Spotlight

Digital proved to be a vital tool in helping businesses navigate the upheaval during COVID-19. But now, it needs to move from a tactical response to a key pillar of strategy, writes Cormac Hughes. Businesses crave certainty. After the past year, however, that precious commodity is in short supply. So how can organisations be ready for and respond to uncertainty, both to make themselves less vulnerable to risk and to be prepared to take advantage of opportunities that emerge in unpredictable times? The answer is digital transformation. However, those two simple words disguise a more complex readjustment. Going digital is not just about building a new website. That would be like applying a fresh coat of paint to your organisation’s existing building when in reality, it is a fundamental restructuring from the floorboards to the ceiling. It is a wholesale realignment that touches every part of an organisation and puts digital at the heart of its strategy. In this article, I will outline the benefits of this approach, identify the areas of your organisation most impacted by the change, and provide practical advice on the steps to take wherever you are on the journey. From survival to strategy The first thing to say is that we are not at the starting line for digital transformation; the race is already underway. Many organisations had to rapidly hit their full stride because they had no other choice: the COVID-19 pandemic turned the digital agenda from a marathon to a sprint. The move to remote and distributed workforces at scale was only possible with digital technology. In many cases, online channels became the default means of interacting with customers and suppliers. That so many managed the change so effectively without dropping the baton is a testament to people’s incredible spirit and collective effort. But the swift onset of that crisis meant that many of the solutions put in place were short-term and tactical in nature. Now, as we can all catch our breath and start looking to the future with some optimism, we have an opportunity to evaluate the lessons learned. And the biggest lesson of all is that digital is not an enabler of strategy but a driver of it. We can say this with confidence based on a global study of 2,860 executives in the commercial and public sectors, which Deloitte carried out earlier this year. This research concluded that digital is fast becoming the norm across all sectors. Nearly two-thirds of respondents believe that organisations that don’t digitise in the next five years will be “doomed”, so having the right strategy that takes advantage of digital possibilities and capabilities will ultimately differentiate the winners and losers. Digital maturity confers advantage Deloitte’s research showed that the more digitally mature an organisation is, the better able it is to navigate rapid change and the better it performed financially. 78% of leaders surveyed said that their organisations’ digital capabilities played a significant part in helping them stay resilient as the COVID-19 crisis evolved rapidly. A similar percentage reported that their digital transformation initiatives were already having a significant positive effect on their businesses. Against this backdrop, digital spending is increasing. This might seem counter-intuitive because many organisations came under financial pressure during the pandemic. Yet, according to a CEO survey by the technology research company Gartner, over 80% of organisations planned to boost their investments in digital transformation. The firm forecasts that spending on enterprise digital transformation will grow at a 15.5% compound annual growth rate from 2020 to 2023. The Deloitte study supports this finding: 69% of the leaders surveyed intend to commit more spending to digital transformation in response to the pandemic. Our figures also show that their budgets for digital transformation represent a higher percentage of their annual revenues than in prior years. The agility to react to new opportunities Digital transformation also changes the competitive field and creates new opportunities for organisations to differentiate themselves. With the experience of the past year, it is now clear that digitally sophisticated companies are especially well-placed to react to new customer trends or buying habits. At the same time, our study found that many commercial leaders believe that their main competitor in five years will be an emerging start-up or a ‘digitally native’ company that hasn’t needed to shed the legacy of older technology (more of which later). Fewer than one-third of our respondents believe that their biggest threat will come from a current competitor. It is worth emphasising here that the window of opportunity for embracing digital remains open. For example, several Irish retail banks recently announced plans to form a consortium to develop a money transfer app to compete with emerging fintech providers. The findings above hint at the extent of the dynamic situation, so we dug deeper into leaders’ perceptions of change. More than three in four leaders anticipate that their business will “change significantly” over the next five years and more so than the previous five. Instability, by its nature, brings uncertainty, and it is not surprising that more than half of respondents believe that the fast pace of technology change is “not good” for their organisations. In our opinion, this makes it even more important to take a proactive approach to digital transformation rather than just letting it happen. Against this backdrop, how do organisations further embed digital across the business? We have considered this question across several areas: talent, finance, operations, and customer. Let us look at each of these in turn. The talent opportunity The past year has had an enormous impact on how we think about the nature of work. Business leaders need to consider this from a multifaceted perspective: who does the work? What kind of work do they do? And where do they do it from? From our engagements with clients, many will need to assess the skills they have in their workforces today and map them to the capabilities they will need in the future. This could involve identifying candidates for training so they can take up new roles. The ability to work remotely could be an opportunity to recruit talent that would previously have been unavailable because those people lived beyond a commuting distance to an office. It is also a chance to re-frame HR practices, such as moving to a more flexible team-based model rather than having people work in fixed roles organised along rigid departmental lines. The finance opportunity The finance function plays a vital role in a digitally transformed business, but it too must change to carry out this newly expanded remit. Traditionally, the job of finance was to report on what had already happened. Now, finance must look forward and spend most of its time and resources on planning and forecasting. To do this effectively, it must be able to use powerful analytics tools that can sift through data and deliver the insights the business needs to drive its decision-making. When this is in place, finance can become a strategic business partner and apply analytical thinking to solve challenges. The operations opportunity Operations is the through-line connecting every part of an organisation, from the customer-facing online channels to support, order processing and fulfilment. When the customer engages through a website, online store, app, or chatbot, they judge the success of that interaction on the seamlessness of the experience. How swiftly can they complete a transaction? When is the product or service ready? What updates do they receive about the progress of their order? Data is the glue that binds all parts of an organisation together. Every aspect of the operation needs to be digitally enabled and connected to have the data it needs, in real-time, to fulfil the order and share relevant information with the customer. Then, operations can analyse this data to identify areas where it can continually optimise. These improvements can be internal (streamlining processes that employees must use) or external (delivering a more efficient service to customers). The customer opportunity This leads us neatly to the customer: top-performing digitally-enabled organisations realise it’s not all about them. They put the customer first, delivering an experience that’s easy, convenient, and secure. This helps strengthen customer loyalty and trust. At the same time, they also dig deeper to understand their customers’ needs. They know that although digital may be the default means of engagement in today’s world, there are nuances to different customer segments and groups. Looking closer at the behaviour of those groups uncovers distinctions that enable businesses to target their offerings more effectively, identify up-sell and cross-sell opportunities, and stay competitive at a time when the customer has never had more choice. The cloud imperative The four areas outlined above have one element in common: the cloud. This is fast becoming the dominant model for organisations to avail of IT services. Delivering technology and services through the cloud equips people to work from anywhere. It also enables finance to get data faster and move from historical reporting to forecasting while empowering all elements of operations to work together more effectively and deliver a seamless customer experience. Cloud offers a consumption-based pricing model that links IT spend to the demand for that service. It also offers speed: unlike legacy infrastructure, the cloud enables businesses to test new products and services far faster than before. And when an organisation’s IT platform is adaptable, that means its business is adaptable too. With no data centres or servers to maintain and run, leaders can focus purely on the business and reduce the need to ‘mind’ the technology. Cloud also makes it easier to access the latest technology such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotic process automation, and high-powered analytics that can identify new areas for improvement. This is a very wide-ranging agenda for any organisation, so it may be helpful to think of it as follows: first, set the strategic direction for operations, finance, talent, and customer-facing functions from one direction. In parallel, begin a managed transition from the business’s siloed and legacy technology systems today to cloud platforms that provide the agility and flexibility the business will need. Moving to the cloud provides the basis for the strategy to come to life, but it can be complex in an organisation with a lot of existing IT. When creating a roadmap to move to the cloud, four useful stages are: Step 1: Identify the business problem Determine where the biggest burning need exists in your business today, as this will have a strong technology element. Find a problem that is a priority and will let you cut through all the decisions you have to make in your cloud adoption journey. Step 2: Start small and target quick wins Start with a small project, work to tightly defined parameters, and measure business value as you build support at all levels of the business. For example, this might be a non-critical application or a legacy system nearing the end of its support contract. Use cloud’s agility to your advantage. The ability to launch new systems quickly shortens the typical procurement cycle to days. This means you can identify a project that will deliver quick wins, act as a proof of concept, and build momentum from there. Step 3: Apply lessons and expand Use the proof of concept to identify what has been learned, build a business case, and bring stakeholders on the journey as they become familiar with the cloud. Starting small also allows the enterprise to develop the people and process aspects necessary to succeed in cloud adoption. The technology alone is not enough; there needs to be a change in culture and skills in addition to transforming processes in the business to embrace agile ways of working. Step 4: Build capability in the business in parallel to IT As the cloud project develops, ensure that those in charge have identified the necessary skills in the team, whether they exist in the business today, and whether you need to supplement the team with external expertise. That can be achieved by recruiting or working with a partner that can supplement your resources. Bear in mind that the skills for successful cloud projects go beyond technology alone. Your cloud team should also cover governance and operating models so that you implement suitable structures that can evolve as your cloud adoption matures. What’s next? When the cloud underpins digital transformation, scaling becomes easier because the organisation no longer relies on the capacity of technology it acquired at a moment in time. It can be more agile by quickly identifying and responding to customer needs. Growth is returning, and tomorrow’s world is one of expanded skillsets, a workforce that’s no longer tied to one place, and a wide range of opportunity. No matter what change awaits, the digitally transformed business can be ready. Cormac Hughes is Head of Consulting at Deloitte Ireland. Prepare now for the next disruption Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, digital spending is still on the rise. Deloitte’s 2021 Digital Transformation Executive Survey reinforces this expectation of growth, with 69% of surveyed leaders globally planning to increase their financial commitments to digital transformation in response to the pandemic. This vigorous growth in digital transformation investment makes it even more critical for   enterprises to make digital transformation a foundation of their strategy. Organisations should assume that their competitors are just as committed to developing their digital capabilities right now. The winners will be those that successfully move digital from a tactical response to a key pillar of strategy. To do this, CEOs must make explicit choices about their strategy across several areas, including talent, finance, operations and the customer. Doing so will help improve efficiency, power new products and services, enable new business models, and ensure that the customer experience is easy, convenient, and secure. Ultimately, it is about being as ready as possible for what may be next as further disruptions will come.

