1



Navigating modern challenges

Expertly hosted by Richard Sergeant of Principle Point, the programme kicked off with ICAS President Karen Scholes CA introducing a panel session about ways to navigate modern accountancy firm challenges. She began by addressing the critical issue of talent attraction and retention.

“We need to get more young people interested in what we do and I still think that the word ‘accountant’ has a stigma to it,” she said. “We’ve got to change the perception of the practice.” As a director of Scholes CA, an Orkney-based family firm, she has expanded the business to offices in Aberdeen, Laurencekirk and Edinburgh – and is also keen to widen the net of who considers a career as a CA.

“That’s where the ICAS Foundation is so important in giving bursaries and grants to study accounting and broaden access,” she says. “If you look at the statistics, less than 20% of people who become CAs are from working-class backgrounds, and that’s shocking because we find that a lot of students who come to us through the foundation excel.”

Shona Campbell CA, Chair of Henderson Loggie, shared some of the approaches to talent retention embraced by a practice that now has around 190 partners and staff, with offices in Dundee, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

“We survey the team regularly and look at what the top- or bottom-scoring issues are and how we can address them,” said Campbell. “For instance, a couple of years ago, people wanted more flexible working hours, so we did a lot of work in terms of introducing new polices around that.

“Then when we did our most recent survey, flexible working was no longer such a big issue – interest had moved on to growth and development opportunities. If you know what is important to your people, you can focus on the priorities. So now we’re introducing role profiles and career pathways for everybody in the firm.”

The panel was completed by Jared Cordner CA, Operations Director of Dundee-based Ashton McGill, a practice that takes a very different approach to most CA firms. A limited company rather than a partnership, Ashton McGill aims to redesign accounting to create “a better experience” for everyone – and places the focus firmly on supporting client growth through innovations in data and technology.

“We’ve seen the impact of having a clear mission, and the team rally around that,” said Cordner. “We reframe their work to show the impact it has, and there's a lot of storytelling involved, which is a big thing for us. It also means having a very open and honest working environment where people take ownership.”

Regulation was another issued raised by Sergeant, with Campbell pointing to its “relentless pace and complexity”. She urged fellow CAs to make full use of ICAS in terms of keeping on top of best practice. “Several of our senior staff partners are members of various ICAS board committees,” she said. “Obviously everyone here is engaged with ICAS to some extent, but I think that's a really good way of understanding what’s coming up and what you can learn from other practices.”

3



Cybercrime  – not ‘if’ but ‘when’

Sandwiched between those two morning sessions was an engrossing presentation on cybercrime from Katie O’Neill, Head of the Skills Academy at the Cyber and Fraud Centre Scotland. She took CAs through a scenario in which an organisation had suffered a serious cyberattack. “It’s not a case of ‘if’, it’s a case of ‘when’,” she said. “That’s how we need to approach it.” The audience was asked to consider how it would respond to various stages of the attack, with O’Neill then explaining the potential consequences of their choices. She stressed the importance of calmness, clear thinking and effective communication.

Kerrie Machin, Director of Business Development at cybersecurity specialists Mitigo, then described a real-life attack example. “Cyber risk goes far beyond technology,” he said.

“We always start with people, then move to tech, and then policy and governance. Business email compromise is the most common form of cybercrime we see.

“Threat actors lurk in inboxes for months undetected, forwarding emails, watching, learning. In one case, a company with just 12 staff had eight compromised email accounts – some infiltrated for over a year.

“The barrier to entry for cybercriminals is now dangerously low,” he added. “With AI and ransomware now offered as a service, even non-technical attackers can do serious damage. There are even licensing agreements for ransomware gangs. They’re organised, they’re efficient and they’re constantly evolving.”

That left the audience with much to chew over during the lunch break, as well as a chance to explore a new feature of the event. The practice hub – open all day – gave CAs the opportunity to talk to experts directly, with stands provided by HMRC, Mitigo, Lugo, Cofficient, XBert and the 15 Minute Guy.

5



The art of storytelling

That was a technique clearly not lost on the conference’s keynote speaker Alex Bond Burnett of Cowry Consulting, who described herself as a “tabasco-swilling behavioural change strategist and leadership coach”.

Bond Burnett explored what can be learnt from behavioural science to make smarter decisions and forge stronger relationships with clients. “So much of it is about the perception of the client rather than what you’re actually delivering,” she said, adding an observation from advertising guru Rory Sutherland that “the human brain no more runs on logic than a horse runs on petrol”.

“Only about 5% of our decisions are logical and deliberate,” she said. “The remaining 95% are fast, instinctive, emotional and reactive. No matter what you do, you are influencing your client’s decisions and your team’s decisions. So what would it look like if you did that deliberately, with care?

“Storytelling is really important because it’s the brain's natural way of formatting information. The best stories that you can tell your clients and your team help them to feel that they can save the day.”

She urged CAs to become “professional rebels” who forge their own path and understand that, to take care of the needs of others, they first need to look after themselves.

“Understand your behaviour and the behaviour of others, and start to set boundaries,” she said. “Someone else’s crisis doesn’t have to be your crisis.”