A fresh perspective from BNI in Malaysia for the New Year.
Welcome back from the holidays (for all of you that were fortunate enough to enjoy some). We trust you had a great break and were able to take some time for the family or just to recharge your batteries for 2016.
It’s always a bit challenging getting back into the swing of things at this time of year – particularly if you’ve just returned from holidays. There’s still a summer holiday feeling in the air, which is a nice thing but can mean people aren’t as focused as usual in meetings as perhaps they should be.
The experience from Malaysia:
The informality that can characterise this time of year is in stark contrast to the way that meetings are run in other parts of the world. At the end of December BNI Business Connections in Wellington was fortunate enough to host a visitor all the way from Kuala Lumpur who is a member of a BNI chapter in that country.
It was exciting just before Christmas to welcome Kamil Abdullah from BNI Perdana chapter in Malaysia. Kamil shared his perspective on how BNI operates over there compared with here in NZ and it was very enlightening to hear how they do things differently. There were a few clear differences:
Size and structure:
Chapters are generally much larger in Kuala Lumpur. Kamil’s chapter has 52 members and they welcome many visitors. That means a weekly chapter meeting usually involves 65-70 people. This has an impact on the way they run meetings – they have to be pretty structured and by the book.
Informality and identity:
They’re very strict with discipline in Kuala Lumpur. They have fun and there is a lot of comradery but members always stay faithful to the formal processes of BNI. They dress in formal attire. In order to identify a chapter and bring a sense of belonging to members, each chapter has introduced their own colour scheme. Kamil’s chapter for example wears yellow or gold items of clothing; pocket squares and ties for the men and scarves for the women. The dress code isn’t mandatory but most chapters in Malaysia have now adopted it. It brings a strong sense of community to the chapter – they all feel united with one purpose (it’s sort of like a uniform).
BNI Business Connections says it was great hosting Kamil and seeing how BNI operates in a different context with different challenges and opportunities. One take away from the experience is the importance of staying true to BNI’s formula. It works internationally for a reason and it’s important for us here in New Zealand to adhere to BNI’s processes so we are able to build our chapters to the size of some in Kamil’s country.
If you are travelling overseas this year be sure to plan a visit to local chapter to see how they run their meeting. It’s also a great idea for chapters to host foreign BNI members where possible to learn about how your own chapter can do things differently and grow stronger.
