In this episode we hear from Director Duncan Bye from the rapidly growing accountant firm Wilson
Partners to explore the transformative power of technology in driving decision making and business
expansion.

Tune in to understand how advancements in technology can help bridge the gap between hiring
talent and ensuring business growth as well as provide business leaders the confidence they need to
make pertinent decisions in a time of financial and political uncertainty.

Key phrases:

“some of our clients, even if they are doing well, they’ve got great growth plans and mindset, I think they are struggling to move forward with investment decisions based on some of the uncertainty that we have, whether it’s around interest rates, you know, the political landscape with potential change in government coming up”

” I think, absolutely using technology to enable you to, to pull together some of those models or financial forecasts for clients can be really, really helpful.”

“scenario planning forward in terms of cash flow, forecasting those decisions and seeing what the bearish outcomes might look like versus the bullish outcomes”

“certainly with the Microsoft platform itself you can pull in data from all sorts of different sources now with open API’s, and then you can create dashboarding, or Power BI dashboards that just enable you to digest that information in a real simple manner.”

“using the context around people’s personal situations, and certainly one of the things we talk to our clients about from day one is there’s no right or wrong, you know, what is their lifestyle design that they’re after.”

“taking some of that data and the context around who you’re talking to, and what their ambitions are, I think that’s the bit where the people in the relationship will be really, really valuable”

Transcript:

Laura
Welcome to the Dynamics Unwrapped Podcast. In these sessions we’re going to hear from industry experts in the accounting and finance industry, as well as hear from experts in accounting software. Joining us today is Duncan Bye a Director at Wilson Partners, which is a brilliant accounting firm based on our doorstep in Maidenhead.

Now, Duncan has been at the firm since 2011, and he engages with his clients, specifically around strategy, profit extraction and succession planning. But his biggest achievement was being made Director at Wilson Partners as he’s worked through the ranks starting as an accountant trainee. However, his more personal achievements include his two amazing little girls, Mila, and Indie, and also cycling from Basingstoke to Cologne in five days with the Ark riders, which is a local charity in Basingstoke and to be honest, in my opinion, that’s pretty incredible. So Duncan, welcome.

Duncan
Hi, thank you for having me.

Laura
No worries. It’s great to have you. So obviously, I did mention in the introduction, that one of your biggest achievements was your rise from trainee accountant to Director at Wilson Partners and I do want to come on to this. But firstly, I can’t not talk about that little bike ride that you did from Basingstoke to Cologne, in just a mere five days. So how was that? And why did you do it?

Duncan
Yeah, good starting question. I think, you know the two main catalysts for doing it in the first place was one, I guess, just to get fit. I mean, having two young girls, as you mentioned, and a busy work life, didn’t give me a lot of time to kind of prepare for it. And just, it was a much needed time to get some exercise in, I guess. But the second, and the most probably more important reason was the people and what we were doing it for and with, notably, Ashley Hall, and Mark Dolby from both for financially financial, who had been active supporters to the charity for a number of years. So we’re, yeah, I guess after hearing their own personal stories and their WHY I was kind of sold. And, yeah, it was a great experience. Very challenging. And yeah, good to get around people with the same mindset. But the charity is fantastic. It’s gone on to raise over £300,000 and still going. So yeah, great, great cause and yeah, long may that continue?

Laura
Yeah, I mean, it’s an incredible achievement. And it’s really impressive. So, congratulations to you! But obviously, you started at the Wilson partners as a trainee accountant and now you’re a director. And obviously, I can’t imagine you’ve done that without working incredibly hard. But how has Wilson Partners helped and enabled you to grow within your company?

Duncan
Yeah, it’s great question. I mean, I think the underlying mantra for the firm, which I’ve always bought into is, it’s all about the people. And I’ve been exceptionally lucky enough in my career to work alongside and with some extremely talented people. But I think more importantly, those I have been working with here have been willing to kind of give me their time to learn and develop from them. So yeah, I mean, it also just being exposed to anything and everything. I guess, as a small dynamic business, when I joined, I think the team was about 10, so resources were light, and I guess as such, everyone typically just got stuck into absolutely everything. So I think just pushing yourself outside your comfort zone is key for growth, and I think we’ve done that really well as a team. But yeah, just having those effective team colleagues around you with a growth mindset as well, just generally opening up all doors is the kind of key.

