AI Issue 4 2018 - John Harrison & Company

6 Acquisition International - Issue 4 2018 John Harrison & Company has been named as AI’s Most Innovative for Financial Management Services within the UK. We profiled the firm before John Harrison provided us with his thoughts on the industry, his own success and the achievements of his company. stablished in 1989, John Harrison & Company boasts a wealth of experience, and portrays itself as a different type of accountancy practice. Embedded in the company ethos are the firm’s values, upon which its business success has been built and on which its future success should be built. We looked at some of these values which have contributed greatly to the firm’s success. Amongst the team, its work experience has to be sufficiently varied, enabling all team members to be exposed to all types of work that its practice in particular can give. Throughout the company, John and his team insist that all members of the company must undertake work that has to be challenging but enjoyable. Alongside delivering excellent results, the team at John Harrison & Company also provide fantastic customer service. Maintaining personal relationships with clients means clients must be made to feel welcome on every contact with its practice. It is made to clear to clients that they come first, and that the desired outcome of the client is the most important factor, and staff keep them updated on the time scale, and most importantly, the progress that the team is making on its behalf. Clients will always come first, and the firm understand that its clients judge it, not by the quality of professional work, but how staff deal with them as people. The company will always look at things from its client’s point of view and makes sure that it has properly fulfilled their wishes on every occasion they have contact with the team. Company: John Harrison & Company Contact: John Harrison Address: 78 Carlton Road, Worksop, S80 1PH, UK Phone: 01909 472310 Web: www.johnharrison.co.uk AccountancyThat MeetsYourNeeds E 1712AI30 Internally, John and his team are interested in the personal development of all of its team members, and this is vital for the team’s own self-esteem, and for the future of practice. The company has to regard learning as a lifetime commitment, and its internal procedures must ensure that every team member always has a personal development programme and is given every assistance necessary to carry it out. Operating independently, and with integrity and honesty, the staff at the company do not let its judgement be compromised in any way. Being honest and truthful with customers is of the utmost importance, even if the information provided may not be welcomed by its clients. However, the team are honest with others if they do not think that they can accept any appointment in which they do not feel they can satisfy their expectations, and this tends to be appreciated by clients and staff members. When John first obtained his practising certificate, he could prepare the accounts and tax returns, complete annual audits and deal with their investment needs. Additionally, the firm can carry out insolvency work and take on many more services. John tells us about his experience and observes how times have changed within the financial industry since he started. “Over the years, I have been in practice in a variety of functions, and these have become more complex and worse still, the work has been denied to us. First to go was the insolvency work when that became regulated and licensed: you needed 3,000 hours of insolvency experience over the last three years. At the time, we were a partnership of six and we didn’t have 3,000 hours of insolvency work between us over the previous three years. “After this, the investment business went when regulation came in. That was not a major part of practice, we averaged about 5% of our annual fees as commissions so we decided not to be involved in that type of work. We did refer work on but usually we received one commission cheque then the ‘adviser’ moved to another provider and took our clients with them. “Gradually, audit work began to run down. When I started in the practice, all of our limited company “Throughout my career, I’ve always seen writers saying that accountancy is changing and we have got to change with it. I can honestly say that accountancy has never changed as much as it has in the last four years, and I am looking forward to the future and helping business owners build Better Businesses and create Better Lives.”