RSM World Blog

The RSM International Special Recognition Awards 2013 were celebrated at the gala ceremony of the RSM World Conference in Amsterdam. The evening was a brilliant showcase of our global talent and I am very proud of the winners who have excelled in the fields of client service, marketing and PR, the development of RSM and commitment to driving international business for the network during 2013. 

The winners of the highly coveted awards are:

• Most Innovative use of marketing/PR to raise the profile of RSM – RSM Ashvir, Kenya & Tanzania, for successful PR, brand and marketing exercises resulting in year on year growth and a host of awards for the member firm.

• Most outstanding RSM Academy graduate – Arlene Kristianto, RSM Bird Cameron, Australia, for applying her studies to a number of practice development and marketing initiatives in order to attract and retain business from clients across the Australasia region.
• Contribution to the Development of RSM in 2013 – the RSM ITAX Academy Development Team (Nina Schütte from RSM Germany, Aad Rozendal and Mario van den Broek from RSM Netherlands, Jerry Martin from McGladrey, USA, and Francesco Gerla from RSM Italy), for the formation of the executive-level global training programme for RSM’s tax experts, and the leadership team behind RSM’s ‘Connected for Growth’ initiative, aimed at uniting leadership teams and improving best practice between member firms around the world (Robert Coles, RSM Europe, Neil Hough, RSM Asia Pacific and Keith Wallace, McGladrey).
• Outstanding Demonstration of putting the client first – Doug Roozeboom, Assurance Partner, McGladrey, USA and Maria Tsang, Assurance Partner, RSM Nelson Wheeler, Hong Kong, for their joint efforts in providing excellent client service and generation of a number of new business opportunities in the Asia Pacific region and in the USA, resulting in significant revenue streams for both firms in 2013.
• Most Pro-Active Individual in international dealings for 2013 – Art Yonowitz, tax partner, McGladrey, USA, for retaining the business of a large global client by ensuring a high-level of service through a period of significant and challenging change for the client.
• International Contact Partner of the Year – Frank Le Bihan, International Contact Partner, McGladrey, for his continued high level of service to cross-border clients for RSM’s largest member firm.
• Young Leader of the Year Award – Susana Martinez Septien, RSM Bogarin, Mexico, for leading the firm’s programmes in audit quality, audit CPE and mentoring of RSM professionals across its Latin American member firms.

Congratulations to all of the winners from across the globe on their outstanding achievements and dedication to RSM.

Henry Ford once said: “If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you’re right!” This morning’s presentation from Jack Black – the second of the Conference – focused on the power of positive attitude. As Jack Black, the founder of Mindstore – one of the World’s leading personal development programmes – demonstrated today in an outstanding presentation which helped us all to focus our minds on the effect of left and right brain thinking – it is your attitude that always determines the result. If you open your mind, everything is possible.

As the second day of the RSM Conference draws to a close, I look back on the last 48 hours and reflect on the presentations and discussions that have taken place. I have been struck by the sheer positivity of our team here represented by over 250 people from our vast membership internationally. There is such a can-do attitude inherent in our people and approach to client development. It is very inspiring.

We have heard from a number of international organisations, some of which are our clients and some we hope will be clients in the future, about their business experiences and organisational journey. They have helped us to look at what we do from the client perspective and collectively think of new and interesting ways to add real value in our audit, tax and advisory service delivery. So many of the outside speakers and contributors to the Conference have commented on our genuine team spirit and the closeness of our team both cross-borders and cross-continent. It is that closeness, we believe, that makes the RSM difference when supporting client needs internationally. That’s why we believe you have to be Connected for Success. We agree with Henry Ford and Jack Black – if you think you can, you’re right! 

The RSM World Conference opened today with over 250 professionals from within the RSM global network alongside senior industry commentators and distinguished guests at the Okura Hotel in Amsterdam.

The theme and discussions all focused on making RSM the number one network for internationally dynamic organisations. I am delighted to see how engaged everyone is. The energy and enthusiasm in the room is infectious. We have enjoyed some provocative talks, some productive debates and some superb guest speakers including:

• Laura Empson, Professor of professional services at Cass Business School, who explored leadership dynamics in professional services firms.
• Hamish Taylor, leadership expert and ex CEO of Sainsbury’s Bank, who discussed first class client service and the importance of focusing on all aspects of a customer’s experience.
• Jack Black, founder of the personal development programme Mindstore International, who spoke about leadership and the qualities necessary to becoming a figurehead people want to follow.
• Lodewijk Petram, acclaimed Amsterdam specialist and journalist, who enlightened us all on the economic lessons from the Dutch ‘Tulip bubble’ of the 17^th century!
• Paul Hague, Managing Director of market research firm B2B International, who gave an insight into our latest client engagement research.

I am so proud to be an RSM board member and host of this year’s conference. The RSM team spirit is truly inspirational. 

Guest blog from Bob Dohrer, RSM’s Global Leader for Quality and Risk

A fascinating and rather contentious article that I read this summer in the Wall Street Journal described an experiment in India that changed how auditors are paid, with the result that audits became more effective. Auditors, as we all know, are paid by the businesses they audit. This, the article suggests, means that auditors can be too cosy with their clients and possibly gives them an incentive to not challenge management when management might be misleading stakeholders. Now, while I believe that the vast majority of auditors demonstrate enormous professional integrity, the major accounting debacles of the early 2000s and the subprime mortgage and financial crises of the late 2000s indicate that the effectiveness of audits need to be improved.

The solution? According to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology it could be to pay auditors out of a central fund, randomly double check their work (who audits the auditors?) and link pay to effectiveness. I suspect it is the notion of a central fund, with all its statist associations, as much as their work being subject to random regulatory checks that will irk many auditors. Nevertheless, the results are illuminating, and should at least be considered.

The experiment in India took place in the industrial state of Gujarat and involves measuring and reporting factory pollution. Half the plants hired and paid auditors at the market rate; the other half were assigned auditors randomly, who were paid from a central fund and warned that there was a one-in-five chance that an independent inspector would check their work. The experiment was adjusted in the second year to include a bonus for auditors whose work corresponded closest with inspectors. The results are interesting. Overall, auditors in the experimental group were 80% less likely to report falsely that a plant was in compliance with air- and water-pollution rules than auditors in the business-as-usual group. What’s more, auditors who worked in both groups exhibited very different behaviours. Further, the plants audited by the experimental group significantly reduced their pollution. The full article can be found here.

This is a radical idea, and although many auditors will reflexively object to this kind of interference in the market, as a profession can we really say that the current arrangement is satisfactory? The profession needs to regain and enhance credibility, and we need to look at all the options on the table. Having auditors appointed to audits and paid from a central fund is one possibility and others, like efforts to enhance the autonomy and independence of company audit committees who hire auditors, should be explored.  My fear is that unless we come up with proposals ourselves, we could have a much less palatable solution imposed upon us.