14/05/2021

TGS Digested Week 19: Smile, tomorrow it will be worse!

Business advisory TGS U

Monday 2021.5.10

Day One of the TGS Regional Conference was a useful event … to prove Murphy’s Law (again): ‘If something can go wrong, it will.’ A lot went wrong in the conference, not with the participants or with the content but with every device we had and our internet connection kept dropping out. We have a super-agile team and Sophie, Marcela and I made the falling stage scenery of the conference seem at worst like it was part of the show and at best it was unnoticeable.

I remember during our TGS conference in Dubai in 2018 that while Sophie and I were dealing calmly with some horrific technical issue, Horacio from TGS Mexico, surprised with our calm and workmanlike spirit said we looked like something out of a James Bond movie. That’s a compliment that stays with me to this day. Things go wrong. Things will always go wrong so it’s best to deal with them with lightness and humor.

I checked the rest of Murphy’s Law and it seems to support this idea. Murphy, it seems, was a good-humored pessimist and it’s worth sharing some corollaries of Murphy’s law from Social Media Forward: think of this as our TGS International Business Meditation.

1. 1. Nothing is as easy as it looks.
  2. Everything takes longer than you think.
  3. If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
  4. If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way will promptly develop.
  5. Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
  6. Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.
  7. Every solution breeds new problems.
  8. It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.

Tuesday 2021.5.11

Day Two of the TGS Asia Pacific Regional Conference was much smoother than Day One. We explored the most effective way to approach professional training in our member firms to increase quality. We also talked about how to manage and develop referral businesses across the network. We explored what corporate social responsibility actions firms can adopt that will be useful for clients and will increase our business and improve our quality. That’s a lot to ask of CSR but it’s all there and it’s all possible.

TGS is not just a network of high-quality audit, accounting, tax, legal and advisory firms but is also a shared, globally registered, and protected brand. TGS®. We hosted a workshop to share best practices on how to use the brand to amplify member firm communication locally and internationally. Good branding can attract the right kind of employees and contribute to a general atmosphere of quality and client confidence. The TGS Experience is synonymous with sustainability and quality.

We’ve participated in a lot of Zoom meetings this year and they are not all thrilling. The TGS regional events this year have managed to find the right balance of discussion, interactivity, and smooth management – so well done to the TGS® team for that. I’m aware that, as part of the team, I’m lightly patting myself on the back here but I’m only one of a team of six. Keep your calendars free for the TGS global event in November because it is going to be a very non-standard Zoom event. It’s probably not even going to be on Zoom so you’re going to have to hang onto your virtual hats.

TGS May 2021 Regional Conferences, Asia-Pacific Region

Wednesday 2021.5.12

TGS has been a supporter of Womennovator Virtual Global Incubator since 2014 and I was delighted to be asked to give a presentation (about giving better presentations) to 50 women entrepreneurs with exceptional ideas this week.

Womennovator is a platform to communicate the excellent work done by women around the world. It is an initiative with the goal of helping women entrepreneurs to grow local economies by providing business education, training, mentoring, and networking 👩‍💼. As TGS is a lifelong believer in the importance of education, training, and equality, it’s the perfect project for us to participate in and where we can make a real difference. TGS is also a key driver in the transition from compliance to advisory services and we are offering some pro bono individual business advisory sessions to some of this year’s cohort of Womennovators. Expect to hear more about these projects in this digest in the coming weeks.

Thursday 2021.5.13

Ascension Day. Not a public holiday for everyone and that’s one of the problems/advantages of international business. It’s a May holiday on different days for different countries. It’s the same for us as it is in Cameroon, Finland, and Namibia which is coincidently where I am currently looking for new member firms. Sometimes the stars are aligned but, of course, I can’t call anyone in Cameroon, Finland, and Namibia today because they are on holiday. It can wait till Monday – but if you do know any quality audit, accounting, tax, legal and advisory firms anywhere in Africa or Scandinavia please let me know and remember, there is a 2000 Euro ‘Finder’s Fee’ for any firm you recommend who ultimately joins the network.