Why I Do What I Do

I reached the title of Finance Director in 1997, just 8 years after my graduation!

However, things did not turn out well, and I was retrenched in 1997 during the ASIA Financial Crisis!

I was unemployed for a few months after the retrenchment as the job market condition was very poor due to the economic downturn.

I spent a few months reflecting on the reasons I was retrenched.

I concluded that when I was hired as a Finance Director, I only cared about generating financial statements promptly for my bosses.

I did not care about interpreting those financial statements to improve the decisions of their business.

Worse still, I was using my rank as Finance Director to instruct my subordinates to submit reports to me promptly, without actually showing care and concerns for them. As a result, I did not have good support from my subordinates.

After much reflection, I promised to change myself if I were ever rehired !

Eventually I landed myself back in the corporate world as a Finance Director.

I grew into positions as Regional Finance Head, Global CFO, Managing Director and culminated as Group CEO.

I analyzed and used financial numbers to drive my bosses’ businesses.

I realized my biggest enemy then was my ego, and I learnt to be very humble.

I also treated my staff as my family members, and I cared a lot for them too. I taught them and I groomed them.

I also unlearnt and relearnt knowledge. I asked people who were many years my junior about things I did not know.

I used my financial and new knowledge I learnt to value-add to my bosses’ businesses.

I decided to walk out of my corporate world in early 2016, to start my own Corporate Services Firm, with 2 other partners – Menon and Catherine, and I never looked back.

I continued to use what I know about my clients’ accounting numbers to drive their business decisions to scale their businesses.

I don’t stop at completing the Accounting work which my clients have entrusted in my firm. I drive my staff to further analyze the accounting numbers, and convinced my Partners to write meaningful Business Commentaries every month to be submitted to my clients.

I personally conduct Business Review Meetings ( BRM ) with my clients to ensure they understand their numbers, and I would spend a lot of time to do Rolling Forecasts with my clients during every BRM.

This has enabled my clients to know how their various actions would be translated into Forecasted results.

This year, I would add in a 5-year Plan segment in all BRMs which I conduct with my clients.

I am sure this would further motivate them to realize their Entrepreneurial dreams.