CEO Blog - July 2019

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

I had a chance to watch the Tina Turner Musical while I was in London for business in July. I think she has a great life story and history that inspired me a lot for writing in my blog – From humble beginnings in Nutbush, Tennessee – to her meteoric rise to undisputed “Queen of Rock and Roll”.

Just to update for those who are not familiar with her: Tina Turner (original name Anna Mae Bullock, born November 26, 1939, Brownsville, Tennessee, U.S.) is a popular American born (now Swiss citizen) singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and author. So she is a well-known American celebrity and famous for her contributions in her professional life. She found success in the rhythm-and-blues (R&B), soul and rock genres in a career that spanned five decades!

The important thing that she has got a great personality besides her musical talent. She was so “passionate and enthusiastic” about what she does. This is the important part of the story: she became famous in R&B and soul genres in her early career and continued in this genre until her 40’s while having a problem with her partner and husband Ike Turner. From 1975 to 78, she went through a tough period because her marriage with Ike was crumbling down and it affected their professional association, which made Tina stop performing with him. She was totally broke (only 36 cents and a gas station card in her pocket) when this association was stopped. But she was never afraid of trying new things and taking risks. So she has tried renewing her career with cabaret-style performances in Las Vegas, started appearing in some shows, released solo albums, but failed to impress her fans. But she didn’t give up and decided to change her style and genre completely at the age of 40 and stepped into Rock and Roll-music of white-man, as a black-woman! While people were criticising her about that decision she said “there is no colour of music”. What courage and vision! Guess what happened after that, she became the most popular female rock artist worldwide, achieved the “Queen of the Rock” nickname, received 8 Grammy Awards, sold 100 Million copies of her albums. She has also been named as “One of the greatest singers of all time” by Rolling Magazine.

Even though she was so talented, all those success couldn’t be achieved without her selflessly hardworking, always believing good, being courageous, visionary, never-giving up, innovative, passionate and having an enthusiastic personality. I think those are the values which will bring success to everyone who follows, no matter what is your age, colour and ethnicity.

In IAPA, we’ve had similar experiences in our previous 40 years and now we are also courageous to renew ourselves with the evolving multidisciplinary omnichannel business model and new corporate governance model. That is the reason it is written as “40 Years Young” in our website and social media tools. I will let Tina sing for IAPA: SIMPLY THE BEST: “You're simply the best, better than all the rest, Better than anyone, anyone I ever met” : https://youtu.be/SvCyFHWBUlc

Financial Dashboard 

IAPA International has gained 6 new members from 5 countries with their 10 offices in my birth month of July. IAPA is GROWING and EVOLVING!

Hence; IAPA has gained 6 NEW MEMBERS: Expat Partners 🇫🇷, Massimiliano Bonamini 🇮🇹, CAPITAL CONSULTING, AUDITORIA Y GESTION SLP 🇪🇸, Juan Luis Alayón García 🇪🇸, Pfv Marbella 🇪🇸, ATENEA AUDITORES SL 🇪🇸. Details of the firms are in the “What is NEW!” section of the blog.

IAPA International has 10 NEW OFFICES in Paris-France 🇫🇷, Verona-Italy 🇮🇹, Milan-Italy 🇮🇹, Shenzhen-China 🇨🇳, Bangalore-India 🇮🇳, Madrid-Spain 🇪🇸, Marbella Spain 🇪🇸, Adeje, Tenerife-Spain 🇪🇸, Santa Cruz, Tenerife-Spain 🇪🇸, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria-Spain 🇪🇸.

IAPA International has extended its coverage by 7 NEW CITIES in 🇫🇷🇮🇹🇪🇸🇨🇳 (Shenzhen, Verona, Madrid, Marbella, Adeje de Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria).

IAPA International has offering: Accountancy, Audit, Bookkeeping, Legal, Valuation, Forensic, Immigration, Mergers & Acquisition Advisory, Corporate Finance, Consultancy, Tax Advisory, Financial Services, Technology Services to its clients from those offices. I would like to welcome 🙏 all of them one by one! It was great visiting their offices in July. Thank you very much for their great hospitality!

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

• IAPA Events: 
  • IAPA Canadian BHD Regional Conference, Alberta, 4-8 September 2019
  • IAPA UK200Group FIFO, Manchester, 27 September 2019
  • IAPA UK200Group Regional Conference, Liverpool, 13-15 November 2019
  • IAPA International Conference, Singapore, 21-24 November 2019.

What is NEW!

• NEW Member! Studio Bonamini & Partners, Verona, Italy & Milano, Italy
  • Mergers & Acquisition Advisory Firm “Studio Bonamini & Partners”
  • Offices in Verona, Italy & Milano, Italy
  • In Milano Office: Comprehensive Start-up Services, Consultancy, Corporate Finance & M&A, Family Business, Internalization, Debt Restructuring
  • In Verona Office: Accountancy and Bookkeeping, Assurance, Local and International Tax
  • Welcome back to IAPA Family! Welcome back home!
  • We keep on growing, glad we have you back.

