A robot must protect its own existence, unless in contradiction of the First or Second Law.

Barnum’s Law — You’ll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
Named for P. T. Barnum, close to H. L. Mencken quotation.

Benford’s Law of Controversy — Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available.

Bernard’s Law – When the people own the money, they control the government. When the government owns the money, it controls the people.
Coined by Bernard von NotHaus, monetary architect of the Liberty Dollar.

Brooks’s Law — Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.
Named after Fred Brooks — author of the well known tome on project management, The Mythical Man-Month.

Callahan’s Law — Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy.
Coined by Mike Callahan in Spider Robinson’s Callahan’s Series.

Clarke’s Three Laws. Formulated by Arthur C. Clarke.
o First law: When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
o Second law: The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little ways past them into the impossible.
o Third law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Dilbert Principle — The most ineffective workers are systematically moved to the place where they can do the least damage: management.
Coined by Scott Adams, author of the comic strip Dilbert.

Duverger’s Law — Winner-take-all electoral systems tend to create a two party system, while proportional representation tends to create a multiple party system.
Named after Maurice Duverger.

Finagle’s Law — Anything that can go wrong, will — at the worst possible moment.

Fudd’s First Law of Opposition — If you push something hard enough, it will fall over.
Posited by the Firesign Theatre in “I Think We’re All Bozos on This Bus (1971)”.

Goodhart’s Law — Once an indicator or other surrogate measure is made a target for the purpose of policy, then it will lose the information content that would qualify it to play such a role.
Coined by economist Charles Goodhart.

Gresham’s Law — Bad money drives good money out of circulation.
Coined in 1858 by British economist Henry Dunning Macleod, and named for Sir Thomas Gresham (1519–1579). Earlier stated by others, including Nicolaus Copernicus.

Hanlon’s Razor — Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
Named after Robert J. Hanlon, although there is some debate.

Harshaw’s Law — Daughters can use up ten percent more than a man can make in any normal occupation, regardless of the amount.
Coined by Jubal Harshaw in Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land.

Herblock’s Law – If you like it, they will stop making it.

Hotelling’s Law — Under some conditions, it is rational for competitors to make their products as nearly identical as possible. Named after Harold Hotelling.

Hutber’s Law — Improvement means deterioration.
Coined by financial journalist Patrick Hutber.

Kerckhoffs’ Principle — In cryptography, a system should be secure even if everything about the system, except for a small piece of information — the key — is public knowledge.
Stated by Auguste Kerckhoffs in the 19th century.

Keynes’s Law — Demand creates its own supply.
Attributed to economist John Maynard Keynes, and contrasted to Say’s law.

Kuta’s Revelation — All forms of religion are based on faith in faith itself as a self-administered psychological placebo.
From the Selfbook (2007).

Ko?akowski’s Law — For any given doctrine that one wants to believe, there is never a shortage of arguments by which to support it.
Polish philosopher Leszek Ko?akowski

Linus’s Law — Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.
Named for Linus Torvalds, initiator of the kernel of the GNU/Linux operating system.

Littlewood’s Law — Individuals can expect miracles to happen to them at the rate of about one per month.
Coined by Professor John Edensor Littlewood.

Locard’s Exchange Principle — With contact between two items, there will be an exchange
Premise of forensics named after Edmond Locard

Metcalfe’s Law — In network theory, the value of a system grows as approximately the square of the number of users of the system.
Framed by Robert Metcalfe.

Moore’s Law — The complexity of an integrated circuit will double in about 24 months.
Stated in 1965, though not as a law, by Gordon E. Moore, later a co-founder of Intel.

Morton’s Fork — A person who lives in luxury and has clearly spent a lot of money must obviously have sufficient income to pay as tax. Alternatively, a person who lives frugally and shows no sign of being wealthy must have substantial savings and can therefore afford to pay it as tax.
Named after John Morton, tax collector for King Henry VII of England.

Murphy’s Law — If anything can go wrong, it will. Alternately, If it can happen, it will happen.
Ascribed to Major Edward A. Murphy, Jr.

Murphy’s Law (alternate) — If there are two ways to do something, and one of them will result in a disaster, an untrained individual will invariably choose the wrong way.
Also ascribed to Major Edward A. Murphy, Jr.

Ockham’s Razor — Explanations should never multiply assumptions without necessity. When two explanations are offered for a phenomenon, the simplest full explanation is preferable.
Named after William of Ockham. Also known as Occam’s Razor: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.

Orgel’s Rules. Formulated by evolutionary biologist Leslie Orgel.
o First rule: Whenever a spontaneous process is too slow or too inefficient a protein will evolve to speed it up or make it more efficient.
o Second rule: Evolution is cleverer than you are.

