CEO Blog - August 2019

Dear Members, this is the eighth issue of my “Blog”.

In the Southern Hemisphere, August is the seasonal equivalent of February in the Northern Hemisphere. In many European countries, especially in the Mediterranean area, August is the holiday month for most workers. Numerous religious holidays occurred during August in ancient Rome, so I guess this habit comes from this period. Therefore, it is “family time” and “time for focusing and rediscovering ourselves”. That’s what I have done during my holiday in August.

At the beginning of August, I travelled to the far-east and met members and contacts. During my visit I learnt about IKIGAI, a Japanese concept that means “a reason for being”. What is the source of value in one’s life or the things that makes one’s life worthwhile? In simple terms why do we wake up in the morning and get up? I would strongly encourage you to read about IKIGAI and this link (https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/ikigai) is a good place to read about this fantastic and thought provoking concept.

I will mention IKIGAI again at the end of this blog. Now let me update you about what has happened in IAPA since my last blog.

Financial Dashboard

Here is the rest of 2019 Conference Agenda. Please mark in your dairy:

IAPA Events: 

• IAPA UK200Group FIFO, Manchester, 27 September 2019
• IAPA UK200Group National Conference, Liverpool, 13-15 November 2019
• IAPA International Conference, Singapore, 21-24 November 2019

What is NEW!

NEW! A Member Spotlight

• Our centre team came up with a good idea! That each month we publish a Member profile and overview of an existing member on our website. Through this way, our members know each other closely.
• So, stay tuned we will be starting soon!

NEW! Membership Milestone Awards

• Another good idea came up from our centre team! We will be presenting Membership Milestone Glass Awards to our members based on their “joining date to IAPA” at our Singapore Conference
• As per our CRM records, we have found out that there are 9 firms who have reached a milestone year (5, 10, 25 and 35) in 2019

NEW! International Employment Guides 

• The shift concerning globalisation means that organisations are now having to be accountable for employment activities worldwide in order to regulate the workplace
• These International Employment Guides prepared by our member Expat Partners provide information on permits, qualifying & salary criteria and expected application timelines for 97 countries
• Take a look at the downloads below, listed alphabetically by country
• https://iapa.net/portal-home/member-resources/international-employment-guides

More member benefits: Free IAPA Webinars! Please find the October, November and December Agenda below:

Webinars: 

• Cannabis, Ian Stewart, Wilson Elser Los Angeles Office Partner, 2 October 
• Mitigating Cyber & Information Security risks, 6 November, Scott Green, Think Marble
• Blockchain, TDB
• Immigration, TBD

Representation:International Board Meeting:

• Attended our monthly International Board Meeting conference call on 12 August 2019
• Thank you very much for all the international board members for their contributions
• Also welcome again to our new 3 International Board Members from USA

IASME & Cyber Essentials

• As IAPA International, we were able to comply with the requirements of the IASME (https://www.iasme.co.uk) & Cyber Essentials Combined Scheme.
• Therefore, our organization have been successful in the assessment for the IASME standard and successful in assessment against GDPR.

Joanne Smeets – Thank You!

• Our Research and Office Executive Joanne Smeets has decided to leave IAPA on 29 August 2019 for personal reasons
• I would like to thank to her for her contributions to our organization in the last 5 months. I wish her all the best for the future

Sharon Quinn – Welcome! (New Executive Assistant to the CEO (PA))

• We are pleased to announce that Sharon Quinn has recently joined the IAPA team as Executive Assistant to me
• If you are attending the Facilitating International Business Conference on 27 September, or the International Conference in Singapore 21-24 November, you will be able to meet Sharon then
• Welcome Sharon!

My Visits

To demonstrate the idea of togetherness in the world, I will keep visiting our members, their countries, cities and offices

• Current Member visits in August 2019:

1. Expat Partners, Bangalore, India
2. John Ko Chi Kwong CPA, Hong Kong
3. HKCMCPA Company Limited, Hong Kong
4. Clement C. W. Chan & Co., Hong Kong
5. Fiduciary Asia Group of Companies, Hong Kong
6. Jerry Kwok, UK200Group International Associate, Hong Kong

Thank you all for your great hospitality and time for the great discussion for our organization

I have just come back from attending our BHD Canadian Conference and whilst in Canada I met with several member of firms. In my next blog I will share with some details and information I learnt.

Whilst finalizing my blog, I would like to underline the benefits you can get from your organization. Please rediscover your organization, I am pretty sure you will find a lot of offerings and values you can add to your firms, where you have not recognized earlier. That is what I am realizing during my visits to your offices. Most of our members don’t know all what IAPA has to offer or how to use the organization for their maximum benefit. Therefore, they appreciate my visits and providing updates about the changes in our organization. So IAPA is like the source of value for your firms where it is worth discovering.

In the article named Ikigai — jibun no kanosei, kaikasaseru katei ("Ikigai: the process of allowing the self's possibilities to blossom") Kobayashi Tsukasa says that "people can feel real ikigai only when, on the basis of personal maturity, the satisfaction of various desires, love and happiness, encounters with others, and a sense of the value of life, they proceed toward self-realization. "We are trying to implement IKIGAI concept to IAPA for allowing the organization’s possibilities to blossom and making IAPA’s entity worthwhile to your firms.