SMRT New CEO Indirectly Threw Shade at Old CEO By Declaring There’s No Deep-Seated Cultural Issue

Now, like it or not, trains in Singapore have become more reliable.

Days of “I think I’ll leave home earlier because trains might break down” have become part of our history, and statistics have proven that.

In the first half of this year, trains travelled a total of 574,000km before a delay, compared to 181,000km before a delay in 2017.

These are good numbers, and giving credit where credit is due, in the first half of 2018, SMRT was led by Mr Desmond Kuek.

Currently, it’s at 661,000km before a delay, and the goal is to travel 1,000,000km before a delay by 2020.

For comparison’s sake, Hong Kong’s MTR clocked 650,000km before a delay (though we don’t know if they’re still holding on to that number since they had some major breakdowns recently) and Taipei Metro travelled 883,000km before a delay.

Lest you’re not aware, since August this year, Mr Neo Kian Hong, an ex-Chief of Defence Force, took the hot seat of SMRT CEO.

So far, he has walked the talk by doing these:

• Sold his car and took public transport to work
• Stood between train carriages to experience the journey
• Visited night shifts two to three times a week (WAH!)
• Visited all 58 North-South Line Stations (red) and East-West Line Stations (green)

Suffice to say, the man’s going all out.

And when he went all out, he didn’t mince his words.

Well, at least that’s how I’d interpret.

“Only Poor Leaders”

According to reports, Mr Neo said this to reporters: “In some militaries, they use this term – ‘there are no poor soldiers, there are only poor leaders’…This is a team sport. The whole organisation is required.”

I don’t know about you, but it seems like a shade to me. And for the record, I’ve served in the SAF and haven’t heard of this phrase before, though I’m sure there are poor soldiers—”poor” as in not wealthy #justsaying

And to add more shade to the shade, he said this: “I don’t agree with the term ‘deep-seated culture’, because that’s not my experience when engaging with the ground.”

In case you’re not aware, just a year ago, the ex-CEO attributed the train disruptions to “deep-seated cultural issues”.

Of course, it could mean that in a year, the ex-CEO Mr Kuek has managed to change the culture effectively, which is why the new CEO didn’t feel the old culture.

But still, it feels like a burn to me. No wonder people who have worked with Mr Neo said that he’s a no-bullshit guy.

SMRT to be Reorganized into Five Main Groups

In a large move by the new CEO, SMRT is going to be reorganized into five different groups as follow:

• Trains
• Engineering
• Roads
• Experience
• Corporate Services

It’s unknown when they would be implemented, but they’ve been doing these for a while now: the reorganization was to cluster what they’re doing into different groups so that they can focus better.

Not sure about you, but I’m looking at Experience. if anyone from Experience is reading this, I’ve a little request: how about adding Wi-Fi to all trains?

You can than break down all you want because a train disruption with Netflix isn’t too bad.