2nd April 2010:

Global perspectives

One of the privileges of my role is the opportunities I get to see so many different countries and different cultures.
 
In the past few weeks I have been in India and Japan and in the next several weeks I will be visiting South Africa and Saudi Arabia – as well as regular visits to Brussels and London and the more than occasional trip to the USA.
 
What is increasingly evident to me is that whilst we do business in an interconnected, global environment this has not made the world more homogeneous.  Of course, there are global brands and even Japan has Starbucks and, of course, BDO.  However, whilst many countries have embraced aspects of the culture of others (and this is as much about the West adopting aspects of Eastern culture as vice versa) where this has been successful it has been done in a way that reflects, and respects, local culture.  Otherwise, it is merely there for visitors and expats and will not necessarily survive.
 
This is an important learning experience for the accountancy profession – as we are a very Anglo-Saxon/English speaking dominated profession.  It is vital that we discover how best to adapt our ways of working and our business model to take account of the norms of countries where the profession is relatively new and doesn’t have the history of the profession in say the UK.
 
If we are to remain relevant in the 21^st century, and are to continue to have an important role in the growth and development of business and the capital markets, we need to take more time to understand others.

 International BDO  1 Comments April 2nd, 2010