Alumination Autumn
Transcription
Alumination Autumn
THE NEWSLETTER FOR FORMER PARTNERS OF GRANT THORNTON UK AUTUMN/WINTER 2013 Where are you now? p6-7 Tony Harper interviews David Brooks p10-11 Introduction Welcome to the latest edition of Alumination. Contents 3 Introduction 4 News update 5 CEO update 6 Where are you now? 8 Sally Gunnell 9 Agents of Growth 10Tony Harper interviews David Brooks 12 Forthcoming events 13 London alumni event 14 Linkedin update 15 Partner alumni golf event ©2013 Grant Thornton UK LLP. All rights reserved. I hope you, your friends and family have enjoyed what has been a great summer. We are all now back from the main holiday season concentrating on delivering the 13/14 financial year. In this edition, Scott refers to the positive 12/13 results and the challenging competitive landscape. You may have seen recent press articles and interviews given by Scott in the Daily Telegraph and other National publications. Also in this edition Tony Harper interviews David Brooks. Many of you will remember David and, I am sure, will be keen to read this article. Thank you to the 76 who, since the last magazine, have ‘Linked in’ with their fellow partner alumni. Over 30 discussions have been posted including: • 1972 Thornton Baker newsletter • Golf day photos • Grant Thornton internal magazine • Details on Not for Profit events • Summer alumni event photos • Updates on former colleagues • And sadly, obituary notices •Most recently, information on the firm’s latest financial results have been added. More importantly it provides you with easy access to communicate with each other. Thanks in particular go to Norman Buckland who provided us with a very entertaining and informative post script to the 1972 newsletter. If you missed the article last time and want to know how to join Linkedin please see the article on page 14. “We are all now back from the main holiday season concentrating on delivering the 13/14 financial year. In this edition Scott refers to the positive 12/13 firm’s results and the challenging competitive landscape”. Jenny Balme National Director, Partner Support Unit ‘Grant Thornton’ means Grant Thornton UK LLP, a limited liability partnership. Grant Thornton UK LLP is a member firm within Grant Thornton International Ltd (‘Grant Thornton International’). Grant Thornton International and the member firms are not a worldwide partnership. Services are delivered by the member firms independently. This publication has been prepared only as a guide. No responsibility can be accepted by us for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from acting as a result of material in this publication. www.grant-thornton.co.uk JJM004 2 | THE NEWSLETTER FOR FORMER PARTNERS OF GRANT THORNTON UK Jenny Balme National Director, Partner Support Unit AUTUMN/WINTER 2013 | 3 Scott Barnes CEO News update CEO update Honorary degree for John Anderson The market overall remains tough, so I’m really pleased that our strategy is proving itself and that we have clocked up a fourth year of growth. Early October saw a slew of newspaper headlines sharing the news about our results. In July 2013, the head of Scotland’s leading entrepreneurship network received an honorary degree from the University of Strathclyde. John Anderson, CEO and founding member of the Entrepreneurial Exchange, presides over an organisation with some 400 members, representing over £14 billion of turnover and around 150,000 employees. He received the award during a graduation ceremony at the University on Thursday, 4 July. Strathclyde Principal Professor Sir Jim McDonald said: “As a leading international technological university, Strathclyde seeks to create innovative and effective solutions to global challenges and we select honorary graduates whose achievements reflect this ethos. “We welcome all of our honorary graduands to the Strathclyde community and recognise not only their accomplishments but also those of our students who are graduating at the same time”. Mr Anderson pursued a career in accountancy, working in London and Chicago before returning to Scotland to take an MBA, which he completed at Strathclyde. His thesis, entitled Local heroes – Scotland’s Entrepreneurial Role Models, formed the basis of a database he developed, which soon listed 600 businesses, and of the Scottish Enterprise Local Heroes project, which he was instrumental in establishing. In 1995, Mr Anderson helped to found the Entrepreneurial Exchange and to nurture its mission of sharing experiences, knowledge, skills and leadership, with experienced entrepreneurs acting as mentors to others embarking on business ventures. He served as a Partner in international accountancy firm Grant Thornton before taking up the role as CEO of the Entrepreneurial Exchange. Mr Anderson is also a Visiting Professor at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde, a founding GlobalScot