The unit ensures that data handled by the Firm is managed by the Data Controller to facilitate a secure collaborative environment. This SIG focuses on laying down the governance around data security, maintenance, accessibility, archival and retrieval in digital and hard copy modes.

We are committed to giving “responsible advice” to clients, incorporating the firm’s highest level of thinking. This warrants that the practices of the firm are aligned with our stated beliefs and each of us hold ourselves accountable those ethical standards. To ensure the firm can consistently achieve and elevate its standards, the role of the “human resources framework of the firm, informed by the corporate purpose, is to build knowledge through learning, trust through legitimacy, and professional excellence through ethics and leadership.

We have created a clear and streamlined set of professional and ethical standards to guide our members and ensure that all those we deal with have confidence in us. There are five standards detailed below which every member of the firm must demonstrate.

• Act with integrity
• Always provide a high standard of service
• Act in a way that promotes trust in the profession
• Treat others with respect
• Take responsibility

This unit ensures that the expertise of the Firm is adequately and consistently showcased to the external world. It supports various practice partners and leaders in ensuring high quality service to existing clients and identifying solutions and services to new client service opportunities.

The role will be to build market intelligence to;

• Determine effective ways to reflect a brand's attributes in our services, website etc;
• Maintain corporate profile and statistics;
• Create visibility through Partners representation in forums, newsletters, articles etc;
• Define target-market criteria and help identify new opportunities and prospects;
• Develop process and co-ordiante client pitches in conjucnction with Manging Partner
• The business development information by the various people should be captured on “Pipedrive”

Build Capability in the firm by equipping employees with useful knowledge they can apply to practical situations

• Application of contemporary technical literature
• Imaginative problem-solving
• Effective reasoning and influencing skills
• Developing adequate probing and enquiry skills
• Developing an inquisitive approach which will enhance the urge of curiosity and self-learning
• Negotiation skills
• Critical thinking

• Quality and reliability in client delivery
• Analytics driven
• Improved cost ratios through better productivity
• Development of skills matrix for better resource allocation
• Engine for client acquisition through product definitions, product development and analytics
• Brand enhancement through publications, representation (responsible advice) and pride in the team

Self-Learning

• Focus is to keep up-to-date with professional developments, which means continuous professional reading will form an integral part of learning.
• There will be regular E-Learning (online exams) and newsletter quizzes to help keep us on our toes. Here inputs and quiz questions are solicited from all to keep the joy of learning alive in us.

Shared Learning – toolkit training and conceptual learning

• This will have an execution focus and is hence more of an experiential process where we share our knowledge and insights with others.
• Training modules with an execution focus will be covered such as Audit Work Process (AWP), INDAS, CARO etc.
• The classroom curriculum pre supposes that people have come well prepared.
• It is designed with pre-course reading material and tests to be completed prior to the session. This is followed by interactive training session and concludes with a learning feedback session.

Action Learning

• The process of learning will be internalized through discussions and debates where critical thinking will help develop the ability to observe, analyse, conceptualize and synthesize through reasoning.
• Through exercises such as “Case Studies”, “Mock Tribunals”, people will develop the ability to argue from “first principles” and abstract the generic from specifics.
• This will mean creating concepts from experiences (i.e., learning from assignments). A very important area for professionals as we are invariably providing better solutions to clients.

Research

• It Includes Problem definition.
• Critical Review of accounting standards.
• Journals and newsletter are been used.

Hybrid

Business Analytics is a project which is included in Hybrid wherein Self, shared learning and real-life application is involved through Action Learning.