A recent C-suite barometer showed a surprising level of optimism among international business leaders. Mark Kennedy deciphers the findings to explain why short-term optimism will need to be buttressed by business transformation plans and long-term investment strategies if organisations are to thrive in a post-pandemic world. A report detailing over 500 global C-suite leaders’ views on their outlook for 2021 during a worldwide pandemic always had the potential to surprise. Despite the current economic uncertainty, the most surprising finding was the consistent presence of optimism globally, with 71% of respondents assessing the outlook for growth in 2021 as positive. At the beginning of the pandemic, we witnessed resilience and consistency as some business sectors adapted reasonably quickly. For established companies, there was a kind of ‘muscle memory’ approach to the crisis that unlocked lessons learned and business continuity measures that were initially adopted following the global economic crisis of 2008. Despite the unique nature of the pandemic, businesses that previously invested in crisis management strategies appeared to exhibit more resilience. The state approach to the pandemic was also a big differentiator, as tax and legislative aid mechanisms created a profoundly different context for business. Countries in Western Europe mostly saw the benefit of this approach. In contrast, other parts of the world, such as Africa, received noticeably less business aid, which resulted in less optimism for the future. Business transformation plans Confidence in managing and mitigating risk during the pandemic was undoubtedly a factor in respondents’ forward-looking business transformation plans. Economic and technology transformation trends scored highly, with 90% expecting to respond to technology and innovation trends and 78% confident in managing upcoming economic trends. Technology transformation was the most likely focus overall for large companies ($1 billion plus), with 54% of executives indicating a more-than-50% chance of implementing technology transformation plans. While the need to digitally transform businesses has been on the agenda for some time, the crisis appears to have accelerated plans. If we take the retail sector as an example, the need to meet the demand for online shopping during lockdown has added an urgency to prioritising digital strategies. Perhaps more surprising than what was high on the list of business transformation plans was what respondents considered a low priority. While the travel ban during lockdown highlighted the vast potential to reduce carbon emissions, only 20% of respondents said they expected climate risk to have the most significant impact on their business: the lowest on the list. This figure is slightly higher among Western Europe companies (25%), suggesting it is higher on executive agendas in that region. However, it is less than 20% in Latin America, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth Independent States (CEE/CIS), and the US.  One potential reason for climate risk attracting such a low score is the current lack of bottom-line accountability. Despite the growing need to mitigate climate change risk for business sustainability, leaders often treat it as an intangible business issue. They see it as being driven by regulatory momentum rather than a tangible business goal to be approached in the same way as technology or new service transformation plans. However, climate change will become a matter of profit and loss for many companies over the next ten years, either because it will influence how capital is obtained and the cost of infrastructure, or it will become an opportunity to do more business. It is a similar story with cultural change, which scored equally low on respondents’ business transformation plans. As mandatory reporting on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues becomes more widespread in both cases, businesses will need to consider these developments in business transformation plans. What is driving the business agenda? While technological transformation is the overarching theme, how businesses approach plans is often driven by regional and industry factors. In financial services, a high level of regulatory and compliance demands in Western Europe and the US is the driving force for banks and insurance companies launching digital strategies to automate and manage data management and reporting costs. In manufacturing, meanwhile, technology transformation drives improvements in efficiency and productivity. These regional differences were also evident when looking at investment plan timeframes. Businesses in Africa, for example, are looking at short-term transformation plans to drive profitability. In Europe and Asia, investment plans are put in place as strategic building blocks for the next decade and beyond. While this is not surprising when looking at the maturity of business development in each region, it also reflects the lack of state aid available to prop up economies and businesses in times of crisis. A further factor driving the business agenda is confidence in a company’s ability to respond to trends. In general, the barometer shows that businesses are optimistic in their ability to tackle most trends, with 90% either ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ confident in tackling challenges involving technology and innovation. Businesses in Asia-Pacific are more positive in their ability to respond to technology trends than in Western Europe, with 92% confident there compared to 85% in Western Europe, reflecting the vibrancy of the region’s technology start-up scene. However, executives are less confident in their businesses’ ability to respond to some other trends. 28% of companies are ‘not very’ or ‘not at all’ hopeful in dealing with the impact of climate change. This lack of confidence in responding to some trends may be down to the fact that, as discussed earlier, it is positioned lower down on the business transformation priority list. A further worrying response is executives’ lack of confidence to deal with social/political changes and public health challenges. While many businesses expect both trends to impact them in the next three to five years, a quarter of respondents are not confident in their ability to address them. Western European businesses are the least confident in dealing with social/political, climate and public health trends. Less than 65% declared themselves ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ confident for each. Asia-Pacific companies were much more optimistic than their Western European counterparts in responding to public health challenges – 77% of the former looked forward with optimism. This regional difference may reflect Asia-Pacific societies’ longer experience managing epidemics, like the SARS outbreak in 2003. Longer-term investment strategies It is important to recognise that the pandemic’s impact on investment plans is critical in moving from a short-term to longer-term outlook. The change in business priorities and how business is conducted since the crisis started has given CEOs across a wide range of sectors a clearer picture of why making long-term and sustainable investments is a sensible business decision. Interestingly, female respondents were more inclined to opt for longer-term investment strategies. Female leaders represent less than one-third of respondents, but with the number of female business leaders rising, the shift to longer-term investment planning is likely to increase. It signals a much-needed focus on long-term business sustainability. This shift to longer-term sustainability was highlighted by the number of respondents who consider investing in sustainability initiatives to be a relatively long-term business activity. It was rated the fourth longest-term out of 23 activities, behind external growth opportunities, corporate strategy, and research and development (R&D). However, company size and sector had an impact. For manufacturing companies, sustainability initiatives are the longest-term activity of all. This reflects the transition away from fossil fuels and towards more sustainable business models. Sustainability is seen as a long-term activity in the financial services sector, but sourcing new talent, government engagement, R&D, and maintaining IT systems are higher long-term priorities. It is interesting to note that sourcing new talent is seen as a long-term priority, particularly as the financial services sector is in a phase of disruption driven by technology and new entrants. While this may suggest that the industry sees sourcing new talent as increasingly difficult, it may also hint that financial services companies still see themselves as people industries first and foremost. The responses from technology and telecoms companies indicate that sustainability initiatives are viewed as one of the shortest-term activities in those sectors. External growth opportunities and regulatory issues are the two longest-term categories for this group, which considers acquiring customers as a longer-term activity than maintaining customers. It paints a picture of an industry that sees high growth as the key to its long-term and short-term future and one that is less concerned about its physical footprint and managing long-term external risks when compared to other, older industries. Of course, as new EU privacy laws become even more embedded, the technology sector may see regulation as both a short-term and long-term priority. Company size is a further factor. Larger ($1 billion plus) companies are most likely to consider sustainability as a longer-term business activity, reflecting that they have the resources to build a sustainability programme and the more significant external pressure on large and recognisable businesses to address sustainability issues. Executives from small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) still regard sustainability as a relatively long-term activity, but R&D, corporate strategy, and external growth are viewed as higher long-term priorities. Framing a reset strategy What can we learn from the barometer results, and does it help frame strategies as companies look to reset? Looking at differences as well as similarities can give CEOs some bell-weather trends to consider. Take the fact that the barometer portrays businesses as generally optimistic. This helps provide momentum and confidence for the growth outlook, even though executives will consider different growth strategies and action pathways. It is then a question of looking at that growth landscape in more detail, so plans are more robust. Another key takeaway from the barometer is that businesses across the spectrum are prioritising driving technological change in one form or another. This could be implementing technology to transform and improve productivity, reduce costs, capture a business advantage from, say, increased online demand for products and services, or using it to enrich and enhance marketing strategies. Again, it is about capitalising on specific trends within the business sector. One aspect of technological change to keep in focus is the need to mitigate risk. With increasing complexity in the data and privacy regulatory landscape, it is crucial that – similar to technology transformation plans – risk mitigation remains high on CEOs’ agendas.   