Au revoir, Goodyear, good times never last but what are the lessons learnt here?

Au revoir, Goodyear, good times never last but what are the lessons learnt here?





EVERY good thing will eventually have to come to an end.

With the Malaysian economy now moving away from being the top rubber producer in the world, it is understandable why Goodyear decided to pull out of the country after setting up its factory in Shah Alam in 1972.

Malaysians have to embrace the stark reality that the world is ever changing instead of griping over the ‘untimely’ decision by the American tyre manufacturer to close down its manufacturing facility in Malaysia. Malaysians simply have to move forward.

Competition for the tyre market has become more aggressive with newer brands entering the market. In the past, motorists had only two choices – Dunlop and Goodyear – but these days, there are many other brands so much so that Malaysian motorists are spoilt for choices.

All in all, the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company would be closing its manufacturing plant in Shah Alam effective June 30 this year with the seizing of its operations to be completed by end-2024. Some 550 jobs associated with the factory will be affected.






Learn from history

In the past, one would never buy anything other than German brands of electronic and electrical products but gone are the days when these German products once dominated the Malaysian market. They were overtaken by the Japanese and now the Chinese products.

But in Germany, these workers did not gripe over the loss of their jobs; they were instead re-deployed to other industries. This is why our Malaysian mindset must stay agile and change with the times.

Malaysian workforce must be willing to be re-skilled in order to remain relevant. We must think of new start-ups and be more innovative in search for newer and more cost-effective solutions if we want to become a developed nation.

Instead of paying attention to the regressive politics played by politicians and quasi-politicians who are campaigning against bak kut teh and vernacular education, we as a society should focus on exploiting our strengths in our diversity of cultures, religions and opinions to move forward.

Even though it is a normal thing for companies to come and go, just sitting by the rivers of Babylon weeping and singing with famous artiste Boney M would get us nowhere.


Move away from self-defeating mindsets

Instead, we should just get up and go back to our drawing board, brainstorm new ideas and look for new investments or job opportunities.



While Goodyear employees themselves should be ensured that they get a good compensation package, they should see also take this retrenchment exercise with a new mindset to look for opportunities to work in other areas based on their skillsets rather than their knowledge of the tyre industry.

The conventional recruitment of new employees looks at knowledge and experience of the interviewee but in today’s rapidly changing world, human resource (HR) managers should look at other values such as the employee’s motivation to succeed, their ability to adapt to a new environment and how they can use their strengths to help with the business.

For example, it has been proven that one who is trained as an engineer can become to top CEO of banks. As they are taught to think logically and critically, they are most suited for jobs that require them to engineer work processes.

A manual worker from the tyre industry who has been conditioned with the manufacturing processes for many years, for example, can be useful in an industry which lacks organised systematic processes to boost productivity.

Sometimes, a person’s hobby is a hint of the unrealised potential that has yet to be tapped. Given that they are retrenched, these workers would be more motivated to achieve greater things in a new industry. It is all in the mindset. – March 7, 2023