Budgeting talk

Ho delivering his talk

Centre for Foundation Studies (CFS) organised a budgeting talk at Sungai Long Campus on 11 August 2017. The two-hour talk was presented by Senior Assistant and Vice President of Regional Acquisition and Distribution Ho Hock Doong, with key responsibilities of acquiring movies for Malaysian’s All-Asian Satellite Television and Radio Operator (ASTRO), managing three movie channels and launching ASTRO movie channels across the South East Asia (SEA) region.

Present at the talk were Department of Management and Accountancy Director Melissa Stefanie Netto, Department of Management and Accountancy Head Goy Ling Ling, CFS lecturers and students. The talk aimed to help the students understand the importance of budgeting for different kinds of entities, as well as to highlight the purpose of a budget in personal life and in an organisation.

At the talk, Ho highlighted the importance of budgeting and discussed the common issue faced by many young people these days, which was bankruptcy due to poor financial management on credit card debts. “Credit card will kill you. Bankruptcy among young people happens in Malaysia mostly because of credit card. How you manage your budget plan for your expenses is very important,” he said.

By citing the quote of Sun Tzu from The Art of War, he explained, “To cater for 1000 swift chariots, you will need a thousand ounces of silver per day to cover the cost of raising an army of 100,000 men. Sun Tzu was the one to plan the budget to support the army.”

He then explained the fundamentals of budgeting to the audience, “The fundamental of budgeting is your strategy. Especially when it involves a company, you need to know what your strategy is and the goal you want to achieve. It could be either meant for your company or for your personal use, but the first thing to do is to identify your strategy and what you want to achieve.”

Ho also explained the problems that may arise during budgeting using the illustration of the Great Leap Forward by Mao Zedong. He also cautioned the audience about the pressure one may face due to heavy target setting which may lead to social problems such as resign, illness, hypertension, and death.

Ho has more than two decades of working experience, 12 years in Astro and three years in Kassim Chan & Co (also known as Deloitte). During his ACCA professional training in Deloitte, he was involved with various assurance assignments and special projects such as the Initial Public Offering. Ho is also a national-level player of the “Go” game, who represented Malaysia in many international tournaments, such as inter alia the World Amateur Go Championship, the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts tournament, and the World Mind Sport Games.

Ho (fifth from right) with the participants