I have been spending quite a lot of time in KL recently. I volunteered to do a job there for the local office, replacing temporarily the marketing manager there who left in April. The last few months has been airport rides to Changi at 5pm, passing through security and immigration twice, a train to and from KLIA and KL Sentral, and taxis to a hotel room. After two work days, I'd leave at 4pm then the LRT to KL Sentral and another plane back home. Hectic. I called it 'a long way home' two ways.
We had a short handover. I mean short like a 4-5 hours. Maybe the expectation was that a "hub" guy would know more than just "hub" stuff. It was a bit of both. The reality of executing locally is very different in practice than the scraps of information, hearsay and emails we "hub" people piece together to make a semblance of what a local role and its responsibilities are like.
But I went in with eyes open, brain ready, smile flashing and right hand outstretched. And the Malaysia team welcomed me with open arms and a ton of stuff.
It was eye opening to say the least. The numbers, goodness. Dealing with moving finances, planning spend, pouring over work statements, checking POs, fy16 planning, staring at Excel sheets upon Excel sheets pivoted against other Excel sheets - that's the stuff marketing folks are made of. The meetings with agencies, checking facts and branding, logo placements, even social posts were easy compared to juggling finances. Thank God for a3 printouts.
The agencies are well agencies. Being from a couple myself, I can understand their position and eagerness to perform. I dealt with three and all have their quirks. I felt somehow all three were being under-utilised with respect to their full potential. They weren't being challenged or tested. So I tried to shake things up a bit where I could. It was fun.
My colleagues in KL are part of a small team. They are solid people. Hardworking, enthusiastic and driven. It was amazing to see how everyone supported everyone. From the top down and bottom up. Success for one was success for all. They also partied hard. Good lord, they can party.
The most unexpected part of the exercise was that I liked it. I grew to like it even more than I realised I could. I think it was part new adventure, part power trip and part new people and surroundings. I was also meeting clients and talking about how my company could help their business. It was refreshing. Things were moving. Everything was fluid and unconstrained. The potential to make things happen was, is, palpable.
I told my 'temp job' manager that if they gave me my salary in sgd and put back my CPF, I'd have a run for the role. But alas, no KL for me.
What's sucky about KL is that it's just waiting to be brilliant. The city is alive but held back by bad planning, silly rules and a general malaise about change. Things could be great if people want it to. Those courageous ones seem to want to leave or just work hard to make their own heaven within the madness.
My run up north is coming to an end soon and I will relish the privilege. It's hard managing two jobs but it helped me grow. It might be the seven years in the same place that's affecting me. Maybe it's something else. Seeing possibilities from saying yes, from something out of the blue, made me understand myself better. It was well worth the sacrifice.
I managed to catch a few movies in 40 minute segments. Last one was The Age Of Ultron, a long one in 3 flights.
