Building enduring success
Achieving profit is a benchmark of any business, but enduring success requires a longer and broader view.
Any business has to make money. The key to that is delivering value to customers.
Enduring success, however, requires businesses to build a franchise that both ensures long-term profitability and enables broad engagement with community and society.
Many accountancy firms, doing just that, have become long-term and valued residents of high streets across New Zealand, embedded in their communities and active in helping businesses and not-forprofits thrive.
Today, accountants and their clients are facing a barrage of challenges together, from capital raising, and managing digital transformation to promoting sustainability and facing threats of recession, cyber security and fraud.
In addition to compliance, Auckland based Alliott NZ delivers services ranging from counselling multi-generational client businesses through succession, mentoring business owners, advising on business structure and growth strategies and advocating for clients in crucial business interactions.
“Clients often don’t have the budget for their own financial controller so they look to firms such as Alliott NZ to deliver financial strategy without that large overhead,” director Vanessa Williams said.
“We become part of the team, an extension of the organisation,” says Williams.
While there is a huge degree of trust between clients and the firm, the modern role sometimes requires “courageous conversations”.
Alliott NZ has worked with business owners to apply machine learning in practical ways to help provide deeper insights for decision support that can help future proof client businesses. It has even helped a client list on an offshore stock exchange.
“We are on the front line helping SMEs transform the way they do business as government legislation continually mandates that small businesses use digital systems of record,” Williams said.
In the far North, Whitelaw Weber has developed a very clear purpose of “enriching families and communities through successful business”, marketing manager Kirsty Grant said. This is supported by a trio of clearly articulated values: innovation, leadership and loyalty.
The firm offers the “hygiene factor” of compliance but also “wrap-around” advice from strategic planning through to business planning and coaching.
“These services sit alongside our business efficiency offering which includes marketing and
“We become part of the team, an extension of the organisation.” Vanessa Williams
technology,” said operations manager Kerrin Paget.
One client who had used the firm for compliance work for many years recently used the wrap-around service for strategic consulting which led into marketing projects, a technology implementation and tax jurisdiction solutions.
“We recently approached one of our high value clients to better understand some of the challenges they were facing in relation to business growth,” Paget said.
“By identifying the client’s vision for his business, we were able to advise on workflow software that enabled the director to increase the efficiency of work, increase productivity and spend less time in the office.
“As a result this client is now expanding his business and recruiting more people without any increase in capital expenditure.”
Multinational Deloitte says part of its power is its purpose – to make an impact that matters – directed by an integrated approach to supporting clients.
“This lowwalled culture means that often we can accelerate our clients’ sustainable growth through taking a wideangled lens to each new project, and bringing multiple experts in on the conversation when necessary,” chief executive Thomas Pippos said.
Accounting firms today have to be resilient and adapt as client needs change, he said. They need to work at a higher cadence to maintain relevance.
While the partnership model is resilient, partnerships at Deloitte are no longer necessarily for life. Partners today are being challenged to stay relevant to both clients and the firm.
Growth is expected from all areas of the business, but this isn’t growth for growth’s sake, Pippos said. Growth can’t be achieved without innovation and a willingness to do things differently.
Deloitte is helping clients negotiate some of the mega challenges facing New Zealand now: Treaty settlements, water resource management and workplace health and safety.
“We led a number of Māori clients through their historical Treaty settlement process towards some $300-million plus in commercial redress and other cultural assets,” Pippos said.
“We have also worked with ten large Māori organisations helping to develop and implement a 30 to 50 year strategy and investment and governance frameworks.”
Health and safety is also a huge issue, with new laws and a new regulator, WorkSafe, now in place. Deloitte’s risk advisory practice includes health and safety specialists to help clients develop a safety strategy that will also improve business outcomes.