• NEW Member! Expat Partners, Paris, France & Bangalore, India & Shenzhen, China
  • Immigration Services Firm “Expat Partners”
  • Offices in Paris-France, Bangalore-India, Shenzhen-China
  • Corporate and individual immigration consultancy and services
• NEW Member! Atenea Auditores, Madrid, Spain
  • Audit Firm “Atenea Auditores”
  • Office in Madrid, Spain
  • Audit, Tax, Law and Advisory
• NEW Member! PFV Accountants (Asesores), Marbella, Spain
  • Audit, Accountancy and Legal Firm “PFV Accountants (Asesores)”
  • Office in Marbella, Spain
  • Audit, Tax, Law, Payroll and Advisory
• NEW Member! Peraza, Santa Cruz and Adeje, Tenerife, Spain
  • Audit, Accountancy and Legal Firm “Peraza Y Compania Auditores, S.L.P.”
  • Offices in Santa Cruz de Tenerife & Adeje, Tenerife, Spain
  • Audit, Tax, Law, Payroll and Advisory
• NEW Member! Capital Consulting, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
  • Audit services, forensic, consultancy and valuation Firm “Capital Consulting Auditoria Y Gestion”
  • Office in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
  • Audit services, forensic, consultancy and valuation

To all new members;

• Welcome to IAPA Family!
• We keep on growing, glad we have you.
• NEW! IAPA 100% Free of Charge Fly-In-Fly-Out (FIFO) Event for our members
  • As you know we have introduced for the first time ever, 100% Free-of-charge FIFO event for our members. In the past only the technical part was free, now we have included social part as well. So, that is inclusive of technical, meal and social part of the event (i.e. lunch, keynotes, interactive session, guided city tour, networking dinner).
  • On 27 September 2019, we will be hosting the “Facilitating International Business (FIB)” event at Crowne Plaza, Manchester Airport. This event will be coordinated together with UK200Group.
  • There will be keynote speakers from USA, UK and Turkey. Also this event will be sponsored by a group introduced to us by our UK member Cowgills. Thank you very much.
• NEW! IAPA Facebook Page
  • Great News! We have opened IAPA Facebook page. We will keep enriching our social media tools.
  • So IAPA International now can be found at Facebook. @IAPAIntl
  • Please follow us on Facebook.
  • You can also join the ‘closed’ IAPA Member group on Facebook, to connect, share and network with fellow members. We will also post relevant member information, events, webinars, polls, articles and more, so its definitely worth joining. Send a request to join via the IAPA Facebook page.
• NEW! Digital Tax Bulletin 
  • Redesigned the IAPA Tax Bulletin from scratch and launched it again with the digital format.
  • Our members fed information globally to the Tax Bulletin. Thank you very much for your support.
  • Take advantage of it and most importantly “Enjoy it”. Glad we have you all!
• NEW! IAPA Videos
  • IAPA will be bringing fresh, informative videos to our members via our social media platforms.
  • These videos will not only reinforce the IAPA brand and our key messaging but they will provide an easier and more modern way to deliver information to our members - bringing news to life.
• NEW! IAPA Website WHY Page has been renewed
  • We have renewed our WHY page to reflect IAPA’s WHY.
  • Also added “Ethos, Values and Culture” Wheel that shows the organizations’ strong values.
  • Setting values are important; communicating them are important, but most importantly are living by the values. Our behaviours as members of the IAPA family are the most important. Our behaviours must match our “Ethos, Values and Culture”. If our behaviours do not, then IAPA will be weak.
• NEW! IAPA Website Resources Page has been renewed 
  • All resources (articles, newsletters, tax bulletins, SIG) have been combined under this subpage.
  • Also introduced new Special Interest Group (SIG) subpage  
  • I encourage you to review the page and if have any suggestions or resource to add to the page please communicate with our Marketing and Member Services Manager Taberna Sansom from t.sansom@iapa.net.
• NEW! International Employment (FIB) Special Interest Group (SIG)
  • I am really happy to introduce our new SIG: International Employment.
  • The trend towards globalisation means that many businesses are becoming responsible for employment activities across the world, by aligning company policies and procedures with local labour laws to regulate the workplace.
  • Whether a multi-national business or on the cusp of global expansion, our International Employment special interest group will help you to remove barriers for the global deployment of human capital, either for your own firm or for your clients’.
  • The ‘International Employment’ SIG will include topics such as:
    • Labour law
    • HR policies
    • Employment contracts
    • Payroll and social security
    • Pensions
    • Immigration
  • If you would like to be part of the WhatsApp special interest group for ‘International Employment' please communicate with our Marketing and Member Services Manager Taberna Sansom from t.sansom@iapa.net.
• More member benefits: Free IAPA Webinars! Please find the July, September and October Agenda below:
•  Fintech, DLT and associated Tax Implications, 31 July
  • Thank you to hosts Chris Borg and Malvina Mulliri at CSA Group, Malta
  • An educational webinar defining the types of DLT assets, milestones of the Maltese DLT and the virtual financial assets regime
  • If you missed the webinar, you can find the presentation slides and webinar recording in the IAPA portal
• Cost Segregation, 11 September, Craig Tobin, Tobin & Associates
• Cannabis, Ian Stewart, Wilson Elser Los Angeles Office Parter, 2 October 
• Mitigating Cyber & Information Security risks, 6 November, Scott Green, Think Marble
• Blockchain, TBC
• Immigration, TBC
• Papers & Guides & Recordings:
  • Help clients with this tech assessment guide: How much more profitable would your clients be if they were using the best technologies for their business needs? How much value could you bring if you knew how to help them properly and fully assess their technology situation? This guide from JofA technology writer J. Carlton Collins, CPA, shows step-by-step how to provide well-crafted, detailed technology assessments that can unlock value for your clients and your firm. Click here to view the guide>>

