The Power of Story Telling
This is the continuing narrative after Part 1 of the article on the Power of Storytelling: The Ancient Formula.
Story 2 — The Iran Deal: The story about leadership accountability and the quality of integrity in a leader
In the early 1990s, Petronas embarked on an ambitious business expansion into the global arena. I was fortunate to be selected as part of the pioneer team to do this. Petronas’ first venture was into Myanmar, where it formed a joint venture with Japan’s Idemitsu Oil to conduct prospecting and exploration for oil and gas resources onshore Myanmar. The next was Vietnam, which proved to be a successful venture when Petronas struck pay dirt on the third well drilled in the Contract Areas called Blocks 1 and 2, offshore South Vietnam.
The third country on which we focused was the Republic of Iran. If you are aware of the geopolitical climate of the world in the 1990s and even now, it is a rather sensitive thing to do. Iran is not exactly a place where one could casually waltz in and clinch business deals. Nonetheless, Petronas, on a joint venture with Total France and Gazprom Russia, went to Iran. The deal agreed to be entered into was called the Service Contract for South Pars 2 and 3 Blocks, which were located in the Persian Gulf, on the Iranian side. The other side is being claimed by Qatar. The giant South Pars Field (as it is known in Iran) and the North Field (as it is known in Qatar) straddle the boundaries between the two countries.
The deal was made when the US unilateral economic embargo against Iran was being mooted. The relevant US sanctions legislation then was the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA), which was in the process of being passed by the US Congress around the same time and targeted at discouraging investments in the oil and gas industries in Libya and Iran.
Understandably, in view of the ILSA, the deal we sought to do was a rather sensitive one. Our late chairman, Tan Sri Azizan (later conferred a Tunship) led the small delegation for the signing of the relevant service contract in Tehran. Everything was done in a low-key manner and signed in a secured venue in Teheran, complete with the necessary security measures. We flew into Tehran during the day and closed the deal that night.
After a brief customary celebration of the formalisation of the deal, the next morning we flew back to Dubai from Tehran, intending to transit before flying all the way to Kuala Lumpur. However, the connecting flight from Dubai was several hours after the arrival from Tehran. To spare the chairman from the discomfort of having to wait at the airport terminal, I suggested to him that he and I should exit the terminal and come back later. When he agreed, I got us booked into day rooms at a local hotel downtown.
Upon checking into our respective rooms, I switched on the television set in the room and was shocked at what was happening live on the TV screen. The news reader was reading out the Iran deal, which was signed in Tehran the day before. And it was already world news, being reported all over CNN.
Later, as we were checking out and getting ready to get to the Dubai airport to catch our flight home, I asked the chairman at the hotel lobby whether he had watched the news on CNN after checking into his room. He replied, “No, why?” So, I told him what I saw and heard. I could see his facial expression visibly change.
He knew the implications of the news and the fast-evolving developments on the subject of the Iran deal. He became very quiet and appeared to be in deep thoughts all the way to the airport and even after we had boarded the plane.
After a while, I plucked up the courage to ask him if everything was all right. He reflected awhile, then turned to me and said, “Medan, if I have to resign because of this (the deal), I will.” And that was all he said, but it was loaded and meant so much.
I interpreted it to mean that he knew and anticipated that there would be a lot of pressure on Petronas and possibly the country because of the deal. But what struck me most was how he calmly took it in stride. The decision and the action that followed could not be undone, and as a true leader, he accepted responsibility for the deal that was done.
I saw he was ready to make the sacrifice, if needed, to help diffuse the pressure on Petronas and placate those who did not see it fit and appropriate for corporations to invest in Iran or any country of their choice. I knew then and there that here was a true leader who was willing to take responsibility for the sake of the organisation.
He did not hesitate to assume the responsibility or look for someone else as a scapegoat. As chairman, he held the highest position in the organisation and, as the saying goes, “the buck stops with him.”
The whole palaver eventually died down, after some anxious moments, things returned to normal. But the whole episode left an indelible impression on me. Through his conduct, the chairman taught me an important lesson about accountability and integrity in leadership.
Despite the risks, signing the Iran deal was the right thing to do for Petronas at the time in its quest to internationalise its operations, and it had done so with a resolute ambition. And when the going got tough, the man at the top did not run away or find excuses. He stood for what he believed in and by what he had decided.
That is what true leaders are made of. Until today, I have continued to replay that in-flight conversation. I will never forget that moment. Let us not forget the lesson as well. The lesson on leadership integrity and taking responsibility.
Story No. 3 — The Vision of a Simple Man: A Story About the Power of Vision
I was born in a place called Pa’ Main (lit. “sweet water”), somewhere I’d like to call, figuratively, the deepest and darkest part of Borneo. Partly due to its remoteness from civilisation but also because we didn’t have gas or electricity supply at the time. Therefore, going to the forests for “kayu api” or firewood, was a normal part of daily existence. It was a chore that couldn’t be avoided or postponed. You need to replenish the supply of firewood when it becomes low. Or else you can’t cook your food and won’t get the warmth you need in the cool montane air.
