MY HEARTFELT THANKS TO TRANSMILE

My heartfelt thanks to Transmile

Hi everyone,

Heartfelt thanks to Transmile for giving me an opportunity to attend the IATA courses as a reward for my sterling performance in the co where I managed to deliver several milestones. Attached below are the certs I have collected from my overseas courses.

The overseas exposure was awesome as I was not only able to enhance my knowledge and know how, but also gain confidence especially when different viewpoints on a given case study surfaced and we could discuss and deal with it very professionally and amicably.

On one occasion I was given a chance to deliver my viewpoints which contradicted with the viewpoints of another senior finance executive from another overseas airline. Surprisingly my group members gave me a wholehearted support and agreed with my viewpoints. .Hmm!! I may have some hidden potential and talents after all. I began to gain more and more confidence and was not afraid to accept more and more challenges. I was able to tackle any tasks albeit those with differing or controversial ideas. My outlook and perspectives broadened correspondingly.

I believe this is one of the best and healthy practices if one wants to progress. Perhaps our education system should be more holistic and the students should be taught to think out of the box. They should not be spoon fed. This is now reflected in our examinations which focus on high order thinking skills (HOTS) questions. In this way, our society and country can progress further.

My hope and vision for the future are that no one should be denied an education because of poverty or other irrelevant reasons. Education should be accessible to all. This is practised by some overseas universities.

Secondly, I hope as our nation progresses the people’s mind would as be opened to accept views which are different and access things from different perspectives.

Please share your views. I would love to hear them.

With unconditional love,

James Oh

TRANSMILE WAS MAKING THE WRONG SHIFT THAT LED TO ITS DEMISE

Transmile was making the wrong shift that led to its demise.

Happy day, everyone.

Transmile is the company that I served the longest. It offered me a platform where I was initially given a free hand to put into practice the concept of lean finance which I have learnt from one of the previous companies which I have served and had implemented the 3S successfully.

My past experience with the other companies I served helped me to navigate the lean finance indicators to constantly improve the company performance. I was very fortunate to be able to master these skills through fine tuning my approach and know how from time to time.

However, this approach was set aside after I was removed from the financial division. I was tasked by the top management to focus and lead the internal audit and risk management unit. I was able to craft the charter for the unit which was approved by them but was never utilised for reasons best known to themselves. As a result, this unit was unable to function as it lacked support from the management.

Prior to my removal from the finance unit, I had achieved many amazing milestones. When I joined the company, it was given a debenture holder to a bank. I also managed to get another bank not only to take over the loan but also to offer it on clean facilities (without collateral securities) with much better rates and conditions.

To achieve this I have to think outside the box to create feasible term loans from the bankers' perspectives in order that they are comfortable enough to grant us facilities on a clean basis.

On top of that, I also took the initiatives to explore cross-border leasing but it could not proceed further as the loan sum was too small.

Other initiatives I adopted was natural hedging where we matched our foreign income with our payments to minimise our forex exposure risk.

Since we are an aviation company, fuel costs can be quite daunting and measures should be taken to ensure its consumption was used efficiently. Naturally, it will be wiser for us to embark on fuel hedging to lock in our profit especially for our fixed term contracts.

I hope I have provided you some insights into the tasks of a financial controller and certain financial tools. I hope that all these will be useful to you all. At the height of my career we also managed to access the Llyold market directly to obtain unbelievable rates for our fleet. I was initially proud to be one of the pioneers of the company. I had put my heart and soul into turning many adversaries into blessings.

On the operations side, my ongoing implementation of certain practices has helped to improve our efficiency by close monitoring and attention to details. The daily collection, cash flow, daily fuel consumption and loading report were always on my radar system.

I have also introduced and implemented short-term strategies, apart from profit rationale exercise, to address the ASEAN financial crisis and reposition our aircraft globally to achieve sustainable business growth and profitability during my term as financial controller cum internal audit head.

I was ever ready to learn and implement anything that was worthwhile and benefited the company. It was also for my own pride, fulfillment as well as my satisfaction. This was the company I prided myself to be in and I was willing to put in all my foresight and business acumen to make it a reputable and well-established venture.

However, it was not meant to be like that. The top management has a different vision from mine. They were unscrupulous and mismanaged the company which led them to go against the law and some of them are now battling criminal charges.

I am so thankful that I am not one of them who were blinded by greed. Thank God for leading me to the right path.

Hope you find this post interesting and useful. Stay tuned for more stories about my experience.

With unconditional love,

James Oh

TRANSMILE - TURNING POINT OF MY CAREER

TRANSMILE - TURNING POINT OF MY CAREER

Turning point of my career

Greetings from Malaysia,

In my preceding post, I mentioned that I was successful in making a claim from the insurance company. As a result, I was given more and more responsibilities. However, this proved detrimental to me. As I demonstrated my capabilities I attracted competitions and backstabbing from some of my cohorts who are possessed with crab mentality. My abilities and flexibility to handle tough situations led to my downfall. I was not appreciated as the top management considered me a threat.

I was then assigned the unenviable task of investigating the practices of the top management’s relatives. I found some malpractices and some which infringed the law but was not given a free hand to handle them. Then I suggested to let the relevant authorities to investigate my findings. The top management turned a deaf ear and refused to take any actions. I was at a loss as to what to do.

My hands were tied and I could not do anything. I was so frustrated but could not leave the company as I was the sole breadwinner.

I then decided to take a firm stand and decided not to pursue further. They then decided to remove me from the internal audit to yet another unit. This time I was to work together with those I was asked to investigate earlier. I was very very miserable and was pushed into a corner and isolated.

Thankfully not long after that the authorities came and discovered that they had fraudulently inflated and overstated their revenues. This eventually led to the demise of the company.

However, rumours were being circulated outside in the business world about the company. The human resource manager had no choice but to force every staff to execute a non-disclosure agreement to cover up all unhealthy practices. However, it is impossible to cover the raging flame with a piece of paper. This shocking news spread like wildfire throughout the media and several top management were charged for falsified accounts.

Thank you, Lord, for sustaining me and guided me not to give in and collaborated with them. I am grateful to Him for giving me the wisdom and the strength to repeal the oppression from the top management of the company. After the turbulence, I have emerged a much stronger person and are able to take up any challenges.

Stay tuned for more exciting insider stories,

With unconditional love,

James Oh