We started the Professional Standards Review Unit (PSRU) with an overarching objective of ‘managing risk & quality’

This is a strategic platform for leadership development for the practice. The primary purpose of PSRU is to ensure:

• Secretariat to the “Audit Supervisory Board (ASB)” and “Tax Supervisory Board (TSB)”
• Responsible advice through articulated and documented professional standards and processes
• Rigorous review of work done to ensure client execution is error free
• Documentation and Data control

A Risk Control Matrix (RCM) is a powerful tool that can help an organization identify, rank, and implement control measures to mitigate risks. RCM is a repository of risks that pose a threat to an organization’s operations, as well as the controls in place to mitigate those risks. Put simply, RCM serves as a snapshot of an organization’s risk profile, measuring the organization’s risks against the formalized actions taken to prevent negative events from occurring.

At its core, RCM depends on an organization’s ability to develop a comprehensive list of risks (internal and external) that may negatively impact the organization, along with the controls in place to defend against those risks. Not all risks affect organizations equally, so it is important to identify and document each risk and related control to understand how each risk can truly affect the organization. Common risk types include financial, operational, IT, regulatory, fraud, and reputational risks.

To ensure flawless execution with quality and reliability our firm uses the “Risk Pyramid” and on the base of the pyramid is our “Audit Works Process” supported by three tools

Information drives Capital Markets. A reliable and qualitative set of financial statements is one of the pillars of a healthy capital market as it forms the basis of investor decision making.

Audit firms play a major role in creating trust by ensuring quality and reliability of financial statements.

Auditors have an onerous responsibility to ensure investors and all stakeholders are protected from mis-statements.

Business Analytics helps you to tie up the “narrative with the numbers”, and decide whether the past numbers are “plausible and probable.”

The narrative part of the Business Analytics focuses on:

• The Business and the Operating Model of the company.
• Management of the company.
• Understanding the various external forces and industry forces that have had a positive and/or a negative impact on the financial performance of the company.

The numbers part of the Business Analytics focuses on:

• YoY benchmarking of the trends in Profitability, Operating Efficiency, Leverage and Liquidity. Where possible, we will benchmark company trends with the industry trends.
• Targeted Cash Flow Analysis

You then have to look at the numbers in the context of the narrative and determine if the numbers appear “plausible and probable.” Inconsistencies between the narrative and the numbers raises a red flag. This helps us to focus our due diligence accordingly.

Data analytics is the process of examining datasets to draw conclusions about the information they contain. It involves diagnostic testing on large volumes of data, preparing dashboard for controls, ascertaining samples etc. to create insights for meaningful interpretation.

Time is a critical resource for the firm and needs to be appropriately invested. The unit works with the client delivery team to ensure competency (skill) based resource planning and execution. Focusing on improving capability and productivity by leveraging technology for productivity

information management would entail leveraging Technology for productivity and validating the functioning of the collaborative data folders and email folders.

All assignments need to be billed immediately on completion or on milestones where applicable. Collections must be made within a maximum of 30 days. This needs to be incorporated in our execution workflow.

We are committed to giving “responsible advice” to clients, incorporating the firm’s highest level of thinking. This warrants that the practices of the firm are aligned with our stated beliefs and each of us hold ourselves accountable those ethical standards. To ensure the firm can consistently achieve and elevate its standards, the role of the “human resources framework of the firm, informed by the corporate purpose, is to build knowledge through learning, trust through legitimacy, and professional excellence through ethics and leadership.

We have created a clear and streamlined set of professional and ethical standards to guide our members and ensure that all those we deal with have confidence in us. There are five standards detailed below which every member of the firm must demonstrate;

• Act with integrity

• Always provide a high standard of service

• Act in a way that promotes trust in the profession

• Treat others with respect

• Take responsibility

The firm has a strong relationship with several clients who trust the firm to provide relevant advice to support their businesses including advice in relation to corporate finance including potential mergers and acquisitions. We have, in the past been involved in certain aspects of M and A transactions such as providing financial and tax due diligence and valuation services. Certain Partners within the firm also have experience of providing tax structuring in the context of M and A transactions. Accordingly, we are well suited to provide advisory services in “Corporate Finance”. This could entail a collaboration with an investment bank for deal execution.