No Wrong Door: The Story of Sidek Hassan

No Wrong Door: The Story of Sidek Hassan opens the door to the workings and intricacies of the civil service during the tenure of Sidek Hassan served as the Ketua Setiausaha Negara, and describes his journey of doing things differently or as he puts it, “business unusual.” Indeed, during his tenure as the KSN, he applied the Blue Ocean Strategy, breaking the “silos’ mentality” and opted for the sharing of assets even between “sworn enemies” of the Police and the Army. In his effort to improve the government delivery system and work culture, he turned it around with his new approach that “the duty of the civil service is to facilitate and not frustrate the customers irrespective.”

Sidek Hassan’s famous quote “No Wrong Door” opens a new door to the office of the Chief Secretary to the Government of Malaysia through the way in which he managed and transformed the government delivery system. He came with a whole new philosophy, mindset and approach; that the raison d’etre of the civil service is to serve the people the way one wants to be served. One only needs to run through the pages of recent history with regard to the delivery system to see the extent of how this mild-mannered, soft-spoken man has reconstructed the government’s delivery system to make it among the best, not only within the region but also in the world. Within a short period of only six years, he transformed the landscape of the sluggish civil service into a dynamic and efficient force by galvanising them with his clarion call, One Service, One Delivery, No Wrong Door.

The man, who by nature, is shy, gentle and always respectful, together with his team of ‘believers,’ was able to move mountains with regard to the delivery system of the country, a system which we enjoy today. We take it for granted that once the country embraced modern communication systems, things would just fall into place. The reality is that it takes a lot of thinking through, planning and management strategies and, most of all, the right mindset before ICT is fully adopted and implemented to improve the delivery system. During his tenure as the Chief Secretary to the Government, great effort was made at changing the mindset of the civil service as to the very purpose of their existence: to serve the people as you want to be served! The efforts behind the boardroom activities were not publicised, hence much of Sidek’s good work is not known by the general public.

Those who had no insight into the work behind the door always asked, “What did he do?” It is hoped that this book will answer the questions many have asked.