Last week at work / South Africa vs. Ghana soccer game at Soccer City / Goodbyes / Final thoughts

Our last week in South Africa went by way too quickly. The audit work died down a bit, as we were able to deliver our audit committee document on time. My final performance review went well, and I would go back to the team at my client in a heartbeat. I will really miss all of them, especially our daily lunch ratings and Friday dance competitions.

One great thing my team helped us with was organizing tickets to the South Africa vs. Ghana soccer game at Soccer City, the Johannesburg World Cup stadium. It was really exciting to see the stadium firsthand (very impressive) and to experience tens of thousands of vuvuzelas blowing at full force. Although we were nervous about the outcome of the game, South Africa came out victorious and beat Ghana 1-0, a huge win for Bafana Bafana (name of the South African soccer team). We were exhausted after the game, but it was definitely worth it to see the impressive stadium that hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup final game.

On Thursday we went to a really nice restaurant with David’s audit team from FS, and then on Friday we ate lunch with my team. It was really weird to feel the sense of finality with the “goodbye” lunches, and I am definitely not ready to go home. I suppose time abroad always feels too short, but I am amazed at how much I have learned and experienced in just one month. Every day I am amazed that a company like KPMG can operate effectively and competitively in two completely different countries, and more importantly handle the logistics and details to transfer its professionals between the two. I really feel like everything I learned in Johannesburg will not only transfer to my audit work back in the United States, but also provide me with a unique insight into the firm’s global nature. I think I got a little desensitized to how huge of an opportunity it really was to work in Africa for an accounting firm as an intern, but part of me thinks that is part of what makes a global firm like KPMG so cool – if you take the mental borders down between countries, people are more willing and open to embracing international opportunities and adapting to the global nature of many clients KPMG serves. All in all, I am humbled and thrilled to have had this amazing opportunity to work in another continent and hemisphere, and I can only hope this is the beginning of a great global career.

IAP audit group function / Action cricket with Canadians and South Africans from KPMG / Victoria Falls trip

I think if I had to pick just one week as my favorite from our whole experience in South Africa, this one would be it. On the work side, our client was preparing for an audit committee meeting, which meant the KPMG audit team was going full throttle to make sure all of the substantive testwork was completed and accurate. It was really cool to see auditors from the other locations like Cape Town and Pretoria coming to Johannesburg to work together with our team to deliver an audit opinion. I also had my mid-point performance review with my manager, which was great to hear feedback from the other side of the world!

During the week, our group (IAP) had an audit function, which was a group-wide meeting in the morning followed by a social activity in the afternoon. The morning consisted of managers talking about the state of the IAP audit group, and more importantly how to grow the business and improve. Staff from all experience levels gave suggestions for improvement, and the group developed an action plan to drive the “transformation” as they called it. In the afternoon, we went to a rural venue to have a South African cookoff (think South African version of Iron Chef, only with accountants – lots of fun).

After a lot of fun with our audit group, I met up with David and the Canadians to go watch the KPMG team play action cricket (an indoor version of the normal cricket game). Unfortunately the team lost, but we still had a great time learning all the rules and meeting the South African team members – we even learned how to throw. I’d say we have a ways to go before we are cricket pros, but it was really cool to learn a new sport.

The capstone of my favorite week was our trip to the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. The falls are the highest in the world (twice as tall as Niagara), and they are absolutely beautiful. Some of our favorite activities included bungee jumping and white water rafting down the Zambezi river. We also took a sunset cruise and got to take some breathtaking pictures of the African sunset, a personal favorite of mine. After our adrenaline-filled weekend, we are definitely ready to embrace our last week as quasi-South Africans back in Johannesburg.

Starting to feel at home in Joburg / Braai with neighbors / Kruger National Park trip

After Cape Town, we were ready to hit the ground running for our first full week of audit work now that onboarding and introductions were complete. My client (glass company) has a 6/30 year end, so the substantive testing procedures are now in full swing.

