Daily Lessons from Life 06 January 2012 - MRT president and chief executive officer Saw Phaik Hwa has resigned

" AsiaOne Friday, Jan 06, 2012 - SMRT president and chief executive officer Saw Phaik Hwa has resigned.

The company's board of directors has accepted her resignation, which will take effect today, SMRT said in a statement this evening.

Ms Saw, 57, will remain with the SMRT Group to assist the relevant investigation teams and the Committee of Inquiry (COI) reviewing the disruptions to train operations in December. She will also help with the transition to new executive leadership.

Mr Tan Ek Kia, one of SMRT's board members, will assume interim executive responsibility for the management of SMRT, while the Board conducts a search for a new CEO.

Chairman of SMRT, Mr Koh Yong Guan, said, "On 7 December, Phaik Hwa spoke to me about her desire to move on during 2012, after having served nine years and led SMRT through considerable growth."

"During her tenure, SMRT has delivered strong results, and is regarded as one of the world's leading public transport operators," Mr Koh added.

Ms Saw said that she acknowledged the time was right for the Board to look at new leadership for the organisation.

Under her leadership, SMRT's net profit grew from $56.8 million in 2002 to $161.1 million in 2011.

Rail ridership has also gone up, averaging a combined 1.79 million a day in September."

She has resigned after steadfastly proclaming that to 'resign' will be irresponsible and she wants to 'right the wrongs' first.

Well, things change quickly I guessed.

Lessons for me are:

1. key is to find out WHY there were that many train stoppages in December 2011 that cauased inconveniences to commuters and cost the nation a fair bit of money in productivities lost. Also, while these incidents did not involve any safety and securities issues, it cannot be left to chance. So, we were lucky nobody get hurt;

2. she can STILL 'right the wrongs' working with the various investigation teams and the government appointed Commission of Inquiry (COI) over the next 2-3 months to find out WHAT exactly went wrong on those occassions so that remedial and preventive measures can be implemented and monitor to ensure non-recurrence;

3. it must be very difficult to backtrack on what you have said publicly at the critical moment. At the same time, realizing this is jut par for the situation, one can overcome the bad situation and move on from there. Life MUST continue. Mistakes were made, someone has to take responsibility for the bad consequences and right them and move on. It also tell me that the BEST PR tactic is: don't over-promise when one is in a very dire situation though DO state what one will DO to correct the situation. DO NOT refer to personal circumstances.

May SMRT Copr continue to run a world class public transportation company with monopoly or semi-monopoly status with profit and unrivalled services.