Industrial Advisor Day

In efforts to enhance the quality of its programme and to enable staff and students to get the latest updates of the industry, the Faculty of Business and Finance (FBF) organised an Industrial Advisor (IA) Day on 22 March 2018 at the Kampar Campus, which saw students benefitting from the forum, held in the morning, and a talk held in the afternoon session.

Present at “The Challenges in Accounting Career among Millennials” forum were panellists and IAs for Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) Accounting Programme Fan Kah Seong and Kim Chin Kuang, along with moderator Dr Wong Kee Luen.

The forum began with Dr Wong asking the opinions of the panellist on the industry’s expectation from the millennials. Kim answered that the world is becoming technologically-oriented. He then spoke of the revolutions that have taken place from the first to now the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The panellist sharing their opinions

“In this age, people are relying heavily on robots, machine and internet, but they also need to compete with these technologies, or else they will be left behind. However, there is nothing to fear, because the industry needs people with skills and it needs knowledge sharing. There are two types of knowledge; first is the tacit knowledge, which is embedded in the mind and brain. The second knowledge is the explicit knowledge, which is documented and digitalized to facilitate action. The millennials are expected to know the industry specifically and understand the changes that are occurring. Although technology is useful, the industry still requires people with fundamental knowledge,” said Kim.

Fan agreed with Kim and mentioned that it is important for millennials to equip themselves with digital knowledge to help eliminate unnecessary process in the accounting industry. He spoke of the eliminating processes as means to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of accounting process.

The panellist also complimented the performance of the millennials in the accounting industry, especially when dealing with industry, citing the reason that they are fast learners and are able to adapt well to technology. While Kim shared from his experience on millennials requiring minimum supervision when given an assignment, Fan expressed that the gap between generations still needs to be filled.

“We need to fill the gaps between the generations, which is why millennials need to communicate with other generation to exchange knowledge and learn from each other’s experience. We must also be willing to accept the differences between the generations in order to move forward with ease,” said Fan.

The participants were also advised to stay updated of the changes on Company Act, tax issues and auditing standards in order to meet client’s need effectively. Fan added that the risk compliance is another component to be reported in the financial statement. Therefore, participants must be able to assist in identifying the risk, the source of the risk and understand how the company manages the risk.

The forum ended with a souvenir presentation by the Department of Commerce and Accountancy Head, Dr Zam Zuriyati binti Mohamad to the panellists.

The afternoon session saw speaker and IA of the new programme, Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons) Retail Management James Loke Chee Kwang giving a talk on “Innovation and Creativity in Retailing”.

Loke mentioned that departmental stores need to embrace the changes that are occurring in the market. It has to be innovative and creative to attract more customers. On that note, Loke also said that having good brand drivers are essential to improve the company’s performance. These brand drivers include, personable, active and forthcoming form of friendliness, modern, stylish, and confident.

“Today, departmental stores are no longer known to be just that; it is now termed as Fashion Lifestyle Store that specialises in fashion. Store uniqueness and differentiation, which make up a retail store brand identity, is the key to be competitive and to stand out from other competitors. Visual merchandising, is also important to attracting customers,” said Loke.

The participants also noted that the consumer market is rapidly changing and understood that customers make purchases on items that are value for money. Added with the advanced technology, the participants also learnt of the convenience that consumers experienced with online shopping, and how online businesses threatens traditional businesses.

“Hence, the key success of the retail business is to respond to the changes. They need to respond to the customers’ needs and interest. The psychology of consumers is this – they like being pampered or rewarded, they like to discover new things, they are interested to connect with people of the same interest, and at the same time possess a sense of individualistic styles to express themselves,” said Loke.

He also enlightened the participants with successful activities that companies used to attract customers, such as collaborating with travel agents, using social media as advertising platforms, offering incentives or free gifts, carrying out corporate social responsibility, organising branding events, creating in-store activities and using loyalty cards as the retention strategy.

Loke using TANGS as the example to explain retailing

The participants also benefitted from speaker and IA for Bachelor of Business Administration (Hon) Entrepreneurship Dr Yew Kam Keong, when he visited the Kampar Campus and gave a talk titled “The Arithmetic of Business Innovation: How You Can Boost Your Business Competitiveness by Thinking-Inside-The-Box!”, on 29 March 2018 at the Kampar Campus.

With the objective to enable the participants to understand how arithmetical operations can be applied to improve business innovations while adapting to technological advancements, the talk saw Dr Yew demonstrating the applications of minus (-), plus (+) divide (/), multiply (X) and Equal (=). He mentioned that these arithmetic operations are useful to help business adapt better to changes and enabling them to make full use of the technologies. He also highlighted the strong grounding in logical thinking that will provide a strong foundation to apply this innovative system in daily life. 

Participants posing with the speaker after the talk