The Toon Boom Training For Students!

The Accounting Challenge 2011

KDU UC and PAC organized the "Accounting Quiz" 2011 for the very first time here at KDU University College, Damansara Jaya Campus on 6th August 2011.

The quiz took approximately 35 minutes, however, the top scorer with lesser time spanned, will be named champion.

Champions at the Taylor’s Inter College Debating Championships!

Two students, Mahherrajan Narayanan (Maxx) & Qureysh Yunus, from KDU University College’s Debate Association were unanimously named as Champions in the Taylor’s Inter College Debating Championships, with two other teams making it into the quarter finals and semi finals.

 

Left to right: Alloysius, Adrian, Sharanya, Michelle, Qureysh and Maxx

SHTCA International Ramadhan Buka Puasa 2011

In conjunction with the Ramadhan month, the School of Hospitality, Tourism & Culinary Arts will be hosting an International Ramadhan ‘Buka Puasa’.

SHTCA would like to extend an invitation to ALL MUSLIM STAFF & STUDENTS to grace the event to make it a memorable experience for both our local and international community. Joining us will be the Ambassador of Khazakstan and the Iranian Ambassador, as well as orphans and old folks from the nearby orphanage and home.

Date: 19th August (Friday)

Time: 7pm - 10pm

Venue: Auditorium, KDU University College, Damansara Jaya

SHTCA will also be ditributing FREE Bubur Lambuk on the same day from 2.00pm to 5.00pm at both the Damansara Jaya Campus and Section 13 Campus. If you'd like to join in the Buka Puasa, kindly get in touch with your respective schools or department administration to RSVP. 

The C-Series talk presents you Ms.Angela, presenting on "Business Etiquette"

We might be clueless when it comes to business etiquette. What are the do's and don'ts? You may not even have any idea that such movements from body language to hand shakes all comes into place when dealing with important people, or people from the business environment. Of course different cultures have different styles when it comes to etiquette, however, it is important for young entrepreneurs and working adults to learn some basic general etiquette to apply in our everyday life.

Ms. Angela Marcel Thexeira came to the rescue and gave us guidance to do it right. The C-Series event took place at the usual venue at KDU Section 13 Campus on 9 August 2011. There were approximately 30 participants who were eager to learn more and brush up their knowledge when dealing with business partners, clients, guests and people they meet. Ms. Thexeira took on the topic from handshakes, to conversation skills, to table manners, and the list went on.

About Ms. Angela Thexeira

She received her undergraduate qualification in Business Administration (with honours) from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia with a major in Marketing and minor in Management. She later then pursued a Master's Degree in Business Administration from Herriot Watt University, UK.

Her versatility in teaching various subjects such as Marketing, Management, Organisational Behaviour, Business Communication and Personal Development is portrayed throughout her 20 years of teaching and education management career.

Over the years, she has also mastered the art of business etiquette and protocol where she has extensively trained students in this area to shape young individuals to be successful professionals.

Besides teaching and training, she also done voice-overs for radio commercials and has gone through Commonwealth volunteer training programme for the 1998 KL Commonwealth Games, held in Malaysia. She also has experience in emceeing for major functions at different institutions that she was a part of.

She is currently the Senior Lecturer/ Programme Leader at the School of Business and Law, KDU University College.

Mr. Gurcharan Singh (Lecturer, School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts, KDU UC) presenting on the MBA Preview.

She also conducted a few activities to get the participants involved like handshaking and exchanging business cards.

"The handshake is the first impression of a person. It is a woman's prerogative if she wants to shake hands or not."

"Everyday you go through your life, it is a protocol. We have to ensure our personal and professional image meets the corporate image standard. In a social setting, you need to know who you are introducing. In a formal setting, it is best to always give our full names and speak clearly. Never mumble and occasionally, put on a conversational lead when necessary."

When introducing people:

If you are introducing two people with the same rank, we usually give priority to the person we know first.

The ladies always gets introduced first, then the men. However, if it were two ladies, the age comes first. However , in a business setting, gender is not the priority.

