Done by: Joanna Student Number: Assignment: Leadership Assignment 1

1.1 The purpose of this report is to identify a leader and analyses the leaders traits and behavior and to discuss in-depth on identifying on what are the characteristics of this person have lead him or herself to be an effective leader. The leader chosen for discussion is Olivia Lum, the CEO of Hyflux Ltd. Olivia graduated from National University of Singapore and worked as a chemist with Glaxo Pharmaceutical till 1989 to set up Hydrochem (S) Pte Ltd, the now well-known Hyflux Ltd (Hyflux Ltd., 2011). The company has presence in 16 countries including China, as well as 4 water plant projects. Olivia also raised S$300 million to fund Singapores desalination project. She has been awarded World Entrepreneur of the Year 2011 (Ernst & Young, 2011), elected as President for Singapore Water Association since 2004 (SWA Newsletter, 2006), Singapores Richest number 27 with net worth of $460,000 million (Forbes, 2011). 2.1 Self-leadership has been defined as "a comprehensive self-influence perspective that concerns leading oneself toward performance of naturally motivating tasks as well as managing oneself to do work that must be done but is not naturally desired" (Akif TABAK, 2011) 2.2 Committed leaders seek out challenging opportunities so that the company and the employees can improve, change and grow. It requires some qualified risk taking and learning from past mistakes. It requires the leader to have a defined vision of a positive future and the ability to engage people into the vision. Then, the leader must trust his/her selection and empower and enable the followers to do their jobs. A committed leader gets the people moving, and then stands behind them for support (Eddie Greer, 2011). In a NUS Alumni talk, Olivia Lum shared her experience in venturing into the China market, from investing, funding, project execution and a bad end result which she ultimately turned around. Olivia also shared how she changed her management philosophy over the past 20 years of business and her commitment in identifying the right people and teams for her organization (Srikanth Sridharan, 2008). 2.3 I decided the world was going to run out of clean water. No one wanted to start a water business then, but I only had one passion. I thought, naively, that I wanted to save the world. By Olivia Lum, on her decision to start a water treatment business (Thomas white, 2011). Visions is a characteristic of a charismatic leader, because they offer exciting image of where if organization is going and how it is going to reach there. In basic terms, charismatic leaders are seen as visionary leaders who, through a combination of personal characteristics, behaviors, and the relationships they foster with followers, motivate the latter to achieve exceptional performance directed toward the vision (Sefa Hayibo, 2011) 2.4 Olivia Lum contributed to the society as a Member of Parliament of Singapore, 2002-2004, plus she is a member of Singapore-Tianjin Economic & Trade Council and Singapore-Jiangsu Cooperation Council (EDB Singapore, 2011). She is also the President for Singapore Water Association since 2004 (SWA, 2004) 2.5 Olivia Lum founded Hyflux in 1989 with two staff and start-up capital of $US15,000. Today, Hyflux has become one of the world's leading desalination suppliers. It is publicly traded with revenues of US$450m, employing more than 2,300 people in operations and projects in Southeast Asia, China, India, the Middle East and North Africa (Irish Finance News, 2011)

2.6 Olivia Lum, founder and CEO of Singapore-based Hyflux, has often said that she is attracted by the unpredictable. This love of the unknown was perhaps the catalyst for her choice to study chemistry, but is more likely the reason why Lum is the first ever woman to be crowned Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year (2011). (Thomas white, 2011) 2.7 Transformational leadership may be defined as a leadership approach that causes a change in individuals and social systems (James Skipper Kendrick, 2011). Olivia Lums instinct told her that the world needed clean water and she saw the opportunity on how it can change the world with the new water treatment plants (Thomas white, 2011) By now, Ms. Olivia Lum is a well-known figure whose company spawned the water and fluid treatment industry that will enhance Singapores position as a hub for environmental technology. With her dedication to excellence and entrepreneurship, and hands-on management style, Ms. Lum continues to be an inspiring role model for man (International Management Action Award, 2011). 3. Review leadership traits and behaviors and identify them with what research has shown so far that matches Olivia Lim. Next, review the eight leadership theories (Northouse, 2004) and identify which theories contain most attributes seen from the research. 3.1 The leadership theories identified will be charismatic and transformational leadership. Charismatic leadership has been shown to be associated with positive outcomes ranging from leader effectiveness (DeGroot, 2000), to job satisfaction and performance (Rowol, 2007), to group and organizational performance (Waldman et al., 2004), while transformational leadership depicts how leaders and his or her followers share common values (Burns 1978), e.g. Olivia having her vision of providing clean water for the world. 3.2 Contingency and situational refers to importance of matching training, personality, and leadership cognitive to situational contingencies (Alan Belasen, 2008), e.g. when local response was bad, Olivia went to Malaysia to find people to sell her water purification idea. 3.3 Entrepreneurship is the proactive and deliberate entrepreneurial pursuit of a firm that enables it to compete globally (Ya-Hui Ling, 2011) e.g. the daring decision of Olivia to resign from a comfy salary job to start her own company and to make it global. 3.4 Social responsibility is a leaders personal concern for social responsibility and is positively related with ethical leader behaviors fairness and role clarification (Karianne Kalshoven, 2010), e.g. Olivia having serve the nation as a Member of Parliament and selected as president since 2004 for SWA. 4. From the different actions what Olivia Lum has shown and base on what others have said about her on occasion, Olivias leadership traits are somewhat broad and overlapping, changing from time to time has situations differs. Hence, a conclusion can be made of an effective leader is, a leader has to be able to dream and execute that dream, giving the firm a direction, be determined to face all challenges, be committed and demonstrate the belief that all employees contribute to the firms success (Jennifer Forgie, 2010), all for a common goal: to productivity, quality, and satisfaction. Therefore traits of Olivia Lum as a successful business woman can fall into different leadership theories as we now study.

References: Journals: Akif TABAK, 2011 Alan Belasen, 2008 Burns 1978 DeGroot, 2000 Eddie Greer, 2011 Northouse, 2004 James Skipper Kendrick, 2011 Jennifer Forgie, 2010 Karianne Kalshoven, 2010 Sefa Hayibo, 2011 Waldman et al., 2004 Ya-Hui Ling, 2011

Internet: Eddie Greer, 2011 Ernst & Young, 2011 Forbes, 2011 Hyflux Ltd., 2011 International Management Action Award, 2011 Jennifer Forgie, 2010 Rowol, 2007 SWA Newsletter, 2006 Srikanth Sridharan, 2008 Thomas white, 2011