UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Sanjeeva Jayewardene

General Manager (Operations & ROPC)

CMA CGM Malaysia Sdn Bhd

30 years. Originally from Sri Lanka, I joined the shipping industry in 1989 and started my career as a Trainee Executive for a multi-principal agency in Colombo which gave me a firm grounding in this field.

In 2002, my family and I moved to Malaysia to join CMA CGM Malaysia as the Regional Cargo Flow Manager where my portfolio has now grown. I now oversee seven departments, from Ship Planning to Operations.

Initially, my wife and I planned to only stay in Malaysia for roughly three years. But after twenty-one years and 3 kids, I’m still residing in Malaysia with no plans of returning to Colombo at the moment.

What was the most challenging obstacle you have experienced throughout your working experience?

If I look at some of the obstacles, one of the recent ones would be the COVID-19 pandemic. Working from home was initially fun but after some time, engaging with staff and retaining them was challenging, especially young mothers as they had to juggle between caring for their families and working

Can you briefly share your personal and work background?

My name is Sanjeeva Jayewardene. I’m currently the General Manager of CMA CGM Malaysia Sdn Bhd and have been in the shipping and logistics industry for over

Due to this pressure faced by them, we were facing a quite high turnover. We had to conduct interviews and training online which was tough To retain staff, we started trying different things such as asking the teams to have two meetings every day, one in the morning and one in the evening to keep them engaged and interested As managers, we keep in contact with our staff to check on how they are doing.

Therefore, I think that was one of the most challenging periods of my career There were many things which we thought we could not do remotely unless you are in the office and suddenly discover that there are lots of things which can be done by not being in the office.

What are the Leadership Principles that you have discovered and executed that have contributed to your success?

There are quite a few attributes that somebody needs to have to be a leader One thing that is very important to me is leading by example for people to follow. When you set the bar high, it does not mean that they must achieve 100% of it but it will aspire them to do better.

Another important point is the consistency in how you communicate with people in your decision making so that your team will have a better understanding of who you are and what your expectations are.

Can you share some life advice for readers of Pelepas Insight?

In the terminal, no matter whichever function you are working in, you need to be committed and honest in what you are doing and maintain self-respect so that you will not do something which would have undermined yourself or be put in an unattainable position.

It is also very important to challenge yourself to do well and the key to being in this industry for a long time is adaptability and keeping yourself relevant. Go on the internet, learn and put your best effort to upskill yourself This way, it makes the job much more interesting as you will understand the reasons behind why you must do certain things instead of just following them for the sake of doing it

Lastly, you must be humble in your outlook on life.

What is your view on the working relationship between CMA CGM and PTP? In your opinion, what are the roles that both parties can play to further improve to the success of PTP?

Last but not least, is to be empathetic towards your team members and understand their expectations and aspirations As leaders, we must see how to be realistic in guiding them and leading them to achieve their own goals and aspirations.

All these leadership characteristics, I did not develop them overnight Instead, I build them as I go and my style of leadership 10 years ago and what it is today, has also evolved. One cannot be a leader without the support from your teams and that is why when I build our objectives, I need to be mindful of the team and what they want to achieve

The initial years of CMA CGM and PTP working together were very difficult because both organizations had two very different philosophies However, over the years, both CMA CGM and PTP have learnt to collaborate and because of this, we are able to overcome many of our challenges We have also grown to know each other better and more so on a personal level which makes it easier to discuss any issues we are facing and understand each other’s requirements and work together to meet our own organization goals

Today, CMA CGM and PTP are in a good place where we have friendship and good cooperation