Pareto Principle — For many phenomena, 80% of consequences stem from 20% of the causes.
Named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, but framed by management thinker Joseph M. Juran.

Parkinson’s Law — Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
Coined by C. Northcote Parkinson.

Technician’s Corollary — No matter how big the data storage medium, it will soon be filled.

Peter Principle — In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.
Coined by Laurence J. Peter.

Pittendreigh’s Law of Planetary Motion — The perception of time passing more quickly has nothing to do with the fact of my own aging process. It’s the fault of the Solar System! The Earth is simply moving around the sun faster every year.

Putt’s Law — Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.
Coined by Archibald Putt.

Reed’s Law — The utility of large networks, particularly social networks, scales exponentially with the size of the network. Named after David P. Reed.

Reilly’s Law — People generally patronize the largest mall in the area.

Rock’s Law — The cost of a semiconductor chip fabrication plant doubles every four years.
Named after Arthur Rock.

Say’s Law — Demand cannot exist without supply.
Often stated as Supply creates its own demand. Attributed to economist Jean-Baptiste Say and contrasted to Keynes’s Law.

Stigler’s Law of Eponymy — No scientific discovery, not even Stigler’s law, is named after its original discoverer.

Strathmann’s Law of Program Management – Nothing is so easy as the job you imagine someone else doing.

Sturgeon’s Law — Nothing is always absolutely so.
Derived from a quote by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon.

Wirth’s law — Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster.

Zipf’s Law — For many different kinds of things, their frequency is observed to be approximately inversely proportional to their rank order.
Named after George Kingsley Zipf.

Liar's Poker

“I have this theory,” said Andy Stone, seated in his office at Prudential-Bache Securities.

“Wall Street makes its best producers into managers. The reward for being a good producer is to be made a manager. The best producers are cutthroat, competitive, and often neurotic and paranoid. You turn these people into managers, and they go after each other. They no longer have the outlet for their instincts that producing gave them. They usually aren’t well suited to be managers. Half of them get thrown out because they are bad. Another quarter get muscled out because of politics. The guys left behind are just the most ruthless of the bunch. That’s why there are cycles on Wall Street – why Salomon Brothers is getting crunched now – because the ruthless people are bad for the business but can only be washed out by proven failure.”

Michael Lewis, Liar’s Poker

Looking for a job

—–Original Message—–
From: Alan Lewis
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 11:34 AM
To: Daniel Loeb
Subject: CV

Daniel,

Thanks for calling earlier today. Enclosed is my cv for your review. I look forward to following up with you when you have more time.

Best regards,

Alan

Alan D. Lewis
Managing Director
Sthenos Capital Ltd.

—–Original Message—–
From: Daniel Loeb
Sent: 27 March 2005 23:08
To: Alan Lewis
Subject: RE: CV

what are your 3 best current european ideas?

Daniel Loeb
Managing Member
Third Point LLC

—–Original Message—–
From: Alan Lewis
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2005 1:03 AM
To: Daniel Loeb
Subject: RE: CV

Daniel,

I am sorry but it does not interest me to move forward in this way. If you wish to have a proper discussion about what you are looking to accomplish in Europe, and see how I might fit in, fine.

Lesson one of dealing in Europe, business is not conducted in the same informal manner as in the U.S.

Best regards,

Alan

—–Original Message—–
From: Daniel Loeb
Sent: 28 March 2005 09:50
To: Alan Lewis
Subject: RE: CV

One idea would suffice.

We are an aggressive performance oriented fund looking for blood thirsty competitive individuals who show initiative and drive to make outstanding investments. This is why I have built third point into a $3.0 billion fund with average net returns of 30% net over 10 years.

We find most brits are bit set in their ways and prefer to knock back a pint at the pub and go shooting on weekend rather than work hard. Lifestyle choices and important and knowing one’s limitations with respect to dealing in a competitive environment is too. That is Lesson 1 at my shop.

It is good that we learned about this incompatibility early in the process and I wish you all the best in your career in traditional fund management.

Daniel

—–Original Message—–
From: Alan Lewis
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2005 4:08 AM
To: Daniel Loeb
Subject: RE: CV

Daniel,

I guess your reputation is proven correct. I have not been in traditional fund management for more than eleven years. I did not achieve the success I have by knocking back a pint, as you say. I am aggressive, and I do love this business. I am Half American and half French, and having spent more than half my life on this side of the pond I think I know a little something about how one conducts business in the UK and Europe.

There are many opportunities in the UK and Europe, shareholder regard is only beginning to be accepted and understood. However, if you come here and handle it in the same brash way you have in the U.S. I guarantee you will fail. Things are done differently here, yes place in
society still matters, where one went to school etc. It will take tact, and patience (traits you obviously do not have) to succeed in this arena.

