CEO Insights Magazine

An adept corporate secretarial, accounting, tax & incentives, immigration, HR, and business consulting professional, Ho Kah Chuan is the Founder of Go Global Gem and has more than 18 years of exclusive experience in tax services practice as an accredited tax advisor of Singapore Chartered Tax Professionals.

He had been a Tax Director in a Big Four accounting firm for 10+ years, prior to which he had worked at the Ministry of Finance where he introduced significant tax measures to revamp the Singapore economy during its downturn in the early 2000s. Subsequently, he was posted to Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) where he was involved in fine-tuning tax policies on incentives to attract foreign investments into Singapore. Kah Chuan also spent time in the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), where he was instrumental in establishing a strong network with government bodies.

His work profile covers advisory services on tax-efficient supply chain management, R&D and IP management, headquarters and treasury management, manufacturing, IPO, and M&A deals. On top of that, Kah Chuan is also a frequent speaker and lecturer at seminars and tax courses organized by various private & government agencies. He is widely recognized by government ministers for several voluntary grassroots activities and community projects conducted for the underprivileged segments of society. Let’s hear it from him.

What makes Go Global Gem unique? How are you adding value to the company and its customers by adapting the latest technologies?

At Go Global Gem, we focus on non-audit accounting as well as business advisory services. Our services are diverse, ranging from corporate secretarial to bookkeeping, tax, global immigration, Employment Pass/Permanent Residency Application, Family Office/ HQ set-Wwwup, HR advisory, and Consulting. We provide these services through leveraging new media, which not many corporate secretarial accounting firms use. We have done a lot of live streaming of talks and events, especially during the pandemic.

We encourage Broadcasting our technical s h a r i n g sessions which helps us in m a r k e t i n g and growing our profile internationally as well as strengthening relationships with our existing clients. The company was established with the vision of leveraging on techinnovation by empowering enterprises to accelerate their business. Our people are our greatest asset and we collectively believe in serving our community.

What are the vital lessons and tax services practices that you have inculcated from your previous experiences and how do you find them helpful in your current role?

In my past roles, I have mainly worked with the government sector and big accounting firms where there are abundant resources and the services there are broken down into fine departments, but as a boutique firm and as a start-up I understand that resources are limited and we have to work with whatever resources available and adapt accordingly as we grow our service offerings.

For some services, we had to adopt loss-leader strategies in order to be able to enter new markets. We then work with a lot of channel partners to establish our services as well as our brand name and the quality of the services that we can provide to clients in this space, then we focus on our core services like HQ setup services as well as fund set up services so that we devote sufficient & limited resources on areas where we can gain a better footprint in the market. Some of these services have yielded a larger margin than our traditional services like Corporate Secretarial or Visa Applications.

What is the role Go Global Gem has envisioned to take shortly? And what strategies are you planning to adopt to work towards the company’s vision?

As a small boutique firm, at present, we are about 40 strong, having a presence, both in Singapore as well as China. It has been a challenging ride to be able to adapt the business activities in both countries mainly because we began our operations during the pandemic. This has driven home the importance of being nimble as a small outfit, with constant adjustment of our strategies to better establish our presence in the markets that we want to enter. With the pandemic stabilizing and countries opening up their borders, services related to immigration and venturing overseas will continue to be in demand. In the coming years, we plan to remobilize our resources and hiring as well as our marketing efforts to focus our strategies toward cross-border services. Today’s economic environment is no longer just local but more dependent on global developments, making it very crucial for organizations to explore international business strategies.

Ho Kah Chuan, Founder & CEO, Go Global Gem

With a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, a Master’s in International Taxation Law, 20 years of experience as a tax advisor, and instilled with an entrepreneurial mindset, Kah Chuan is building an innovative business model by adopting new practices and leveraging new media to grow his services.

Quick Facts:

Hobbies: Hiking

Favourite Cuisine: Chinese

Favourite Travel Destination: Europe