User:Danielkohkimhoa

Daniel Koh Kian Wei (Chinese: 许健伟; pingyin: Xǔ Jiànwěi) is a Singaporean Chinese, a consumer researcher, system and data analyst, student of theology and a writer in philosophy of sciences, statistics, marketing and theology. He is an associate faculty member at a local university in Singapore and a data scientist in the finance industry.

Background
Koh was born Koh Kian Wei, Daniel on September 12, 1986 to Koh Meng Seng, David and Wong Lai Har, Alice. He is the youngest son in the family. He is married to Tran Thi Kim Hoa (Esther) and a father to one son, Joseph Koh Sheng Kang.

At age 14, Koh was a school drop out from Hai Sing Catholic School. He refused to follow the education system in Singapore. He believed that an individual does not need to obtain a degree to secure a good job. He was stubborn in this saying and eventually became an outcast in the society. However, his life changed when he underwent National Service in Singapore.

Whilst he waited for his enlistment to Singapore Armed Forces, he took a Diploma study in Theology for three and a half years at Far Eastern Bible College, Singapore. He studied systematic theology, expositions of the books in the Bible and ministerial practices. Due to his lack in motivation for studies, he did not perform academically well and had to be enlisted into the army. He went through the specialist course and finally earned the rank of an infantry combat specialist.

Turning Point in Life
Koh faced a turning point in his life when he encountered a near-death experience in his army days. He experienced "lightness, detachment from body, serenity and freedom" and also recounted flashing moments of the heavenly kingdom. Since then, his life's perspective changed and he was determined to excel in his studies and give back to his parents. Right after his army days, Koh embarked on a long journey of academic pursuits that eventually earned him a post-graduate degree.

Career & Education
At age 20, Koh enrolled himself for a one year, full-time Singapore-Cambridge GCE Ordinary Level at Rex Commercial School (now Bradford-Rex College of Hospitality & Management ). With much perseverance and determinations, he obtained his 'O' Level certificate and subsequently enrolled himself for a one year, full-time Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level course at BMC Academy. After two years of full-time academic studies for his general education, he obtained his full GCE 'A' Level certificate.

After his General Education, Koh prepared his first resume and applied for his first job. At the same time, he applied for his first degree with SIM University and majored in Business Studies. However, he soon realized that his academic interest lies in Marketing Research and Consumer Behaviour. He then switched his focus from Business Studies to Marketing. Whilst pursuing his studies, Koh was also working in a Private Equity Media firm as a Database Researcher. He later switched his career to Customer relationship management and data analysis in a Multinational Corporation. At the end of his studies, Koh graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing as a Valedictorian and presented his valedictory speech at the graduation ceremony.

With the help of his relative, Koh continued to pursue his post-graduate Masters studies at Nanyang Business School, majoring in Marketing & Consumer Insight. His research interests are in consumer psychology and research methods in marketing. Just before he finished his Masters studies, Koh went on to take on the role of a Research Assistant at the Centre for Applied Research, SIM University. He is currently assisting the Project Director in an early childhood parenting study.

Koh is one of the few Singaporeans who initially dropped out of school but have eventually obtained a post-graduate degree at one of the top 100 business schools around the world. He was trained by renowned professors and researchers such as A. Parasuraman (a.k.a Parsu) who co-developed the SERVQUAL measurement and Bernd Schmitt who is the world renowned branding guru. He remains an inspiration to those around him.

Statement of Faith and Beliefs
At age 12, Koh was baptized as a Christian at Tabernacle Bible-Presbyterian Church and at age 16, he was trained by a group of Christian lecturers. With his training at Far Eastern Bible College and his near-death experience, at age 21, Koh then developed a set of beliefs that mainly disapprove ultra-conservatism and liberalism. Since then, this set of beliefs remain in him till today.

On Philosophy of Sciences
Being a researcher in the humanities field, Koh believes that true sciences should co-exist with true religion and true religion is not dictated by any knowledge. He rejects methodological monism and positivism in the study of marketing and embraces pluralities of methods to discover interpretations of consumers' thoughts and behaviors. He exerts that the mind of a researcher is limited and bounded by rationality and scientific truths that are not theologically based are mere perceptions of what is observable and understood through multiple lenses of perspectives and integrated fields of knowledge.

