Why SMRT has lost it and taxpayer will pay for it

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

The rumour within SMRT is that after Desmond Kwek was appointed CEO of SMRT, he clashed with several senior management staff due to differences in how things should be improved after the mess Saw left behind.

Unable to see thing eye to eye, Desmond eventually brought in his buddies in MINDEF and took care of their career. A major reshuffle was made and some of the senior staff resigned.

Those resigned took with them years of experience which were obviously not valued. What was left were the ex-MINDEF fellows who were new and unfamiliar with train operation. This of course hampered the pace of improving the service and is also the underlying reason why our train service never really improve after Saw left.

The organisation probably had forgotten the sole purpose of its existence and the important role it play in Singapore. The previous COE only focus on commercial entities within the company as she was trained in retail. As for the current COE, he is a soldier and prior to that, he was a student. That said, he is not considered by many to have not done real work before. He only commands.

Every organisation has a culture, this culture needs to be maintained and nurtured. It is what keeps the organisation on track to its most fundamental existence.

However, when an organisation is overrun by a sudden influx of new high management staff who has no idea why the organisation exist, the culture within and how the ground staff works, the organisation is in big trouble.

Once a culture is gone, it will never be the same again.

It is always better to train and nurture staff within so as to keep the culture going and allow staff to grow with the organisation. If an organisation claim otherwise, then its leaders has failed in their role to plan for succession and decided to take the easy way out by taking in external staff instead.

I'm sure there are other organisation who had the same experienced just like SMRT.


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