Laura
Absolutely, I think it’s so important to push your knowledge onto other people. And if you’re surrounded by people that do that for you, then it helps with your personal growth, doesn’t it?

Duncan
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

Laura
And obviously, you did touch upon how when you started, I think you said about 10 people and obviously, I understand that the Wilson Partners has had significant growth over the last couple of years going from one office with only 35 employees in September 2021, to now having over 130 employees with five offices, including one in South Africa. I mean, that’s rapid growth. So, what would you say has been a significant driver of that growth?

Duncan
Yeah, I mean, that’s crazy when you say it out loud, actually. It’s crazy how far we’ve come the last few years. But yeah, I think our focus has always been looking after the people and culture first and foremost. So that’s always been in front of our mind. I think if you recruit talented people and provide a place that’s engaging and supporting to work in, I think, frankly, the rest of it takes care of itself to some degree. I think there has been a few other catalysts, I think, as recruitments just been extremely difficult for a number of industries and ours is no different. I think we had an opportunity to partner with our now investors Ford House back in September 2021, which I think was a huge catalyst for us to focus our minds on, I guess making more strategic hires and investments, where previously, we may have made some decisions based more on the short-term focus. So that’s really enabled us to have a great foundation and for that future growth. So that’s been really important. I think probably the final thing, and dare I say it after four years, but I think COVID definitely was a factor. I think, I know, it was a challenging time for many, but for us, it forced us to kind of accelerate some of our thoughts, certainly around technological plans for the business and, you know, enabling us to kind of expand further afield, probably geographically more than anything else. But this gave us the opportunity, I think, to tap into, top talent in other locations that we previously wouldn’t have been able to utilise. And I think, specifically without this impacting on kind of client service and delivery. So that was definitely key. And I think also just the nature of clients, you know, everyone is now receptive to working via teams or utilising other tools to work kind of more collaboratively from remote destinations, wherever you are. So, I think that’s really helped us.

Laura
Yeah, yeah. I think it’s interesting that you say that, that kind of shift in, you know, what COVID brought about in terms of remote work has actually ended up really benefiting in your favor. So obviously, you can now work with clients further afield, and obviously, higher talent further afield, it gives you a wider scope, really, doesn’t it?

Duncan
Yeah, for sure. And I think, yeah, we’ve always worked in around the Southeast of England in terms of our client base. And I think that we’ll continue to do so there’s such a great opportunity in this area, that hasn’t really been explored enough. There’s so many fantastic businesses in and around the kind of M4 and M25. So, I don’t think that will, you know, change anything, but I think in terms of bringing in those experts in their field, yeah, they don’t need to necessarily be sat at their desk, in Maidenhead, so to speak. So, we’ve been able to kind of optimise that recruitment strategy, which has been really, really helpful.

Laura
Yeah, absolutely. Especially when, recruiting is, it’s hard enough as it is. So if you can extend your scope further afield, and, you know, get people worldwide or nationally, you know, the technology and infrastructure is there now that you can do that and exploit it. Which obviously, I think kind of brings me nicely to my next point, because obviously, as Creative, we are obviously a technology company, and you have touched upon about how technology is used in your organisation. But I’d love to understand a bit more about how significant of a role does technology play in your individual job?

Duncan
Yeah, I mean, it’s no doubt it’s massive. Yeah, we are a people focused business, I think leveraging that technology efficiently and effectively, is kind of key for us. I mean, you know, the key, I guess, for us as a people based businesses, allowing people to demonstrate and free up their time and bandwidth to deliver that value added work that we can for clients, you know, so many of us day to day get caught up in sort of menial tasks or admin, that can be done more effectively through the use of technology. So, I guess utilising that on those platforms to do that for us, you know, gives us that time back. So yeah, I think that’s helpful. But I think more importantly, for us, it is, you know, a way to collaborate with clients better using some of the tools that we do from accounting software, to Microsoft Teams, to whatever else it might be that you’re using. I think you can build sort of deeper and long-standing relationships with clients better and more effectively. I think just being able to see people face to face, even via a Teams call is a load better than the old traditional way of a phone call or an email. So, I think that’s making good headwind.

Laura
Yeah. It’s that more personal touch, I guess, you know, over Teams, we can see people rather than over the phone.

