Time To Get The Bigger Boys

The National Banks Sports Council (NBSC) had its bienal AGM yesterday as true to some whispers in the background the same team (2007-2009) was retained after yesterday's AGM which looked more like a "Saya Setuju" meeting where every motion was passed without questions.

I may be wrong as the papers for the AGM was done perfect or just the attendees was not too bothered to ask or probe any questions on it. But never mind on that, it's done and dusted.

Looking at the team for the term 2009-2011, the President comes from Exim Bank while the Deputy President comes from Bank Rakyat. The questions that boggles my mind is the pedigree of the financial instituition's sporting background, not the individual.

We all know how rich Maybank's sporting history is while CIMB are hiring people to narrow the gap in inter-bank sports.

Why sports people from Maybank, CIMB or even RHB are not in that high level appointment (meaning the president and deputy president positions) beats the hell out of me. In this era of cost cutting, getting the right people from those financial instituitions can assist NBSC to cut cost, especially hiring venues for the their sports organisation.

In fact, they can probably get those venues for free, and in turn, they can lower the entrance fees and encourage more members to participate in the various sports they organise. Maybank has an excellent sports facility which can house athletes to live and train there, so why nobody ever though of putting a senior Maybank person there?

An insider told me that they have approached many high level (read:senior management) people from various instituition but all declined due to work commitments. If that is the case, I think the committee needs to put in more thought and find out why these key decision makers are not interested to take on this job? What are the reasons? Can somebody tell us? Is there a stumbling block within or outside the organisation that is making things tough for senior management to come in?

Also, a little bird told me that NBSC don't make much cash or normally break even - so it will be a mystery what the new exco or old exco (not much difference?) are going to do about this moving forward? As bankers, can't we think of various way to raise more capital?

In this age where sports are moving towards profesionalism, maybe NBSC can do simple things and not move one step back to please different cliques or factions within the organisation. The first thing to do is to get the right banks at the top and more senior management presence to move it forward in looking at ways to increase its financial status and also keeping the cost of participation low.

Maybe the new committee needs to sit down and brainstorm on getting CEOs and MDs of each bank to be in the exco - that will be a start though....