The unprecedented health crisis, without doubt, has been a game-changer for businesses as they look to navigate their way through the most challenging time across the globe since World War II.
To commemorate Malaysia Day on Wednesday, The Edge posed questions to the captains of some of the country’s major industries, the central one being — how has business changed since the coronavirus outbreak and ensuing MCO period?
Chuah Choon Bin
Executive chairman
Pentamaster Corp Bhd
The Edge: The pandemic has been an unprecedented event. How have you managed to navigate it so far? Has this been the most challenging period ever for your industry?
Covid-19 has indeed affected various sectors in very different ways. For manufacturing, it has changed the way the global supply chain operates. The biggest challenge for us is the inability to travel to service our international customers. In order to overcome these issues, we need to set up more local services offices in the various countries where our customers operate to serve them better.
Have you had to change the way of doing business? And if so, how? What was the toughest challenge?
The lead time for customer orders or business visibility is getting shorter — from nine months to about three to six months. With the shorter term of visibility, it will be even more challenging for the supply chain since there are logistical problems due to the restrictions on travel. For us, the toughest challenge today are the travel restrictions as our engineers have difficulty travelling to customers’ sites for machine setup.
Have there been any unexpected upsides for your industry amid this pandemic?
We see an upside in the telecommunication and medical sectors, and IGBT (insulated gate bipolar transistor) for the EV (electric vehicle) sector.
You’ve had years of experience in your industry. What have you had to unlearn as a result of the pandemic? And on the flipside, what new skills have you had to learn?
The pandemic has prompted us to shift significant portions of our operations online and it has also prompted us to foster closer collaboration with local partners, which is essential.
What is the outlook for your industry? What is the new normal for your industry and do you think these will stick post-pandemic?
Overall, the outlook for our industry in the telecommunication, medical and EV sectors is bright. We see the potential in these three sectors for Pentamaster to continue to grow in the future.
In the pandemic, being the fittest is not necessarily key to survival. In reality, it is being able to adapt.
Source: https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/cover-story-ceo-survey-leading-businesses-new-normal
By Supriya Surendran and Adeline Paul Raj