Duncan
Yeah, I think the other thing just to touch on in terms of technology, as well as really, again, providing a place for our team to kind of really be engaged and fulfilled with the work they do. You know, there will be stuff on all of our day jobs that, you know, we like to get away from at some point. But I think being able to utilise technology to make processes and operational stuff a lot more efficient. It gives, you know, our teams, the ability to do the work that they’re more engaged in.

Laura
Yeah, exactly. I think being open to allow technology to kind of almost take away some of those mundane tasks, particularly I think, you know, with AI, Copilot and you know, automation, I think giving yourself and giving technology the reigns to be able to do that. I think some people get a little bit nervous doing that people get quite comfortable and you know, like their jobs the way it is. But like you said, if you can kind of take away some of those mundane tasks through technology, then it can end up actually making you so much more efficient and allow you to do what you really want to.

Duncan
Yeah, for sure.

Laura
So, what do you think are the greatest challenges to Wilson Partners currently?

Duncan
Well, I think there’d be a couple, finding great people was number one, always a challenge, I think for every business, I think you’ve just touched on it as well with technology. I mean, I think in terms of the competitive landscape, we want to be the continued employer of choice in our world. But, you know, you’ve got to utilise technology to enable you to do that as well. So, I think if you’re standing still or not, kind of getting stuck into some of these. Yes, some of these technologies that we can adopt within our business and others, I think you will, you will go backwards. So, I think making sure that we are one of the front runners in utilising that technology through our business.

Laura
Yeah, absolutely. And I think, obviously, we have touched on recruitment. But do think there’s any way in which, you know, you can kind of use technology to help with the recruitment side. I know, you obviously mentioned earlier that with Teams and remote work, you can now recruit more nationally. And that certainly helped with recruitment. But are there any other ways in which technology can help still with recruitment? As it is still a massive challenge for many organisations.

Duncan
Yeah, I think it can, in a way, using systems such as LinkedIn, a bit more effectively just to kind of push the brand out there in the marketplace, I think we’re getting a lot more, I guess, inbound opportunities, people are coming to us, I guess that’s helpful at scale, as well, because as a business, as you grow out, and you start to have a little bit more brand awareness in the market, people start to understand what you’re about and kind of see some of the good things that you’re doing. And they either buy into that or they don’t, but I think that does enable us to use platforms, whether it’s social media, or LinkedIn, or, you know, even some of our direct marketing campaigns. I think, again, utilising technology in a way that enables us to kind of get to those people more regularly, I think creates some sort of interest in what we’re doing. So that does help from recruitment. But I think you’re right, for me, it’s being able to utilise the technology we have throughout our business that allows us to collaborate with people, whether they’re in Maidenhead, Cambridge Sevenoaks, or our South African office, frankly. So, we don’t see the geographical issue that we did maybe three or four years ago, where people had to travel hours in a day to go for a one hour meeting which wasn’t a very effective use of time.

Laura
Yeah, absolutely. I think my manager can say the same. He certainly went to a few meetings and was carrying around projectors and all sorts. I mean, obviously, ever since I’ve been working, it’s always been Teams so you hear kind of what it was beforehand, you know, carrying around projectors, and traveling hours to meetings, you know, all the time and it sounds like it’s become a lot easier with cloud and teams and all this other new technology. So how do you think the way Wilson Partners use and leverage technology will change in the next few years? I think particularly maybe with AI coming in?

Duncan
Yeah, I think AI Chat GPT, Microsoft Co-Pilot releases recently, you can just see such a fast-changing environment. Now, I can’t sit here and say I’m an expert and know what it will look like. But I think certainly we will be utilising some of those systems to make certainly internal processes far more slick. I know, Co-Pilot can help with kind of proposals, or it can help with presentations and putting together information from different sources in a way that we’ve just never seen before. I think utilising that and using technology as the enabler to create this seamless, engaging experience with clients I think is going to be massive. So, I think that will be important. I think, you know, as a finance, business ourselves, we have a focus on real time information. I think we’re utilising and leveraging technology in a way that can allow our teams but also our clients teams to have that data at their fingertips. I think it just enables them to make better, more informed decisions as they’re going rather than the historic looking at their financial statements, nine months after the year end, which frankly, isn’t particularly helpful to anyone. So, I think yeah, utilising technology to get those financial and non financial metrics kind of in the forefront of some of our team’s minds. So, they can really make make good decisions at time rather than waiting.

