Connections that Result in Synergy

Saturday, 7th November 2026

As I look back upon my 30+ years in the corporate world, one thing I realise is of great importance is connections.

Even before officially embarking on my career, I had done some part-time work at Noel Hampers while waiting to enlist in the Army in 1986, and that opening came about through my JC classmate Gerald Ang.  He had joined them just after the A levels and when asked whether he knew anyone who wanted to earn some pocket money, he pulled me and another JC batchmate, Tsae Juan, into the company.

Then in my 2nd year as an Accountancy undergraduate in 1990, it was through NTU lecturer/tutor/mentor (and churchmate) Mrs Wendy Foo that I interned at Price Waterhouse, which then led to working there full-time upon graduation.  When applying for the Internal Auditor role at Singapore Island Country Club in 1994, I put her as my referee in my CV, and it was also she who helped me enrol for the MBA program at NTU, despite missing the deadline for application.

Mrs Foo continued to be my referee when I applied to join Solomon Software in 1997, and again when I went back to PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2000.

In my previous post, I blogged about how the recruiter Orion Consulting had put my name forward to Walton as a candidate for the FC position in 2008.  While decluttering my home recently, I came across a copy of the "Candidate Report" they had drawn up for me, which is basically my CV reformatted into their standard template so that they can give their clients a somewhat like-for-like comparison of candidates.

But it is the "Reference Check Report" that they prepare for candidates being offered the role that lends weight to my earlier point.

Shortly after my 2nd interview with S and G, Orion contacted me and asked me to provide the names and contact details of 4 persons I used to work for/with, namely 2 superiors, 1 peer and 1 subordinate.  Wow, I was used to providing the names of ex-bosses in my CV, but this was the first time I was asked for the names of a peer and a subordinate.

For bosses, I gave the names of TCC (my PW manager), HLG (my Tricor boss), Siew Beng (a peer at SICC) and Irene (an Infineon staff).

While de-cluttering, I came across the Reference Check Report that Orion did on me, and especially felt moved by what Mr HLG had said about me.  As you all may well know, I had quit Tricor in 2004 and joined Infineon in 2005 on a contract basis because my working relationship with him had deteriorated to the point of it becoming unpleasant (for him) and untenable (for me).  He had to micro-manage me because the project he had put me in charge of was not progressing at a pace that was acceptable to him.

Read for yourself what he said about me :-)

He did tell Orion that I had an area of improvement but the way it was put across was very professional and constructive, saying I was too "nice" and needed more "tough love".

And that is similar to what Jesus told His disciples in Matt 10:16, that they needed to be shrewd as serpents and not just innocent as doves.

Truth be told, in the earlier part of my career, from 1991 to 2006, I was 100% dove and 0% serpent.  It was only from 2007 onward that I started to exercise more shrewdness and by the time I left RPG, it was 50:50 and that inspired me to set up my sole proprietorship Akeraios Phronesis :-)

As one climbs higher up the corporate ladder, the importance of connections becomes even more pronounced.  I had sent out dozens of job applications upon being asked to leave Walton in 2010, but nothing came about for 6 months.  I only managed to find a job in my dad's friend's audit firm because of my mom (yup, connections).  I rejoined Walton in 2011 because of existing connections with the CFO, and even joining RPG in 2019 was because ex-colleague Victor Poh (the one who introduced me to the grace gospel) recommended me to Mr K (yup, connections again).

Of course, it is God who is the one behind everything, as He orchestrates circumstances and brings the relevant people into our lives to be our connections.  Rom 8:28 tells us that God works together all things for our good.  The Greek word for "works together" is συνεργεῖ (synergei) from where we get the English word "synergy".

P.S. If the chef in the above AI-generated graphic resembles Ps Prince, it is deliberate ;-)

P.P.S. I also discovered that recruiters like Orion earn a hefty fee for successfully placing a candidate, typically 2 to 3 months of that candidate's compensation.  

P.P.P.S. I received a message from KW of Orion sometime in December 2011 congratulating me for rejoining Walton.  How did he know? Because concurrently, he was recommending candidates to them.  By re-employing me, Walton actually saved the money they would have had to pay Orion had they selected a candidate they had shortlisted :-)

The ALMighty's Answer to ALMost

Monday, 2nd November 2026

"Hi Malcolm, this is KW.  You almost got the job.  You were shortlisted, but eventually they selected someone else who has the relevant real estate experience.  Thank you for your time, and all the best in your job search."

That was what the headhunting recruiter from Orion Consulting said to me over the phone, sometime just after Chinese New Year, February 2008.

It was meant to be words of reassurance and comfort.

That I came so, so, very, close.  

But it had the opposite effect.

