Reflection Paper 1: My Defining Moments - by Leader Rony Cabuyadao

Reflection Paper 1:

My Defining Moments

By Rony Cabuyadao

 

One event that I consider as a defining moment in my professional career/life happened in late 2006 up to early 2007.  I had the opportunity to work for an Accounting/CPA Firm in the United States as a financial auditor (then later as an IT auditor).  I was initially based in Charlotte, North Carolina, then transferred and joined our IT audit group that was based in New York City.

My first audit assignment with the Firm was a publicly-listed company.  This particular client had the recipe for a potential accounting and/or internal control failure.  There were three major events that took place in a year, as follows:

        1)       The Company's headquarter was relocated from the state of California to South Carolina.

        2)       Most of the key Finance officers and employees did not relocate from the West Coast to the East Coast; hence, many of the employees were new and were not familiar with the Company's operations and records.

        3)       The Company outsourced most of its logistics function to a third party service provider - United Parcel Service (UPS).

I was part of the team that worked on the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) audit.  This is an audit of internal control over financial reporting that was integrated with the audit of the financial statements.  As a high level background, the SOX Bill was enacted as a reaction to a number of major corporate and accounting scandals, including Enron and Worldcom, and the downfall of one of the  Big Five CPA Firms – Arthur Andersen.

I was initially assigned as a Senior Associate in the SOX audit team.  As a Senior associate, I was doing mostly of the execution of the audit plans, that is, performing the audit testing.  I was then directly reporting to the Audit Manager and/or Audit Partner, and at the same time working with less experienced Associates or team members.

Due to the numerous audit issues and difficulties that we have encountered during the execution of the audit plans and testing, the audit went beyond our original planned audit timeline.  The Team Audit Manager had been scheduled, several months earlier, to manage another out-of-state audit engagement, so she had to leave our Audit Team.  That led me to take over many of her managerial roles and responsibilities on the audit engagement.

My revised role involved a much greater responsibility and tasks.  With the new role, I had to balance my time in sort of managing the SOX audit, I had to perform and execute the tasks assigned to me as the Senior Associate, I had to coach and assist the less experienced staffs in the team and liaise between the Company's management and our Firm's Audit Partners.  Prior to this engagement, I did not have any experience in SOX audit so I was a bit anxious of the revised role.  After about four or five months, we've completed most of the audit tests, but the results were not what we had initially anticipated.  Executing the audit tests were just part of the works done.  As expected, most of the key controls that were tested for SOX reporting purposes had failed.  As a result, the findings were combination of few material weaknesses, several significant deficiencies and numerous control deficiencies.  In layman's term, the Company's internal control over financial reporting was a big failure.  With those findings, we went through a series of meetings and discussions with the Company's management.  They tried to challenge the results of our tests, with the objective of lowering the categories or gravity of the findings.  After series of meetings and additional works performed, we agreed on the final results of the findings and we've issued our Audit report that the Company did not maintain an effective internal control over financial reporting based on the criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework issued by Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.

With the success of my first SOX assignment, I was given the opportunity to work and co-manage the SOX audit of same client the following year.  The above success story had also paved the way for me to be entrusted with the task to assist on several audit engagements of our Bethesda Office and had worked for various clients based in Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland for about four months.  Also, when I've requested for a transfer of office from Charlotte to NYC to join the IT audit group, I got the full support of my colleagues.

Another event that I consider as a defining moment of life happened recently.  In March 2015, I was invited as the Guest Speaker at a Closing Exercises at the school where I attended my primary education.  It was over 30 years since I finished 4^th Grade in the said school.  During that occasion, I've shared some memories during our early school years, and how things were different then during our time as compared to their present time.  I've also shared some pointers and reiterated the old adage that education is one the keys to success.

I grew up in a small village and the only source of our family's livelihood was from farming.  We don't own the lands we till; we got our share based on the farm yields or outputs for a particular crop season.  At an early age, I've learned to do the household chores and worked in the farm to help my parents.  Summer breaks or vacation was not really fun for me as a kid because I've got to work in the field all day under the scorching heat of summer.  This experience led me to a realization that farming was not what I envisioned to become and I had created my personal goal that someday I will be working in a more comfortable environment.  Back then, it was just a generic goal; I don't even know what were the available courses that I could possibly take when I reach college.

I went to a University High School which operated under the umbrella of Mariano Marcos State University.  It was the most prestigious high school in our town, as most of the elementary graduates from the different elementary schools in various villages in our town would want to be admitted to the said school.  Back in high school, I was not a popular student.  I was always losing at the Student Body Organization elections, and the positions in the other smaller organizations were given to me, some sort of consolation.  One reason why I was not popular was that, I was not outgoing and did not actively participate in extra-curricular activities.  But, the reason why I was not into those activities was due to lack of money.  My allowance was just enough for my transportation and a simple lunch at the carinderia or 'turo-turo".  To compensate my introvert side, I focused on my academics, and my hard work paid off as I consistently topped my sections/classes from 1^st Year to 4^th Year.  However, if I hear and contemplate at the lyrics of the song "High School Life" by Sharon Cuneta, for me personally was not all happiness and not all good memories.

Then I went to a College at Mariano Marcos State University.  Although the tuition fee was cheap back then at P10 per unit, my budget from high school has tripled.  That means, more belt-tightening and just focus on studies.  The same routines I had in high school were in play once more.  Again, my hard work paid off and graduated among the top 10 in my BS Accountancy class.  Then, eventually passed the CPA Licensure Exams a few months later where the national passing rate was just over 15%.  And, since landing on my first job in late 1996, I have embarked on a new role of being the provider and bread-winner to my immediate family and extended families even until to this day.  (That's another story or chapter of my life.)

During that speech engagement moment, it was all flashbacks and walking down memory lanes.  It was a defining moment for me to be able to share what I have wanted to impart to the younger generation.  I normally spend about two weeks every year in my home village, and most of the graduating students were unknown to me personally and I haven't met them before.  For most of them, it was probably also the first time they saw me.  During that event, I had high hopes that I was able to inspire at least one student that it's never too early to aspire for something, but you have to work your way hard to reach your goals.

The new learning for me after the event was that it's never too late to aspire more things in life or to set farther goals for myself.  It has renewed my desire to study at a higher level of learning.  Looking back my uneventful school life and modest professional career, I believe that my social and leadership skills have improved throughout the years, but I trust that there's still much room left for improvement.  And, that is why I am here, taking my very first class (Leadership) in the Ateneo-Regis MBA Program.

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