In this article, Adam Munro sits down with Alex Tushingham, newly appointed partner at Kreston Reeves, to discuss his career, the accountancy market and how to develop within accountancy.
Please tell us where your career began
I started my career with Deloitte, after a successful summer internship stint. A vital placement as I’d ran out of money going into my final year of Uni! Those years were very intense but also lots of fun, it involved a lot of living out of a suitcase, jet setting to the likes of Milton Keynes, Jersey, and industrial estates near Coventry.
My time at Deloitte instilled the importance of taking responsibility and really owning your work and your role. That has been so important to the success in my career I’ve had since then. It’s also given me some really useful perspective around things like work-life-balance and the value of your time in a job’s budget going into a different environment.
You later moved to Kreston Reeves – what invoked the change?
To be honest I felt like I needed a bit of a break after the intensity of a job that involved some serious hours at times as well as the added time commitments of studying/exams etc. I did a bit of pottering about and a bit of travelling and a lot of music festivals before starting the new job hunt afresh.
I was keen to stay in the profession but to find a role that would give me a more sensible work-life-balance, while also being somewhere that was meritocratic: where hard work and commitment to the cause would be recognised and rewarded.
Luckily for me I found that with Kreston Reeves!
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You’ve recently become partner, what was that journey like?
I came into KR as a qualified senior at the end of 2016. While there was definitely some early big learning and development areas for me moving to a firm like KR, it wasn’t too long before the effort and commitment I was putting into this new role was being recognised and rewarded. I started moving up the ranks; into an assistant manager role by 2018, then manager, then senior manager and recently I was invited into the Partnership which is all very exciting.
Deloitte gave me a really strong grounding in technical audit and accounting, and they nurtured that drive to make sure that I always met my responsibilities to my clients and colleagues.
I think having that drive is crucial, if you were thinking that a move from a bigger firm will give you an easy life that’s not really an attitude that will help you succeed at a place like KR. The culture here absolutely respects work-life-balance in a way that is very different to the bigger firms. But it’s also a place where putting in the effort to meet the needs of clients and colleagues is really visible to managers and partners and that recognition genuinely is rewarded. But you putting the effort in really does come first in that process.
What are your aspirations in the role?
Loads of aspirations! My background and experience has always been in the direction of large and listed work, often with a big international footprint. So I’m very keen to help KR continue building up our reputation and market presence in this space. We have a fantastic team, especially in London where I’m based, that deliver on this kind of work to such an impressive standard so consistently. I’m really lucky to have them!
Client care is also a brief that will be a big focus for me moving forward. It was a big element to my success, first as a senior and then as a manager, so I think there is lots of experience that I can share with my colleagues in this area to help us get to an even better place than we are at right now.
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How do you see the industry developing?
The direction of travel is certainly towards ever stronger emphasis on audit quality. In practice this will mean bringing up the quality of all audit files to an even higher standard, whether for the audit of a sole-trader or a big international group.
While I think a firm like KR have the talent, knowledge and the infrastructure to succeed in this there is the commercial challenge as well: All of this ultimately means more time, and therefore more cost. Even with efficiency gains from improved use of things like AI.
This takes me back to the importance of great client care, gone are the days of just racing to the bottom on fees as the requirements for enhanced audit quality make that impossible. Relationships built on trust and confidence with our clients allows us to operate at a sensible fee level. In fact we win so much of our new work through referrals from existing clients and intermediaries due to delivering excellent client care on those assignments. This in turn allows us to expand that network of trust further.
How do you keep up with the changing regulations?
It certainly helps that I’m a part of KR’s technical team, which involves fielding all sorts of technical help requests whether audit or accounting related. So providing accurate and considered responses to these involves a lot of reading and research which keeps me up to date.
KR is also very eager in arranging regular training sessions for staff at all levels that are targeted at the changing regulatory landscape.
What advice would you give to those looking to carve an impressive career in Accountancy
I think the two key things that have helped me most are:
Organisation: This is so vital for people like me who have a naturally terrible memory! I try and keep on top of everything via to-do lists and lots of reminders in my diary. Doing simple things like this is a surprisingly uncommon practice by people in my experience, even though it makes it far easier to be effective in your role.
Drive: You have to genuinely care about owning the responsibilities of your role, about meeting (or even exceeding!) the needs of your clients and your colleagues. And, yes, sometimes that does involve some longer hours/added stress, but it really is all worth it in the end.
Alex was talking with Adam Munro, Associate Portfolio Director at AJ Chambers ®. Adam heads up client relationships in London for Audit & Accounts. With over 11 years’ experience, he has built up a network with London’s most prominent firms. Adam has assisted hundreds of trainees and qualified accountants with their career.
AJ Chambers Recruitment Ltd,