Demonstrating Responsibility in a Sustainable Business — Dinner with Albern Murty, CEO of Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd

Sometimes the most meaningful and inspiring conversations happen over casual meals. The Time Auction Blog is a snippet of our meetings with people who have found passion in their lives and career.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither did Malaysia’s fastest growing 4G network — Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd. While our mobile internet aims for an instant connection, achieving glory does not go by the same principle. Fortunately, at Time Auction Kuala Lumpur, we have CEO Albern Murty to pass on three key elements of success for us to take home and reflect on.

These three elements are humanity, collective wisdom, and integrity.

Through Albern’s sharing, we also learned that one should leave an impact on each stage of their career. This working morale has taken him to great places and kept him hungry to strive for excellence.

Who is Albern Murty?

Albern is Digi’s first Malaysian Chief Executive Officer since Norway-based Telenor Group took over more than 20 years ago.

Before his appointment as CEO of Digi, Albern held roles in Project Planning & Controls, Project Management & Product Development, Strategy & New Business, and Marketing from 2002–2015. Cumulatively, Albern’s experience gave him insider knowledge on Digi’s operations and made him the CEO he is today.

As a leader of a company with 1,700+ employees, which serves more than 11 million subscribers daily, Albern’s heart and passion have always revolved around two things: business and people. He enjoys nurturing those around him and taking time to engage with customers on ground zero of Digi’s operations. He also believes in investing in the lives of young people and pays it forward by mentoring and sharing his experience with youths from various communities.

Collective Wisdom

What does it take to manage thousands of employees and keep up to the ever-changing fast pace of the telecommunications industry? From Albern’s point of view, keeping a lean team is essential for the business to run effectively.

How do you build a think tank?

“Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you.”

These talents can offer timely and honest feedback and a CEO needs that to make important decisions.

On Humanity

As defined by the dictionary, humanity is the quality of being kind, thoughtful, and sympathetic towards others. It’s also the main principles for Albern in viewing his staff.

“I measure my employees by their performance alone.”

As Albern puts it, talent can be cultivated at any stage in your career. Seniority does not factor in this equation and each employee has the potential to become successful regardless of age, gender, level of education.

On Integrity

A strong moral compass and an honest attitude can guide you to success. How can you develop the ‘grit’ you need to move onto a bigger, more spectacular stage?

Follow Albern’s advice:

“No one can be successful without hard work. Perhaps you could but it’s one in a million, and the chances of you succeeding are also one in a million.”

We should believe in statistics, for numbers will never lie. There is a possibility that hard work may not produce the outcome you wish to obtain. Yet if we never try to reach for the stars, we’ll always stand in the shadow of someone else.

Thank you so much to Albern for raising 94 volunteer hours and all the volunteers who dedicated their time for charities such as PichaEats & Incitement Malaysia!

Special thanks to Time Auction Kuala Lumpur’s City Sponsor — Fave!

For more amazing opportunities, visit Time Auction Kuala Lumpur to volunteer and meet inspiring mentors!