With the barometer also highlighting a growing appetite for ESG themes, it is essential to keep track of sustainability issues – particularly when reporting. ESG reporting is still not a high enough priority for CEOs, but it will demand greater focus from a risk management perspective in the future. Also not to be overlooked is the opportunity for businesses to create strategic business advantage by becoming an early adopter of, for example, environmentally friendly solutions or applying ESG as a business differentiator. Finally, a more oblique takeaway from the barometer’s high level of business optimism was the importance of investing in resilience. As we saw from government and company reaction at the beginning of the pandemic, lessons of the last economic crisis appeared to have been learned, particularly on the importance of continuity and making businesses more resilient to shocks. There are many examples of companies achieving business continuity success, whether through the ability to add flexibility in the supply chain or rapidly adapt products to meet changing consumer and business needs. It is clear that, where CEOs take the time to fully understand business and regulatory trends and invest in forward-looking strategies such as resilience and sustainability, charting a course out of the crisis will not be driven by short-term optimism alone but a realistic long-term growth strategy. Mark Kennedy is Managing Partner at Mazars in Ireland.

Chartered Accountants in practice have had a lot to contend with over the last six months. Here, they share the lessons learned from the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.Chartered Accountants and their skills have been at the forefront of business during this pandemic, ensuring that businesses across the island of Ireland – including their own – continue to stay afloat. In this feature, three Chartered Accountants describe what challenges they and their clients have faced during the COVID-19 crisis.Members in practice, Conor Woods from Woods & Partners, James Kelliher from Kelliher O’Shea and Wendy Merrigan from Williams Merrigan share their insights on current business challenges, the lessons they have learned during the pandemic and what the future holds for SMEs. Meeting adversity with growthConor Woods FCA, Managing Partner at Woods & Partners, outlines how technology and innovation have enabled him and his staff to keep the business running through the COVID-19 crisis.QHow has your business been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis?Initially, it was a shock to the system for everyone. However, we have invested heavily in our cloud platform over the last five years, so we were able to adapt to remote working relatively seamlessly. The greatest initial challenge was not having a ‘physical' closing meeting with our clients nor being able to have team meetings in the same format we were once familiar with. What is the most challenging aspect of leading a practice in this environment?On-boarding new staff is the most challenging aspect of growing a firm in the present environment. We have hired 12 staff in the last three months and it's challenging to integrate, train and induct them into an organisation where ‘normal office conditions’ do not prevail. The strength of our profession is in the quality of the training that our articled clerks receive in practice, so we must ensure that this training continues to the highest of standards in the current social distancing climate. We have been lucky our size enables us to continue this training which has proven to be a key attraction for high calibre graduates to come to our firm.What business changes have you made to ensure that you continue to deliver for your clients?Due to growth across our practice, we have recently opened new offices in Laois and Cavan to meet client and market needs in these locations. Clients want premium advisory, audit and taxation services close to their businesses without having to travel to Dublin and so we see this as a key opportunity. Additionally, more and more of our staff do not want to commute, so having regional locations helps us with staff retention and attracts a high calibre of staff from the city and larger firms. If you could make one change to the supports available for your clients, what would it be?We would like to see an expansion to the Local Enterprise Office Business Continuity Voucher scheme for another six months for SMEs. This proved to be a hugely supportive and popular scheme for them. What does the future hold for small- and medium-sized accountancy practices, in your opinion?The future is bright and exciting for firms who innovate and continue to re-invest in people and technology. It’s critical that firms maintain financial liquidity and strength to enable them to hire the best and invest in technology within their practices. The firms that have strong technology platforms have found it easier to adjust to the enforced changes in work patterns. I see smaller firms engaging in more collaboration with each other due to increased regulation and, perhaps, more consolidation in this space. As a practice leader, what has been your most important lesson to date?It’s just as important to work on the business as it is to work ‘in the business’. Practices must manage working capital, lock up, and liquidity relentlessly. This is now more important than ever before. This can be difficult as our clients, may want more leniency in terms of credit, support, and time in the present environment, so there is a fine balance to be achieved. Managing client expectations and our own business performance is a pivotal aspect of our own practice strategy.Adapt and be flexibleJames Kelliher FCA, Partner in Kelliher O’Shea, Chartered Accountants, has found that flexibility with staff and clients has been key to navigating business changes that have cropped up because of the pandemic. How has your business been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis?As a small accountancy practice, we offer a wide range of services. We provide bookkeeping services to a number of businesses in the hospitality sector which was impacted severely. We have a diverse client range across many sectors from hospitality, media, motor trade, retail, nursing homes and agriculture who all had various challenges and continue to do so as we work through the crisis. Our workload, in terms of dealing with client queries, increased dramatically, especially around the introduction of the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) and other government supports. What is the most challenging aspect of leading a practice in this environment?There has been a level of disruption to both the practice and client business which has had a knock-on effect on the timing and delivery of work. The business disruption will have an impact on filing deadlines being met later in 2020 and this will be an issue for our staff and clients in an already demanding year. What business changes have you made to ensure that you continue to deliver for your clients?Although our office was closed for a period, we were still very much accessible throughout for our clients by phone, email and Zoom/Microsoft Teams. We also facilitated some of our staff with young children to work shorter hours. Our audits have been conducted remotely this year; previously, we would have carried out the fieldwork for our larger clients on-site. We have had to be flexible with our clients and cognisant of the fact that some of their finance personnel were also working shorter hours with an enhanced focus on their short-term cashflow management.If you could make one change to the supports available for your clients, what would it be?For many small businesses, funding during the current crisis has not been easily accessible. While the TWSS and Restart Grant were successful, many small businesses failed to secure additional short- or medium-term facilities from their lending institutions as a result of the uncertainty surrounding the crisis and the impact it was having on current trading levels. We would have liked to have seen a simplified, low-interest government loan or capital grant made available for PPE expenditure, which was significant for many SMEs in reopening. What does the future hold for small- and medium-sized accountancy practices, in your opinion?We believe there will be further consolidation within the industry among small- and medium-sized practices. This trend had started pre-COVID-19. The talent pool for small practices was at an all-time low because of the larger firms attracting the majority of graduates to the cities. Consolidation should enable practices to attract better people and possibly offer a more attractive work-life balance that people crave. Smaller practices need to continue to invest in technology and their people, and use technology to move towards a paperless environment. The current crisis has highlighted how reliant we are on technology.As a practice leader, what has been your most important lesson to date?The ability to adapt and be flexible is key to leading our practice and being able to advise our clients. This has never been more prevalent than in the current COVID-19 climate where guidelines that impacted on both decisions that needed to be made for the practice, as well as advice given to our clients, were evolving on a weekly and sometimes daily basis.Focus on positive actionWendy Merrigan FCA, Co-Founder and Director at Williams Merrigan, has seen the workload in her practice increase in the last six months, but believes opportunities are there for accountants who concentrate on serving clients’ needs.How has your business been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis?We have a small team and the level of queries regarding COVID-19 issues has been overwhelming. This has led to a slower turnaround time for some work which has its own impact as we approach large filing deadlines later this year. While working remotely was used by our practice for several years, COVID-19 meant some staff no longer had childcare facilities and had to home-school children for a period. Ensuring staff did not take on too much work and balanced their homelife with their need to provide ongoing quality, timely service to clients, specifically regarding tax filing return deadlines, was a specific challenge. Right now, it is unknown what will