TM HONOURS ENTREPRENEUR EXCELLENCE

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) today honoured the crème de la crème among its entrepreneurs in an awards ceremony, “TM Entrepreneur Awards 2012”, held at TM Convention Centre.

The bi-annual event, last held in 2010, was organised to recognise and honour the entrepreneurs under TM’s Entrepreneur Development Programme (EDP) that have shown extraordinary achievements throughout the year 2010 and 2011. The awards night also aims to motivate the entrepreneurs to improve their innovativeness, competitiveness, profitability and quality as well as to participate in continuous improvement, creativity, innovation and R&D. In addition, it was hoped that the awards will motivate other entrepreneurs to emulate the winners as their role models.

Best of the Best – Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia (2nd from left) giving away the Entrepreneur of the Year Award to Dato’ Haji Abdul Rahman Daud, Managing Director of Binaan Desjaya Sdn Bhd (2nd from right), flanked by Dato’ Sri Dr Halim Shafie, Chairman of TM (left) and Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, Group Chief Executive Officer, TM (right) at TM Entrepreneur Awards 2012 last night.

There were a total of nine (9) awards celebrated, as follows:

 Best Manufacturing Company
 Best JKH Contractor
 Special Award (Most Diversified Company)
 Special Award (Blue Lane Company)
 Innovation Excellence Award
 Best Network Operation Company
 Most Promising Company
 Export Excellence Award
 Company of The Year

The awards were given away by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, who is also Honorary President of the Perdana Leadership Foundation. Also present at the event were Dato’ Sri Dr Halim Shafie, Chairman of TM and Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, Group Chief Executive Officer, TM.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Dato’ Sri Dr Halim Shafie said, “I am delighted to be here and honour TM’s entrepreneurs and vendors who have shown exemplary results and growth. On behalf of TM, I would like to congratulate all the winners for their achievement and it should be celebrated and emulated by other entrepreneurs for continuous excellence in performance.”

One for the album – Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia (5th from left), Dato’ Sri Dr Halim Shafie, Chairman of TM (4th from left) and Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, Group Chief Executive Officer, TM (5th from right) pose with all the winners at TM Entrepreneur Awards 2012 last night.

“TM is one of the GLCs that have a long established EDP with more than 600 companies enrolled under the programme. Our entrepreneurs and vendors are our valued strategic partners. They are part of TM’s operations and business ecosystem. Throughout the years, we have established cordial working relationship with the group, and the ties get stronger each day. We will continue to working hand-in-hand with our vendors in delivering the best service to TM customers, the ultimate beneficiaries,” Dato’ Sri Dr Halim further elaborated.

To determine the winner for each award, the Evaluation Committee judged the nominees based on several criteria which included contract performance, products/service quality, financial strength, management strength and capability, operation and business performance, creativity, innovation and R&D activities as well as certifications and awards.

This bi-annual awards ceremony was last held in 2010 and for the first time this year, companies themselves participated by self-nomination, to give them the flexibility to contend in any of the categories that they feel they have performed well.

Tun Dr. Mahathir congratulated the winning vendors and said in his keynote address, “The Entrepreneur Development Programme that TM has embarked on is indeed a commendable initiative towards nurturing a group of capable, competitive and successful Bumiputera entrepreneurs. I strongly believe that to achieve performance excellence, an entrepreneur needs discipline, patience, tenacity, dedication and honesty. They also need the willingness to learn from the start and progressively grow with the business operations. They need to explore possibilities and dare to take risks. These are the qualities that need to be instilled into any worthy entrepreneur, especially under such corporate initiatives. However, the entrepreneurs cannot be continuously dependant on these corporates. The courage to expand your business scope is essential to ensure your sustainability and to outwit the competition.”

TM’s EDP focuses on three (3) key sectors namely manufacturing, services and retail with the aim of developing competitive and resilient entrepreneurs in line with the Bumiputera Commercial and Industrial Community (BCIC). Realising the vast opportunities in the ICT sector and with the launch of HSBB service, UniFi, TM has introduced a new programme namely ‘ICT Technopreneur Programme’, also known as the ‘Blue Lane’ aimed at paving the way for the small and medium-sized local ICT players to enter all relevant fields such as hardware and software including content and applications by becoming TM’s partners in a ‘win-win’ arrangement.