Let's assume: If the younger person is a Manager, the rank always comes first in a Business setting and not the age. In a social setting, rank does not count. However, in Malaysia, a person's "Title" comes first. Example; Dato' / Tan Sri/ Datuk

Ms Thexeira also added in , "Conversation is a two-way thing. You need to ensure that people understand you. We always keep it short and simple, avoiding anything too technical. Especially if one is an Engineer or Doctor, we will have to avoid any technical terms in a person's field of expertise."

What do you do if you forgot someone's name after being introduced?

We always try to hold on to their business cards as it is a very important tool. If possible, try remembering their names with something or someone you can relate too. If we did, apologize and ask for the second time but we cannot let this happen too often.

Ms. Thexeira noted that, "Our business cards is the window to our work. We must never forget to carry along our cards especially when attending a business function. Be mindful of the purposethat we are giving our cards. It is also not appropriate to write information on a person's business card and never return their cards once handed over to you, even if they ran out of cards."

Small talk

When we are doing small talks, we talk about something general and not something sensitive, especially to the person you just met. It is a two way traffic.

Dining etiquette and table manners:

"We always order the same amount as our host, or less. We must never over-study the menu. There are three important components when dining, namely; Dinnerware, flatware, and glassware. We must never pick up a cutlery set when we drop it but request for a new set. When we need to head to the loo, hang our napkin on the chair or the arm of the chair. Once done dining, fold the napkin and place it back at the side of the table. When passing the salt or pepper, we always pass two together even if they ask for one. The salt and pepper are inseparable."

She also taught the audience the way to hold our cutlery, placed them and handle them. Be it eating a bread or drinking our soup. The audience surely learned something new!

Overall, the audience had fun and found her presentation and topic very interesting and entertaining. She is a humorous speaker and her presentation definitely did not recognized the word "mundane" and "dull'. As a participant, Ms Lum Mei Foong commented, "I wished I was at this workshop 20 years ago."

The men that make the wheels go round

Writtien By: Loh Teck Hua, Lecturer, School of Business and Law

Maintenance is tough and often thankless work – you get down to the nuts and bolts of things, repairing and fixing while getting grease and dirt all over your person just so the machinery works like clockwork for others.

Many of us take maintenance for granted until the lift breaks down and we had to lug our laptop, books, files and all up three flights of steps to the lecture room on third floor. For the programme leaders, the maintenance people are heaven sent come exam time. These ‘work horses’ of KDU UC work overtime to set up the exam halls moving furniture, arranging them, and after everything is over, returning them to the lecture rooms where they came from. And that’s just the main event. Think about the times the air conditioning was not functioning or there was some plumbing problem or a piece of carpentry that had fallen out of place. Or the times you needed to set up a function room in a hurry for activities. Who do you call?

Usually it is Kenneth Loo, the leader of the Section 13 Campus maintenance team.


I remember the time I needed to prepare a lecture room in a hurry for a Murdoch mid-term exam. Initially it was felt that the usual lecture room layout would suffice since there were only fifteen students. However, on second thought we wanted an atmosphere that befits the prestigious Murdoch programme. We wanted that serious, officious exam hall environment with each table sufficiently spaced apart in grid formation. At short notice, just a day before, Kenneth made up the room all on his own – no complaints, no fuss. In fact, he agreed that that was the right thing to do to maintain the image of the college. I was impressed; that comment came from a maintenance man. He struck me as someone who cares about quality, not just getting the nails in place.

The KDU Section 13 maintenance team consists of four personnel. They are tasked with overseeing the whole Section 13 campus, opening and locking up the offices and premises each day and, in the words of Kenneth, “the earliest to arrive and the last to leave”. There were many occasions we had to work late – until 7.30pm - and the poor guys had to wait until we had finished before they could lock up the office and leave. They never complained. They merely looked in once or twice, smiled, and asked if we were done yet and when we think we would finish our work. For a team of maintenance people, the customer service attitude is on a par with that expected of the front liners and student services department! To quote Kenneth, they “always lend a helping hand and keep smiling whether times are good or bad”.

Coming from these often overlooked ‘work horses’ it speaks volumes for the kind of service culture KDU UC has successfully inculcated!