30 Decsember, 2001 (Business Times) - TAN Sri Borge Bek-Nielsen drinksneat two tablespoons of the red palm oil every day, convinced it containsall the magical properties that make a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

Take a good look at him and you'll probably agree. Last month, he turned76. He is as vibrant, vigorous and vocal as he was 50 years ago when hefirst came to work in the oil palm fields of this country. Something toit? "It is scientifically correct, it is good for the body," he says withan exuberant certainty.

Bek-Nielsen, senior executive director at United Plantations, has beensaying that throughout his career.

Last September, he said it again when some 700 friends, colleagues andemployees gathered on the sprawling grounds of Jenderata Estate, nearTeluk Intan, to celebrate his golden anniversary in the golden oilbusiness.

When he arrived in Malaya in 1951, the total annual production of palm oilwas 51,000 tonnes, 20 per cent of which came from United Plantations. Thisyear, national production is 11.2 million tonnes.

"Just think, Malaysia, a nation of 300,000 sq km and a population of about21 million, provides 10 per cent of the world consumption of edible oilsand fats. No other nation has that record. That's a fantasticachievement." It is widely said that Bek-Nielsen has worked hard in hisroles as planter, pilot, engineer, seed crusher, refiner, industryspokesman, market analyst, Danish consul, armchair historian and socialcommentator. But even he could never have dreamt that he would one daybecome a defender of the faith — that's our faith, in our palm oil.

"You have to believe in your product, or it will never survive themarket." The reality is that Bek-Nielsen has fought aggressively bymeasuring the market with cutting precision, getting an edge with researchand development and engaging in loud verbal combat with palm oil'senemies.

At an international conference on edible oils in Manila, he physicallywrested the microphone from a verbose European critic. For the record, thesame microphone was wrested away from him twice! But he still got astanding ovation. It's the stuff of legend.

"The stories about my heroism are slightly bigger than the truth," hesays, his face beaming with the kinetic energy of laughter. But those wereheady days.

In the early 1980s, a vicious smear campaign launched by the AmericanSoybean Association sought to destroy palm oil and its market which hadbeen growing steadily in the preceding decades.

Bek-Nielsen and other industry chiefs were called to help in the nationalcounter-campaign. That involved confronting the enemy at everyinternational meeting and his very presence — a white man in an Asiandelegation — was a trump card in itself. The veneers of palm oil's successstory, say industry stalwarts, are glued together with Bek-Nielsen'ssweat.

These days, he likes to talk about things like product development:finding ways to place palm oil into high value products like gourmet oilsfor niche cuisine markets or carotenoid-rich nutraceuticals andtocotrienol-rich pharmaceuticals.

"An agricultural product alone does not command a market. You have toinnovate to show its commercial potential, create the reasons for othersto buy." He has brought his sons Carl and Martin, who grew up onJenderata, into the business, teaching them the little things that make abig difference in a vast plantation group.

He's hard on them, pushy even, as he would be with any young employee. Butthey've acquired his sharp, quick wit, so now he gets as good as he gives.

It's evident he truly enjoys their company, more so since his wife Gladysdied a few years ago. He likes talking to them, and others, about NapoleonBonaparte because the man who crowned himself emperor is "the smarteststrategist in history".

In his lively conversation, BekNielsen sets everything into historicalperspective, even when he speaks of his own destiny. He does not forget tosay that United Plantations was founded by Svend Aage Westernholz, aDanish army engineer, who came to Siam in 1885 to seek his fortune.

He and other Danes in Bangkok served the Siamese forces to fight aninvading French Navy.

The grateful Siamese king rewarded them with concessions for teak and riceexport and to supply electricity to Bangkok.

Westernholz began his expansion into Malaya in 1906 with an 810hectarerubber estate.

He was succeeded by his cousin William Lennart Grut, a Danish navalcommander, who planted the first oil palms in 1918.

That, says Bek-Nielen, is part of his professional heritage. "And so iswhat was here when I arrived," he says.

Bek-Nielsen, trained at the Copenhagen Engineering College, was shown anadvertisement recruiting engineers to work on plantations in the East.

He applied at the United Plantations offices at 48 Hans Christian AndersonBoulevard (it's still there).

A month later, he was on the three-week passage aboard the Oranje, arefurbished war-time hospital ship, out of Southampton.

"I was so innocent — until I disembarked. An armed escort was waiting totake me to Teluk Intan. I spent the next few months with armed guardssleeping outside my house. The last thing I expected was to carry firearmsmyself." Like other newly-arrived expatriates on the estates, he beganlearning Tamil and Malay. But the Emergency meant a limited social lifeand feeling utterly helpless when friends were massacred by communistterrorists.