On Marketing
As a marketer, Koh believes in modernization of marketing practices that include social media marketing and neuromarketing. He discourages classical marketing (a profit focused approach) and mass production in current day society and embraces customer-centric marketing through mass customization and personalized service. He rejects scientific monism in understanding consumers and undertake the interpretivist approach in understanding consumers and their buying habits. Although he is a data analyst, he promotes both qualitative and quantitative methods in marketing research and encourages researchers in marketing to use both methods to discover, explain and interpret consumers' behaviours.

Koh characterizes the function of Marketing and Sales to be perception management and account management respectively. He agrees that marketing and sales functions are similar but they are different in terms of activities and focus. He believes that Marketing is all about noon-nopi - where marketers should transcend or elevate their eye level to that of the consumers. As a consumer psychologist, Koh believes that successful marketing begins with the right perception and ends with the better perception.

Koh believes in experiential marketing where consumers pay for the intangibles they experience in consumption. He wrote an article on Engagement and Interactivity and shared with his readers on his blog. One of the common experiential marketing model he frequently refers to is Starbucks.

However despite all consumption activities that exist in the world, Koh remains firm in ethical marketing. He denounces consumerism as a mean to happiness. He believes that true happiness lies in the incorruptible - those that are forever established. He also believes that any consumption of corruptible objects and transient activities will ultimately lead to despair - a state in which he describes it as the countering factor against happiness. He is a strong champion in social marketing.

On Theology
As a Christian, Koh embraces Calvinism, Westminster of Faith and the Dean Burgon Oath. He rejects Ecumenism, Liberalism, Neo-Evangelicalism, Neo-Fundamentalism, Pentecostalism and Charismatism. He practices the following statement of faith as set forth by the Westminster Assembly :


