CNY 2011

Christmas came and went, as did New Year. Chinese New Year will come and go in 2 days' time. Somehow, 2010 and now 2011 is not looking very promising in terms of celebration. Last year the department lost almost one third of my staff and this year, we are already down 2 guys. Probably the good news is that we'll welcome 2 babies this year, and most likely 1-2 weddings (including ex-staff).

Of late, the theme of "you are dealt your own pack of cards" has been ringing in my mind. I was thinking back in my first few years in the company and on the current job. Things were different one might say but I truly believe that you simply make do with what you are given and move on and make your own history.

Back in the days, even I could dabble with SQL on the LIVE system. I vividly remembered those overnight sessions trying to write SQL code. Still remember the night spent write the code for the flexible interest rate computation.... still remember because there was a bug some months after implementation and I had to debug and write another code to un-do the errors. All this within the day before client could spot the mistake. Things went fast then. Nimble. But yea, in today's context, those were the days of weak controls.

Trust exists but cannot be counted on. Like we tend to say nowadays, "it's not that I don't trust you... but..."

Today, there is a battery of tests and processes to follow before getting anything implemented. Sometimes, one does not fully know what one is doing but hey, you digital print is there for future finger pointing...erm, I meant, for audit tracking purposes.

Still, you adapt and make do with what you have. If Internal Audit is coming down hard on you, you take it as a good opportunity to strengthen your internal controls, hoping that once done, you will be left alone. If Compliance is asking merry-go-round questions, you try to see their points and start talking like them; hell, if you can't beat them, join them, because you'll end up the winner. You become better at Compliance and Internal Audit and you execute the plans instead of simply talk about them.

You adapt. New B2B business is hard and demanding but hey, if you do it well, your B2C improves too. You leverage of the changing environment to spur people to move and to change. It's painful but like the saying goes, no pain no gain.

Oh sure, it's painful. Painful to train people for 1-2 years without reaping the fruits of the training. Painful to do job re-shuffling simultaneously. But they are all opportunities in disuise; seriously! With some key people missing, you get to delve into the nuts and bolts and take the opportunity to change thing (hopefully for the better) for the next person. You get to move people around to take new responsibility and to shine (nothing beats viewing an existing process from a different angle). But it's painful.