The Edge featured an interview with the new PNB CEO in last week’s edition.

It was the first “meet the press” interview for Datuk Rizal Rickman Ramli with The Edge.

Rick, as he is addressed, is a former consultant from the Boston Consulting Group.

He joined PNB in 2018 as an Executive Vice President of Property and Real Estate.

Before that, he served as the Country Managing Partner for Malaysia at the Boston Consulting Group.

He termed his time with PNB as a form of “national service.”

But make no mistake: national service with an organization like PNB does not mean he is taking a pay cut, and he is fully expected to beef up PNB’s performance.

And Rick does not disappoint.

He stated that PNB, under his stewardship, will focus heavily on Total Shareholder Return (TSR) and Return on Equity (ROE).

A simple guide for the board, IMO.

Here is what Return on Equity actually means: Suppose you open a nasi lemak stall, and as startup capital, you put in RM1,000.

In the first year of operation, after deducting every cost, you make a profit of RM100. The ROE for your nasi lemak stall is 10%.

For the companies under PNB’s stable—excluding the mega banking groups like Maybank—many public listings have struggled with an ROE of less than 10%. This is not to mention Bursa-listed entities like Vantris Energy Berhad (formerly Sapura Energy, originally Sapura Kencana) which have faced negative ROE.

To address this, PNB will reportedly send letters to these boards demanding performance improvements. CEOs work for their boards; they will need to address this underperformance, or else…

This sounds like the right message, and Rick sounds like a pure numbers guy.

But managing a sprawling organization like PNB with so many diverse stakeholders is no simple job.

Rick will ultimately be judged on his performance in two to three years’ time, but this is a plan I can understand and root for.

Every PNB fund holder should root for Rick’s success.

Many have suffered through a long period of underperformance compared to the glory days of the 1990s, and they will welcome a fresh, aggressive focus on performance improvement.