 * 1) We believe in the divine, Verbal Plenary Inspiration (Autographs) and Verbal Plenary Preservation (Apographs) of the Scriptures in the original languages, their consequent inerrancy and infallibility, and as the perfect Word of God, the supreme and final authority in faith and life (2 Tim 3:16, 2 Pet 1:20-21, Ps 12:6-7, Matt 5:18, 24:35).
 * 2) We believe the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament underlying the Authorised (King James) Version to be the very Word of God, infallible and inerrant.
 * 3) We uphold the Authorised (King James) Version to be the Word of God—the best, most faithful, most accurate, most beautiful translation of the Bible in the English language, and do employ it alone as our primary scriptural text in the public reading, preaching, and teaching of the English Bible.
 * 4) We believe in one God existing in three co-equal and co-eternal Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Deut 6:4, 1 John 5:7).
 * 5) We believe that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, and is true God and true man in complete and direct fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14 (Matt 1:20-23, John 1:1, 14, Col 2:9).
 * 6) We believe God created the whole universe ex nihilo (out of nothing) by the Word of His mouth, and all very good, in the space of six literal or natural days (Gen 1:1, Exod 20:11, Ps 148:5, John 1:3, Col 1:16, Heb 11:3).
 * 7) We believe that man was created in the image of God, but sinned through the fall of Adam, thereby incurring not only physical death but also spiritual death, which is separation from God and that all human beings are born with a sinful nature and become sinners in thought, word and deed (Gen 1:26-27, Rom 3:19-20, 5:12, 6:23).
 * 8) We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died a propitiatory and expiatory death as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice, and that all who repent of their sins and believe in Him are justified before God on the grounds of His shed blood (Rom 5:8-11, 1 John 2:2, 1 Pet 1:18-19).
 * 9) We believe in the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His ascension into Heaven, and in His exaltation at the right hand of God, where He intercedes for us as our High Priest and Advocate (1 Cor 15:1-4, 15-19, Phil 2:9-11, Heb 3:1, 4:14-16).
 * 10) We believe in the personal, visible and premillennial return of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to judge this world, restore His chosen nation Israel to greatness, and bring peace to the nations as King of kings and Lord of lords (Jer 3:17, Zech 14:9, Acts 1:6, Rom 11:26, Rev 20:1-7).
 * 11) We believe that salvation is by grace through faith alone, not by works, and that all who repent and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour are born again by the Holy Spirit and thereby become the children of God (Rom 5:1, 8:14-16, Eph 2:8-10, 1 Tim 2:5, Tit 3:5).
 * 12) We believe that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and to convict and regenerate the sinner, and indwell, guide, instruct and empower the believer for godly living and service (John 16:7-14, Rom 8:1-2).
 * 13) We believe that Christ instituted the Sacrament of Baptism for believers and their children and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, which sacraments shall be observed by His Church till He comes (Matt 28:19, 1 Cor 11:23-26).
 * 14) We believe in the eternal security, bodily resurrection and eternal blessedness of the saved, and in the bodily resurrection and eternal conscious punishment of the lost (John 10:27-29, 1 Cor 15:51-53, 1 Thess 4:13-18, Rev 20:11-15).
 * 15) We believe in the real, spiritual unity in Christ of all redeemed by His precious blood and the necessity of faithfully maintaining the purity of the Church in doctrine and life according to the Word of God, and the principle and practice of biblical separation from the apostasy of the day (2 Cor 6:14-7:1, Jude 3, Rev 18:4).
 * 1) We believe in the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His ascension into Heaven, and in His exaltation at the right hand of God, where He intercedes for us as our High Priest and Advocate (1 Cor 15:1-4, 15-19, Phil 2:9-11, Heb 3:1, 4:14-16).
 * 2) We believe in the personal, visible and premillennial return of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to judge this world, restore His chosen nation Israel to greatness, and bring peace to the nations as King of kings and Lord of lords (Jer 3:17, Zech 14:9, Acts 1:6, Rom 11:26, Rev 20:1-7).
 * 3) We believe that salvation is by grace through faith alone, not by works, and that all who repent and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour are born again by the Holy Spirit and thereby become the children of God (Rom 5:1, 8:14-16, Eph 2:8-10, 1 Tim 2:5, Tit 3:5).
 * 4) We believe that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and to convict and regenerate the sinner, and indwell, guide, instruct and empower the believer for godly living and service (John 16:7-14, Rom 8:1-2).
 * 5) We believe that Christ instituted the Sacrament of Baptism for believers and their children and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, which sacraments shall be observed by His Church till He comes (Matt 28:19, 1 Cor 11:23-26).
 * 6) We believe in the eternal security, bodily resurrection and eternal blessedness of the saved, and in the bodily resurrection and eternal conscious punishment of the lost (John 10:27-29, 1 Cor 15:51-53, 1 Thess 4:13-18, Rev 20:11-15).
 * 7) We believe in the real, spiritual unity in Christ of all redeemed by His precious blood and the necessity of faithfully maintaining the purity of the Church in doctrine and life according to the Word of God, and the principle and practice of biblical separation from the apostasy of the day (2 Cor 6:14-7:1, Jude 3, Rev 18:4).
 * 1) We believe that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and to convict and regenerate the sinner, and indwell, guide, instruct and empower the believer for godly living and service (John 16:7-14, Rom 8:1-2).
 * 2) We believe that Christ instituted the Sacrament of Baptism for believers and their children and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, which sacraments shall be observed by His Church till He comes (Matt 28:19, 1 Cor 11:23-26).
 * 3) We believe in the eternal security, bodily resurrection and eternal blessedness of the saved, and in the bodily resurrection and eternal conscious punishment of the lost (John 10:27-29, 1 Cor 15:51-53, 1 Thess 4:13-18, Rev 20:11-15).
 * 4) We believe in the real, spiritual unity in Christ of all redeemed by His precious blood and the necessity of faithfully maintaining the purity of the Church in doctrine and life according to the Word of God, and the principle and practice of biblical separation from the apostasy of the day (2 Cor 6:14-7:1, Jude 3, Rev 18:4).
 * 1) We believe in the eternal security, bodily resurrection and eternal blessedness of the saved, and in the bodily resurrection and eternal conscious punishment of the lost (John 10:27-29, 1 Cor 15:51-53, 1 Thess 4:13-18, Rev 20:11-15).
 * 2) We believe in the real, spiritual unity in Christ of all redeemed by His precious blood and the necessity of faithfully maintaining the purity of the Church in doctrine and life according to the Word of God, and the principle and practice of biblical separation from the apostasy of the day (2 Cor 6:14-7:1, Jude 3, Rev 18:4).
 * 1) We believe in the real, spiritual unity in Christ of all redeemed by His precious blood and the necessity of faithfully maintaining the purity of the Church in doctrine and life according to the Word of God, and the principle and practice of biblical separation from the apostasy of the day (2 Cor 6:14-7:1, Jude 3, Rev 18:4).

= Education Qualifications and Awards =
 * Gongshang Primary School (1992-1999)
 * Hai Sing Catholic School (2000-mid 2002)
 * Far Eastern Bible College, Diploma in Theology (2002-2012)
 * SIM University, BSc. in Marketing (Pass with Merit), Valedictorian (2009-2013)
 * Nanyang Technological University, MSc. in Marketing and Consumer Insight (2013-present)

= References =