occur during winter months regarding schools and this is stressful for staff. What is the most challenging aspect of leading a practice in this environment?Staying on top of the ‘normal’ workload as well as managing client queries. A serious challenge has been planning and scheduling work while also finding time to keep up-to-date with Government and legislative changes as they arise to ensure clients are kept informed. This increased workload has meant I have had less time as I would like with staff members.What business changes have you made to ensure that you continue to deliver for your clients?Responding to email and telephone queries proved highly challenging. For some queries that arose, it became more practical to share information generally by way of email or, in certain circumstances, on social platforms. This has meant less time repeating answers to queries that many clients have. Sharing knowledge with other accountants and making new connections to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on our profession has been beneficial also.If you could make one change to the supports available for your clients, what would it be?Grants have been made available to review cashflows and financing, yet necessary ongoing compliance costs for accountancy services were not included. I would have granted subsidies to businesses to allow their usual monthly or yearly fee to be included in the grants awarded. Ensuring clients have tax clearance for subsidies and grants mean accountancy services were vital for all businesses yet not provided for.What does the future hold for small- and medium-sized accountancy practices, in your opinion?Regardless of size, I believe we are fortunate to have a qualification whereby our services, expertise and advice are continuously sought and needed. Our practice is small yet, as I mentioned, there are always opportunities to be found when you are laser-focused on serving client’s needs. I believe services will always be sought from proactive accountants with good communication skills.As a practice leader, what has been your most important lesson to date?I've realised uncertainty can be positive and have learned to let go of the need for control. Inspiration and creativity come from not being rigid in views or practices. It's important to move with the times and learn to embrace new working environments and social networking platforms to serve client needs efficiently. Above all, the most important lesson has been the realisation that uncertainty is neutral; we can continue to focus on positive action.

Chartered Accountants play a critical role in operations around the world, and many are now guiding their organisations through the uncertainty and economic turmoil wreaked by COVID-19. Accountancy Ireland spoke to several members at the fore of this difficult task. Liam Woods  Director of Acute Operations at the HSE As a member of NPHET (the National Public Health Emergency Team) and with responsibility for the public hospital system in the Republic of Ireland, Liam Woods has played a central role in the country’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. In normal circumstances, Liam oversees acute services and the deployment of a €6 billion budget for the acute hospital system, which covers 48 hospitals across the country. Today, however, he is at the forefront of the public health system’s response to the global pandemic. Liam and his colleagues have worked relentlessly since December 2019, when the first case of coronavirus became known. “At that time, we were aware that there was an emerging set of concerning circumstances in China,” he said. “We are linked in with the World Health Organisation and the European Centre for Disease Control through the Department of Health, so we began receiving information on the situation almost immediately.” According to Liam, the threat to Ireland was confirmed by the Italian experience, with Ireland’s first case confirmed in late February 2020. This in turn led to an escalation of the pre-existing national crisis management structures. “Once we saw Italy’s crisis unfold, we implemented the HSE emergency management structures and assessed emerging scenarios and the subsequent requirements for intensive care capacity, acute capacity, and community capacity,” he added. “As March approached, we expected a major surge in cases of COVID-19. That surge did occur, but we didn’t see the levels experienced by Italy and that was primarily down to the public health measures taken in February and March.” As the pandemic progressed, areas under Liam’s remit such as the National Ambulance Service became increasingly critical elements of the response strategy. But as the pressure increased, so too did staff absence. “Today (30 April), 2,800 colleagues are absent in the acute system with a further 2,000 absent in the community system related to COVID-19,” he said. “That is a big challenge for the frontline, as is the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE). Our procurement teams are working night and day to secure the necessary equipment to protect our workers.” That effort has been supplemented by the overwhelming generosity of individuals and businesses according to Liam. “We had a massive response from the business community and society as a whole, from distillery companies manufacturing antibacterial hand gel to people making face shields using 3D printers,” he added. “Beating this virus has become a truly collective effort and those working in the HSE really felt and appreciated that.” Although restrictions are now being cautiously eased, Liam expects the workload to remain relentless. “At a personal level, it is demanding but if you work in the health system and understand how it needs to operate, you at least feel that you can make a direct contribution and a lot of positivity comes from that. The response of frontline staff in hospital and community services has been amazing and the commitment to delivering care has been key to the success to date in responding to what is a global crisis.” Tia Crowley  CEO at Western Care Tia Crowley had an “unusual” induction to the role of CEO at Western Care, as her appointment coincided with Leo Varadkar’s statement in Washington on the first wave of measures to tackle COVID-19 in Ireland. Given that her organisation provides services and supports to adults and children with intellectual disabilities and/or autism in Co. Mayo, Tia was very conscious of the need for – and challenges to – the provision of her organisation’s services. “When the COVID-19 restrictions were imposed initially, we risk-assessed all areas of service provision and made the difficult decision to close day/respite services and limit community support services to essential supports that could be provided safely,” she said. Many of the organisation’s 950 staff were reassigned to support Western Care’s residential services, which now operate on a 24-hour basis. According to Tia, maintaining an optimum level of service while securing adequate PPE for frontline workers is a constant concern – but there are longer-term challenges in the horizon. “I, and the new management team, had hoped to bring in a balanced budget for 2020 after prolonged periods of cutbacks, deficits and containment cycles. However, a shock 1% cut to funding allocations across the sector coupled with the impact of COVID-19 will impact our ability to meet the demand for our services within our existing allocation,” she said. “The cost of the crisis, and the associated long-term implication for funding, is a challenge that is constantly on our minds. But at the moment, our focus has to remain on keeping our service users and staff safe.” Aside from financing, one thing preventing organisations like Western Care operating to their full potential is an overly burdensome compliance regime, Tia added. “I hope the Government recognises how organisations like Western Care responded to this crisis and the support they provided to the HSE when it was most needed,” she continued. “After the worst of this crisis passes, I would like to see a streamlined regulatory environment where, once an organisation is deemed to comply with a basic set of standards, that is accepted by all regulators. We, like others, struggle to comply with multiple regulators and compliance regimes and at last count, more than 35 different regimes applied to Western Care.” Despite the many challenges, Tia has noticed certain positives amid the bleak backdrop. “The atmosphere of cooperation throughout the organisation has reinforced my belief in human nature and I hear stories of resilience among service users, families and staff who have gone over and above to support families in crisis and keep service users happy and content,” she said. “We are also building supportive relationships with the HSE locally as we turn to them for support and guidance. But equally, we provide them with reassurance and support too because we are all in this together.” Ultimately, Tia’s hope for the future is a simple one. “I hope that we can emerge from this pandemic with a sense of pride and renewed purpose, knowing that we have come through one of the most significant events in our lifetime and that everyone in Western Care did their best.” Dermot Crowley  Dalata Hotel Group Dalata Hotel Group was quick to respond to the threat of coronavirus to its business. From cancelling its shareholder dividend to renegotiating with lenders, the company has cut its cloth and according to Dermot Crowley, Deputy Chief Executive, Dalata is well-positioned to weather a long storm. “We have always been very careful with our gearing and as things stand, we have access to €145 million in funding,” he said. “We immediately created a worst-case scenario of zero revenue for the remainder of the year. We examined every cost item and calculated our cash burn. The major fixed costs are elements of payroll, rent and interest. Having done that exercise, we were in a position to reassure our shareholders that we could survive at least until the end of the year on a zero-revenue model.” As it happens, the company is still generating revenue. Dalata raised a further €65 million in April when it sold its Clayton Charlemont Hotel in a sale and leaseback transaction and although most of the company’s hotels are formally closed, Dalata responded to requests from governments and health agencies to accommodate frontline workers, asylum seekers and the homeless – often at much-reduced costs. Meanwhile, all other hotels have management and maintenance teams in place to ensure that all properties are ready to re-open at short notice. While some workers remain, the company was forced to lay-off 3,500 staff at the outset of the crisis, but Dermot is determined to re-employ as many people as possible as restrictions ease and trading conditions improve. “One of the most frustrating things about this