PUTRAJAYA, November, 10th — The Institute of Plantation Studies (IKP) successfully organized the “IKP Empowerment Program: ICPTech2025 Reflection and Organizational Strengthening” held at Le Méridien, Putrajaya. The program aimed to comprehensively evaluate the implementation of ICPTech2025 and enhance IKP’s organizational capacity towards sustained excellence.

The first session, titled “ICPTech2025 Reflection,” served as a postmortem review of the conference held on 20–21 August 2025. ICPTech2025 received an encouraging response, with over 120 participants from various government and non-government agencies, industry sectors, and academia. Feedback from industry stakeholders was particularly positive, indicating IKP’s strong potential for strategic collaboration. Chairman of ICPTech2025, Associate Prof. Dr. Ganesan Vadamalai, expressed his appreciation to all IKP staff for their commitment and dedication in making the conference a success. He also emphasized the importance of continuous improvement and strategic planning for future ICPTech events.

The program continued with a sharing session by Dr. Mohd Faiq Abdul Aziz, Deputy Dean of Research, Innovation & Commercialization, Faculty of Educational Studies, UPM, who presented on “Building High-Performance Organizations.” In his presentation, he stressed that clear communication between staff and management is key to collectively realizing the institute’s direction. According to him, a high-performance organization is a strong combination of structure, individuals, work culture, and strategy. However, challenges such as unclear direction, weak leadership, individualistic work culture, staff dissatisfaction, and reluctance to acknowledge personal shortcomings must be addressed to ensure the organization functions effectively.

The Director of IKP, Prof. Ts. Dr. Siti Khairunniza, also emphasized that teamwork and communication among staff are crucial elements in the success of any program. “At IKP, due to our small team size, the workload must be shared. We believe every staff member has unique talents and strengths that can be harnessed to elevate IKP to greater heights,” he said. The program was attended by 26 IKP staff members, demonstrating strong commitment to strengthening the organization and enhancing the institute’s research impact.

Date of Input: 11/11/2025 | Updated: 11/11/2025 | ainzubaidah