Etika group's CEO, Khalid Alvi, joins 2020 ACES Awards’ list of outstanding leaders Asia

Khalid Alvi, the Chief Executive Officer of Etika Group of Companies for Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei is among the coveted list of top ten recipients of “Outstanding Leaders in Asia” awarded by the prestigious Asia Corporate Excellence Sustainability Awards (ACES) 2020.

Organised by the MORS Group, the award recognizes exceptional leaders who have demonstrated sound leadership in elevating their organisations’ growth and prominence. These individuals exhibit the ideal blend of business acumen, professionalism, entrepreneurial calibre and astuteness.

This achievement is a testament to Khalid’s beliefs in participative management as the driving force in bringing people of different skills together. “I believe that this has made a difference to both employees and stakeholders. I consider this one of my successes, and success is always sweeter shared,” remarked Khalid.

Etika Holdings, one of Malaysia’s leading beverage manufacturers and distributors, competes against both international and regional players, across both Ready To Drink (RTD) and Non-Ready To Drink (NRTD) segments. From capitalising on its speed to market and nimble structure for quick and effective decision making, mixed in with a blend of the Western way of doing business via its Pepsi-Co partnership supported by the unique Japanese business heritage of its parent company, Asahi Group Holdings Ltd (Asahi Japan) – Etika succeeds in being the only fully integrated Halal beverage company to offer all categories of beverages to the Malaysian market across 18 brands all due to Khalid’s expertise and guiding hand on the tiller.

Under Khalid’s leadership, Etika has won Asia’s Best Employer Brand Award from 2018-2020, Excellent Employer Award, Excellence in Learning and Development and Excellence in HR Change Management, all within 2019, and Best HR Strategy in Line with Business two years in a row.

Khalid believes leadership has progressed from hierarchical and authoritarian models into collective, participative leadership where one plus one is equal to three. “In today’s thriving workplace, it is very likely for a leader to come across someone who is more capable in their field working under him. If a participative management style is not optimised, there is a high probability for the intelligence and wisdom existing in the organisation to be overlooked,” he asserted.

“A top executive who can bring people with different skills sets and experiences together to contribute to workplace policies and decisions in line with a corporation’s business goals can make a difference to both employees and stakeholders. Khalid is such a man,” shared Shanggari Balakrishnan, Chief Executive Officer of MORS Group.