ABOUT THE AUTHOR - R P BASKARAN

Up to the age of about 15, he was hawking vegetables and fruits outside the Sentul Pasar Market in Kuala Lumpur. As he did not have proper schooling at a regular school, he self-studied, English, mathematics and shorthand, and took up his first employment as a temporary stenographer in The Federal Treasury, Ministry of Finance, Malaya in February 1960. He continued his self-study, while working, and passed the Cambridge School Certificate with Grade One in 1962 and subsequently the Cambridge Higher School Certificate, and other professional examinations.

He progressed to be a Chartered Accountant of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants, a Chartered Secretary of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (U.K.), a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (U.K.), an Associate Member of the Chartered Tax Institute of Malaysia. He is also a Fellow of the Malaysian Society of Accountants and of the Association of International Accountants (U.K.).

Careerwise, he progressed from temporary stenographer to the position of Stenographer to the then Honourable Minister of Finance. He then joined the Inland Revenue Department as an Assistant Examiner of Accounts. He resigned and joined an international auditing firm. During his exposure to external audits for six years, he has done audits of a wide range of companies, including quoted companies. He left auditing and joined a manufacturing company as its Cost Accountant. He then took up the appointment of Chief Accountant and Company Secretary of a multinational company. He became the Finance Manager and later appointed to the board as Director of Finance. He was then appointed Deputy Managing Director of the Group of multinational companies. He was also the Company Secretary for the Group for more than 20 years. During this period, he was exposed to human resources management within the Group.

At present, he is the Managing Director and Managing Editor of Digest Review Sdn Bhd. and is the author of the following books, which are all based on Malaysian laws.

1. “Handbook for Employers & Employees in the Private Sector”, reprinted 6 times and now in its 34^th edition;
2. “Handbook of Forms & Letters for the Human Resources & Administration Managers”, reprinted 13 times and now in its 5^th edition;
3. “Handbook of Calculations & Applications according to Employment Laws”, reprinted 3 times and now in its 4^th edition;
4. “How to Produce, Introduce and Enforce an Employee Handbook in your Company”, which has gone into 4 editions;
5. “Handbook of Points to Remember on Employment Laws for the Human Resources & Administration Managers”,2^nd edition
6. “Handbook for the Fresh Graduates”, now in its 5th edition; and.
7. “A Quick Guide to the Companies Act 2016 for the Busy Managers”..

Having gone through the various levels of appointment during a period of over 60 years, mainly through self-study, he has observed and experienced the good and the bad of management and administration. He picked up the good points which he observed and used them to mould the contents of all his books.