crisis is letting our people go. We invest a huge amount in our staff and last year alone, we had 350 colleagues in development programmes. We also take on 35 people each year through graduate programmes and we have several trainee Chartered Accountants in our employ,” he said. “We absolutely want to take everyone back on.” Despite the company’s preparations for the ‘new normal’, whatever (and whenever) that might be, Dermot remains cautious in his outlook for the sector. “Dalata is a very ambitious company and we have a lot of new hotels in the pipeline, but the reality is that we are likely to be facing lower occupancies once the restrictions are lifted,” he said. “When we re-open, the domestic market will be the first part of the business to recover but the international market could take quite some time depending on travel restrictions.” At its AGM at the end of April, the company confirmed that earnings fell almost 25% in the first three months of the year to €17.7 million. With even worse results certain for the period after 31 March and normality a distant prospect, Dermot expects the sector to experience both tragedy and opportunity in the months ahead. “Some companies will not make it through this crisis and that’s just reality,” he said. “That will create some opportunities. We built a strong company after the last crisis, but I do not see the same fallout in Ireland as in the UK this time around. The UK has many old properties and companies with high gearing ratios, so that may be where the most changes will occur.” Naomi Holland International Treasurer at Intel As International Treasurer and Senior Director of Tax at Intel, Naomi Holland had a demanding role before COVID-19 became a threat, but her role has since expanded as she – and her colleagues – seek to protect the chipmaker and its people from the threat posed by coronavirus. As leader of Intel’s Global Tax & Treasury Virus Task Force, Naomi also sits on the Global Finance Virus Task Force, which develops and implements Intel’s crisis response for the corporation’s worldwide finance function. This is not just a strategic project for Naomi, however. Her global role means that she has direct responsibility for employees in some of the worst affected areas of the world. “I have teams based in China where we were dealing with the outbreak from early 2020,” she said. While it was largely restricted at that stage, the China situation effectively became a test-run for the global pandemic that was to come.” Some employee considerations included colleagues who had returned home for the Chinese New Year and became confined to their province, others were on secondment outside their home country and Intel needed to assess the return home versus the remain in situ options, and some countries’ lockdown notice was so short that staff ended up not returning home to their families and were confined alone. In the early days of the crisis, Naomi and her colleagues engaged in extensive scenario planning. They considered single sites closing down, multiple sites closing down, and the impact of COVID-19 outbreaks on the organisation’s operability. That led to a rationalisation of activity to ensure that critical functions remained up and running. “In addition to ensuring that we had the necessary contingencies in place should a person, team or site fall victim to COVID-19, it was also essential that we prioritised our activity,” she said. “This required significant coordination as we needed to ensure that our partner organisations around the world were satisfied with what remained on our priority list and, importantly, what didn’t.” This required extensive communication, which was central to Intel’s response according to Naomi. “We were acutely aware that people needed information,” she said. “So, we focused on our internal communications and developed a ‘people’ track to complement that.” This was particularly important for Naomi, whose team spans several countries including Ireland, the Netherlands, Israel, India, and China. Her leaderhip remit meant the US teams were also on her agenda. Despite the complexity, Intel’s quick response meant that the company “didn’t miss a beat”, according to Naomi. “COVID-19 has forced all companies to assess items including their liquidity, their work-from-home capability, and their technological infrastructure,” she added. “We took all the necessary decisions, amended procedures as required and augmented our hardware in places. The greater complexity, of course, resided within our factory and logistics networks but I am proud to say that their delivery can only be described as incredible.” As the shock factor subsides and people increasingly become resigned to the prospect of living and working alongside COVID-19 for the foreseeable future, Naomi is determined to maintain her focus on her people and their mental health. “I’ve always said that people are a company’s best asset and if this crisis has taught me anything, it’s in our augmented ability to deliver when we operate as one team despite the circumstances,” she said. “The first six months of 2020 have been a traumatic time for many. However, with senior executives leading from the front and maintaining communication with their people, this crisis is in fact humanising us and helping us connect with our colleagues on a more personal level.” Shauna Burns Managing Director at Beyond Business Travel Beyond Business Travel is ten years old this year and like the rest of the travel sector, it faces severe challenges due to COVID-19. According to Shauna Burns, the company’s Managing Director, 2020 was the year the firm planned to reach £20 million in turnover and build on its investment in Ireland following last year’s opening of offices in Dublin and Cork. The impact of the pandemic was felt by the company in February, according to Shauna, when FlyBe entered administration. March then saw the domino effect of countries closing their borders, which presented a unique set of challenges. “We had clients and staff located all over the world, and we had to work 24/7 to ensure they got home quickly,” she said. The company was also involved in the Ireland’s Call initiative to bring home medical professionals to work in the HSE and NHS. After this initial flurry of activity, Shauna and her team had to take both a strategic and forensic view of the business amid a fast-changing business landscape. “Difficult but essential decisions had to be made on operational continuity and cash flow while engaging with our key stakeholders and looking into the potential for financial assistance from Government,” she added. “From the off, we were determined that our company’s core values around excellent customer service would not change. We retained some key staff to provide ongoing information and to ensure that clients who urgently need to travel can do so. This comes at a financial cost in terms of maintaining our premises and fixed overheads, but it is a decision we believe will benefit the business in the long run.” With one eye on the easing of travel restrictions, Shauna’s firm is also compiling information and advice for companies whose people must resume travel, so that they make informed decisions and manage the impact of COVID-19 on their business. The travel industry will re-open and travellers will take to the air again, she said, but they will travel less often and with an increased focus on traveller health and safety. “We expect to operate below capacity for the immediate future, so part-time furlough allows us to raise activity in line with demand,” she said. “Consequently, we are looking at our offering and service lines, and right-sizing our business for the ‘new normal’. There are opportunities to become leaner, faster, and more efficient, and digitalisation is a core element of that process. “We now have an opportunity to ask ourselves if the business were starting from scratch, what would we do differently and reimagine what this looks like ,” she added. “But for our business, restoring confidence in the safety of air travel is a vital pre-requisite to enabling recovery and with more than one third of global trade by value moving by air, it will also be vital for the recovery of the global economy.” The entrepreneurs Growing businesses with finite resources are very vulnerable to economic shocks, but one Chartered Accountant is using technology to weather the storm. Fiona Smiddy, Founder of Green Outlook, had three active revenue streams before the onset of COVID-19 – e-commerce, markets/event retail, and corporate services including speaking engagements. She is now down to one viable revenue stream, but the growth in online retail has allowed her company to grow during the pandemic. Fiona runs a tight ship from a cost perspective. She outsourced her order fulfilment activity in 2019 and engaged the services of a ‘virtual CFO’ who keeps her focused on her KPIs. “Green Outlook turned one year old at the end of March and the key challenge remains brand awareness and cash flow management,” she said. “The company is self-funded with no outside investment or loans, so I am restricted to organic growth.” Green Outlook continues to support Irish suppliers, with 22 Irish brands represented among the more than 170 sustainable, plastic-free products available online, and Fiona cites this as a contributory factor in her success. “I have noticed a huge uplift in supporting local and Irish businesses and I hope this continues post-COVID-19,” she said. Brendan Halpin, Founder of WeSwitchU.ie, also hopes to support Irish businesses and households in the months ahead. He launched his new company in March 2020, just as the lockdown came into effect, but having spent 2019 in the development phase, he is certain that now is the right time to launch a cost-saving business. WeSwicthU.ie is a digital platform that finds the best electricity and gas energy plan for individual households each year and even as COVID-19 reached Ireland, Brendan did not consider it a threat to his business. “It was pandemic-proof in a sense because our entire proposition is online. From the comfort of your home, the platform takes the stress and hassle out of switching and saving money on customers’ home electricity and gas bills,” he added. “The only change in the business plan was on the marketing side; I had intended to be out and about meeting people, but that activity simply moved online.” While the market reaction has been positive so far, Brendan is conscious that any planned expansion would require funding – and that may be a challenge as the economic malaise becomes more entrenched. “I have funded the business myself so far but if I really want to grow, the next step will involve external financing,” he said. “I do hope that the Government and State agencies will help start-ups like mine grow through their relevant phases despite the uncertainty that lies ahead.”

