CEO Blog - June 2019

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

At the AICPA ENGAGE 2019 conference, which I attended and represented our organization between 8-13 June in Las Vegas, USA, I had the privilege to listen to Simon Sinek which provoked me to think about “Finding the WHY of IAPA” and “WHY I am doing this role”.

You cannot serve the world unless you understand the world accurately. What a nice saying, isn’t it? In IAPA, we are serving the world for 365 days a year, as long as the world turns round. We have to improve our skills and share best practices to serve in a better way every day. As a goal I am trying to REACH and CONNECT to a different culture every month to understand the different social and business cultures closely, so I can implement cross-cultural norms into this organization. Individually I might be limited but through implementing the methodologies in our organization, collectively we achieve a lot of things. That is the WHY we are together.

We want to profoundly change the way in which the business world works, we want to help organizations create cultures in which TRUST and COOPERATION are the norm rather than the exception, we want to build the world we imagine, we will need help. Lots of it. That is the WHY we are together.

I have been travelling since the age of 7, where my first trip was to Northern Cyprus, where I didn’t understand why it was separated at that time, (still don’t by the way since those are the people from the same soil, same culture and same blood). Then I went to the UK for a youth exchange program at 15, where I saw a lot of different cultures living together just like in my country. I have backpacked through Europe several times between ages 18 – 22. I have realized from a young age that we are no different than each other, which opened my mind, eyes and vision and let me start believing in the idea ONE WORLD ONE NATION WITH DIFFERENT IDENTITIES! That is how we can use our resources more responsibly, utilize our people more effectively, respect each other with more care and love. As it says in Delta Airlines advertisement "When we were born, we are more alike than we are different. And somewhere along the way we start to believe the more distant we are from each other, the more different we must be from each other. And it is only when we venture out into the world that we realize all the things we share. May be that is the power of flight" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmYxkAqjpYA

As a Turkish Passport Holder, I have to get visas to reach different countries and cultures, this is a thing that I always found humiliating and against the freewill of human nature. Providing the same folder of documents, doing the same interviews and proving that I am a good person for over 40 years visiting the same countries. But through advanced technology I don’t understand WHY they just cannot make a profile or folder of me and just demand from me updates in a modern electronic way. Maybe that is one of the reasons I have decided to connect the cultures, nations, people of the world as much as I can through my friendships, social and business relationships; so I can be a WORLD CITIZEN. No boundary or politics can stop me communicating with my friends in different countries or cultures, together we can create an international positive and value adding organization and society under IAPA, because we believe in each other and we TRUST each other. This is our opportunity and the opportunity is not to discover the perfect company for ourselves. The opportunity is to BUILD the perfect company for each other. This is WHY we are together and we WHY we will stay together.

FINANCIAL DASHBOARD

Yes we are growing - Numbers matter but people count! 
In every number, there is a human touch, effort and sweat! No goal was ever met without a little sweat.

We have exceeded the $2,5B threshold, having grown from $478m in 13 months which has been made possible by gaining new members, growth by our members and turning associates into full member status. And, we are continuing to reach out to potential new members with a good response so far.

IAPA EVENTS

Here is the 2019 Conference Agenda, all dates are confirmed. Please mark in your dairy:

• 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'S NEW

NEW Member! San Jose, CA and Portland, OR 

• Tax and Business Advisory Firm “Morris + D’Angelo”
• Offices in San Jose, California & Portland, Oregon
• Accountancy and Bookkeeping, Company Management, Consultancy, Corporate Finance & M&A, Cryptocurrency Advisory, Financial Services, Taxation
• Welcome to IAPA Family!
• They were at our US Conference! It was good for them to meet our other US members plus other international mebers who were at the conference.
• We keep on growing, glad we have you.

NEW! IAPA New Website Phase 2 Development

• We are kicking off the Phase 2 Development of IAPA Website.
• Please use it and come back with your user experience feedbacks, so that we can improve the website during Phase 2.
• Also, if you see that your firm’s information is not up to date, please contact with Taberna Sansom to make sure it is corrected.

NEW! UK200Group BLOG!

• Starting from July, I will also start writing a BLOG in our UK National Accounting Group website (www.uk200group.co.uk).
• I believe this will support streghtening our connection and binding with the group. I do care about UK much since this is where we born, you can only grow in a healthy way where you respect your roots and values.

NEW! Digital Newsletter

• Redesigned the IAPA Newsletter from scract and launched it again with the digital format.
• Please keep providing informations, updates from your firms. IAPA is a member’s organization. It is your organization and newsletter should reflect you. That is a great global advantage of all of our members learning about the updates on the other part of the World. IAPA welcomes 189 members from 74 countries, so I am pretty sure that IAPA Newsletter will get richer everyday.
• Get advantage of it and most importantly “Enjoy it”. Glad we have you all!

