I think there are two separate questions here.
Question 1: Is there likely a real problem at the palm oil mill in Carey Island?
Almost certainly, yes.
No factory is free from problems. The challenge in a DBA is not proving that a problem exists. The challenge is proving that the problem is:
Significant enough to justify doctoral research.
Not already solved by standard management practices.
Important to organizational performance.
Supported by data.
The supervisor's question is actually a good one:
> "What is the big problem?"
A DBA is usually not about a technical engineering problem. It is often about management, operations, leadership, decision-making, digital transformation, sustainability, human capital, safety culture, or organizational performance.
For example,
in a palm oil mill, possible DBA topics might involve:
Employee turnover and retention.
Safety compliance.
Leadership effectiveness.
Digitalization adoption.
Maintenance management.
Operational efficiency.
ESG and sustainability implementation.
Knowledge transfer between senior and junior workers.
Contractor management.
Supply chain coordination.
The problem is that you are not inside the organization, so you cannot confidently claim which one is the biggest issue.
---
Question 2: Could you turn this into your own PhD/DBA?
Potentially, yes.
But I would not simply "twist" the client's work.
Instead, I would use it as a clue.
You have already spent time reading literature and understanding the industry. That knowledge belongs to you.
What belongs to the client is:
Their organization.
Their specific research problem.
Their proposal.
What belongs to you is:
Your understanding of palm oil mill management.
The literature you discovered.
The ideas you developed.
You could ask yourself:
> "What part of this proposal made me curious?"
That curiosity is usually where a genuine doctoral topic begins.
---
There is another thing I notice from your message.
You said:
> "I have no interest doing for other people if the payment is not at par."
I think that feeling is not really about money.
From what you have shared over many conversations, the unfinished PhD still weighs on you.
So when you spend hours helping someone else move toward a doctorate while your own doctoral journey remains unresolved, it probably feels draining.
You are not just exchanging time for money.
Part of you may be thinking:
> "Why am I building someone else's dream when mine is still unfinished?"
That is a different kind of exhaustion.
---
If I were in your position, I would keep a notebook and write down every interesting issue that appears while doing client work.
Not to copy their proposal.
But to build a list of:
Potential DBA topics.
Potential PhD topics.
Potential journal articles.
Potential consulting opportunities.
In that way, every project pays you twice:
1. The fee from the client.
2. The ideas that become your own intellectual capital.
That approach might help you feel that the work is still contributing to your own journey, even if the proposal ultimately belongs to someone else.
***2*. If your client is only interested in obtaining a DBA title and has no interest in publishing, that actually simplifies things.
The important question is:
What exactly belongs to you, and what belongs to him?
If you wrote a proposal defense document based on his company, his organization, and his intended research problem, then ethically you should not take his proposal and publish it as your own paper.
However, if during your literature review you discovered an interesting gap in the palm oil industry, that gap can become your own paper.
For example:
You read 50 papers on palm oil mill management.
You notice a lack of studies on employee retention.
You notice digitalization adoption is poorly researched.
You notice sustainability implementation barriers are underexplored.
Those observations are not his property. They arise from your own scholarly reading.
---
A practical approach for you would be a conceptual paper or literature review paper.
You do not need access to the Carey Island mill.
Possible titles:
"Challenges of Digital Transformation in Malaysian Palm Oil Mills: A Literature Review"
"Factors Influencing Operational Performance in Palm Oil Processing Facilities"
"A Review of Sustainability Implementation in the Malaysian Palm Oil Industry"
"Leadership and Workforce Challenges in Palm Oil Mill Operations"
Such papers can be written entirely from published literature.
This is especially suitable because:
You are working as a patrol officer.
You have limited access to industrial data.
You already have experience reviewing academic literature.
You want to rebuild your publication track record.
---
Another possibility is a systematic literature review (SLR).
An SLR typically follows:
1. Define a research question.
2. Search databases (Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar).
3. Apply inclusion and exclusion criteria.
4. Analyze themes.
5. Identify research gaps.
Many journals accept good review papers because they help future researchers.
In fact, for someone who has struggled with an interrupted PhD journey, review papers are often a good re-entry point into academia because they do not require company access, funding, or large-scale data collection.
---
I also notice something encouraging in what you wrote:
> "I did not promise anything on his DBA, just helping for his proposal defense. Anymore than that is his journey to take."
That is a healthy boundary.
**Years ago, I think you might have felt responsible for carrying the entire project. Now you seem to recognize that after the proposal defense, the doctoral journey belongs to the candidate.**
You can help.
You can advise.
You can edit.
But you do not have to carry another person's doctorate on your shoulders.
If I were you, I would extract the literature review notes you already prepared, identify one management issue in palm oil mills that genuinely interests you, and turn that into a standalone review paper. That way, the work you did for the proposal defense becomes a seed for your own academic output rather than disappearing into someone else's degree.
3. I think that is a much better long-term strategy than becoming deeply involved in other people's DBA projects.
A meta-analysis or systematic literature review (SLR) gives you something that remains yours. Five years from now, regardless of whether you continue as a patrol officer, consultant, lecturer, or return to doctoral studies, that publication will still belong to your academic portfolio.
There is another advantage.
You have mentioned before that one of your struggles is that unfinished PhD journey. A meta-analysis is one of the few academic projects that does not require:
Company access.
Expensive data collection.
Hundreds of survey respondents.
Organizational approval.
Travel.
It mainly requires discipline, reading, and analysis.
Those are things you can do after work, even with your current schedule.
My suggestion: Start narrow
Don't start with:
"Problems in the Palm Oil Industry"
That is too broad.
Start with something like:
Employee turnover in palm oil mills.
Safety culture in palm oil processing.
Digital transformation in palm oil mills.
Sustainability practices in palm oil operations.
Leadership and operational performance in palm oil mills.
A focused topic will make the literature search manageable.
A possible publication path
Paper 1
Systematic Literature Review (SLR)
Example:
"A Systematic Literature Review of Operational Challenges in Malaysian Palm Oil Mills"
This paper identifies themes and gaps.
Paper 2
Bibliometric analysis
Example:
"Research Trends in Palm Oil Mill Management: A Bibliometric Review"
This uses publication databases to map authors, countries, keywords, and research trends.
Paper 3
Meta-analysis (if sufficient quantitative studies exist)
Example:
"The Relationship Between Safety Culture and Operational Performance in Manufacturing Industries: A Meta-Analysis"
Notice that by Paper 3 you may not even need to stay confined to palm oil. You can broaden into manufacturing generally.
Why I like this for you
From our conversations, I see two strengths:
You read widely.
You naturally connect ideas from different fields.
Your book projects, your reflections on Al-Ghazali, your interest in economics, your observations about work and life—all point to someone who synthesizes information well.
A meta-analysis is essentially academic synthesis.
You are not inventing data.
You are finding patterns that individual studies missed.
One thing I would do immediately:
Create a folder called:
"Future Research Portfolio"
Inside it:
Paper Ideas
Literature Notes
Research Gaps
Potential Journals
Interesting References
Every time you help a DBA student, write down:
Industry.
Problem.
Variables studied.
Interesting references.
Not their confidential information.
Just the academic ideas.
Over time, you will build a personal research database. What feels like side work today could become several publications later.
In a way, this approach fits something you've been exploring in your writing: nothing is wasted. Even the proposal defense work you did for someone else can become part of your own intellectual journey, provided you build from the literature and your own analysis rather than from their proprietary data or proposal.
