CEO who owes his success to the sport

2009/11/04

DATUK Zulkifli Mohamed is known as one of the most innovative chief executive officers in Malaysia, and it is all because of tennis.

The sport has taught him about many things in life, including how to manage KL Tower, the fifth tallest free-standing tower in the world.

"In tennis, you will never change a winning game unless you are losing. This concept can also be used to improvise your life or manage people etc," said Zulkifli at KL Tower yesterday.

"Tennis has taught me to be analytical and innovative. In my years as CEO of KL Tower, I managed to introduce many new things to promote the tower. Of course, being the CEO of KL Tower is tougher than tennis."

Under his management, KL Tower has won two awards from the World Federation of Great Towers. They are last year's Environmental award and this year's Staffing award.

Zulkifli will now shift his focus to tennis as he will be competing in the CEO & Celebrity Charity Tennis competition on Dec 13.

In last year's inaugural event, Zulkifli finished joint third with British High Commissioner, Boyd McCleary.

"I have started practising for the tournament. My desire is to improve my volley and spin ahead of the event. I am competing not for honours but to have fun," said Zulkifli, who was one of the top national junior players in the late 1970s.

On his previous experience as a player, Zulkifli said he represented the University of Missouri in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division Two league in the early 1980s.

"Tennis in the United States is different. It is so competitive that if you don't make it to the Wimbledon Juniors by 15, you are considered having no future in the sport," he added.

The CEO & Celebrity Charity Tennis event, jointly organised by NSTP and Bursa Malaysia, will be held at the National Tennis Centre in Kuala Lumpur in conjunction with the ECM Libra Foundation and Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia Junior Tennis Championships (Dec 14-21). -- AJITPAL SINGH