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Cisco System Uses Its Culture for Competitive Advantage

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Ned’s Hermann’s Brains Quadrants Theory of G. Gnanalingam.
Known as one of the influential marketing whiz of Malaysia, Tan Sri Datuk G. Gnanalingam started from a humble beginning. A decedent of Sri Lankan Tamil ancestry, he was born in Singapore and grew up in Port Dickson . Getting his early education from Royal Military College, he continued to further his studies in University Malaya and Harvard Business School, Boston. With a strong education background, he started his career in British American Tobacco. After years in the company, he was appointed into becoming the Marketing Director in an early age of 34. He continued expanding his potential as he established his own consulting firm and the firm being appointed to be responsible in handling commercial operations of RTM. He had done the impossible as he increases the revenue from RM 55 million to RM 350 in a period of 10 years. Currently, he is the Executive Chairman of Westport, one of the biggest port operator in Malaysia.
Based from his past achievement, we can conclude exactly what is his most active quadrants in the Ned Hermann Brain Quadrants Theory. From the observation, his tendency is much more to quadrant C and quadrant D. His emotions towards the death of his father almost caused him to drop out from his university . It can be seen that his reaction to the situation is drastic and the placement of being emotional would be in the quadrant C. Being labelled as one of the most influential marketing guru in Malaysia, he has the effective interpersonal skill in reaching people from the success stories when he was being the Marketing consultant for RTM. Collecting an amount that is considered impossible to others, his thinking skills of reaching millions with his soft skills represents the activeness of his quadrant C. His intentions for the future of the Westport would be the appointment of his own son that will soon to be the future successor of the company is solely based on feelings that he has towards his son. He wanted to give the company to his son and it shows that his judgment represents the thinking process of quadrant C. His actions also can be seen as humanistic when he contribute medical expenses for the native people of Pulau Indah. His actions to deploy corporate social responsibility event portrays his humanistic values. As he being the leader of the organization, he sets up a bottom line of Profit, Passion and Compassion. He takes attention to both his employees and the public thus representing his character of humanistic.
His thinking skill can also be categorized mostly in Quadrant D. His family consisting of 4 members including him has different opinion in terms of spiritual belief. He himself is a Hindu, his wife a Buddhist, his daughter marrying a Christian and his son a Muslim. He holds to the fact that there is a much more superior being than human and that eventually shows how his thinking skills works in terms of spiritual reaction. Being spiritual puts him in the category of quadrant D. His vision for the upcoming future can also be seen in the success of Westport. He created a ‘garden port concept’, a concept in which the port is public friendly making it the only port in the world to execute such concept. He innovates the port system thus showing his region of creative thinking skills being active in the right hemisphere of the brain. In the early years, the location of the company was simply from a swampy island turned into being the leading container terminal operator in Port Klang today. His long term vision of creating an establishment from scratch shows his thinking ability of being visionary.
Being the founder of Westport Malaysia, Tan Sri Gnanalingam has contribute to the innovation and development of port system in Malaysia. Creating a concept that is new to the field shows on how he thinks. His active right hemisphere contributes so much in the development of a company that he build and as time goes by, the company slowly develops into becoming an empire.

References 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._Gnanalingam

2. Westport holdings berhad (12, 10 13). [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=30013493&ticker=WPRTS:MK&previousCapId=6113820&previousTitle=WESTPORTS HOLDINGS BHD

3. The Star (2009, September 26). MALAYSIAN SPORTS: Gnanalingam's Biggest Regret. Retrieved from http://ssdhaliwal.blogspot.com/2009/09/gnanalingams-biggest-regret.htm 4. MALAYSIAN SPORTS: Gnanalingam's Biggest Regret. (2009, September 26). Retrieved from http://ssdhaliwal.blogspot.com/2009/09/gnanalingams-biggest-regret.html.

--------------------------------------------
[ 1 ]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._Gnanalingam
[ 2 ]. Westport holdings berhad (12, 10 13). [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=30013493&ticker=WPRTS:MK&previousCapId=6113820&previousTitle=WESTPORTS HOLDINGS BHD
[ 3 ]. The Star (2009, September 26). MALAYSIAN SPORTS: Gnanalingam's Biggest Regret. Retrieved from http://ssdhaliwal.blogspot.com/2009/09/gnanalingams-biggest-regret.htm
[ 4 ]. MALAYSIAN SPORTS: Gnanalingam's Biggest Regret. (2009, September 26). Retrieved from http://ssdhaliwal.blogspot.com/2009/09/gnanalingams-biggest-regret.html.

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