NEW! Transfer Pricing (TP) Special Interest Group (SIG)

• The SIG TP is for members from different jurisdictions to share experiences and competences to offer an international services network to multinational enterprises (MNEs). 
• The TP group now consists of 22 members, across 16 countries. If you would like to join the WhatsApp special interest group please communicate with our Marketing and Member Services Manager Taberna Sansom from t.sansom@iapa.net.

NEW! Facilitating International Business (FIB) Special Interest Group (SIG)

• To ensure success in a foreign market, businesses must understand the many factors that affect the environment, including economy, politics, culture and competition and effectively assess their impact. This SIG is to support and facilitate international business between IAPA members, and to improve business, investment and trade climate for all members.
• If you would like to be part of the WhatsApp special interest group for 'Facilitating International Business' (which will be set-up in the coming weeks) please communicate with our Marketing and Member Services Manager Taberna Sansom from t.sansom@iapa.net.

WEBINARS

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

• International VAT - Taxback International - 17 July 
• Fintech, DLT and associated Tax Implications - CSA Group - 31 July
• Cost Segregation - Craig Tobin, Tobin & Associates - 11 September 
• Cannabis - Wilson Elser (Los Angeles Office Partner) - 2 October
• Blockchain - TBC

USA REGIONAL CONFERENCE - NEW YORK

• We had a very successful US Conference in New York City, USA between 27-30 June 2019.
• I would like to thank all 30 attendees from 9 countries making this organization and event meaningful and glad we have you all. Thanks for your attendance and contributions. I wish success in your businesses until our next conference. I hope you have enjoyed the event and returned back with good memories and ideas to implement to improve your lives and businesses.
• I also would like to congratulate all new board members being elected to the US Regional Board, I wish you a successful term where we can work hand in hand for the benefit of IAPA. Starting from US Region, we are revising corporate governance and international board representation, 3 Vice Presidents (VP) have been elected to represent the US in the International Board, so I would like to congratulate Alan Lips, Norman Schulman and Mike Mullen for being elected as VP. Also I would like to congratulate our new member Dan Morris for being elected as Member-at-large board member. As discussed at the conference we are “One” association not a number of regional associations working together under the umbrella of IAPA.

REPRESENTATION

• USA: 
  • Attended AICPA Annual Conference (ENGAGE 2019) between 9-13 June in the Las Vegas, US, around 5,000 CPA’s registered, one of the biggest events in the world. I always love the US Market and its people, very dynamic, very educated, driving our sector globally.It was an amazing event, have attended a lot of sessions and been able to contact with a lot of potentials, although it is a real difficult market to gain members, as it has its’ own dynamics.
  • This is the country which is setting the rules in our sector and introducing the new tools and standards to our industry. Our sector is going into FULL DIGITAL AGE. The Exhibit Hall was around 80% filled by technology solution providers and stakeholders. That is where IAPA and members should invest. I have already started communication with several solution providers to create benefits for our members in the near future.
  • Hold on tight! It my priviledge to announce that IAPA has signed a deal with AICPA to exhibit the organization at the next year’s event in it’s own premium booth, which will take place between 7-11 June, 2020 in AIRA Hotel, Las Vegas. I announce this now to our members 1 year ahead in case any of you would like to attend and support us over there.
• Africa: 
  • I have attended ACOA 2019 (African Congress of Accountants) in Marrakesh, Morroco. This was the 5th Edition of this event and it is organized every 2 years by PAFA (Pan African Federation of Accountants). It was an amazing event event with 1,265 Participants, from 4 Continents and 58 Countries, where 53 African Professional Organizations and 12 International Organizations were represented. You can be proud of your organization because IAPA was also well represented at the event.
  • Next edition will be in Mozambique in 2021. At the moment, we are covering 11 countries in the continent, it was 4 when I started the EMEA Role. My aim is to increase this coverage to 20 countries by 2020. I have contacted with potentials from Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Lesotho, Uganda, Senagal, Mauritania, Malawi, Togo, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Niiger, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Angola, Tchad and Ghana. Yes, will care about Africa and it’s nations.

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 June 2019:
  • Morris +D’Angelo, San Jose, California, USA
  • Levitzacks, San Diego, California, USA
  • Wilson Elser, San Diego, California, USA
  • Maginnis Knechtel McIntyre, Los Angeles, USA
  • Schulman Lobel, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Berkower, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Wilson Elser, Los Angeles, California, USA
• Brought all Los Angeles members together for dinner on 17 June evening. It was a great night to represent real IAPA culture with collaboration and friendship.
• 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.

And finally the deepest desire for all us (human nature) is to CONNECT, this is WHY we have IAPA: to REACH and CONNECT with the people we TRUST and COOPERATE to BUILD an ORGANIZATION where we do BUSINESS GLOBALLY, and always with UNYEILDING INTEGRITY. Because leadership without integrity is nothing but self interest.

I believe in IAPA!