How Do We Identify Ourselves? (Part 7)

Tuesday, 6th October 2026

PART 7: GOOD GRASS IS WORTH TURNING AROUND TO EAT AGAIN

There is this Chinese saying, "好马不吃回头草“ which literally translates into "A good horse does not turn its head to eat the grass behind it".

It is used as a form of friendly advice to people to leave their past (especially in the context of workplaces and relationships) behind them. There was a good reason for leaving, so there should be no good reason to return.

Well, there are always exceptions to the rule.  I know for a fact that PwC practices what is known as a "revolving door" policy where auditors go out to gain actual industrial experience (such as in a bank or an insurance company) and then return, better equipped to handle clients in those very industries.

I myself worked in legacy PW from 1990-1994, and returned to the merged PwC in 2000, albeit in a different department.

Going back to the above saying.  I would counter with "好草不如回头吃“，ie. good grass is worth turning around to eat again."

The best example of this is Steve Jobs, who although fired by Apple, returned to, not only have a second bite, but took it to even greater heights.

In my case, I had unfinished business, and thus went back to wrap things up.

I mentioned in the previous post about how I had joined my dad's friend's audit firm and re-familiarised myself with accounting (as well as auditing) standards.

While reading through FRS 27 on Consolidated Financial Statements and FRS103 on Business Combinations, God brought to my mind Walton Hong Kong, whose financials PwC HK had given an adverse opinion (which is the worst form of qualified accounts), as shown above.

I put together the following email to my ex-boss, the CFO.  Take note of the ungodly hour that it was sent (yup, it kept me awake at night).

-----Original Message-----

From: Malcolm Loh
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2011 12:45 AM

To: S

Subject: walton hk, accounting matters

hi s

how's the going?

as a result of "going back to my roots", i have re-familiarised myself with the various frses, including frs27 and frs103 which deal with consolidation.

it has occurred to me that the consol for walton hk is extremely straightforward. walton sg and walton my were incorporated later than walton hk which means no pre-acquisition reserves to eliminate.

walton sg and walton my are 100% owned which means no noncontrolling interests.

the only issue is to obtain historical hkd/sgd rates going back to 1996 and hkd/myr rates going back to 2002 in order to translate the sgd and myr numbers into hkd, which will result in translation reserves being booked against other comprehensive income and translation differences being recorded in plant, property and equipment.

if you make the relevant fs available, i can turn them around within a week. no charges, i enjoy doing consolidation and the adreneline rush i get is reward enough :-)

and that will take care of one qualified item on the audit opinion...

can also understand why pwc hk kicked up a fuss about the puts. liquidity risk on derivative financial instruments is a disclosure requirement under frs107.

on a separate note, you may want to check if you have accounted adequately for reinstatement/restoration costs as prescribed by frs16 para16. i don't recall this being capitalised when the 34th floor had a major renovation in 2010.

regards

Sent from my iPhone

It was a pleasant surprise to receive the following reply from him...

From: S
To: Malcolm Loh
Sent: Thursday, 15 September 2011 11:11 AM
Subject: RE: walton hk, accounting matters

Hey Malcolm,

Thanks for your note below. Appreciate your consideration and comments below. How are things with you? Why don't we catch up over lunch if you have the time? Maybe you, me and G. I am travelling for the next week and a bit. How about last week of Sept or first week of October?

Regards,
S
Chief Financial Officer, Asia

And so on Thu 29 Sep 2011, I caught up with both my ex-bosses, G and S, over lunch at the outdoor section of Oasis@Padang, Singapore Recreational Club.  It was a time for reconciliation.  I apologised to both of them for letting them down, and they in turn also apologised for the abrupt way I was asked to leave.  They asked me how I was doing, and I politely replied that things were fine.

We then adjourned indoors for dessert.  From out of the blue, S suddenly asked me, "How would you like to come back to work in Walton?"  I was stunned.  G explained that S was going back to Canada HQ at the end of the year to become the CFO of Walton Development, and the FC who succeeded me was not up-to-par (I was aware of the latter because my ex-staff would regularly complain to me about him).  There was an urgent need for stability in the Finance function of Asia, and S was running out of time to assure HQ that all would be well after he left.

