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