Six influential Chartered Accountants in business and politics share their stories. Chartered Accountants are in many ways a driving force in the economy. With more than 16,000 members working in industry, and many in C-suite roles, our colleagues are found in every sector and at every level. In the pages that follow, we meet a number of trailblazing Chartered Accountants at various stages in their career. Each has had a significant influence on Ireland Inc. and continues to exemplify the very best aspects of the profession. From Sharon Cunningham, Co-Founder of Shorla Pharma to Michael Cawley, former Deputy Chief Executive at Ryanair, these profiles offer a snapshot of the talent and influence within the membership – qualities that will be in high demand in these uncertain times. Senan Murphy The CRH Group Finance Director discusses his journey from technical subject matter expert to general manager and leader. CRH Group Finance Director, Senan Murphy, divides his career into five chapters, beginning with his education and training as a Chartered Accountant and culminating in his current role. “I was interested in maths, business and science in school and did a BComm in UCD,” he recalls. “You could take a number of routes after that, but Chartered Accountancy looked the most interesting to me. I did a Diploma in Professional Accounting, which took the first three years out of the accounting exams at the time.” Senan joined Arthur Andersen in 1990 when it was one of the so-called Big 8. “I stayed there for five years and it was a very good place to work. It was a great transition from college into the real world. I moved into industry in 1995.” That saw him move to GE and begin chapter two. “Practice is a great experience, but you are an adviser. I wanted to be part of the execution and implementation; not just give advice and come back the following year to see how it worked out.” His GE career took in finance, acquisitions and business development in Europe and then the US, before moving back to Europe to what became GE Money. But the call of home was loud, and he moved back to Ireland with his wife and children in 2003 to begin the next chapter with Eddie O’Connor in Airtricity. “I stayed and helped grow the business until it was sold to SSE in 2008,” he said. That saw the beginning of chapter four with Senan moving into banking, first with RBS Ulster Bank and then Bank of Ireland. “2008 was an interesting time for the sector,” he noted with at least a hint of humour. “When something is in a crisis, you learn more than when things are going smoothly. It was a tough time for the banking industry but an interesting time to be part of it.” He sees the transition from subject matter expert to general management as quite natural for a Chartered Accountant. “The move from accountancy to financial leader to general management happens naturally. You start off learning about the financial side, but most of the job is about managing people. It’s about collaborating, working in teams and leading teams. As a financial manager, you get more and more involved in the commercial and operational sides of the business. In Airtricity, I became more and more involved in growing the business. “In some ways, it’s good to leave the numbers behind,” he continues. “As you go on, it’s about building good teams around you. The expertise around you comes from them. You become an orchestrator in a way. Accountants all start off the same way, and a lot of Chartered Accountants own their own business or end up running businesses. We don’t all stay in the financial world.” His fifth chapter sees him back in the role of Group Finance Director with CRH. “It’s a large organisation with lots of operating companies around the world. My job is to help drive performance and improve the business, but I also help to recruit, develop and promote talent globally. I also spend a fair amount of time talking to the owners of businesses. We have lots of shareholders around the world who want to hear from us.” For Senan, the people agenda is the most enjoyable. “That’s the part I enjoy most. I’m always pleasantly surprised by the people coming through the system who are more capable than their years might suggest. I also enjoy meeting shareholders. Some are supportive; some are quite challenging. Those two parts are very enjoyable.” He believes Chartered Accountancy has provided a good grounding for his career. “When you come out of college, you have to decide if you want to go into a business or go into practice and train as an accountant there. Practice is a good place to start with people of a similar age. You have to be a team player and learn to work with others. You have a number of clients and you have to build relationships with them. You’re not quite in a sales role, but you are really.” Michael Cawley Michael Cawley recalls his unorthodox path to Chartered Accountancy and life as the second in command at one of the world’s most successful airlines. With the candour we’ve come to expect from people associated with Ryanair, Michael Cawley says his reasons for becoming a Chartered Accountant were mostly materialistic. “My sister had a few boyfriends who were accountants and they had cars,” he says. “That was quite impressive, and it stuck out as most people didn’t have cars at that time.” Having never studied accountancy in school, Michael chose to pursue a commerce degree in UCC. “I liked it, and I went to Coopers & Lybrand afterwards. I spent three years auditing, and I hated it with a passion! The moment I qualified and finished my training contract, I walked out the door.” After a year teaching in UCC, he went into industry with the Cork-based motor dealer, Frank Boland. “I wanted to be in the middle of the action rather than just recording what had happened. I worked there until 1981 when I moved to Dublin to work for Kodak for five years.” His next move was to Athlone Extrusions as Managing Director. He led a management buy-out (MBO) of the company in 1990, the biggest such transaction in Irish corporate history at the time. The company later went on to a public flotation. After that, he moved back to the motor industry with Gowan Group in 1993. “I enjoyed my time there, but it was a family-owned company, so there was no prospect of a stake in the business,” he says. His move to Ryanair in 1997 as CFO and later, Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer had its roots in the Athlone Extrusions MBO. “I worked on it with Gerry McEvoy in KPMG and Tony Ryan was one of his clients. I stayed in contact with him and he knew I had ambitions beyond the Gowan Group. I was 42 or 43 at the time and I wanted to really have a good lash at something. Ryanair was about to float at the time.” That connection led him to join the airline at a crucial stage in its history. “Incredible as it may sound, I got on with Michael O’Leary from day one. I had a good few rows with him over the years as well, of course. It was always exciting, sometimes frustrating, but I was extremely lucky to be involved. It suited me from the outset.” He describes it as a phenomenal opportunity. “Low fares were in their infancy back then. We transformed air travel across Europe. I have dealt with more than 300 airports across Europe; lots of them were a bit like Knock back then, small with a few connections. We breathed life into many communities and helped them build up tourism industries. Bergamo in Italy had 130,000 passengers when we started there; that increased to 13 million by 2014. Charleroi grew from 30,000 to 7.5 million.” He stepped down from his executive role with Ryanair in 2014. He took up several non-executive directorships with a wide range of organisations including the Gowan Group, Kingspan plc, Fáilte Ireland and, of course, Ryanair. “I was 60 and grandchildren had started to come along,” he explains. “When I joined, we had 3.5 million passengers, and when I left, we had reached 83 million. It was 142 million last year. I’m delighted to still be on the board. I’m in and out every five or six weeks to catch up, so I haven’t really left. I’ve also been lucky enough to have become involved in a number of very fine businesses.” Michael concludes by   emphasising the need to keep pace with change. “You have to be open to change. Despite the advent of artificial intelligence and so on, accountants will still be able to master their environment. But we have to stay up-to-speed and be flexible and humble about the need to change. You can be top of the pyramid today, and irrelevant in six months’ time.” Ronan Dunne Ronan Dunne, the self-declared “accidental accountant”, has taken opportunities as they arose – and to great effect. A stellar career that has seen Ronan Dunne become Executive Vice President and CEO of Verizon Consumer Group, the largest division of the world’s biggest telecoms company, could have been very different if not for a teachers’ strike back in 1981. “I was all set to do Law in UCD, but there was an examiners’ strike the year I did the Leaving Cert,” he says. “The papers couldn’t be marked and there were no college offers.” And then fate took a hand in the form of intervention by Terry O’Rourke, Managing Partner of Touche Ross, and a past pupil of his school. “He contacted the Dean and said if anyone was interested, they had three to four unfilled slots for trainee accountants. I was one of those kids who was always fascinated by finance. My dad worked for Shell in a finance role and I was always interested in it.” A phone call from the Dean and a chat with O’Rourke sealed the deal. “It sounded like an interesting opportunity, so I decided to give it a go. I am an accidental accountant.” Six years later, the newly qualified Chartered Accountant was about to experience his next encounter with fate. An injury in his final year at school had put paid to a promising rugby career, but he was also an excellent soccer player and went on to play at senior level for the Mount Merrion club in south Dublin. “We were playing in a soccer tournament in Wales, and I visited my brother in London as part of the trip. I was sitting in his apartment when my mother rang, saying a lady had called about a job interview. The job was in London