We are also starting to feel more at home at our apartment in Johannesburg. Our complex is home to most of the secondees/foreign assignees for the Jo’burg office. We met the other foreign assignees from Canada (there are four of them in Energy & Resources) and Sweden (one in Forensic), and on Thursday we had a braai (Afrikaans word for barbecue) with them and some South Africans in our complex. We got to sample some of the local food and drinks, and I am very much a fan of South African cuisine. They all invited us to come watch the KPMG team play cricket next week, so we are very excited about that.

The weekend excursion this week was a trip to the Kruger National Park, a huge nature reserve that spans parts of South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. The trip was about four hours straight east, and after arriving on Friday night we had a really nice dinner at our lodge. Saturday morning was definitely my favorite part of the trip – we arrived at the park gate at 4:30 a.m. for our safari! At 5:00 a.m. our game driver departed and we started looking for wildlife. Most animals are active at sunrise and sunset, so we were there at just the right time. We saw lions, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, and even a hyena. Our driver was also really knowledgeable, which made the trip that much better. That night we ate with some other South Africans from Johannesburg visiting as well, and we saw some game on the banks of the Crocodile River while enjoying some great food and company. Sunday included a scenic trip through the backroads of Mpumalanga, and we saw God’s Window, the Potholes, and the Three Rondavels, all of which had really breathtaking views. It’s hard to believe our experience is already half over, but I feel like we’re really taking advantage of everything South Africa has to offer.

First impressions of South Africa / First day of work / Cape Town trip

We just got finished with our first week in South Africa, and I must say, it is a lot different from what I expected. I had heard a lot of hype about the World Cup and stereotypes about Africa, but I was very impressed with all of the infrastructure and hustle-bustle of a big city, just like in the United States. The flight in and moving in process went very smoothly, and we didn’t experience a lot of jet lag. David’s manager Liam picked us up from the airport, and he also took us out with some people from Financial Services in a nearby neighborhood of Johannesburg. Sunday was our driving lesson, and I am feeling a lot better about driving on the left side of the road.

This was also our first week of work on the client site. I am assigned to the Industrial, Automotive, and Pharmaceuticals (IAP) division on a large glass manufacturing client. The team in total is really big, but we are all spread out over about five divisional locations plus the head office (where I am working). My mentor and manager have been really good about making sure I understand how the South African firm performs its testwork and completes workpapers (most of it is actually the same as the U.S.), and I feel like I am learning a lot. I will be on this client for four weeks, so I am looking forward to a sense of continuity regarding the both audit work and relationships with teams.

The highlight of this week was definitely our first excursion – a weekend trip to Cape Town. David spent a semester abroad at the University of Cape Town, so he got to serve as our quasi-tour guide for the trip. We visited the campus and met up with some of his South African friends for lunch, and in the afternoon we went up Table Mountain for great views of Green Point Stadium, Robben Island, and the ocean. I was surprised at how much wind there was – South Africans call it the “Cape Doctor” because it blows all of the pollution out of the city, and it was really refreshing after a week in Johannesburg. On Sunday I went shark diving (just in time for Shark Week on Discovery Channel!) in Hermanus, which was an amazing experience. I can only hope our other weekend trips are as good as this one.

Shanghai – KPMG, TSMC, Farewell Dinner

We started off today with a trip down the street to KPMG China, which I was really excited about because I will be working for KPMG in two countries this summer (the United States and South Africa). It was really excited to hear Mark Lavalle talk about his experience as an expat in China with my future employer; he and his team of other senior managers talked about their unique reasons for being in China, most of which had something to do with developing both themselves and the local office. I know from personal experience that KPMG always strives to make its international network of member firms more cohesive, and seeing the Chinese firm operate with such similar values and culture to other offices I have visited in the world was really exciting for me. After the presentation we had the opportunity to eat lunch with Mark, and he was also extremely easy to talk to. He provided a very honest perspective on both challenges and perquisites of being a westerner in a country like China, many of which regarded his family and their opportunities/compromises as a result of living outside of the United States. As someone interested in possibly being an expatriate myself, I took this insight to heart and will hopefully be able to use Mr. Lavalle as a resource should an opportunity like this arise during my career.

