As I write this article, Kreston Global has just finished its annual week-long celebration of our global community called “Kreston Week.” This year, our theme was #GoGreenforKreston. This theme is about environmental sustainability and is very much aligned with our organization’s purpose “to promote positive impact around the world.” But this is only part of our purpose – we also exist “To connect ambitious and enlightened people from the entrepreneurial business community.” Creating connections between people, member firms and their clients to solve business problems is paramount to our value proposition as a network. Kreston Week is an opportunity to emphasize the importance of our purpose and to take time to recognize, reward and celebrate those who contribute so positively to our long-term sustainability. By engaging in activities that are focused on what drives our network’s success – celebrating those members making connections, recognizing those members who exhibit behaviors that align with the “Spirit of Kreston”, describing how we are improving our environment and educating on the power of purpose, we reinforce our culture of global collaboration and the values on which the network was founded.
While true that our theme this year of going green applies to the very specific issues of environmental and planetary sustainability, our vision for sustainability of the Kreston Global network is necessarily much broader and applies to the entire global organization. The sustainability of a network or any business, no matter what type of network (accountants and consultants, in our case), depends on many different factors, some of which are within our control and some that are not. Threats to the long-term sustainability of any business, not just a global network, can arise from many different sources and be catastrophic.
For Kreston to be truly sustainable, we need a model that stays true to our purpose, while at the same time inspires and rewards active engagement and collaboration of our members (locally, regionally and globally), offers relevant solutions and expertise to the clients of our members and is constantly forward thinking in everything we do. It is this concept of “Forward Thinking” that I would like to focus on in the remainder of this article.
Forward Thinking is not just a phrase we use at Kreston to describe an aspirational goal. To me, it is a critical part of our ability to be successful. So critical, in fact, that we have included it in our organization’s strategic plan. By doing this, we have elevated the idea to something tangible (vs. esoteric) and created actionable strategies that are being implemented to ensure that our organization operates in a forward thinking manner. To be clear, it is not about predicting the future. Nobody that I know can do that. Rather, it is about being aware of and adaptable to changes that are likely to occur in our environment and creating a culture (both structurally and procedurally) that helps us respond in a timely and appropriate manner to avoid extinction.
Kreston is using the idea of “Forward Thinking” to help us with managing some of the risks we face as a global network. It is being used to help us remain relevant to our member firms and their clients, manage leadership and succession issues, promote global and regional collaboration, address resource constraints, mobility issues and changing expectations of our workforce (no matter whether these are driven by diversity, multi-generational populations or geographic and cultural dynamics).
Over the last couple of years, I have been fortunate to travel and meet with many of our members in each of the geographic regions where Kreston operates and I find it very interesting that the issues they raise and the challenges they describe, that are most significantly impacting their businesses, are very similar. Invariably, one of the most frequent issues I hear about is the lack of qualified resources that are available in their market and the challenges they face with regard to attracting and retaining their best talent. The responses to these challenges might vary between firms but the issue has a direct impact on the long-term sustainability of each of their businesses and, ultimately, to the global network as well. This challenge requires Forward Thinking to properly balance the issues of supply and demand of people, use of technology, outsourcing/staff-sharing arrangements and secondments among member firms.
So, How is Kreston Global Using Future Thinking to Address Some of These Challenges?
First, Kreston has created a highly collaborative structure of Global Groups. Some of the groups are focused on service lines (e.g., audit, tax, corporate finance) and others are functional expert networks (e.g., marketing, HR, technology, mobility). Finally, some of the groups are focused on the future including new service lines that may emerge and matters of leadership and succession (e.g., Global ESG Group and the Futures Emerging Talent Committee). Our member firms are also creating more regional collaborations. One notable example includes the 12 countries that make up Kreston Middle East. Members in this region have recently begun to capitalize on the power of the group vs. the power of the individual by working together more proactively, branding themselves as a region and sharing resources and capabilities to maximize their value and efficiency to eliminate duplication of efforts where possible. Consequently, we have seen significant growth in this region.
Another example is at a more localized level, within a single country, where our members share a common skill or expertise. In the UK, several of our Kreston members specialize in providing services to the Academies industry. Each year, these members collaborate on a thought leadership publication that shares a variety of relevant financial performance metrics and explores key highlights, reflections and future trends of the Academies industry while offering critical insights and analysis for the future. The “2023 Kreston Academies Benchmark Report” is the 11th annual publication of these results and it captures a financial picture of over 2,700 schools making it the most complete and detailed picture of the academy trusts in the UK. This is not only a great example of the value of collaboration but it also demonstrates how “Forward Thinking” allows our Kreston experts to leverage their talent and contribute to the overall sustainability of an industry.
Forward Thinking also includes considering the impact of emerging issues, one of which includes the evolving circumstances around the world with regard to ESG matters. Kreston’s Global ESG Group is helping us achieve our strategy by 1) improving Kreston’s own ESG performance, 2) encouraging our members to set goals and progress their own ESG impact and 3) helping clients with achieving their ESG goals and compliance obligations. Our Kreston Week celebration featured several events focused on these very activities and real life case studies.
Finally, Forward Thinking involves leadership and I want to highlight two items in particular – our Kreston Futures Emerging Talent Committee and our Kreston Connected Leadership Program. The committee was established to help manage the risks related to succession. Actively encouraging the involvement and input of our future leaders today will go a long way in helping us prepare for a seamless transition to the future leaders of tomorrow. We also wanted to understand the perspectives of our people who are in the earlier stages of their careers in order to ensure that our organization evolves in a way that meets the needs of future generations. So, this committee has a dual purpose and value. Since we are a membership organization, the future leaders of Kreston Global are likely to be the future leaders of the member firms themselves. Consequently, Kreston developed the Connected Leadership Program with the goal of developing the next generation of international leaders who will help grow their firms through the power of their network connections. Remember, creating connections is our purpose!
The Futures Emerging Talent Committee is led by Emily Baldwin, a Senior Manager at one of our UK members, and includes many other highly-motivated future leaders from member firms around the network. Emily’s efforts in this regard also contributed to her being the 2023 winner of the “Spirit of Kreston” award, which honors a person in our network that embodies our ethos of an international mindset, who seeks to connect people and is entrepreneurial, driving positive change for their clients and their people. The award was inspired by the founder of Kreston Global, Dr. Gabriel Brӧsztl, and I had the honor of presenting the award to Emily at the Golden Global Awards ceremony during Kreston Week.
It is an exciting time to be involved in such a dynamic and Forward Thinking global network like Kreston and I am proud to be the Chairman. While uncertainty always exists, Forward Thinking helps ensure that we stay true to our purpose and prevents us from becoming distracted from our overall vision. With change comes opportunity and change is never-ending!.