S was honest enough to tell me that he had first approached the FC of Malaysia, asking whether she was keen to relocate to Singapore, but she was not, having just given birth.  I also found out subsequently that he had interviewed dozens of candidates, but none gave him the assurance that they could hit the ground running.  G was the one who suggested to him to consider asking me to go back, and that email I sent to him was the icebreaker.

It was time for me to be honest in return.  I told them that things were not exactly working out for me.  I had been with the firm for 7 months, and was not offered the partnership role, so I had started to send out job applications again.

My title was just "audit manager" -- effectively a demotion from FC -- and had also suffered a paycut back down to a four-figure monthly salary.

When I showed them my name card, I could tell they were amused and unimpressed, especially at the location (yup, the one that had the reputation of having "four floors of whores") :P

Now, what I have not yet mentioned is that sometime in May 2011, I heard the shocking news from my ex-staff that L, the one who was double-hatting as both COO and Sales DM, had suddenly left Walton.  Her division had accounted for the huge majority of sales, so it was something totally unexpected. G resumed his operational role for the Singapore office (he was re-designated as President, Singapore), and would be my boss again should I return.

Meanwhile, one of my ex-staff (she was given the nickname VFS = very favourite staff, and I even call her that till this very day haha) was getting unhappily restless working for my successor.  She had sent me a message asking me to be her referee for an upcoming interview.  I replied her, "All the worst", and hinted to her that she should stay on because things were about to get better.  She asked, "You coming back, ah?", and I responded with a winky emoji ;-)

To cut a long story short, while G and S had verbally offered me my previous job, they had to first sort out a compensation package for my successor to become my predecessor.  I was more than happy to go back, because it meant a restoration of the paycut back to a five-figure monthly salary yet again.  As someone recently said, "Pride cannot put food on the table.  Better to just swallow it, so you won't have to live on an empty stomach."

I re-joined Walton on 27 Dec 2011, just days before S returned to Canada.  I quickly got down to carrying out what I had promised him in that email of 15 Sep 2011, with the instrumental help from my VFS, who happily stayed on in the company (for a total of 16 years!), as I pushed for her promotion from Senior Accountant to Assistant Manager to Manager in quick succession.

Together, we managed to get PwC HK to issue a clean opinion from FY2012 onwards, as shown above.  We also successfully took over the Finance function from Malaysia, when the office over there was physically closed in 2013.

Looking back, it was God who took me out of Walton during a very tumultuous time, put me in GBK to pick up the necessary accounting knowledge, and then sent me back, fully-equipped to help Walton HK get that clean audit opinion, and the 3 Walton Malaysian entities and its 6 interest schemes with their annual audits. Hallelujah!

Oh ya, back to how I received my 5-year LSA in 2017, and then my 10-year LSA just a year later, in 2018.

The person who was in charge of HR disregarded my earlier stint (from 1 Apr 2018 to 23 Aug 2010), and only counted my continuous years of service, viz:

27 Dec 2011 to 26 Dec 2012 = 1
27 Dec 2012 to 26 Dec 2013 = 2
27 Dec 2013 to 26 Dec 2014 = 3
27 Dec 2014 to 26 Dec 2015 = 4 
27 Dec 2015 to 26 Dec 2016 = 5

That person left subsequently, and I was put in charge of HR.  I had so much favour with my Asian regional boss that I managed to convince him to include even the intervening period when I was at GBK.  I told him that I was actively working on Walton accounting matters, and that was why I could get the clean opinion for Walton HK so quickly upon returning.

He agreed to INCLUDE everything since Day 1 of my initial stint, as though I was there all along, viz.

1 Apr 2008 to 31 March 2009 = 1

1 Apr 2009 to 31 March 2010 = 2

1 Apr 2010 to 31 March 2011 = 3

1 Apr 2011 to 31 March 2012 = 4

1 Apr 2012 to 31 March 2013 = 5

1 Apr 2013 to 31 March 2014 = 6

1 Apr 2014 to 31 March 2015 = 7

1 Apr 2015 to 31 March 2016 = 8

1 Apr 2016 to 31 March 2017 = 9

1 Apr 2017 to 31 March 2018 = 10

Just one instance of God's favour is worth many years of labour.  Amen?

In the next post, I will blog about my 7.5 month tenure as CFO-designate of a listed company, so stay tuned.  I will then round up this series with my current role as a business owner and conclude on what our true identity should be.