It was like telling someone that they almost struck the lottery, or an Arsenal fan that they almost won the Champions League last season.

According to Webster's, the word "almost" is most commonly used as an adverb meaning, "very nearly", "not quite", or "not completely".

Back to that phone call.

Sometime in January 2008, Orion had sent my CV to Walton for their Financial Controller, Singapore position.  My interview with S, the CFO, went very well and lasted nearly 2 hours long!  He then brought me to see G, the MD, and that encounter lasted less than 3 minutes.  All I recall was G saying to me was, "You ACS boy?  I was from SJI." and then shaking his head and ushering me out the door of his huge room.

I thus had received mixed signals, and told my wife that while it went excellently with the CFO, I was not so sure how it went with the MD.

KW, the headhunter was supposed to get back to me on the outcome, but CNY was coming up so he told me he would only be able to do so after that.

I remember being crestfallen when he told me I "almost" got the job.  But I thank God for prompting me to send S an email that same evening thanking him for the interview, and informing him that should any opportunity arise in future, I would be most interested and he could let me know accordingly.

Well, guess what? KW unexpectedly called me the very next day!  Initially I thought it was for another job opening, but he told me that "Walton changed their mind, and wants to see you again! Oh by the way, their office is no longer at One Fullerton, but they are now at Republic Plaza."

I went to their new spanking office, and S asked me when I could start. I told him 1 April 2008.  He then showed me the org chart, gave me an overview of the dynamics of the Finance department, and also a brief background of each of the 19 staff!  And yes, he also pointed out the potential of vfs to me, even though she was just a junior accountant then.

After doing so, he brought me to G's room. This time around, G was much more warm and friendly, shook my hand, and even put his arm around my shoulder, telling me he was just teasing me about my being from ACS.  He told me he was a big Man U fan and did not like Liverpool, so as a Villa fan, I did not need to worry.  He asked me what my expected salary was, and I replied that it was totally up to him. He offered me 10% higher than what Infineon was paying me, and that was sufficient for me to accept his offer on the spot.  He told me that Orion would get in touch with me.

Subsequently, I discovered why S "changed" his mind.  That email to him did influence his decision to a certain extent, but it was only because the candidate they had initially offered the job to (the one with real estate experience) declined it because his company had counter-offered for him to stay on!

I was actually their 2nd choice, but in life, that is how God shows that He is ultimately sovereign.  

For that matter, David was Samuel's 8th choice!  He had considered Jesse's 7 sons before finally anointing David. 

And that my friends, is the LORD ALMighty's answer to ALMost :-)

When God opens a door, nobody can shut it. And when He closes a door, nobody can open it.

He opened the door for me to join Walton in April 2008, closed it in August 2010 when the environment became too toxic, and then re-opened it in December 2011, only to close it yet again in October 2019, so that I could join RPG in December 2019 after taking a month's break to brush up on my golf.

Hallelujah!

TRAC (The Reverend's Anointed Collection)

Sunday, 1st November 2026

In my 2 previous posts, I had blogged about how Spotify provides a platform for hosting audio and video podcasts totally free-of-charge, and that I will be making available all 121 sermons that TRAC President Rev Reuben Ng preached during his 5-year tenure as the Youth Pastor of Paya Lebar Methodist Church ("PLMC"), from Aug 2007 to Jul 2012.

Here is that link again

https://open.spotify.com/show/1hvLLyamh26v9FSmSaFr3R

121 sermons over 5 years translates into an average of 24.2 sermons per year, or close to a sermon every other week.  That regular feeding on God's unadulterated Word was sufficient sustenance for my wife and I to continue staying on in PLMC.

I did up a Pivot table, and what is pleasantly surprising is that he preached at the Main/Adult service as often as he did at The Next Generation ("TNG") Youth Service!

In fact, after Rev Dr Jonathan Seet was posted into PLMC in 2010 to replace Peter Koh as her Pastor-in-Charge, he made Holy Communion Sunday (ie. the 1st Sunday of every month) Service a combined one (ie. there would not be a separate TNG Service at PLMGS, but the youth would instead attend the Main service.

Rev Seet would also share the pulpit with his 3 fellow pastors, which meant Rev Reuben ended up preaching more regularly at the main service, and the numbers bear this out:

I have now uploaded 55 of his 121 sermons, together with AI-generated synopses.  Happy feeding!

Oh ya, those who are sharp would have noticed that I have renamed the podcast to TRAC (The Reverend's Anointed Collection): Sermons by Reuben Ng, in acknowledgement of how God has fast-tracked him from a Member-on-Trial in Aug 2007 to President in Nov 2024.  May God continue to lengthen his cords and strengthen his stakes.  Amen?

