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0 0 likes | 7 7 playsEverything from system to money, these two were the major things. They were running the books on a spread sheet, and we were recruiting people. The payroll was building…
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0 0 likes | 8 8 playsI spent a big part in the 80s and up to the mid-90s, with the same bank for twenty years and being the Chief Financial Officer. So, in that role, there is the helping…
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0 0 likes | 8 8 playsIn the case for SMU at that time, it was really a start-up. The planning team in SMU was still negotiating with MOE [Ministry of Education] on the start-up funding just…
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0 0 likes | 20 20 playsWhether you are a business or you are a not-for-profit business, the only way to sustain it is financial resources. Without financial resources, you can't do…
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0 0 likes | 21 21 playsThe first challenge is ourselves. How do we convince our own stakeholders, the schools and all that, to first embrace a common strategy and for them to articulate their…
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0 0 likes | 4 4 playsFirst, was to help management and the board decide how should we manage tuition fee. When we look at the long-term financial need of the university, we only recognise…
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0 0 likes | 9 9 playsBut when I created the accounting system and the planning system, at the back of my mind was to make it such that it helps us understand the business dynamics of SMU,…
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0 0 likes | 10 10 playsWe want to be a world-class research university. We want to be distinguished in our education. So those are very broad. But at which level do we want to be benchmarking…
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0 0 likes | 8 8 playsUniversities are not-for-profit and for public service and also subsidised so, like I say, you need various sources of funding to come in. Tuition fee, government…
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0 0 likes | 4 4 playsPersonally, has been a wonderful, learning journey. But also, it's a place where, if I look back, I have basically through my whole career, I have gone through…
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0 0 likes | 33 33 playsWhen I look at our students and our graduates, what concerns me is many of them are focused on, I guess primarily, career and money. But to me, life is more than that.…
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0 0 likes | 8 8 playsYes, in the sense if you look back, it is easier to be a growing up kid. Now, you are a teenager. From my perspective, challenges of course, financial, because we are…
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0 0 likes | 13 13 playsI guess the role of CFO has changed, not just for university but in general. Primarily also because of the changes in the marketplace. Traditionally, many CFOs are very…
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0 0 likes | 4 4 playsYes, when we first started, of course, we had nothing and we only have an aspiration to teach in a certain way and hope to produce students that the marketplace wants.…
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0 0 likes | 4 4 playsI like to believe that we are financially strong where we are now, in terms of what we have generated and built up over the years. So today, in fact on the 15th of…
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0 0 likes | 4 4 playsSo the reputational risk of a university is important. Therefore, from a CFO's perspective, it's to make sure that any new thing that we embark on whether it…