and is a member of the Prince’s Trust Scotland Council. Awards won Joiners and leavers New partners appointed/to be appointed Marcus McCaffrey FIS London FSQ 9 Sept 2013 Mark Steele Advisory London FSQ 16 Sept 2013 Ewen Fleming FSA* London FSQ 1 August 2013 Kenn Taylor FSA* London FSQ 1 August 2013 Warwick Clews FSA* London FSQ 1 August 2013 Richard Milnes FS Tax London FSQ 18 Dec 2013 Graham Odlin Tax 1 July 2013 James Hurst Tax 1 July 2013 John Shinnick Assurance 1 July 2013 Leavers *Financial Services Advisory Stop Press With great sadness we report the recent death of former partners: Ken Hutchinson ( Leicester), Michael Milling ( London) and Peter Smith (Leicester). “The power of our firm is in the quality of our people and it is essential that we keep investing in them. This year saw us promote 25 people to partner and bring in some 280 trainees, including 50 school leavers. Once within the firm, each person has the opportunity to develop both their technical skills and their business acumen”. Scott Barnes CEO 4 | THE NEWSLETTER FOR FORMER PARTNERS OF GRANT THORNTON UK With a 13% increase in turnover to £471 million, we have every chance of meeting our Ambition 2015 target of £500 million a year early. A target that seemed very bold in late 2011! Our approach has been to focus on broadening our business and targeting market sectors where we could best find growth. The result is a firm that is very different in composition to similar sized operations as we have built our advisory capability and grown our public sector audit client-base radically, thanks to the Audit Commission wins last year. Our strategy is clear and we have a very clear set of criteria for our investment and expansion, and this is used to test each prospect that presents itself, and has enabled us to actively seek out specific opportunities. We have been able to be nimble and robust in our approach. Our aim is not bulk, it is a rounded practice that will best support our mission to unlock the potential for growth in dynamic businesses. So while our advisory turnover has risen by a very gratifying 21.2%, the historic core practice has seen a much tougher environment: Audit has growth by dint of the public sector practice’s growth and Tax has moved back slightly, largely due to a dearth of transactions. The power of our firm is in the quality of our people and it is essential that we keep investing in them. This year saw us promote 25 people to partner and bring in some 280 trainees, including 50 school leavers. Once within the firm, each person has the opportunity to develop both their technical skills and their business acumen. We have made significant investments in our development programmes with a specific focus on developing critical thinking and communication skills. It is early days, yet some of our participants in the so-called Exceptional Connections programme have already had excellent results in turning long-term targets into fee-paying clients. Over the next few months we are embarking on a series of events that will bring us closer to the immediate concerns and thinking of CEOs and MDs in the medium-sized business space. On the back of our well-received Agents of Growth research, we are holding four summits where business leaders and policy-makers can discuss the opportunities and barriers for these businesses that form the engine room of UK plc’s growth. So, we are focused on delivering another year of solid results, high quality work and a developing reputation for championing growth. AUTUMN/WINTER 2013 | 5 Where are you now? an update from Norman Bruckland I joined Thornton Baker as its first ‘National Overhead’ – a phrase that I soon converted into ‘Indirect contributor to Profit’: the official role was National Secretary. I was in a small office in Potters Bar, but mostly travelling to various of the 40 odd offices along with the Council or its committees. This is a bit of history for the many who may not have known me as the firm’s National Secretary between 1971 and 1988 (and thereafter as the compiler of a news sheet for retired partners, using the word processor that I had been given as a retirement present. After five years as a tax inspector, I became one of the secretariat of the ICAEW until 1970. Mainly looking after education, training, district and students societies and a bit of public relations. The biggest event of that period was the merger with the Society of Incorporated Accountants: a massive change in scale and activity. For example, in 1957 we had new student recruitment of about 1,300; in 1958 recruitment went up to some 3000; and the qualified membership numbers were also transformed. Without that merger, Thornton Baker (now Grant Thornton) would not have happened. Baker and Co of Leicester, had – as a former mixed firm - the drive to grow by local and then more distant mergers. Thornton and 6 | THE NEWSLETTER