When he become Bishop of the Methodist Church in Singapore, maybe the podcast will be renamed MCS (Marvellous Collection of Sermons) accordingly :-)

AI = Anointed / Awesome Intelligence

Friday, 23rd October 2026

Artificial Intelligence ("AI") seems to be a very hot topic nowadays.

I recently attended a breakfast talk conducted by Citibank, and noted that practically every speaker made a constant mention of it.  In fact, they even put the word AI in the title.  

OpenAI and Anthropic, the organisations behind ChatGPT and Claude are planning massive trillion-dollar valued IPOs.

We accountants, the boring, bean-counting, archaic, book- and ledger-keeping "dinosaurs", are not exempted from AI either.  The Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants ("ISCA"), the professional body that local practicing accountants are associated with, have kept up with the times by partnering relevant experts to come up with learning content to equip her members to become conversant with AI.

AIxAccountancy, the AI Fluency Programme by ISCA-AINexus seeks to prepare us "for the future workforce".  I just completed the online training today and received the relevant badge and certification, and have duly shared it on Linkedin :-)

Well, any invention by mankind can be used for both good and bad.  After all, God is the source of innovation, while the devil is the source of counterfeiting.

In my previous post, I used AI to discover a free platform to host Rev Reuben Ng's anointed sermons.  They have been uploaded onto Spotify.

And just today, I used Google's Gemini to come up with 2-paragraph summaries for each of his sermons!

This is what it generated for his first sermon:

The maiden sermon "(001) I Shouldn't Be Here" by Rev Reuben Ng, preached at Paya Lebar Methodist Church (PLMC)'s "The Next Generation" (TNG) youth service, is a raw and moving testimony centred on the unconditional love of God.  Reflecting on his personal journey and his new assignment as a pastor, he uses the phrase "I shouldn't be here" to capture the deep humility of being selected by God despite feeling entirely unqualified.  The core message unpacks how divine grace completely overrides human error, flaws, and past mistakes, turning lives around in ways that defy personal merit or human expectation.

The sermon delivers a profound, fresh revelation of the parable of the Prodigal Son, specifically focusing on the overwhelming depth of Abba Father's love. Through the lens of Luke 15:20, Rev Reuben highlights how God runs to embrace us with open arms, regardless of where we have been or what our past looks like. The ultimate takeaway is an encouraging declaration of hope for the listener: your past does not define your future capacity to be utilized by God, because His grace is bigger than your history.

Awesome ya?

That is why I am titling this post, ANOINTED intelligence and AWESOME intelligence.  Hallelujah!

Here is the link to the podcast again:

https://open.spotify.com/show/1hvLLyamh26v9FSmSaFr3R

A Collection of Anointed Sermons on Podcast

Wednesday, 21st October 2026

Regular readers of my blog will know that the main reason why I stayed on in Paya Lebar Methodist Church ("PLMC") despite being made to step down as the Treasurer and a CG Leader by law-based Peter Koh back in July 2007 was because the then-TRAC President, Bishop Emeritus Wee Boon Hup had posted grace-based Rev Reuben Ng (a then-MOT who just graduated from TTC) to replace law-based Barnabas Chong as her Youth Pastor on 1 August 2007.

Rev Reuben's sermons are always focused on Jesus and His finished work, so I would listen to him on Sundays (whenever he preached) and then purchase Ps Prince's sermons to listen to when it was made available the Thursdays that same week.

I was quite the "fan-boy" of his, and bought all of his sermon recordings, and even compiled the 1st 100 of them onto a DVD-R, which he so graciously autographed.

I was de-cluttering my stuff recently and came across that autographed copy, which is definitely a collector's item haha.

I caught up with some PLMC members recently, and the common lament is that they miss Rev Reuben's preaching. He is the current TRAC President, a role that is largely administrative, so he hardly gets the opportunity to stand behind the pulpit nowadays.

As part of that de-cluttering, I also chanced upon a Samsung portable disk, on which I had stored in a folder all 121(!) sermons that he preached at PLMC before moving to Toa Payoh Methodist Church ("TPMC") on 1 August 2012.  I also have some of his TPMC sermons, but unfortunately, not all of them.

Here is a screenshot of that folder:

I did an AI search, and discovered that Spotify actually allows one to maintain an audio/video podcast channel totally free-of-charge!

They have an app known as "Spotify for Creators", where their familiar logo is coloured purple rather than green.

So dear PLMC members (and everyone out there in blogosphere), your wish is my command :-)

It will take some time for me to upload his entire 121-sermon library archive, so please bear with me.

For a start, you can listen to his 1st 40 sermons by clicking on the following link:

https://open.spotify.com/show/1hvLLyamh26v9FSmSaFr3R