The Tree Talker
Lee adopted a hands-on managerial style and home in on what it takes to maximize yields as early as in the 1960s. Lee's untiring walkabout at IOI's 152,000 hectares of oil palm plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia has earned him the 'tree talker' moniker among journalists, rival plantation companies and banking circles in Malaysia.
In 2005, in a rare field trip with stock analysts and journalists, Lee, the usually serious businessman, revealed a lighter side to his personality. He pointed to the oil palm trees and in a deadpan face, said the trees were his girlfriends.
"Each one has her own characteristics. If one produces well, I will tell her 'I love you'," Lee grins, adding that if a tree is not productive he would tell her that he will give her six to nine months to bear the quota of fruits. Surprisingly, they tend to bloom to expectation," he said.
But what happens if after nine months, they still bore no fruit?
"Well, I'll tell her, 'I'm sorry darling. I will have to chop you down'," he said.
The legend of Lee serenading to his trees gained mileage among business circles again when, at a vegetable oils conference in December 2008, Tun Musa Hitam, chairman of Sime Darby, a close rival to IOI Group, acknowledged Lee's singing of Tamil songs has worked wonders on oil palm yields. Musa then said he will 'seriously' think about asking his management team to sing Indonesian songs to the trees at the estates, too.
In July 2009, while receiving an award on behalf of IOI Group at the Third Annual Best Financial Institutions in South-East Asia Awards in Kuala Lumpur, Lee lent weight to his moniker.
"I am always quoted as talking to the trees, so it looks like I have to continue talking to the trees to get another award,” he said.
Read more about this topic: Lee Shin Cheng
Famous quotes containing the words tree and/or talker:
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he
meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that
bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither;
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm I (l. I, 1–3)
“Philosophy ... does not talk, but write, or, when it comes personally before an audience, lecture or read; and therefore it must be read to-morrow, or a thousand years hence. But the talker must naturally be attended to at once; he does not talk on without an audience; the winds do not long bear the sound of his voice.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)