FOR FORMER PARTNERS OF GRANT THORNTON UK Thornton of Oxford and the towns around, with the history of having grown with Morris Motors, became another key partnership. Participants in ICAEW summer courses were yet another fruitful source. By the time I was recruited in January 1971, the firm had some 50 offices in England and Wales and around 150 partners. Not just a loose federation, nor just a thundering herd as it was nicknamed in the Establishment; but bound together by common capital, profit sharing and partner admission policies; some firms joined as a means to buttress their client lists against ‘big firm’ erosion; for others it was a less uncertain way to recover their capital commitment when, soon, they were to retire; for yet others, access to special skills (especially taxation and management advisory services) that might otherwise lead clients to look elsewhere. The future was decided within six or seven months of my arrival. Two things were on the firm’s list of jobs to be done soon by me; a history and a student recruitment brochure. As a historian I ignored the former and, as a practice builder, I wrote a recruitment booklet! More significantly I very soon became engaged in the big question: “where do we go from here?” Acting secretary to a small partner group and, as a writer of a paper for the full partners meeting in autumn 1971, I committed convincingly to paper the group’s conclusion that – at whatever cost – the partnership should build itself up to be effectively independent, rather than do just enough to secure a reasonable deal for absorption into one of the ‘big few’. Frankly, I could not have hoped for a better time to enjoy a ‘baptism of fire’ in the management of a partnership community. I had taken the job because I liked the people and the partnership concept. Concepts are all very well, but we do not live on theory. And Thornton Baker / Grant Thornton, from the start, fulfilled my wish to engage in a living partnership / community venture. The structure has changed greatly since I left in the 1980s. I hope that the spirit has survived and, indeed, may have been reinforced by the alliance with Robson Rhodes. Maybe some fellow group members will add a bit of history about Robson Rhodes. Please let us know YOUR NEWS! P.S. I must not finish this note without expressing appreciation to: a. Above all, Jenny Dockree (deceased) who brought solid practice experience and was both the rock and the public face of my national office; b. In the same setting, Peter Hubbard, a colleague since 1955 and still a close friend. c. Without exception, the leadership of successive Managing Partners and also Executive Supporting Partners. “By the time I was recruited in January 1971, the firm had some 50 offices in England and Wales and around 150 partners. Not just a loose federation, nor just a thundering herd as it was nicknamed in the Establishment; but bound together by common capital, profit sharing and partner admission policies”. Norman Bruckland AUTUMN/WINTER 2013 | 7 Sally Gunnell Sally Gunnell OBE, the only woman ever to hold four major track titles concurrently – Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth – recently joined us at our Annual Advisory Women’s Networking Evening, in London. From analysis to action: de-coding the high-performance strategies of the mid-market Describing how elite athletics is less about one huge effort and more about linking together a series of small measures, to drive improvement, she observed the parallels for business and general well being. “Sustained change comes in small, well-executed steps,” she told us. “There are many benefits to achieving better well being – a more positive attitude, and more resilience to stress, for a start”. “There are many benefits to achieving better well being – a more positive attitude, and more resilience to stress, for a start”. Sally Gunnell OBE Over the last year, Grant Thornton’s Agents of Growth research – conducted in partnership with the Centre of Economic Business and Research (CEBR) – has studied the productive potential of dynamic medium-sized businesses (MSBs). Building on this data in 2013, we are running a series of events around the UK, where we invite clients and warm targets to attend half day summits with the purpose of gather their thoughts on challenges and opportunities facing the wider UK plc, linking to our research collateral. Event dates and speaker information 5 November 2013 Reading Penta Hotel, Oxford Road, RG1 7RH Panel speakers: Phil Smith, CEO of Cisco Systems Ltd, John O’Hanlon, CEO, Ridgeway Garages Newbury Ltd Why are we doing this? 7 November 2013 We are looking to enhance our reputation as the firm who understands growth and who is proactively backing the needs of MSBs; building on work we have done into the significant, and more importantly the ‘potential’, contribution of UK MSBs to UK GDP. By bringing MSB leaders together, we are seeking to hear directly from them about the real opportunities and barriers they face today, to uncover the strategies that the best businesses are employing to drive real and sustainable growth. Our aim is ultimately to determine what business leaders want and need to happen in the UK to help them achieve their potential. Manchester Concorde Conference Centre, Panel speakers: Tim Bacon, CEO, Living Ventures, Asif Hamid, CEO, The Contact Company and Matthew Moulding, CEO, The Hut Group. 