• New Sponsor:
  • Finch: I am happy to announce that we have agreed with Finch (https://www.finchib.co.uk) regarding their sponsorship of our 27 September 2019 FIFO Event in Manchester.
  • I would like to thank to Jo Kennedy for our meeting in London on 15 July and making this sponsorship possible. Their partner Andy Newby will be attending our FIFO Event in Manchester. I hope we can extend this partnership.
  • Finch is offering Insurance and Employee Benefits solutions for businesses, and part of Adelaide, a group specialised in insurance consultancy, mediation, distribution and services. Chaired by Jacques Verlingue, Adelaide has more than 1,900 employees, negotiates EUR 2.6bn in premiums for the account of 3,000 companies and manages personal protection and healthcare plans for more than 1.9 million insureds.
• Representation
  • Asia Pacific (AP):
    • Attended AP Region Board Meeting on 12 July 2019.
    • Thank you very much for Regional Chairman Arun Todarwal keeping me in the loop where we had a chance to discuss regional and international matters with all the board members.
  • UK: 
    • Attended University of Southampton Executive Learning Partnership session: Great and hot topic: “The Human Advantage”. I would like to thank Paul Bennett, Director of Enterprise at Southampton Business School for organizing such an inspirational event and speaker Carrie Foster for facilitating the event successfully. “Strategic HR is focused on the people dynamic and how the uniqueness of people is the key driver of organisational performance and competitive advantage. Artificial intelligence (AI) can really be seen as a major opportunity for people in the workplace because our human-ness will become even more important. AI relies on control loop processes that standardise outputs, but Strategic HR is about disruption, and open loop learning. It is literally the difference between thinking inside the box (AI) and releasing people to think outside the box (HR). Computers are good at predicting the predictable, but life and business is not predictable, it can be ambiguous, complex and volatile. Humans are incredibly flexible and can adapt quickly. In the future it will be effective Strategic HR practices that will enable your organisation to access and maximise the human advantage.
    • Visited International Accounting Bulletin (IAB): Having a welcome visit to Robin Amlôt, the new editor of International Accounting Bulletin. A great mind will bring new soul to our sector with his amazing career and experience. Welcome 🙏 and Good Luck 🍀
    • Tax Back International: Had a meeting with Jim Khan from our Strategic Partner Tax Back International where we have discussed opportunities to expand our business model. Thanks for their contribution to our organization.
    • Visited Accountancy Age on their 50th year anniversary with my small gift. What a coincidence it is IAPA International’s 40th year anniversary in the same year! So it is time to celebrate the long standing histories and the achievements of the both organizations. This was also a welcome visit to Beth McLoughlin for her new Editor role. Congratulations 👍 and wish you a successful career in Accountancy Age 🙏

• 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 July 2019:
    • Studio Bonamini & Partners, Verona, Italy
    • Studio Bonamini & Partners, Milano, Italy
    • Expat Partners, Paris, France
    • CPA, Paris, France
    • Harris & Trotter, London, U.K.
    • Fiander Tovell, Southampton, U.K.
    • Atenea Auditores, Madrid, Spain
    • PFV, Marbella, Spain
    • Peraza Y Compania Auditores, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
    • Capital Consulting, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
  • Thank you all for your great hospitality! I learned a lot during these visits, I really appreciate our members and their cultures, so that I can improve my knowledge and culture.
•  
• We, as IAPA, are growing and getting healthier. As I noted at the start of the blog, there are values for success but realize that success doesn’t always have a big neon sign pointing you in the right direction. I think “Prosperity simply comes when you act freely and instinctively.” Some things seem like a dead-end at first, but could turn out to be your lucky break. This could be one of those days which an unmarked door could lead you to the path of happiness, health and success. So keep on believing in yourself, never give up trying and be the captain of your ship, because you know how they say;“When writing the story of your life, don’t let anyone else hold the pen.”