A case study on strategic leadership in TNB : Tan Sri Dato' Dr. Ani Arope (1991-1996), Tan Sri Datuk Dr. A. Tajuddin Ali (1996-1999), Dato' Pian Sukro (2001-present)

Abstract

TNB is the most successful privatized company in Malaysia. This study was carried out with the intent to analyze the strategies implemented and challenges faced by each leader since its privatization period until present (1991-2002). The CEOs involved in this study were Tan Sri Ani Arope (1991-1996), Tan Sri Ahmad Tajuddin Ali (1996- 2000) and Dato' Pian Sukro (2000-till present). This study was crucial in assessing the performance of TNB by analyzing its strategic leadership since it was a requirement to strategic success of any business to remain profitable. The objectives of this study were to determine the strategic leadership approach applied by each leader, to analyze the strategies implemented by them, to study the challenges faced and to evaluate the performance through the strategy implemented. The in-depth interviews with all three leaders of TNB were conducted to obtain the primary data and the secondary data was gathered from the library and through the Internet search. In analyzing the strategic leadership approach, the pattern-matching technique was used by adopting the Leadership Approach method and Strategic Leadership Star method. The SWOT analysis was used to determine the relevance between the challenges they encountered and the strategies that they used. Performance of each leader was examined by analyzing the indicators such as sales, productivity, net profit, operating expenses and Return on Assets (ROA). This study found that each leader faced different challenges, thus implemented different strategies to cope with it. Ani Arope focused on changing government to corporate culture, where Tajuddin Ali aimed to increase efficiency in providing reliable electricity supply, and Pian Sukro was more on strengthening TNB by improving its services to meet the need of high quality electricity.