MIDP Paving the Way for Workplace Transformation At People & Culture Conference 2025

By Alia Huzaidi

If you felt a sudden spike in leadership brainpower in the Kuala Lumpur air earlier this month, you weren’t imagining it.

On 6 and 7 August 2025, the People & Culture Conference 2025 transformed the Connexion Conferences & Events Centre (The Vertical) into a buzzing hub of big ideas, honest and hard-hitting conversations amongst leaders, and the kind of networking that just might’ve shifted the industry’s centre of gravity in workplace transformation.

I know, I know. Coming from the organizers, the Malaysian Institute for Development of Professionals (MIDP), that’s a big claim. But this year, we’re letting the conference speak for itself.

Proud to be ASEAN’s First

When MIDP designed the People & Culture Conference, it was never meant to be just another “sit-down and listen” type of event.

Grounded by MIDP’s mission for human capital transformation by elevating people & culture at work, PACC is made to be a high-level platform for breaking the hierarchy barrier, enabling leaders to meet their teams at eye level, and fostering genuine dialogue around building people-first organisations.

This approach has cemented the People & Culture Conference 2025 as ASEAN’s trailblazer – the first and only dedicated platform that elevates organisational culture as the heart of HR leadership strategy, and not just a side, “good-to-have” topic.

With the backing of a powerhouse network of supporters – Yayasan Pahang, ECOLAB, 30% Club Malaysia, ICDM, Thrive Well, Speak Up Malaysia, MyCEB, MIDA, MIHRM, LeadWomen, FAOM, Leadapreneur, and MICCI – the 2025 edition delivered on its promise to pioneer a holistic, future-ready approach to organisational success and workplace well-being.

Malaysian Leaders Make Their Mark

This year’s roster was nothing short of stellar, bringing together influential leaders from Maybank, POS Malaysia, IKEA Malaysia, PayNet, Axiata, CelcomDigi, SHELL Malaysia, PETRONAS, IBM Malaysia, Mercedes-Benz Malaysia, ECOLAB, Accenture Malaysia, Yayasan Pahang, and Aerodyne.

With such heavy-hitters bringing forward 22 speakers across 8 sessions, the crowd tackled some of the biggest challenges in workplace transformation and employee engagement, including:

• Achieving Organisational Resilience: How to keep your organisation steady when everything around it is changing.

  
  

• Elevating Multi-generational Employee Experience & Performance: Making sure age diversity in your team works together and not against each other.

  
  

• Nurturing a Culture of Inclusion & Belonging at Work: Turning Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) from buzzwords into business-as-usual.

Despite being only its second edition, the People & Culture Conference 2025 saw a significant surge in leadership participation – with 35.6% of delegates being Heads of Department and 32.9% C-Suite or Senior Leaders. Nearly 70% of the room were decision-makers, ready to act.

This upward shift signals that Malaysian business leaders are not just talking about people and culture, they’re putting it at the heart of the growth agenda.

Why People & Culture Matter

In a brief interview by MIDP, the Chief People Officer of AirAsia Group Berhad, Intan Shahira Mohd Shahru, summed up the importance of organisational culture in leadership and business transformation:

“Inherently, culture drives behaviours, [and] culture drives the strategy of the organisations. How you want to drive [the] organisation moving forward is to ensure that each and every employee will have the right sets of behaviours.”

Malcolm Pryus, the Country Retail Director of IKEA Malaysia, offered a bottom-up perspective of this shift in employee engagement:

“We think employees are far more demanding than they’ve ever been, and [they have] much greater choice in who they work for and why they work for them. So I think now, human capital is a much much more integral part of the growth agenda. It’s not just about profit and loss, but it's about meaningful growth of the individual to have meaningful growth for the business.”

The Journey Continues

From candid leadership insights to actionable strategies, the People & Culture Conference 2025 proved that Malaysia is ready to lead the charge in redefining success beyond the balance sheet.

It was about reimagining what work could be, and leaving with the right tools to make it happen. By putting workplace well-being and employee experience at the centre, the event demonstrated how APAC HR trends are increasingly shaped by Malaysia’s leadership in the regional conversation.

The message was clear: when people thrive, businesses thrive with them. And Malaysia is not only part of the Asia Pacific workplace transformation journey — we’re leading it.

If this year was any indication, we’re more than thrilled for what’s to come!

👉 Want to be part of the next chapter of workplace transformation? Fill in our Interest Form to stay updated on the People & Culture Conference and be the first to know about future events, speaker line-ups, and exclusive opportunities to shape the future of work.