Virtually everything our modern culture believes about the type of leadership required to transform our institutions is wrong. It is also dangerous. There is perhaps no more corrosive trend to the health of our organizations than the rise of the celebrity CEO, the rock-star leader whose deepest ambition is first and foremost self-centric.
- Jim Collins (author of Good to Great)

In this day and age of instant coffee, fast food and DIY blogs, we tend to look for quick fixes, including celebrity leaders, whom we believe can lead our organisations into the sunset. And more often than not, when we talk about leadership, we look to statesmen, generals, politicians and the like, to find good examples of great leaders. It is true that there have been many great leaders in the political field, including people like Mohandas K. Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln. However, we should also look to business leaders to learn certain principles of leadership.
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If not for the fact that the writer that I am about to quote is an Arabic Muslim of some international repute, I would probably be charged with sedition for insulting Islam. I have previously quoted Abd al-Rahman Azzam in one of my earlier postings.

The book that I am reading was found in a bargain bin and the title is “The Eternal Message of Muhammad”. I was reluctant to buy it because it was still not cheap despite the hefty discount. However, the benefit of hindsight tells me that my instinct was right.

Anyway, I am sharing the following passage with my fellow Malaysians because:

1. most Malaysian non-Muslims far too often have a misguided impression of what Islam is; and
2. the political stand of many Malaysian Muslims, especially in regard to racial equality, is contradictory to the faith they profess.
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