Hallo Maybank

Maybank Delegation Visits The IBR Asia Group

International Business Review’s parent company, The IBR Asia Group, played host to a delegation of 30 senior executives from Malayan Banking (Maybank) – the largest financial institution in Malaysia and the fourth largest in Southeast Asia by asset size – accompanied by Prof Dr Lawrence Stephen Abeln – Associate Dean of the Asia School of Business (ASB). This visit was in line with the Executive Learning Programme conducted by ASB – a collaboration between MIT Sloan School of Business and Bank Negara Malaysia.

During their visit, the delegation was treated to a tour of The IBR Asia Group’s office including its production area and digital TV studio. They were also given a briefing by The IBR Asia Group CEO, Datuk Beatrice Nirmala, who shared with them the inner workings of a boutique PR and communications agency. Particularly, how The IBR Asia Group manages to keep ahead and agile in the face of competition, particularly from larger, multinational parties.

“How we evolved from being purely a publishing company to being a full-service PR and communications agency is a story of being forged by ‘challenges’ and ‘tragedies’, because they are the finest teachers of Change or Transformation Management,” Datuk Beatrice said during her presentation.

“As a small company, we have to adapt and evolve and constantly steer the ship through multiple storms. We see things from a different perspective than big ones, we cannot survive without that human factor of building relationship and trust, which is so crucial to the success of small companies,” she concluded.

The visit by the Maybank top executives to The IBR Asia Group demonstrates that no organisation is too big to learn and no organisation is too small to teach. And that the most important factor of Transformation Management is being bold enough to take the first step.