My last project outside of Bonaire was upstaged by Corona in early 2020 as I could no longer put in the necessary traveling. I thus moved back to Bonaire where I could make use of my main strength: Finance The now abandonned project itself, opening up the Asia-Pacific market for a new branded product, i.e. Marketing & Sales, on which I have been working for some 3 years, is obviously very different from most of my preceding career . Yes there were periods where I was also responsible for this part of a company, but this is the first time it was my only point of focus. Normally it’s Finance & Admin, with the emphasis on Admin: running the Shared Services for a Group of Companies while meanwhile ensuring proper IFRS compliant financials.
Still this exception was quite nice, it once again confirms my flexibility and the broadness of my career with its emphasis on getting the best out of the people around me. Let them surprise themselves and in the process the company with their outstanding results.
What’s also nice, it brought me back to Bangkok after 2 fruitful years on Bonaire (Dutch Caribbean) where the well of new projects was just starting to run dry. I moved to Bonaire after a successful 2 year project for a SME in Thailand or should I say MNC? it was truly surprising to see how complex such a beast can be. We are talking about 10 legal entities, spanning 5 countries, 4 distinct Business Units and 6 very different Order2Cash streams. It was a privilege to chart all the processes and advise on an open-source ERP software to bring this all together. Open-source, apart from being free also allows you full access to the source-code (in this case in java) bringing unprecedented flexibility; you’re only constrained by your own fantasy and programming prowess, while the database, based on the most advanced data modelling available, will be the backbone, ensuring a long-term solution. With all this I was setting up a truly integrated Shared Services system.
As for my time on Bonaire, it had on 10/10/2010 introduced its own rather peculiar legal & tax laws, which had actually caught both the authorities and most companies and individuals unawares, so there was quite a bit of mopping-up to do, an activity I’ve taken to with a relish. In a short time I found clients in retail, production, construction, hospitality, you name it. While interesting, there are two issues with this: I prefer ‘realisation’ to ‘consulting’ and, certainly not less important, as stated above, this well will run dry, after a while all uncertainties will have been settled through juris prudence.
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