Business jihad in healthcare through transformational leadership : A case analysis of Malaysia's KPJ Healthcare Berhad's CEO

• Main Author: Sharif, Mohmad Yazam
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: HD Industries. Land use. Labor
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/1681/1/Mohamad_Yazam_Sharif%5B1%5D.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/1681/
• Institution: Universiti Utara Malaysia

The aim of this paper is to present the findings of a case analysis on the implementation of the concept of 'business jihad' by KPJ Healthcare Berhad, Malaysia's largest private hospital group. Data for this analysis were obtained from the public domain. Presently besides owning various private hospitals throughout Malaysia, KPJ Healthcare also owns private hospitals in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia. The idea of "business jihad" was mooted by the Company's chairman, Tan Sri Muhammad Ali Hashim some 20 years' ago when he was heading Johore Corporation, one of Malaysia's successful government agencies in charge of developing the economy of Johore. Johore is one of the wealthy states in West Malaysia, partly due to the success of Johore Corporation (JCorp).It was observed that Muhammad Ali had practiced effective people management especially at senior management levels for JCorp and all its subsidiaries. Muhammad Ali had selected talented managers to assist him and one of them is Datin Paduka Siti Sa'diah Sheikh Bakir, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of KPJ Healthcare. Siti Sa'diah too practiced good human resource management (HRM) and in turn selected other talented managers to assist her. Talented managers had led to the practice of high degree of professionalism in running the activities of KPJ Healthcare.Nonetheless, the company was not perfect and had its shares of flaws. But the company was seen to be keen to find ways of improving itself in line with the ideals of 'business jihad'. The goal of making profit was important to the company. However, its managers under the leadership of Siti Sa'diah were taught that the profit objective should not be achieved at the expense of quality service and the development of Muslim ummah. Quality service is not only good for business but it is also in line with the commands of Allah.