so I borrowed a suit and tie from my brother, went for the interview that afternoon with BNP and by 4.30pm had a job offer. It was 1987 and the markets were on fire. They couldn’t recruit fast enough. I signed a contract, went back home and packed my bags, and returned to London three weeks later.” Rapid promotion followed, and by the age of 25 Ronan had become the chief accountant at the bank. He then switched to the banking side of the operation where he dealt mainly with major US corporates with operations in Europe. And then came a call to jump the fence. That saw him switch to senior finance and treasury roles, first with Waste Management International and then with transport and logistics group, Exel. Dunne’s next move saw him follow his former boss at Exel into BT Mobile, which was about to become O2 and de-merge from its parent. “In 2005, O2 was acquired by Telefónica and I became CEO of Telefónica UK in 2007,” he says. “That was an interesting back story. When I became CFO in 2004, my boss gave me responsibility for legal and regulation, then procurement, and then asked me to take on HR as well. After a while, I pointed out that I was doing all the heavy lifting and doing three jobs instead of one. He said I had missed the point. I clearly had the capability to be a general manager, and he was getting me ready to be a success in such a role. I still thought my future was as a big public company CFO. My boss and my chairman saw my potential before I did.” Dunne’s departure to Verizon followed a blocked sale of the business to Hutchinson in 2015. “I had decided to leave once the deal was closed. I had a fairly extensive non-compete agreement, so I had to move sector or move geography. Verizon is the largest telecoms company in the world and when I got that approach, there was no way I would turn it down. In late 2016, we headed off to New Jersey.” “My training as a Chartered Accountant has been incredibly valuable at every stage in my career,” he adds. “It really is best-in-class, and I don’t think there is a better skillset out there. In my opinion, a good Chartered Accountant is better than any MBA from any business school in the world. It’s the best business qualification out there.” And he has some advice for his fellow accountants. “The biggest challenge and opportunity for accountants is to realise that your success is measured not by what you do, but by what you can make happen and the influence you have on people. Building teams, coaching and developing them, and bringing them on a journey with you is what’s most important.” Sharon Cunningham Ambition and tenacity helped Sharon Cunningham forge a path from practice to the cutting edge of pharmaceutical innovation and entrepreneurship.   Award-winning entrepreneur, Sharon Cunningham, learned about business and accounts literally at the kitchen table. The Shorla Pharma founder was interested in business from a very early age. “Both of my parents owned companies, and it was ingrained in us from a very young age. They did the books on the kitchen table. I used to go to the accountants with my mother and was fascinated by the questions the accountant would ask. My mother was focused on things like sales and cash and had her own goals. The accountant was asking about things like profit margins, inventory management and so on.” That early inspiration led her to a degree in finance in UCC. “I wasn’t 100% sure what I was going to do when I went to college at first, but by the time I finished I knew I wanted to be a Chartered Accountant and wanted to get a training contract, preferably with one of the Big 4.” Sharon went to work with PwC in Waterford initially but soon found herself travelling to Dublin, Chicago, New York and London. “It was fun but difficult; it was lots of hard work, but it was great. I went on an international secondment to an investment fund in Manhattan. That was a great experience.” Her move to industry came about almost by chance. “At the height of the recession in December 2010, I was working on a very challenging audit. A colleague of mine got wind of a job going in a pharmaceutical company I had never heard of in Waterford. I met with the co-founders of EirGen, Tom Brennan and Patsy Carney. They are very inspirational people, and I joined the company.” Having spent seven years with the company, initially as a management accountant and later as Head of Finance, Sharon decided that it was time to start her own venture with her colleague, Orlaith Ryan. “EirGen was sold to a multinational in 2015 for $135 million in a very successful exit,” she explains. “After the takeover, the company started to change and was no longer the entrepreneurial organisation that we knew and loved. The excitement wasn’t there anymore, and both of us knew it was time to move on.” Their idea was to establish a speciality pharmaceutical company based in Clonmel, which would develop a pipeline of innovative oncology drugs for women’s and children’s cancers. “We spent two years planning Shorla at night and in our spare time, and we launched the company in January 2018,” says Cunningham. “Both of us would say that at no point were we scared. We believed in ourselves and our vision for what we wanted to do; we never thought it would fail.” That confidence was well-founded. “We don’t have billions of dollars and 20 years to wait like major pharmaceutical corporations. We are not a major corporation, nor are we a generics company. We are somewhere in between. We take existing active substances and do something novel with them. We put them to different uses and make them less toxic to the patient. The time to market is much quicker. Business is great and we are very busy. We are in the middle of multi-million euro ‘Series A’ funding round and we are growing and scaling up for the US market launch of our first product, a breast and ovarian cancer drug.” It is a bit unusual for a Chartered Accountant to set up a pharmaceutical company, she concedes. “But accountancy is a very useful skill to have in any industry. The Chartered Accountant qualification gives you a certain degree of confidence when you talk about numbers; people listen to you and don’t tend to probe too much. They accept and trust what you say. The profession as a whole has a very positive impact on society.” Sharon’s experience has taught her the value of planning. “It’s much more beneficial to work smarter, not harder,” she says. “Everyone should sit down and decide what they want to do and what they want to be, and then map out a way to get there. Don’t get bogged down in small details; don’t sweat the small stuff.” Michael McGrath Having moved from practice to politics via industry, Michael McGrath has brought his training and experience to bear in his role as Fianna Fáil’s finance spokesperson. One of the most prominent faces in politics in recent years has been that of Fianna Fáil finance spokesperson, Michael McGrath. The Cork South Central deputy has earned plaudits for his work on tracker mortgages and the regulation of so-called vulture funds, among other pressing issues. And he attributes at least part of that success to his training as a Chartered Accountant. “There is no doubt about it, the training I received as a Chartered Accountant has proven to be far more valuable than I ever thought it would,” he says. “It equipped me with the skills to get to grips with the finance portfolio. It also makes you comfortable with numbers and reaching informed decisions. The analytical skills you acquire are hugely valuable when it comes to problem-solving.” He started out on his professional and political journeys at a very young age. “I was the first member of my family to go to college when I went to study Commerce in UCC having just turned 17,” he recalls. “My first election was a contested role in the Commerce and Economics Society, and I won.” Having completed his degree in 1997, he joined KPMG in Cork. “I wanted to stay in Cork and was keen to get a professional qualification. I stayed for four years and was fortunate to work with a number of companies and organisations in a variety of sectors.” Then came the move into industry. “Following the end of the training contract, an excellent opportunity came up to join Red FM, a new start-up commercial radio station in Cork. I joined as Financial Controller in late 2001. The station had yet to go on air, and I was involved in helping set up the processes and systems to run it. It was great working for a station with a youth focus. I was reporting to the CEO and the board, and I enjoyed the diverse range of responsibilities. It was very nice having a company car as a 25-year-old, of course. I didn’t think things could get much better.” He left Red FM for a relatively short stint in the UCC finance function. “It was quite a senior role and a step up for me,” he notes. But the call of politics was loud. “I always had an interest in politics in parallel with my working life,” he explains. “I was fortunate to live in a town that still had a town council. That provided a fantastic platform for a young person to contest an election. A few hundred votes was all you needed to get elected. I ran in 1999 at the age of 22 and managed to get elected. My heart was set on politics after that.” Michael was elected to Cork County Council in 2004 and quickly realised he couldn’t continue working full-time. “I resigned from UCC in 2005 and found some part-time work to tide me through the next year and a half.” Election to the Dáil in 2007 followed. Re-election in 2011 was an altogether more difficult proposition, however. “It was an incredibly tough election. Fianna Fáil lost over 50 seats. At a time when the party vote collapsed, I managed to take the fifth and final seat. I focused on playing my part in rebuilding the party after that. Brian Lenihan passed away in June 2011, and I was appointed spokesperson on finance.” He enjoys his role as a public representative. “It is an enormous privilege to be a member of Dáil Éireann, and I still pinch myself walking in as a member. As a T.D., I am juggling a number of responsibilities. I have the finance portfolio and at a local level, I try to serve people to the best of my ability. What I get most out