Hazia’s Reflections

A Branding Consultant I met at work recently gave me a good example of a successful re-branding exercise. People have to wake up to a brand new day - that is the benchmark. The logo didn’t change, neither did the corporate colour, however, everybody knew re-branding happened. Yeah, it was the government of Malaysia.

I think since I started this job, it had opened my eyes to a lot of things. I realised that what I perceived as ‘the past’ is still ‘the present’ to a lot of people. There is a specific community that needs to be re-branded, critically so.

I am aware that my level of patience is very, very thin these days. I often ended up raising my voice to suppliers - communications agencies especially. Their lack of knowledge in their respective fields irritated the hell out of me. I mean they are the consultants, why should I be more well versed in their areas of expertise?

Many of these people are where they are due to a special privilege - of having been born a Bumiputra. Some even have the additional advantage of connection with powerful figures.

I am a Bumiputra too, but along my 10 years of working life, non of my superiors ever let me get away with that kind of crappy standard. I worked my ass off to grow and meet expectations. And to see these people being accorded jobs easily despite not even having the expertise to deliver a decent quality of service and counsel, well, it pisses me off! A lot. I guess that must be how non-Bumiputras feel.