One day, I followed my father into the forest near our village. I was about seven. My father brought an axe, which he would use to cut down a tree and then split and chop it into smaller pieces. As a little kid, the axe was a fascinating tool that seemed to do wonders as I watched how my father wielded and used it with skill and amazing agility.
At one juncture, my father left his axe on the ground unattended for a brief moment. While he was busy gathering and bundling the pieces of wood that he had cut and split, I picked up the axe. Recall that I was still a kid, not that big in size, and couldn’t really wield the heavy axe meant for an adult.
Next thing I knew, I had cut myself in the foot and was bleeding badly. Somehow, my father managed to stop the bleeding and bandage the wound with some herbal concoction mixed with my urine and leaves. He told me to pee on the cut to ensure that it closes up.
My father then carried me on his back all the way to the local dispensary and got my wound fixed. I recalled all seven stitches, sans the local anaesthetics, very vividly. Nevertheless, I was quite happy because I thought that since I had now hurt my foot, I wouldn’t need to go to school for a while. So, I thought.
My father saw through what I was thinking and was having none of it. Even though he was an illiterate and uneducated — not because he was not smart, but because there were no schools for his generation to attend during their childhood years — he was a man with a clear vision. He knew that a good education was the way out for me, and as any loving father would, he wanted the best for his child. So, he said, “Son, you have to go to school, and I will carry you there!” thereby disposing of my protestations and pleas.
So, every day, my father would carry me to school on his back. He would take me to school in the morning and put me at my desk in the classroom. After school, he would return and carry me back home. My father could have taken the easy way out, but he chose to persist with his vision. He was adamant that his son has to go to school at all costs and shall not miss a single lesson, no matter what.
Now, as I have said earlier, my father was not able to read and write. But strangely, he would insist on seeing my test papers and the results. Somehow, he managed to figure out the difference between the red and blue marks on my report card. If I didn’t do well in a subject, he would ask, “Why is this one red?” pointing to the mark. He figured things out rather quickly, and soon enough he recognised the numeral “100.” So, when I brought my papers home, he would ask, “How come this or that paper was not marked 100?” while at the same time tracing the figure “100” with his finger. That really got to me, and it helped encourage me to always do my best.
Here was an uneducated man, but he did his best based on what he knew and understood at his level. And that was his way of challenging and motivating me. All along, he remained focused on his vision, which was to equip me with an education to ensure that I would have a better life or a better chance to make it in life.
Someone once said that if you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood by dividing the work and giving orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. That was precisely what my father persistently taught me. He painted a vision, in his own way, about the vast and endless sea out there in the big, wide world. Somehow, he has managed to weave an image so beautiful that it made me long to be free to sail the wide open sea of the world out there. I think I am sailing that open sea, figuratively speaking, even now. Thanks to the dreams of my father.
I ended up in the nation’s only Global Fortune 500 company and personally contributed to that effort, as were thousands of others who dedicated their minds, intellects, emotions and energies to realising Petronas’ ambition to be a true multinational of choice. To top it all off, I was privileged to be working closely with the corporation’s top echelon and had worked on the highest floors of the world’s tallest Twin Towers in the previous century and the present.
I must say I have had a blessed life and amazing experiences, and I never forgot the sacrifices and loving guidance and motivation of my parents all those years ago.
It has been quite a journey for a child from the deepest parts of Borneo to all those fascinating and exotic places around the world to negotiate on behalf of Petronas with multinational corporations, national oil corporations, and governmental authorities. In the pursuit of the national agenda to build the nation. I don’t regret any part of that journey that I took, but it had to be paid for by the long separation from the family and not seeing my kids grow up when they were young.
In my opinion, I’ve been a part of some really “cool” things. One day I may be doing “kampung things,” such as catching fish in my in-laws’ muddy paddy field in Perak, and the next day I will return to Kuala Lumpur to catch a flight to a first-world destination, dressed up in a tie and jacket.
Or I would be on a jet to a real frontier place like Hassi Massoud deep in the Sahara Desert to accompany the chairman on a trip to sign a production sharing contract with Sonatrach, the Algerian National Oil Company. Why Hassi Massoud? Because it was the safest place in all of Algeria to sign a deal. It was away from Algiers, where different armed factions and rebels held sway.Or I could be in The Hague, in the head office of Shell, negotiating a deal with the best legal minds in the industry for a project to build a gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan and possibly onwards to India — matching them in skills, capability, and savour faire!
In fact, this was not a hypothetical case or project but a real one that Petronas, Shell, BP, BG, and Gaz de France were working on at one time. And I was the Petronas lawyer assigned, among a dozen or so other projects I was involved in. It sometimes feels very surreal, but I can tell you that it can be done. Even if you’re just a jungle boy who once hailed from one of the most remote jungles of Borneo.
And that was how I ended my storytelling session at the Management Forum in Petronas in 2007. That session was the first in a series of “personal change journey” stories told by various levels of management, starting from the top. I don’t know whether it is still being practised today in the corporation. The sharing of stories as a means of achieving superior business results and increasing people’s engagement certainly worked to inspire people back then. Something the ancients knew as they drew on the cave walls where they lived. Drawings that told stories and conveyed powerful messages about survival and life’s ongoing journey.
