<!–GA_googleFillSlot(“Business_Story_toptext”);–>

PETALING JAYA: A handful of public listed companies remain “leaderless”, or are facing that scenario, as there is an absence of information of whether anyone will fill their chief executive officer (CEO) or C-level roles.

Companies like Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB), Silver Bird Group Bhd and Amanah Raya Bhd are running without a CEO or group managing director.

On the other hand, national carrier Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has been operating without a chief financial officer in place following the resignation of Rozman Omar in July.

Cement Industries of Malaysia Bhd (CIMA Group), which saw the resignation of its managing direction Datuk Che Halin Mohd Hashim early this year, only named Mohd Yusri Md Yusoff as its new managing director a couple of weeks ago.

MAS has been operating without a chief financial officer in place following the resignation of Rozman Omar in July. — Bernama

“A company without a leader is like a ship without a captain and the ship will not meet its destination as there is no firm control on the direction the ship is being steered to reach its objective or goals,” Kelly Services Singapore and Malaysia managing director Melissa Norman said.

She said a company “cannot function well” without a leader as most major decisions that impact the company and its people are usually made at the top leadership level.

But she added that measures were usually taken to avoid a standstill in companies.

“In cases where a clear leadership is not in place, most board of directors do appoint an interim leader in place during the transformation stage while the negotiations on the hiring of a new leader is taking place,” Melissa said.

She added that the interim leader could be a member of the board or a current management team who has been with the company for a few years and could support the vacuum of the leadership on a temporary basis.

“This is evident in many recent cases where a leader leaves an organisation (for various reasons) and immediate communication and action steps are taken to address this gap in managing expectations and transparency to the public or internally.

“Examples such as Sime Darby Bhd and Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd which drew nationwide interest are cases where interim leaders are put in place immediately and communicated,” Melissa said.

Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Shamsuddin Bardan said a management team that supervised the company’s operations should be set up while the board of directors searched for a permanent replacement.

“Normally, the CEO is the one who makes the final call. He’s the one who calls the shots.

“When each department starts calling their shots then it will be difficult thus there’s a need for a management team in place of an absent CEO,” he said. Shamsuddin said companies usually appoint a new CEO within three months to avoid the position being vacant for too long.

Shamsuddin also said employees’ morale would be affected if the CEO’s position was vacant for too long.

Earlier, StarBiz had reported that businessman Datuk Mohamad Salim Fateh Din was the frontrunner to be the next chief executive of MRCB, following the resignation of the company’s CEO Datuk Mohamed Razeek Hussain on July 24.

It was reported that MRCB was planning to take over private property developer Nusa Gapurna Development Sdn Bhd, which is controlled by Mohamad Salim.

Razeek’s tenure with MRCB will end on Aug 17, following which he would reportedly become the head of DRB-Hicom Bhd‘s property division.

However, no official announcement has been made so far.

Kenanga Research views Razeek’s resignation as neutral as it sees that the resignation could be a prelude to another major corporate exercise in the group.

“We do not discount the possibility that there could be another round of major corporate exercises like mergers or takeovers in the near term. We think that MRCB will be actively looking for the right party to contribute major assets such as land banks as its KL Sentral development is maturing within the next one to two years time,” it said.

In the case of Amanah Raya, group managing director Datuk Ahmad Rodzi Pawanteh stepped down in March but the trustee company has yet to name a successor.