26 November 2013 Birmingham Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Birmingham, B5 7QU Panel speakers: Sir Albert Bore, Leader, Birmingham City Council; Gordon Johncox, Managing Director, Aston Manor Brewery; Jason Wouhra, Director, East End Foods 16 January 2014 London Duck & Waffle, Heron Tower, EC2N 4AY Panel speakers: Michael Saunders, CEO, Bibendum Wines Ltd; Oliver Slipper, Joint CEO, Perform Group plc If you are interested in joining any of these events please contact Louise Bennie by email on [email protected], or by phone on 020 7728 2021 8 | THE NEWSLETTER FOR FORMER PARTNERS OF GRANT THORNTON UK AUTUMN/WINTER 2013 | 9 Thirdly I wanted to do some lecturing on some of the M&A courses at a business school. I thought I’d spent 30 years making lots of mistakes I could probably share some of the learnings from that with some MBA graduates!!! Tony Harper interviews David Brooks So how have things worked out? David, you’ve enjoyed a highly successful career with Grant Thornton lasting 37 years. Appointed partner in Kettering office in 1973 at the age of 25 and you remain the youngest person to be appointed a partner in the firm. You have held a range of senior positions at different times, including being Managing Partner of Corby office and Milton Keynes office, serving on the firm’s National Executive with Sir Michael Lickiss, as National Managing Partner, head of London Lead Advisory and then head of M&A for the firm. Which of your many achievements have given you the most satisfaction do you think? “We had a very small budget and the partners were not very keen to have large advertising campaigns and the like. I think that over a 2 - 3 year period we transitioned the Thornton Baker brand to the Grant Thornton brand very successfully in the market place.” David Brooks It’s hard to choose, but I suspect my first choice would be the role I had in Milton Keynes. I had just come off the Executive having done my five years, the Milton Keynes office was an underperforming business and probably feeling a bit unloved, but in a great location for Grant Thornton. I really enjoyed working with the partner team as we sought to develop the office, begin to win more work and build our brand in the market place. Over a four or five year period we transformed the office into one which was growing at 10/20% a year, turning in good profits, with a good broad range of clients and well regarded in the market place and within Grant Thornton. 10 | THE NEWSLETTER FOR FORMER PARTNERS OF GRANT THORNTON UK I guess the other thing I’m very proud of is my involvement in the process, in the mid 1980s, whereby Thornton Baker, as we were then, and Alexander Grant, an American firm, decided to change their name and practise as Grant Thornton in both the UK and the US. I was very pleased to lead the marketing team with the responsibility of promoting the change from the old brand to the new one. We had a very small budget and the partners were not very keen to have large advertising campaigns and the like. I think that over a 2 - 3 year period we transitioned the Thornton Baker brand to the Grant Thornton brand very successfully in the market place. David, when you were approaching retirement, did you have to think long and hard about what you wanted to do next. No! I’ve always really enjoyed working with clients. I’ve enjoyed that side of work more than the management side and so I always had it in mind to have a career post retirement from Grant Thornton with three ingredients, if possible. I was keen to be involved with companies, probably as non-exec and maybe as an investing non-exec. Secondly, I wanted to be part of an organisation, to keep some of that team spirit. I am not a loner, I enjoy working with other people, so I wanted to have a house or an environment where I could work in a team doing my M&A deals. Well, I am a partner in Wyvern Partners, which is a 12 person corporate finance boutique based in Mayfair. I knew one of the partners, Martin Kitcatt, and he asked me to join them. I knew Martin from the time when he was head of Corporate Finance at Andersen then Deloitte and I tried to recruit him for Grant Thornton, but failed! My non-exec roles came about in a completely different way. I’m a director at Everards Brewery in Leicester, a brewery and property company. That opportunity came about through