Beginning in audit

I started my career as an auditor and spent a decade in audit. In those days, audit life was very different. As an audit assistant, you spent a lot of time performing vouching and tallying schedules. As you progress, it gets more interesting as you start to learn about the company’s business environment and its processes. Although my current role is very different, there were many lessons learned and skills acquired during my audit days that still apply to my work now.

Transferable skills that last a lifetime

As auditors, we juggle several clients and engagements concurrently, and over time I have built strong project and time management skills. We often had to establish a rapport with clients quickly to get as much information as possible within a short time. Such interpersonal skills have served me well in my current role. If I were given another chance, without a doubt, I would still choose audit as my first job.

Inspiring the next generation of accountants

There is a misperception among young people that accountancy may be less exciting than some emerging fields. This has impacted the number of students opting for accountancy studies at tertiary level. While doing outreach at the universities, we discovered that the young ones had decided on their course of study and career path early in life.

Changing perceptions

We realised that to attract more talent, we must do more with the younger audience, especially at the junior college and secondary level, when students’ impressions about different professions are being formed. To address this, we intensified our school outreach activities. We ran a #backtoschool campaign where our members gave talks at different educational institutions. It spread the message that accounting knowledge is versatile and portable across industries.

Back to school

I personally went to a primary school to share with students for their Career Day. I shared that there were three levels to being an accountant. For Level 1, I used the analogy of managing pocket money to explain how everybody can be an accountant. Level 2 is about how every family has an accountant, whereby the parents manage their household income. At level 3, I then asked them to imagine running a McDonald’s restaurant, explaining the concepts of making money and managing operating costs.

Connecting with the younger generation

In conclusion, I shared with the students that every business needs an accountant. To my delight, the Primary 6 students were able to relate to my sharing. They asked sensible questions, which I was impressed with. Through this, the students realised that accounting skills are applicable to daily life and to everyone.

Making learning accessible

When I chanced upon Spotify, it led me to wonder – why couldn’t we offer our training in the same way that Spotify offers music? ISCAccountify was launched in December 2022 to fulfil our members’ expectations for accessibility and affordability in learning. It lets us provide unlimited bite-sized learning for subscribers to learn on the go and at one’s own pace. With ISCAccountify undergoing professional training need not be boring and it can be as enjoyable and convenient as listening to music. Currently, we have more than 200 learning clips in our library and more than 5,000 subscribers.

“For me, work-life balance is about being able to do things that matter.”

No matter how busy I am, I make sure I balance my time between work and family. I grew up in a family with warm food on the dining table daily, that set the tone for me. Hence, having home-cooked food on the table matters a lot to me and my loved ones. No matter how busy I am, I will try to cook for my family. Friends and colleagues are often amazed how I manage this. All I can say is, apply project management skills.

A flexible culture, built on accountability

At ISCA, we have a 3-2-1 work arrangement, which requires staff to work in the office 3 days a week and 2 days from home. One day of the week is Team Collaboration Day in the office. We give our staff a lot of autonomy in deciding how they want to get work done. We have a robust dashboard to track the progress of each project. If things are not going in the right direction, we can intervene to get back on track. With that discipline, there is no longer a need for us to track whether staff are working from home or the office.

Pursue growth and improvement

As the CEO of an organisation, I have my fair share of challenges, triumphs and setbacks. So, it’s important to embrace a growth mindset. Our focus should not be to seek approval, but to pursue growth and improvement.