Meet Patrick Ho
Senior Manager, Audit & Assurance, Sydney, Australia
Faces of Industry is a series of articles exploring the personal histories of our practitioners, sharing the key experiences that defined their values and exploring why they do what they do. In this story, Patrick Ho tells us how his science degree led him to focus on Technology, Media & Telecommunication.
Once you have your industry niche you can easily identify experts within the organization to reach out to.
You may not expect an auditor to have a science degree, but Senior Manager Patrick Ho comes at things from a variety of angles. Born in Malaysia, he’s been based in Deloitte’s Western Sydney, Australia, office for three years after working with Deloitte in Malaysia.
He began with a focus on the consumer industry but now finds his passion in the Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) industry because, quite simply, he’s always enjoyed playing with different devices and understanding how they work.
“Technology just rings a bell for me,” he says, “I’m comfortable with it.” And sometimes, he points out, the consumer and technology sectors are complementary, as his clients are often operating between both spaces and need to evolve with technology.
His experience has convinced him that industry provides him with the perspective he needs to excel with clients. And, of course, clients always want to know that you’ve worked with other companies in their industry.
Patrick is quick to acknowledge that the variety of industry training that Deloitte has on offer—whether eLearning, regular calls, or data sources—is key to keeping the organization in the forefront. Deloitte’s learning portal for TMT helps him keep abreast of new developments like crypto, the internet of things, and data security.
“All the industry training and eLearning support I get has been really important in making sure we can serve our clients and be at the forefront of the topics they are dealing with.” In addition, he says, once you start getting the industry specialization under your belt, you develop a great sense of who has the expertise and who can help you do the best job—critical to going to market as a unified global organization.
“When we bid for an international assignment,” he says, “It’s not just a lot of individual groups using a brand name. We really are one organization and we really do combine forces when we go to clients. We have a model for aligning globally—and it works.”
Why Industry?
Patrick brings his passion for the TMT industry to his audit clients, noting that, while auditors can spend a lot of time just doing the work—“dotting our ‘I’s’ and crossing our ‘T’s,’”—knowing the industry helps him step back and really see how to improve things for the client and have “meaningful conversations with them.” Since audit by its nature is very focused on risk, he says that understanding risk from an industry perspective helps pinpoint key areas the team should focus on.