Still, after a year in Malaya, he knew that this is where he would like tospend his life.

Then came the sweeping political changes to old Malaya. All of which makesBek-Nielsen a witness to the amazing process to our independence. Alongthe way, he grew to admire the many personalities who played key roles increating this country.

Among them, first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman whose gracious ways,says Bek-Nielsen, were central to a peaceful transition. "Whether we lookEast or West, we shall always be friends with England," wrote the Tunku inhis memoirs.

"I am impressed by things like that, it is the mark of a statesman," saysBek-Nielsen.

His other hero: Sir Gerald Templer, often called the "Tiger of Malaya"."He fought an insurgency when his Government was dissolving a colonialempire. That couldn't have been easy. Today, this country is a successbecause the communists were never in charge." Clearly, Bek-Nielsen hasstrong views on that.

"A leftist orientation always leads to a welfare system," he says."Usually, you end up a prisoner of taxation. High taxes just to keep thecountry running. Then comes the abuse, like welfare payouts whicheventually go to fund an armed conflict in another continent.

"Finally, it breeds decadence. It's the worst environment to raisechildren. Europeans today are looking for the shortest working hours andthe longest holidays. How are they going to compete with nations likeChina and India?" And competition, he says, is what it's all about. "Wehave stay ahead of the pack in every way. When 30 per cent of your treesare over 20 years old, then it's plain bad management.

"If we don't keep replanting with the best planting materials, raiseyields, lower costs and systematically consolidate our position, we'll beout of business in as quickly as 10 years. Our current yields are simplynot good enough." As United Plantations' chief engineer in the 1960s,Bek-Nielsen and a team of workers reinvented mill machines at the on-siteworkshop. The new screw press reduced fuel costs but more significantly,drastically reduced manpower on the plant. Other mill owners replacedtheirs as well.

"You have to keep improving the set-up," he says, "today should be abetter day than yesterday." Throughout the plantation industry,Bek-Nielsen is described as a demanding boss who is tough on discipline.

Last year, John Madsen, managing director of Hap Seng Consolidated Berhad,wrote a pocket-sized book called The 12 Working Principles for his staff.

It was based on his observations of Bek-Nielsen's management style:honesty, integrity, competence, persistence, attitude, hardwork, teamwork,respect, fair but firm, caring, leadership by example and partnership.

"Bek has created high performing teams by these principles," says Madsen."They're competent, they enjoy work and seem to hunger for it." Theplantation sector has always had trouble getting the best brains becauseother industries are far more attractive. "One of Bek's talents is beingable to pick the right people and keeping them," says M.R. Chandran, chiefexecutive of the Malaysian Palm Oil Association.

Tan Sri G.K. Rama Iyer, secretary-general of the Primary IndustriesMinistry during the 1970s, describes Bek-Nielsen as hands-on,well-informed, pragmatic and hardworking. "Plus, he has an astuteunderstanding of the global market." These combined qualities, say some,are why he's an icon in the industry.

"Oh, but I have been humbled," says Bek-Nielsen. "When I started, I was ahotheaded young man. Since then, I learnt that you must have a goodrelationship with your workers because they defend your reputation. Youneed a clear conscience or you can never take a stand. I also learntleadership means you have to be firm but always fair.

"But the single most important lesson I learnt was from Mr P.P. Narayananwhich is to agree to disagree agreeably." The late Narayanan was aneminent leader of the National Union of Plantation Workers and MalaysianTrades Union Congress from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Wages, health care, housing and education are all part of a plantationcompany's responsibility. Today, United Plantations is the only one withits own old folks' home for retired workers and has one of the two estatehospitals left in the country.

But the one thing Bek-Nielsen is sincerely pleased about is the 90 percent subsidised school bus service for workers' children. "This I considera real investment," he says. "And it always reminds me of my ownchildhood." Bek-Nielsen was born in Baekmarksbro in the Danishmunicipality of Flynder. His father, an abattoir operator, died in arailway accident when Bek-Nielsen was just six. He went to live on hismaternal grandfather's cattle and grain farm, while his mother opened abakery in the nearby town of Holstebro.

On his first day at school: "It was obvious that I had farmboy manners."His teen years were dominated by World War II and Grandfather Bek, apowerful influence. "I think he had X-ray eyes. He seemed to knoweverything. I had a very strict Christian upbringing. He wanted me tobecome a farmer but I ran away to the plantations!"