After lunch we headed to our final corporate visit of the trip, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). As a result of a unique network connection with Calvin’s father, our group had the opportunity to tour a very high tech facility that quite honestly looked like something out of a movie. Everyone had to wear special suits, shoes, gloves, and hairnets, as well as enter through an air shower to ensure that no dust particles got on the silicon wafers. We saw how the company employed a strategic combination of automation and manual labor to create the lowest possibility for errors in the manufacturing process. Following this was a presentation more on the business aspects of the company including an analysis of its strategic position compared to competitors like Intel and Texas Instruments.

Our final event of the trip was a farewell dinner at Banana Leaf where we had one last great meal and a lot of fun dancing around. We took the opportunity to present our chaperones with gifts from the World Expo and say some final goodbyes. Looking back on my goals before the trip, I can confidently say that believe I accomplished them all throughout our stay in China. After this trip, I hope to use my new knowledge and professional skills to be a better performer this summer as an intern as well as next year as I finish out my senior year in college.

Shanghai – Bosch, GE, Abbott Dinner

After a well-needed good night’s rest, we headed out for our second business professional day of corporate visits. After a great breakfast in the hotel, our first stop was Bosch United Automotive Electronic Systems (UAES), a subsidiary of Bosch with operations in China. We sat in a really neat meeting room – it was an interesting cross between western interior amenities and eastern architecture. The presenters shared their experiences as expats from Germany as well as some fundamental information about Bosch worldwide. Afterwards we got a tour of the factory and saw a lot of the automobile testing the facility conducts for other parts of Bosch worldwide, followed by a quick lunch near our next stop.

After lunch our next visit was to General Electric’s China Technology Center (CTC). My group was responsible for briefing/debriefing and presenting gifts to our hosts. As a result of our research we learned that GE China has ties to University of Illinois via Dr. Xiangli Chen, the president of the facility (and an alumnus of Illinois). Dr. Chen and his PR specialist Nancy again emphasized the importance of localization when conducting business in China and how GE is moving towards actually producing products it plans to sell to the Chinese market in China, a part of its “In China, For China” effort. Following the presentation we participated in a brief tour of the lobby while hearing more about GE China’s contributions to the conglomerate’s advances in energy around the world.

For dinner we watched a brief presentation from representatives of Abbott Laboratories in China, after which we each had the opportunity to sit in a group with a professional from the company. My table ate with the controller, a native of Hong Kong who had experience with financial operations all over eastern Asia. We discussed on a more informal level what it is like to have a management role in such a dynamic environment (he mentioned that he had been to the United States and Europe multiple times on business). Despite his professional success, he was one of the most approachable people I’ve met while on the trip which was both impressive and motivating for all of the students present.

Shanghai – World Exposition

After we arrived in Shanghai early in the morning, we had to blitz-change into business casual for our visit to the World Expo. I didn’t really know too much about the expo before we went, just that it was divided into a company part and a country part (one on each side of the Huangpu River). We spent the morning on the corporate side – our small group saw a group of Shaolin warriors, which were very impressive. We also visited the space exhibition and the Coca Cola stand before it was time to take the ferry to the other side to see the countries. We also wanted to check out GM’s “Take a Drive to 2030” exhibit, but it was too far away.

The other side of the river was a really neat experience – almost every country from around the world had a big exhibit (they called them “pavilions”). Some favorites included Spain, Turkey, the Netherlands, China, and Saudi Arabia. We didn’t get a chance to see too many pavilions from the inside, but we walked a ton to see almost every one from the exterior. On a whole, I was really impressed with how much infrastructure Shanghai had implemented to accommodate the extra visitors (there were an estimated 300,000 people while we were there, and in July the city expects over 400,000!). Some implements we noticed included a lot of additional pedestrian walkways as well as some permanent new pavilions like the China one, which was extremely impressive. After about seven hours of straight walking on the country side, we headed back to the hotel.

Our final stop of the night was a nice (slower paced!) walk from the hotel eastward toward the Bund. The Bund is an area on the Huangpu River with a great view of both sides. The west side of the river (the Puxi side) has some of the older and more developed buildings, and the eastern side (Pudong) is home to some newer, more modern buildings built in the last 10-15 years. Both sides were very impressive, and the weather was absolutely beautiful – perfect for a relaxing touristy night out. After lots of group photos we headed back to the hotel for some tea and well-needed rest for corporate visits in the morning.