Irony, ambition and recalibration
A Tuesday tycoons’ update.
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The Edge’s owner Tong Kooi Ong recently fired a broadside at work-from-home policies, even the tame three-day version the Malaysian government rolled out for civil servants.
He called the fuel and toll savings “small” while warning of far bigger, long-term organisational damage.
Workplaces, he argues, are irreplaceable hubs of coordination, informal learning, and culture-building. That proximity sparks faster decisions, sharper alignment, and real accountability.
Take that away and communication frays, standards slip, urgency evaporates, entitlement blooms, and — his killer line — “comfort risks replacing performance.”
What started as a Covid emergency, he says, has now dangerously reset expectations. Once those habits sink in, they’re almost impossible to unlearn.
Fair enough. It’s a serious, strongly held view from a man who runs a media empire.
Except…
The same Tong Kooi Ong is the father-in-law of Grab co-founder and CEO Anthony Tan (married to Tong’s daughter Chloe since 2015).
And during the exact stretch when WFH was the national default — lockdowns, movement controls, millions of us Malaysians glued to our sofas — Grab’s business model did not collapse under the weight of “organisational friction” and “eroded culture.”
Quite the opposite, in fact.
Ride-hailing got hammered, sure. But GrabFood and deliveries exploded because everyone was stuck at home ordering in.
The stay-home economy basically rescued the company, delivered 112% revenue growth in 2022, turbocharged its massive SPAC listing, and turned Grab into the regional super-app it is today.
So when millions of Malaysians were living the exact lifestyle Tong now warns will wreck long-term performance, it wasn’t a crisis. It was a goldmine and one that helped make his son-in-law very, very rich.
Yes, I know, Tan later put his money where his father-in-law’s mouth is.
In October 2024, the Grab co-founder mandated a full five-day return-to-office policy for employees (effective December that year), citing the exact need for stronger face-to-face collaboration, faster decisions and cultural alignment.
But small savings? Larger costs?
Funny how the “irreversible damage to organisational performance” only seems urgent when it’s someone else’s company.
Speaking of money and chess moves, today’s edition tracks some of Malaysia’s richest: Idris Jala, Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, and Brahmal Vasudevan.