a lawyer I played hockey with for about 30 years, who rang me up and asked me to put my name forward for a non-exec position that they had. I was successful. Another non-exec role came through my profile in the healthcare space. I had done a lot of work in M&A in Healthcare for 10 years and a company owner asked if I’d like to join the board. My third non-exec is a food company I had helped try and sort a family squabble about 10 years ago. I failed but the problem didn’t go away and the family seemed to think I could add some value, so I joined that board. I have completely failed, however, in my original aim to do some lecturing! I would add that from my recent experience of Big 4 firms, as a non-exec of companies that are typical Grant Thornton clients, the firm has absolutely nothing to fear in terms of comparison of performance. Our technical standards and quality of service are every bit as good, if not better. David, what ideas or advice might you have for Grant Thornton partners coming up for retirement? David your work responsibilities The key thing Tony, is to plan ahead and that takes a lot of time. I received some really good advice from friends and from my wife, that I should spend time, long before I retired from Grant Thornton, thinking about what I wanted to do and moulding my CV to reflect the roles I was thinking of moving towards. I don’t think you get non-exec roles by applying to adverts; I haven’t applied to any. I think they best come through your network or through your sector interests, something where you have an advantage already, you have an interest, you’re known. Getting started early is very difficult because you’ve got the day job with Grant Thornton who are paying you but actually you’ve got to realise there is life beyond Grant Thornton. sport, do you work hard at finding obviously still take up a lot of time, but what about hobbies and playing time for sports and interests? I have played more golf recently. I have taken time to go off on golf trips with friends and subject to a vote at our club’s AGM in December this year, I will be captain of The Leicestershire golf club in two years’ time. Thank you David. I know your many friends at Grant Thornton will be delighted to hear about what you’ve been up to since you retired from the firm, and will be unsurprised at how little you appear to have slowed down from a work perspective! You can email David at [email protected] or by phone on 07976 994305 AUTUMN/WINTER 2013 | 11 Forthcoming events London alumni event As part of the firm’s support for partners in the years leading to retirement, we are planning workshops and other events on topics of interest. These sessions are open to our partner alumni. Spaces are limited, but if you are interested please contact Anabela Goncalves on 020 7865 2147. Date Audience Event Information Venue Tuesday 26 November CEOs and FDs Executive Reward in Tech Sector Breakfast Format: Breakfast seminar Speakers: Amanda Flint Timings: 8.00am-11.00am Capacity: 70 GT host: Amanda Flint Euston office Thursday 28 November Clients and contacts NFP NED Interchange in association with the Guardian Format: Forum Speakers: tbc Timings: 3.15pm-7.00pm Capacity: 60 GT host: Carol Rudge Royal Society of Medicine, London Wednesday 4 December Clients and contacts Client Technical Seminar Format: Seminar Speakers: tbc Timings: 8.15am-10.30am Capacity: 90 GT host: Harold Wilson 7th Floor Finsbury Square Format: Seminar Speakers: tbc Timings: 3.30pm-7.00pm Capacity: 60 GT host: Carol Rudge 8th Floor Grant Thornton House Thursday 5 December Clients and contacts NFP Seminar: Tax/VAT/ Employee Issues Update Grant Thornton’s summer alumni reunion held on 17 July at Vista rooftop bar, The Trafalgar Hotel. “I had a most enjoyable evening . I thought there was a good range of ages attending and a number of partners who I hadn’t seen for quite a while ; which was great. All that I spoke to enjoyed the evening though one or two said they had hoped there would be more of their/our vintage.” – Tony Harper “What an excellent evening we all had last night at the alumni function at the Trafalgar hotel. I great choice of venue and impeccable organisation meant the evening was smooth and successful throughout. Furthermore there was a large turnout with so many people to catch up with that the evening could have gone on well into the small hours. Could you please pass on my thanks for all the hard work behind the scenes that made the evening so memorable. - Michael Rogerson. If you would like to know who will be at the next Alumni reunion please join your LinkedIn group to keep up to date. 12 | THE NEWSLETTER FOR FORMER PARTNERS OF GRANT THORNTON UK AUTUMN/WINTER 2013 | 13 Linkedin update Linked in Partner alumni golf event There are 76 members to date and over 30 discussions including: •· Thornton Baker newsletter •· Golf day photos •· Grant