Malaysia's Third World maintenance culture

Recently I have been attending meetings at buildings owned and largely occupied by some of Malaysia's largest institutional investment and pension funds.

The first thing that struck me was the poor state of the buildings that house these billion-ringgit funds.

It may be that the people managing these funds want to project the image that they are thrifty, even parsimonious, because they are handling funds belonging to large sections of the Malaysian public.

But, that is a silly mindset.

I'll tell you why.

My impression was that the management of these funds are inept and identifying true value.

It felt like they were locked away in a time-warp created one or two decades ago.

The ambience was that of staleness and decay.

It reflected an overly defensive state of mind that did not dare to engage change.

If the management of these funds cannot understand the need to maintain their Headquarters, how can they understand and be alert to changes in the nano second pace of the world of investments?

How can their staff be proud to go to work when their workplace is filled with signs that the urinal is not functioning or that the lifts are under maintenance.

For good measure, my point is that there is a serious need for awareness in thinking and a serious need for mindset change in many of our institutions.

The starting point is the awareness of the importance of proper maintenance and regular renovations and upgrades to buildings and amenities.