There are too many middlemen. Why do we need so many of them? My ex-GM, in one of his usual, more rational, rants, once warned us of the threat of disintermediation. The good thing about his warning is that we started to think and think again about how relevant we are as individuals to our 'customers', whether it be our organisation's customers or our colleagues and partners who depend on us for something. I believe this has been a global work culture shift for quite some time. Then why is Malaysia still stuck in the past?
Fine - I may not be the most informed on the topic of the Malaysian business scene, but really - from my little coccoon up in the Twin Towers, I can already see the frustration of people who want to get things done (like me!). The task of 'getting something done' is like an exercise of passing the baton from one 'value-adding' vendor to another. At the end of the day, the guy at the finish line is from halfway across the world who has more of an idea of what's happening in your country than those local partners who should be contributing towards nation-building in their own little way by taking the effort to really add value.
I know that there are Malaysian companies out there who play their part for Corporate Malaysia. But this should be the norm for local companies, rather than the exception.
Related:
The Problem Part I