Good luck!

Alan

—–Original Message—–
From: Daniel Loeb
Sent: 28 March 2005 10:23
To: Alan Lewis
Subject: RE: CV

Well, you will have plenty of time to discuss your “place in society” with the other fellows at the club.

I love the idea of a French/english unemployed guy whose fund just blew up telling me that I am going to fail.

At Third Point, like the financial markets in general,”one’s place in society” does not matter at all. We are a bunch of scrappy guys from diverse backgrounds (Jewish Muslim, Hindu etc) who enjoy outwitting pompous asses like yourself in financial markets globally.

Your “inexplicable insouciance” and disrespect is fascinating; It must be a French/English aristocratic thing. I will be following your “career” with great interest.

I have copied Patrick so that he can introduce you to people who might be a better fit-there must be an insurance company or mutual fund out there for you.

Dan Loeb

————————————————

From: Alan Lewis
To: Daniel Loeb
March 28 2005

Hubris.

————————————————

From: Daniel Loeb
To: Alan Lewis
March 28 2005

Laziness.

—————————–

New Yorker article: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/04/18/050418ta_talk_mcgrath

Maximising Industry Profit by Collusion

One strategy that firms in an oligopoly might consider is to form a cartel, in which they agree to operate as if they were one firm (a monopoly). In the typical cartel arrangement, all the firms in an industry agree that, as a group, they will produce the same output and charge the same price for the industry’s product as would a monopolist who controlled the industry. This will maximise the industry’s economic profit, which can then be divvied up on some mutualy agreeable basis.

This seems like a perfectly acceptable way for firms in an oligopoly to operate. There are only two problems with it:

1. Collusion to restrain trade and the forming of cartels, typically, is illegal.

2. If firms cheat on the agreement, the strategy will not work.

Ten Laws of the Modern World

1. Newton’s First Law of Motion
Bodies at rest, stay at rest. Bodies at motion, stay at motion.
(Substance of advice) x (velocity at which it is given) = impact of advice
What is the direction of your advice? Are you an Accelerator or Impactor?

2. Moore’s Law
The number of transistors on an integrated circuit for minimum component cost doubles every 24 months.

3. Metcalfe’s Law
The value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system.

4. Gilder’s Law
The best business models waste the era’s cheapest resources in order to conserve the era’s most expensive resources.

5. Ogilvy’s Law
If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.

6. Laffer Curve
Cut taxes at the margin, on income and capital, and you’ll get more tax revenue, not less.

7. Murphy’s Law
Things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance.

8. Wriston’s Law
Capital (meaning both money and ideas), when freed to travel at the speed of light, will go where it is wanted and stay where it is well-treated.

9. Ockham’s Razor
All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one (entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem).

10. Ricardo’s Law
The natural price of labor is that price which is necessary to enable the laborers to subsist and to perpetuate their race, without either increase or diminution.

See also: http://www.forbes.com/columnists/columnists/2005/04/19/cz_rk_0419karlgaard.html

Singapore Girl

ST, 11 Feb
Original Singapore Girl defends the kebaya
SIA girls are globally recognised, says ex-stewardess who was model for uniform

By Nur Dianah Suhaimi

WHEN former Singapore Airlines stewardess See Biew Wah was sent to Paris in 1972, she had no idea that she would be shaping history.

Tasked to be the model for a new cabin crew uniform, Madam See became the mannequin on which French haute couturer Pierre Balmain perfected the cut and look of SIA’s famous sarong kebaya.

Now, 62 years old and a housewife, Madam See has joined the chorus of voices defending the SIA girl. She wrote in to The Sunday Times to say that the iconic uniform has always been the source of her strength and pride.

She was responding to last week’s column, Of Singapore Girls And White Men, which, among other things, made the point that the Singapore Girl deserves to be heard.

Since the national carrier announced last month that it would tender out its advertising account for the first time in 35 years, there has been public debate on whether the Singapore Girl should stay or go.

‘As one of the original Singapore Girls, I feel I have earned the right to speak up on behalf of her,’ said Madam See.

Twenty other readers wrote in sharing the same view.

Said Madam See: ‘The first time we wore the kebaya in Europe, several pedestrians walked into lamp posts because they were so engrossed. It’s a beautiful uniform which brings instant recognition.’

Because Europeans tend to be bigger than their Asian counterparts, SIA was asked to send a stewardess to Paris to model for Balmain. So for a week, Madam See posed for him.

Said Madam See: ‘He was extremely particular. If he didn’t like something, he’d just rip it off.’

Madam See has long given up her kebaya when she left SIA in 1980. But she claims she now has an ‘invisible uniform’ which has kept her strong and confident. ‘Once a Singapore Girl, always a Singapore Girl,’ she said.