Thornton internal magazine •· Not for Profit events •· Summer alumni event photos •· Updates on former colleagues •· Obituary notices Your Linkedin group went live in May 2013 comments from Norman Bruckland. We would very much like you to comment and share your reminiscences as we continue to share these newsletters with you. We have also been keeping you up-to-date on all Grant Thornton recent activities and initiatives. Look out for our update early next year on the next Alumni event, where it will take place and who will be attending. Over the next six months we will be posting up on the Alumni group discussion page backdated issues of partnership with Grant in Thornton’s internal magazines in partnership with If you are interested in joining our LinkedIn starting from 1972. The first to be Group please contact Anabela Goncalves posted up was the 1972 Thornton by email at [email protected] Baker newsletter which had some great or by phone on 020 7865 2147 in partnership with in partnership with in partnership with in partnership with The use of social media: is it a benefit or a hindrance to the not for profit world? Karla Geci 28 November 2013 hindranceThursday to the notJennifer Begg is it a al media: is it a benefit or November a hindrance to the not Thursday 28 2013 benefit a hindrance to the not ndrance toor the not profit world? for profitfor world? ? Thursday 28 November Thursday 28 November 2013 2013 14 | THE NEWSLETTER FOR FORMER PARTNERS OF GRANT THORNTON UK November 2013 The second Grant Thornton Alumni Golf Society (GTAGS) golf day was held at Finham GC, near Coventry, on 9 May. There were 25 attendees, and the other two who joined us at the presentation dinner. The golf club was very hospitable and the course was beautiful. Its condition was excellent, bearing in mind the adverse UK weather in the previous few months. However, it was very windy with strong gusts throughout the day and intermittent rain. That being so, the winning score (on a count back) of 37 points was extremely impressive. Indeed, the scoring overall was very good and we have a number of golfers in GTAGS who are clearly handy with a wedge! The winner this year was Richard Chaplin. Second (but also on 37) was Patrick Brooke and third was Hemant Parmar (34). GTAGS now have a lovely silver trophy which the winner retains for a year – but who also gets an individual trophy (this year a glass engraved tankard) to keep. But, as lovely as our Trophy is, it did not compare to the other golf trophy that was on display during our yummy after golf dinner! Our guest speaker was Dr Phil Weaver OBE, Chairman of the PGA, and he talked about a golf event that he has been a “big cheese” in for many years now – the Ryder Cup – and yes, he brought that Cup with him and we all got a photo opportunity! We could write a lot about it but space does not permit. Suffice it just to say – WOW! Everyone enjoyed the bonhomie of the day and it was a good test of golf. So, if you have a set of clubs and want to join GTAGS then come along and join us next time! Venue The use of social media: is it a Royal Society of Medicine Panellists: Thursday 28 November 2013benefit or a hindrance the not 1 Wimpole Street Dafnato Bonas London Nicola Dodd for profit The use of social media: is world? it a benefit or a The use ofmedia: social ismedia: world? Thefor useprofit of social it a From Richard Chaplin & Laurence Kehoe W1G 0AE Panellists: Dafna Bonas 3.00pm Registration Nicola Dodd 7.00pm Close Karla Geci If you are interested in joining our Golf Society please contact Lynda Charleton by email at [email protected] or by phone on 01603 203273. Jennifer Begg RSVP Katie Sirdifield Panellists: Grant Thornton UK LLP Dafna Bonas T 020 7728 2369 Nicola Dodd E [email protected] Karla Geci Jennifer Begg Panellists: Panellists: Dafna Bonas Dafna Bonas Nicola Dodd Nicola Dodd Panellists: Karla Geci Karla Geci AUTUMN/WINTER 2013 | 15 Reason says: there are three ways to go. Instinct says: only one leads to growth. Business decisions are rarely black and white. Dynamic organisations know they need to apply both reason and instinct to decision making. We are Grant Thornton and it’s what we do for our clients every day. Contact us to help unlock your potential for growth. © ©2013 Grant Thornton UK LLP. All rights reserved. Grant Thornton UK LLP is a member firm within Grant Thornton International Ltd. 2012 Grant Thornton UK LLP. All rights reserved. Grant Thornton UKare LLPnot is aa member firm within GrantServices Thorntonare International Grant Thornton International the member firms at aregrant-thornton.co.uk not a worldwide partnership. Grant Thornton International Ltd and the member firms worldwide partnership. delivered Ltd. independently by member firms.Ltd Fulland disclaimer available Services are delivered independently by member firms. Full disclaimer available at grant-thornton.co.uk