RESOURCE gathering, time management, planning and scheduling, and team work are the four areas of leadership that Lai Ke Xin excelled during her student days at SIM campus.

For her dynamic leadership in the SIM Malaysian Community students club (known as MCSIM) and her organising of several SIM signature events, Ke Xin won the SIM CCA Award 2014-2015 for “Special Achievement for Service to SIM”.

The 22-year-old perky, energetic girl also obtained First-Class Honours (a rare achievement) in her University of LondonBSc (Hons) in Accounting and Finance in 2014.

Accounting practices and principles are topics that Ke Xin simply loves; hence it was not a problem for her to excel in these subjects. “”Accounting questions are challenging but when I solved an issue, it gave me enormous satisfaction,” she says.

A related topic is Audit, which in her opinion requires a lot of “soft” skills, in addition to technical knowledge. “In audit work, you need to know the client way before you start,” she says. “It all boils down to relationship. If you’re good at it, you will be able to extract lots more information to help you complete your audit.”

Accounting skills today are not simply posting book entries. “With a degree in Accounting, you can aspire to a senior management role where you help in strategic decision-making based on your knowledge of the organisation’s financial resources.”

UOL’s Prestige, Mode Of Study

Ke Xin graduated in SIM’s Diploma in Management Studies in 2013 before she enrolled with UOL. She chose UOL because “it is a prestigious institution that offers an independent mode of study, so I can plan my own activities”. The modules are not easy, though, she says, and to do well in the exams, one must not skip lectures and classes.

“Every module is content-heavy. You have to read and read; and there is a lot of stuff to memorise. My strategy was to try to understand the concepts, principles and theory because understanding helped me to remember better. And when I couldn’t grasp what I’ve read, I would ask other students.”

She confessed that Corporate Finance was the hardest module, while Auditing and Assurance was her favourite.

Four Quadrants Of Effective Leadership

Back to her leadership philosophy, Ke Xin says the four quadrants – resource-gathering and allocation, time management, planning and scheduling and team work and psychology – together make up a charmed circle of skills and abilities. All four sets are essential. If, say, you are good in getting a team to work well, able to schedule them and also good in your time management, but you don’t know how to gather and build up resources (money, material, labour), all your projects are hypothetical. No resources, no go, period.

Ke Xin’s major CCA projects include a donation drive during the Mid-Autumn Festival in September, 2014, which brought in $4,000 worth of bee hoon, crackers, Milo beverage and oats for the old folks of Kim Tian Road in Tiong Bahru. This was one of the many large-scale events organised by the MCSIM.

“We also held a stage performance for the residents at Kim Tian West RC where we played traditional Chinese string instruments and sang love ditties of the past,” says Ke Xin who served as club president in 2014.

She also organised a two-day Sports League in October 2014 which saw 200 participants competing in badminton, basketball and dodge ball.

Another large-scale project role she served was as chairperson of the International Students Night on November 8, 2014. The “Night of Stars” was a stylish full-house event that also included a flash mob dance by 24 students. Ke Xin and her event planning team wanted an element of surprise to add excitement and make the night memorable. “Using the flash mob was just right to provide that unforgettable moment!” she adds.

“I learnt a lot after serving as club president for a year. I’ve developed my leadership skills and trained myself to face and solve challenging problems, and to lead and motivate the team.”

Ke Xin has one parting bit of wisdom from a motivation quote to share with new students and those who are setting out on their career path: Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you will go, just remember how far you have come. Remember everything you’ve faced. All the battles you have won. All the fears you’ve overcome. All the chapters you have written. Remember the moments that came before when you had this same doubt and overcame it. You can go as far as you let yourself go. Let go and you will soar farther that you’ve ever imagined.” (Anon)

Lai Ke Xin hails from Taiping, Perak. After graduation, she got a job in 2016 in Singapore as auditor in an auditing firm.