Aisah reflects on climb up corporate ladder in man’s world

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Sarawak Energy received the Most Sustainable Brand Award 2015-2016 at the Brand Laureate Awards in Kuala Lumpur.

INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day in the month of March is a significant time to highlight the quest of women from around the world for empowerment, equality and to press for progress.

In Sarawak one such personality is Aisah Eden, executive vice-president for Corporate Services at Sarawak Energy.

Heading corporate services, Aisah helms Brand and Corporate Reputation, Corporate Social Responsibilities strategies and initiatives guided by the global sustainability standards of the International Hydropower Association (IHA) and the

United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She attained the position in 2015 after building up a wealth of experience coupled with an impressive list of contributions through a diverse portfolio.

Aisah earned her place in the Group Executive Committee of Sarawak Energy. Currently, she is the only woman, something she hopes to change through her work in the Sarawak Energy Leading Women Network (SELWN), which she spearheads. SELWN is a platform that supports and commits to working towards gender parity in the organisation and subscribing to women empowerment.

She has since become the spokesperson of sustainability and in her current role, Sarawak Energy has established itself as one of the leading corporate organisations in pursuing sustainability. She is an appointed advisory board member with the UN Global Compact Network (Malaysia) and UNDP enabling the company to align its initiatives to the UN SDGs.

In this article, Aisah shares her challenges and experience in climbing the corporate ladder in a male dominated industry and her aspiration in having more women representation in the corporate sector especially in leadership positions.

Q: You returned to Sarawak after graduating with a Law degree from the UK and subsequently, you obtained your professional qualification as a Barrister-at-Law, and later your MBA. Why did you chose the corporate sector and specifically, Sesco or Sarawak Energy?

A:  I came back in the early eighties as you rightly pointed out and was on the look- out for employment.  I guess it was not so much as it was a matter of choice, rather the right job offer came at the right time.  Sesco was advertising for a legal officer at the time I was looking for a similar placement.  You could say that the universe works in mysterious ways and brought us together and it turned out to be the best choice for me. Of course I have not had the opportunity to go into practice and experience the life as an advocate as I would have intended earlier but in life we make choices and I chose to stay in the corporate sector and Sesco at that point of time and now with Sarawak Energy specifically.

Q: Can you share with us what you consider as highlights in your memorable journey in Sesco/Sarawak Energy?

A: There are many.  When I first joined Sesco, our headquarters was at Electra House.  Our work force is about a tenth of what it is now whilst serving the length and breadth of the State.  Our total generating capacity was about 300MW. The first 275KV backbone transmission line linking Kuching to Miri was being constructed.  So was our first Headquarters building at Wisma Sesco. The first hydroelectric plant at Batang Ai was being constructed and commissioned in 1985.

Thirty years later, all that has changed in leaps and bounds.  The company as a group has transformed beyond anything that I could have imagine in the eighties but it was faith in its potential and capability that has brought me here.

Q: What are the milestones in your career with the company?

A: I had been around quite a bit.  Over the years, we (as a company) underwent a number of corporate exercises.  As a Group we were listed on Bursa for a number of years in early 2000 until it was de-listed by way of a voluntary de-listing and voluntary offer exercise in 2010.  I was the corporate secretary and later the Group Company Secretary for more than 19 years and was Head of Human Resources at that time and in those roles I had the opportunity to play an active part in the transition of Sesco from a statutory body into a private sector undertaking.

In 2011 I was appointed Senior Vice-President of Retail, and tasked with new responsibilities mainly to do with revenue protection and customer management before assuming my current portfolio as Executive Vice President, Corporate Services.

Q: You launched SELWN last year, what motivated you to set up this support network and what do you seek to achieve with the setup in Sarawak Energy?

A: Gender equality and women empowerment has always been in the forefront of my mind.  However, we were caught up in a whirlwind of corporate change and transformation over the last ten years that it was left on the back burner of the list of things to-do.  Last year I attended some of the events and forums during the last UN sitting in New York and it became clear to me this is something I need to do in pursuit of the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No.5 on Gender Equality & Women Empowerment.  Our 2016 Sustainability Report has been endorsed by the Global Reporting Initiative (Sarawak Energy is a gold member of GRI) on the accuracy of the SDGs linkages to our relevant indicators. In short this confirms that our current corporate sustainability and CSR initiatives are aligned to the 17 UN SDGs SDG No.5 Gender Equality & Women Empowerment is one of our focus area.

Aisah Eden, executive vice-president for Corporate Services Sarawak Energy.

Q: Tell us more about SELWN.

A: SELWN’s vision is to position Sarawak Energy as a brand, partner and employer of choice for women. The Network is a platform focus on women and leadership.  The National targets in this area are 30 per cent gender ratio, 30 per cent in decision-making position/management and 30 per cent participation on board appointments in both the public and private sectors.  Sarawak Energy’s current gender ratio is 21 per cent (female), out of this percentage, 8 per cent are in various leadership or decision making positions and nil on the main boards. It is also important to reverse the trend of women presence in the company from majority support roles to professional and management roles.

Q: What is the future direction of SELWN and what would consider being its success factors?

A: As far as the three 30 per cent national targets goes, Sarawak is far below these targets.  We advocate for the achievements of these targets, latest by year 2030. Currently, the women council with the support from both management and HR, are discussing strategies in three focus areas to deliver these targets, namely, recruitment strategies to close the gender ratio gap, development of women leadership and talent management opportunities and retention strategies such as career-come back and other initiatives to encourage women to remain in the workforce.

On the success factors, delivering the 30 per cent (or more) National targets in those three areas would be a clear indication of success.  The focus however is to see more women in the professional and management positions.

Q: In your current role as EVP of Corporate Services, you are also involved with implementing Sarawak Energy’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and initiatives. Can you share with us some of the highlights and flagship programs, why you think it is important for private sectors to be involved and what are the lessons learnt?

A: Our corporate sustainability and CSR initiatives supports the following four pillars, namely, education and young people, community development and entrepreneurship, environmental management & conservation and culture & heritage. A few of our flagship programs includes the Adult Literacy Program for the Penansdelivered in partnership with the Society for Advancement of Women & Family and the MurumPenan Handicraft Program.  There are artisans who are expert weavers among the Penan women and recently we collaborated with Universiti Malaysia Sarawak on a product range featuring contemporary designs, which adds to the craft’s marketability. This provides an income stream for the Penans in the Murum Resettlement.

These artisans are also supported by providing them the exposure at handicraft expositions both at State and National levels, such as the recent Handicraft Convention held in Kuala Lumpur.

Q: We celebrated International Women Day recently and I understand Sarawak Energy held a special celebration to mark this year’s celebration bringing together both senior management and male colleagues for a conversation with the women council and the ladies at Sarawak Energy generally.  Share with us the positive outcome of this engagement.

A: It starts with the conversation on gender equality and women empowerment.  The positive outcome I think came from the active participation of both men and women of this organization, in not only creating the awareness but also actively, participating and talking about this idea of gender equality and women empowerment, which is something new to many.  This is a positive first step in the right direction.

Q: The energy and utility business is a male dominated industry. How can we change that?

A: Yes the energy business is pretty much still dominated by men.  However, that trend is changing, as we see more professional women entering the workforce and from the statistics of women versus men entering tertiary education and graduating.   My personal view is that we need to make this industry more conducive to women generally and arrest the attrition especially around the age of 29 when they tend to start a family and choosing to leave the job market. They will need a strong support system within the organisation such as the career come back program and childcare centres or similar facilities.

We also need to seriously think about “work-life balance” and take action now to achieve what we mean and want from this in line with this year’s International Women Day 2018 campaign theme #Press for Progress: The Action is Now.

Q: What kind of mindset should women do away with if they want to go up the corporate ladder?

A: Positive mindset sets the foundation for success but equally important is to have strong technical skills and experience in whatever you do to build that confidence within you and gain the respect of others.  Having the right level of soft skills and maturity (EQ) does matter.

Q: If you had a chance to go back in time, is there anything you would do differently in your career?

A: As they say, it is easy to become seers on hindsight, but learning from our mistakes (provided it is not irredeemable) is the best lesson one could

have in life.  I doubt there is anything different I could be doing given the circumstances and I have had my fair share of life learnings.

Q: To all the young ladies who aspire to climb the corporate ladder as how you did, any inspirational quotes to share with them?

A: “Be that change” #Press for Progress  *The Time for Action is Now. As our YAB PM (who is also a strong advocate of women empowerment) said in the past, “when women succeed, we all succeed”.