Human Resources
One might think that in fast developing countries like Singapore and Malaysia clever people lacking the right qualifications would still rise rapidly to the top. Unfortunately one would frequently be wrong. A case in point involves a Singapore SME ruining a $ 250.000 investment in IT simply because they would not spent an additional $ 200 per month to hire a very capable high school drop-out.
As I described in IT & in Financing a Moribund Company, I discovered the Nixdorf Quattro minicomputer while investigating solutions for the dairy wholesaler Friesland Singapore Pte. Ltd.. In getting this system to work exactly as I would like to, I received a lot of assistance from a girl who had recently dropped out of high school and had joined us as junior clerk.It soon became apparent that our computer operator, hired before my arrival, was highly unsuited for the job: basically the strange ‘black box’ frightened her. I asked the junior clerk to give it a try and she took to it, like a fish to water, I never had to explain anything twice and she frequently came up with her own solutions. Therefore, when I left the company (Obsoleting myself through a Joint Venture), she automatically became the head of IT for this newly minted joint venture.
A few years later, through my contacts with the Employers Federation, I came in touch with a bright ambitious woman running the Singapore subsidiary of a European company. She was looking for her first computer system and asked me for advice. I analysed her operation and came to the conclusion that here too, the Nith women, explaining that the salary might seem high, however she was more than worth it and hiring her would shave months of the implementation, she knew the system inside out. To my utter amazement a much more expensive ex-IBM engineer was hired – after all he had proven his value at IBM and at university and nobody in his or her right mind would pay the asking price for my drop-out –.xdorf Quattro would be the perfect (affordable) solution – getting the same usability from an IBM system would easily cost triple the amount-. I did warn her of one Nixdorf pitfall: very few people know how to operate it, it is easy, but you need to spend the time and many young engineers are only interested in learning IBM. I had the solution however, I had stayed in contact with my once junior clerk and she had informed me that while still reasonably happy in her job, it had become very routine, she had raised a group of competent operators and was ready for a new adventure. I introduced bo
When I visited the company 2 years later, the Nixdorf had disappeared, two additional engineers had been hired and they were in the process of implementing an AS400 system; if ever I saw overkill and a shameful waste of Human Resources.
Some of my Cases
Penang Skills Development Centre
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