Book Review: Wee Cho Yaw - 黄祖耀 - 大华之道

I like the chinese title a lot more than the english title because it really reflects the contents of the book - the way of United Overseas Bank (UOB). The english title is Wee Cho Yaw - Banker, Entrepreneur and Community Leader by Pang Cheng Lian, which doesn't do justice to the book.

This book was recommended by a colleague. I was hooked onto the contents and finished reading the book within 1 man day spread over a few days. It is about the history of Wee Cho Yaw's life and some of the key business decisions that he made which made UOB what it is today. Compared with Robert Kuok's book, this book is much thinner, nothing about the war and japanese occupation, but it does show how common it was for men to have two wives in the past, how lucky they were, how their parents shaped their values (for Kuok, it was his mother, for Wee, it was his father), and how the leader' values run through the company.

Similar to Robert Kuok, Wee was also born with a silver spoon. Wee took over the bank from his father, Datuk Wee Kheng Chiang.

One thing that was mentioned multiple times was how important it was for the company staff to be focused on long term growth and results as opposed to short term results. He thinks that banks that reward staff based on annual profits and growth figures will lead staff to take on very high risks which puts the bank in an unnecessary risk position, such as loans to high risk customers, buying highly leveraged risky products, leveraged trades, etc. He claimed to reward staff more based on long term results, and as a result have many staff work for him for a very long time. He also emphasised the importance to have good leaders, and personally selects the leaders with the key characteristics of integrity to safeguard public funds and passion for the job. It sounds noble, and I really hope UOB remains like that.

Risk management in UOB is likely very conservative, given the way he describes that it is very important to win the trust of the customers, because the customers need to trust the bank in order for the bank to survive. He cited an example how a mini bank-run caused panic among the customers and staff even had to go as far as to escort a lady who withdrew tens of thousands of cash all the way to her home. The panic was caused by a misunderstanding where queues that formed at branches to pay their utilities bills was mistaken to be customers withdrawing their money. These rumours made other customers panic and when the bank branch ran out of cash, it caused even more panic to the public. It is always such experiences that live in the back of our minds that remind us the importance of building trust.

Wee also emphasised the need on passing on the values of the earlier migrant chinese and UOB, which was the motivation for this book. The migrant chinese placed a lot of emphasis of education, many contributed and continue to contribute to school building funds. Social cohesion through clans and associations were also something mainstream in the past, but not so much now because their roles had been taken over by structured education systems managed by the government. I wonder how much of chinese migrant history we can preserve when everything is so westernised.

The final chapter was one that made me reflect the more about what it means to "enjoy my job". Wee believes that to gain success, one must enjoy one's job. "The job is not important. What is important is that you enjoy doing it. You have to be passionate about your career; this is the basis of future success." However, the definition of success varies for everyone too.

He also prefers to employ people who are prepared to disagree with him when a situation warrants it. Although he is a person of strong views, the last thing he wants are yes-man who accept his ideas mindlessly. This also made me think about how the management hierarchy seem to favour yes-man nowadays.

His secret to success was summarised as luck, having the right team, and family support.