of it is being able to help people. Very often, people come in with difficult and sensitive issues. Sometimes they need guidance; sometimes they need someone to fight their corner.” Serving in government remains an ambition, of course. “Having spent nine years as finance spokesperson and four years involved in confidence and supply, to present a budget as Minister for Finance would naturally be an ambition,” he says. Fergal O’Dwyer Fergal O’Dwyer is one of the driving forces that helped turn DCC into the industrial powerhouse it is today. DCC is one of those quiet Irish success stories. Since its flotation in 1994, it has grown into a significant force in the energy, electronics and healthcare sectors with a substantial presence in 17 countries. From an investor perspective, the company delivered returns of nearly 7,000% up to the beginning of 2020. One constant throughout that success has been Chief Financial Officer, Fergal O’Dwyer, who joined the company in 1989 when it was still a venture capital firm. “Shortly after I joined, the company decided to change its colours and become an industrial group,” he recalls. “That required a complete transformation. We had a number of minority investments and had to decide which ones fitted in with the new strategy and which did not. Between 1990 and 1994, we spent our time moving out of some of them and moving to ownership positions in the others. I am not aware of other companies that made that strategic change.” He began his accountancy career with Craig Gardner (now PwC) almost straight out of school due to a natural aptitude. “I did maths and accountancy subjects at school and was always going to head towards finance or accountancy. I didn’t have a burning desire to be an accountant or anything, I sort of gravitated towards it.” O’Dwyer qualified as a Chartered Accountant at the age of 21 with a year or so of his training contract remaining. Ireland was in the depths of a recession at the time, and the search for opportunities took him overseas. His search took him and his wife to South Africa. “After we got married in 1983, we headed off to South Africa. I worked for three years there for Thomson McLintock, which represented KPMG at the time, and came back to PwC in 1986.” That move back led him indirectly to DCC. “I had clients who were looking for development capital, and I had worked on a number of deals on their behalf with DCC and they had worked out well for everyone. In 1989, I got a call from the founder and former CEO of DCC, Jim Flavin, who asked me to join the firm.” That was a major change. “I became an associate director of a venture capital company. I was dealing with entrepreneurs and building relationships with them. I learned about the venture capital focus on return on capital employed. That’s still the same mantra in DCC to this day. What is the return we are going to get on every euro? We aim to get a circa 15% return because we want returns well in excess of the cost of capital.” He describes the transformation from venture capitalist to industrial group as “very exciting”, but the flotation in 1994 was not without its challenges. “The flotation was a success, but we didn’t raise any capital, and our share price didn’t perform for quite a long time. We wore out a lot of shoe leather explaining our business and strategy. It has been all about constant delivery over the years, getting investors to listen and building a following. We were growing revenue, growing profits, growing cash flow, but still were having to work hard to sell the story. It was frustrating, but we had to accept that the market is always right.” His advice to other Chartered Accountants starting out on their careers is to keep learning. “The qualification equips you to do much more than just the numbers. You’ve got to interpret and advise on them. I still learn every day and you have to try to learn all the time. And you’ve got to learn from your mistakes. You can find business to be stressful, but if you put in the work and effort, it can be rewarding and fulfilling.”

Despite much public debate, gender inequality persists. It is now time for leaders to make good on their words and act. As a classic armchair tennis fan who engages typically around the grand slam cycle, I couldn’t help but reflect on some of the coverage that followed Andy Murray’s recent emotional announcement of his probable imminent retirement. What was remarkable to me was the almost equal balance between Murray as the ‘tough as teak’ competitor who followed his dream from Dunblane in Scotland to become a multiple grand slam winner and that of Murray as a champion of gender equality. His role in championing female athletes, by forcefully arguing for parity of tennis purses, chiding the authorities at Wimbledon for not playing more women’s matches on centre court and, memorably, for hiring a female coach, Amelie Mauresmo, at the height of his career. Or maybe what is, in fact, remarkable is that such acts or statement of equality appear to be so rare in the sporting arena. The business case In language perhaps more familiar to us as accountants, the business case for gender balance has never been clearer. INSEAD research shows that diverse businesses benefit from higher levels of creativity and innovation, greater customer satisfaction, more informed investment decisions and increased performance. But despite all the talk around gender equality in the workplace, women remain under-represented at all levels of management across all industries. Everyday discrimination continues to be a reality. McKinsey data from 2018 is very stark in this respect. Women have to provide more evidence of their competence than men while having their judgement questioned in their area of expertise. Women are also twice as likely as men to have been mistaken for someone in a more junior position. Being the only woman in the room is still a common experience and, consequently, women are heavily scrutinised and held to higher performance standards. There is no silver bullet that will achieve greater gender diversity. Good intentions are great, but companies must show concrete actions. It is clear from INSEAD’s research that achieving true gender balance requires more than just adding women to your workforce. Companies must increase their total talent pool by actively embracing female return-to-work programmes. Organisations must also acknowledge that there will be varying levels of motivation internally to achieve gender balance. Seeking to engage not just the advocates, but those sitting in the middle is crucial to effective staff engagement. Personal experience All of this might have been something I was vaguely aware of until it became part of my professional life. I am proud of having been part of the diversity and inclusion journey across the Canada Life and Irish Life Groups in Ireland and the UK and, more recently, as part of this Institute’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee. While my initial motivation to step up was probably driven by a personal commitment to ensure a strong leadership voice for LGBTQ+ issues, my learning journey across the wider diversity and inclusion agenda has been profound. We know we are early on our diversity and inclusion journey, but that comes with the advantages of learning from those who are further along the path. Some of the work we are doing in my organisation at a group level include:   The formation of a ‘Women in Leadership Group’ early in 2018 to support and promote existing and aspiring female leaders within the business, running focused development workshops for some of our pipeline of female talent which aims to advance opportunities for women into leadership roles; The overhaul of recruitment policies and practices through a diversity lens; The expansion of maternity and paternity policies to encourage full take-up; and The introduction of unconscious bias training across all management tiers. At board level, diversity is now a key part of the debate related to culture. In my own experience, it drives a much deeper awareness of – and focus on – the people aspect of business strategy. It also drives accountability at executive level; setting targets and measuring progress can be challenging, but it does drive activity. And yet we know we have so much still to do. And sometimes you are pushed into action, as we have seen with legislation across the European Union (EU). In the United Kingdom (UK), the Gender Pay Gap Report was published in April 2018 and momentum has continued around this to address the challenges it highlighted, albeit the data shows the gap only gradually closing between 2012 to 2018 at a national level. Canada Life UK is a signatory to the UK Women in Finance Charter and has committed to having 30% of senior management positions occupied by women by the end of 2020 and 35% of senior management positions occupied by women by the end of 2023. Similar reporting will follow shortly in this country and companies need to prepare for it, but there is an opportunity for some to embrace and lead on the challenge. Turning intentions into reality So, what can leaders do within their own organisations to advance change? Consider some of the actions below: Be a vocal and visible sponsor and advocate for women; Undertake a ‘root and branch’ review of your systems and processes to identify biases; Challenge yourself and your recruitment partners to plan ahead and build a strong pipeline of diverse talent for your business; Invest in the development of your workforce equally with tailored programmes to meet different diverse needs; and Set an objective for senior leaders to keep gender diversity on everyone’s agenda. Good intentions are great, but they are no substitute for on-the-ground activity. As accountants, we are respected voices within our businesses and we have a perspective that can lead or push gender balance as a business priority. With all the momentum around gender diversity, now is the time get off the fence and show your support for this positive wave of change. John McNamara is Managing Director of Canada Life International (Assurance) Ireland and sits on the Institute’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee.