HOLIDAY INN, Glenmarie 19 May 2012. Contrary to previous convention which was either held at the Sunway Resort, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, One World Hotel or those of similar sizes, this year the dealers convention was held at a smaller grand ballroom at the Holiday Inn, Glenmarie making full use of assets under DRB-HICOM stable of companies.
That was not the only noticeable changes within the PROTON eco-system but the DRB-Hicom DNA was seen significantly visible at every corner. For a start, PROTON EDAR senior management was in the same uniform with a homogeneous neck tie... a prominent culture within DRB-Hicom (see Dato Sri Kamil and his management team's neck ties at HERE and see PESB at 2010 Convention and 2011 Convention). This is expected and more changes will be seen now that PROTON Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of DRB-HICOM. Yes, PROTON was successfully recently de-listed from the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.
The function began with Dato Sri Syed Zainal Abidin in his usual humble but very inspiring self, extended his gratefulness to the whole network for the support extended to PROTON and apologized for some policies and deliverables that was slow in execution. Dato Sri Syed Zainal, whom is probably the only automotive Manufacturer in the world that shook the hand of all his 4,500 sales advisors nationwide in a gathering earlier this year said, his only passion was to make PROTON as the number 1 people's choice and Malaysia's best selling vehicle. However, he continued in a frustrated voice, "a Kelantanese would say 'Habih Rheng' doh!!" That sentence has many meaning but let us not speculate. Dato Sri Syed Zainal's most important message is for the owners of the dealer to take charge of his dealership and make changes. There is only so much that he can do but as an owner and the no 1 in the dealership's organisation, we can do much more.