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 As a part of the special privilege of being part of the Buy1GIVE1
community, we always get to meet and speak with some incredible people.
One of this month’s special gifts for us was meeting the Vice-President
of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) - the company that dominates the news
industry in Singapore.
We had a thirty-minute meeting scheduled which ended up becoming a
two-and-a-half-hour meeting as he decided to cancel everything in the
afternoon to spend more time with us to share his passion for giving.
His name is Peter Khoo. He’s humble, inspirational and enormously
insightful.
Success and Abundance Inside
Peter started his journey as a humble reporter for the Straits Times, the number one newspaper in the country. And 8 years ago he led a team of investigative journalists to look at the nationally-celebrated Children's Day in Singapore. ‘In this rich nation, we were stunned to find 2,037 kids in real poverty’, he says.
And when the newspaper decided to do something about that, the Chairman asked Peter to lead the team to create what is now a national legacy, the School Pocket Money Fund. Peter knew nothing about fund-raising or about charities. All he knew was creatively he could make something work. And he knew it needed heart (he has a huge one) even when the entire media world seems to be focusing more on issues and criticisms. His mission became one of bringing Corporate Social Responsibility closer to the culture and the heart of the company - in a unique approach.
 The ‘School Pocket Money Fund’ gives pocket money to children whose families are in severe financial difficulties to make sure all children get to have proper lunch at school. It now serves over 8,000 families. ‘It’s hard in our culture for families to admit they have challenges,’ he says. ‘There can be a stigma attached. But through a gentleness of approach, we’re now finding even more people to help. And that’s good!’
Peter’s come up with many unique ways for fund raising and has already raised over ten million dollars over the past years. As he was sharing some of the stories, we saw a cheeky grin on his face like a little child. He then started talking about some of his playful ‘schemes’. This one is, we think, a classic:
“You know, as an established media organisation, we receive a massive amount of corporate gifts from everywhere. Normally just executives are treated with such gifts and so much is wasted and untouched.
And our book reviewers get lots of books to review. Our music critics get lots of CDs. Our food critics get lots of wine AND food. And all this ‘stuff’ just hangs around on their desks as if it’s theirs.
So one day we ‘confiscated’ all the gifts and we put them in our auditorium and hosted a bazaar. The room was soon filled with all kinds of things like books, CDs, bottles of wine and sweets.
And then we invited all the lower paid personnel (the cleaners, the guards and so on) who work here to go into the room to buy the gifts at 10-20% of market value. Then some of the new hires were let in to buy the rest at slightly higher prices. Next was the middle-management team with each team having just one hour. Then finally at the end of the day, the entire top management group were guided into the auditorium. We told them their task was to totally clear whatever was left in the room at 100% of the market value. And every single thing was bought with all of the money going straight to the School Pocket Money Fund.
We raised a lot of money on that day. And more importantly, we still continue to do this as our company ’s joyful regular bazaar.”
Joyful Win-Win
 What is so interesting is Peter’s humility and genuine passion to take every opportunity to create higher values and more synergy in the company. All his ideas are full of fun and value for everyone involved. And he strongly believes in creating a win-win and sustainable change. He’s recently been honoured by the President of Singapore for not only believing in those things but actually doing them each and every day.
When we are working for a company, we may end up thinking it is just a job. But being an active part of our organisation is also an important key to creating a massive change in the world. If we all take our work (either working for a company or in our own business) as our ultimate ‘life purpose’ and do our best each day to make a difference in our own environment, we can actually be the one to touch millions!
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Success stories 
