Dato' Dr. Palandebra_s

Introduction

Dato’ Dr. Palan’s life purpose is to help people learn and perform at the workplace; the goal is to enable individuals achieve their best. He has worked internationally in 30+ countries though his focus is very much Asian. An author, speaker, trainer, consultant and an entrepreneur, he is very much committed to developing best practices in the Human Resources field. This commitment has led him to pioneer innovations in the field. His creative training tools, competency and performance management models have been implemented widely. Palan has also been appointed to serve as a Director of the Human Resources Development Corporation by the Honourable Minister of Human Resources, Government of Malaysia.

Current Position

Palan is presently the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SMR Technologies Berhad, a company listed on the ACE Market of the Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd. The firm is one of Asia’s largest one stop Human Resources professional services firm with several HR divisions: The Malaysian based organisation today has expanded to Singapore, India, Bahrain and with representatives in several other countries such as USA, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Brunei, United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The organisation employs today about 200+ people. For more details on the company, please visit www.smrhrgroup.com

Practice

Palan’s current research and professional interests revolve around three key areas:

Speaking Style

As a professional speaker, he has achieved the highest accolade in the speaking profession: the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) from the National Speakers Association of the United States of America. He is also a Fellow of the British Institute of Learning & development, United Kingdom.

He has the magical ability to deliver content in a FUN way. This ability has led him to work globally for distinguished and progressive organisations. He has motivated audiences in different countries and has earned the recognition of many people from all walks of life. Palan’s 5 I’s – Introduce, Involve, Interact, Instruct and Intensify Retention is based on sound theoretical models and extensive research. With his electrifying dynamism and persuasiveness, he entertains and at the same time educates his audience. He makes them embrace, absorb and celebrate the message. His energy, simplicity, experience, knowledge, goodwill and humour have always made his sessions a power packed one. With his charm and professional influencing ability, participants are always influenced. He has fine-tuned his practical style over the last three decades. His sessions are fully interactive, light but content filled whether it is training or a keynote presentation. He keeps the audience participating, enjoying and learning throughout the session. His dedication, hard work and goal orientation makes his words tweak the emotions and common sense of the audience.

He talks about everyday incidents in life and his personal endeavours and more importantly, the lessons learned from them. Palan’s emotive speaking ability excites and invigorates any group. Whether speaking to frontline staff, middle managers or Senior Managers, Palan brings much to think about, talk about, laugh about and work about. He is a learner oriented trainer who engages and interacts with his audience continuously. Palan has presented internationally at various conferences in Australia, Americas and Asia. These include the Australian Institute of Training & Development, Australian Institute of Human Resources Management, World Banking Conference, Asia HRD Congress, International Federation of Training & Development, and the American Society for Training & Development.

Books

Palan has written several books and his work is also available in video and audio. He also produced management games and software programs. His book titles include the following:

Articles

Palan has written numerous articles. His articles have appeared in several publications including the International Society of Performance and Instruction, USA. Please visit www.palan.org to locate the publication’s website to download the article. Some of them are listed below:

Education

Palan completed his primary education at St. Francis Institution, Melaka, Malaysia and later completed his Bachelors and Masters at the Madras University. He also pursued a second Masters Degree in Occupational Psychology (M.Sc.) from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. Then he completed his Doctor of Philosophy in Management (Ph.D.) from the California Coast University, Santa Ana, U.S.A. Subsequently, Palan completed executive education at the Harvard Business School – Strategic Human Capital with Professor Tom DeLelong and Knowledge Management with Professor Dorothy Leonard and Professor Tom Davenport. He also completed the executive education programme on Creativity and Innovation with Professor Moshe Rubenstein at the University of California, Los Angeles. Palan completed the Human Interaction Labs with the National Training Laboratories, U.S.A. initiated by the legend Kurt Lewin, founder of modern social psychology and then the Director of MIT’s Research Center for Group Dynamics.

Skills Training

Palan pursued the Certificate in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations organised by the Malaysian Institute of Management and run by experts such as Mr. K. Rajkumar, one of the founders of the Malaysian Institute of Human Resources Management. He also attended the Certificate in Training & Development, and the Diploma in Training Management, programmes offered by the then Institute of Training & Development, United Kingdom and facilitated by Darek Celinski and Mike Bond. In the USA, he completed his Myers Briggs Type qualification programme in Chicago with the Association of Psychological Type, U.S.A. He completed the Games Designer programme with NASAGA (National Simulation and Gaming Association, America) in Vancouver, Canada.

Skills Development

Palan’s commitment to lifelong learning has led him to continuously develop himself in the Marketing, Corporate and Human Resources areas. He has attended programmes with renowned experts such as Noel Tichy of GE, thinking experts Edward DeBono, Tony Buzan, celebrity management experts such as Professors Jim Collins, Ram Charan, Sumantra Ghosal, Christopher Bartlett, Tom Peters, Robert Sutton, Dave Ulrich and Robert Reich. In the areas of skills training, he has attended programmes with Ken Blanchard, Robert Pike, Thiagi and Norm Smallwood.

Professional Work Experience

While Palan worked in five different countries (Malaysia, India, Thailand, Brunei, USA) in a variety of human resources, marketing, teaching and leadership positions both in public and private sector, he can best be termed as a nomadic. He stared off his career initially as a chemist at the University before attempting to be a community organiser, professional counsellor working in schools and the various hospital departments of rehabilitative orthopaedics, dermatology and psychiatry. Finally he built his own professional services firm, growing it from a training and publications business to consulting and outsourcing, software, conferences, executive search and English language training.

Memberships (Current And Past)

Current

Past

Awards

Palan was awarded the Johan Bintang Kenyalang (JBK) by the Governor of Sarawak, Malaysia in 2010 for his contributions to people development in Sarawak. His Royal Highness Sultan Azlan Shah conferred the DPMP award carrying the tile of Dato’ on Palan for his contributions on the occasion of His Royal Highness birthday on April 18th, 2011. He has also won several other awards over the last decade.

Personal

Palan, a Malaysian travels extensively. He lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with his wife, two sons and daughter for most part of the year. He does spend a reasonable amount of time in Dubai, U.A.E. and Chicago, U.S.A.