But Faris was no ordinary CEO.
He was an engineer by training — forged in the heat of boiler rooms, refinery floors, and oil palm estates. He knew the heartbeat of the business not from PowerPoint slides, but from the hiss of steam, the smell of fresh fruit bunches, and the grit of long days in the field.
On his first week, instead of sitting in the top-floor corner office, Faris travelled — to the remotest mills in Sabah, the refineries in Rotterdam, and the research labs in Johor. His goal wasn’t to command; it was to listen.
He asked the mill engineers,
"If you were CEO for a day, what would you change?"
He asked the harvesters,
"What slows you down the most in your work?"
And he asked the young management trainees,
"What’s your dream for this company?"
What he found was a company full of smart, capable people — but trapped in silos, waiting for “orders from above.”
Faris knew the problem: leadership had been hoarded at the top.
His solution: distribute it.
He launched the "Lead Where You Are" program — a leadership development initiative that trained supervisors, engineers, and even plantation assistants in decision-making, problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration.
Instead of approving every small request, he gave department heads authority to act within clear boundaries. Mistakes were treated as lessons, not punishments.
He introduced Innovation Days, where anyone — from lab technicians to lorry drivers — could pitch ideas to improve safety, efficiency, or sustainability. One harvester’s suggestion to modify the collection ramp saved the company RM2 million annually.
And he personally mentored a cohort of 20 emerging leaders, insisting each one mentor two more in return. The effect rippled through the organization.
Within three years:
Operating efficiency rose 15% without cutting jobs.
Sustainability rankings improved, attracting major global buyers.
Employee turnover dropped to the lowest in company history.
And most tellingly — four senior managers were promoted to lead new overseas operations, each shaped by Faris’ leadership philosophy.
At his 5-year mark as CEO, a journalist asked him,
"What’s your proudest achievement here?"
Faris smiled, looked at the group of managers standing behind him, and said,
"You’re looking at it. My legacy isn’t the company I ran — it’s the leaders we built."
Because for Ir. Faris Ahmad, true leadership was never about the number of people following him.
It was about the number of people who could lead without him.
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