Laura
Absolutely. And I think there’s a really key point that you mentioned there that it’s an enabler, I think, some people do fear that it will be a replacement, you know, of their jobs. Whereas as you said then it’s more of an enabler to get the data in real time and use it as a tool rather than as a replacement.

Duncan
Yeah, no, for sure. And I think, you know, by the nature of some of the work we do is kind of can be some of it be compliance driven. So, you know, some of the services clients will come to us for will be because they need them, they don’t necessarily want them or see a huge amount of value in some of the work that we do, we have to do it, they’re kind of tick box exercises. But from day one, we set the business up as more of a kind of advisory focus for that, I guess, mid tier business, who are looking for great advice and hand holding and support and proactive advisory, as opposed to maybe some of the high street accountants who do a fantastic job but will be focused primarily on that compliance activity. I think for us, the technology enables us to have more time with our clients. So, it’s not necessarily changing the fact that we still have to do some of those compliance activities. But if we can do them more effectively and more efficiently, within their budget, we can then spend more time speaking to them understanding their real challenges, and hopefully giving them some really great advice.

Laura
Absolutely, I think I think that’s so important. And like you said, that makes you stand out to make sure that, yes, you’re doing all the bits that you know, an accountant needs to do, the compliance, or the bookkeeping, all those kinds of things that you would expect from an accountant, but going that one step further, and then using that to advise and help your customers grow their businesses is so important. But, obviously, you’ve touched upon your customers and some of their challenges, but what are the most testing challenges for your customers right now?

Duncan
Yeah, it’s really interesting. I think that it does vary. I think probably some of the uncertainty in the markets currently is a challenge. You know, I think some of our clients, even if they are doing well, they’ve got great growth plans and mindset, I think they are struggling to move forward with investment decisions based on some of the uncertainty that we have, whether it’s around interest rates, you know, the political landscape with potential change in government coming up, you know, I think it’s really easy to truly underestimate how some of these factors can slow down business decisions, you know, and just make people a little bit nervous. So, I think, some of that is a challenge, I think, you know, we’ve said, we touched on already finding good people within every industry is difficult, hopefully, be able, like we touched on, you know, leveraging off technology and being able to find slightly wider pool of talent is going to be helpful.

Laura
I mean, it’s interesting that you say about the political landscape at the moment and interest rates it’s something that just affects everyone, doesn’t it. it’s worrying, but obviously, the way it’s impacting businesses, and the uncertainty and preventing them from making business decisions. Why do you think it impacts them so much to prohibit business decisions and moving their businesses forward?

Conor
I think that the real answer is probably is just a fear of running out of money, you know, making decisions that then have consequences down the line, which we can’t foresee at this point. So you know, the standard stuff like interest rates, you kind of take out a loan, which then the interest rate on it goes up over time. You know, it’s something that you’ve got to be able to cashflow essentially, you know, people won’t typically always be making loads of excess profits, that they can just sit there and take that hit, they’re making judgmental decisions based on what they know. Now, if they don’t know where those interest rates are going, then they might not make investment decisions, whether it’s buying new fleet of vehicles, or whether it’s actually investing in or requiring a new entity to help their growth, you know, taking on that debt just becomes a little bit more risky for them. There’s lots of things we can do around that and I think you can do some forecasts and think about worst case scenarios, but just that uncertainty does provide a little bit of hesitation sometimes.

Laura
Sure. Yeah, that makes sense. And I was going to say, obviously, interest rates change a lot all the time. I know, it’s obviously gone up at the moment, and I understand that uncertainty, but if they’re constantly changing, how can you ever make decisions or make investments if they’re always going to change anyway?

Conor
Yeah, and I think that’s, you know, we’ve been very fortunate over recent years, I think we’ve had very low interest rates, which has helped with some of that, and I think we’ve had that for a long time. So, I think it’s going back to sort of a more normal pattern that interest rates will fluctuate. I think it’s just because we’ve been from an environment where it’s been so low, and it’s ramped up so quickly that people are starting to become fearful. So yeah, we are seeing that settle down. I think that’s, you know, it will naturally happen with, things changing people becoming more kind of okay with the current environment, I think it’s just, it’s something to always be mindful of, but I think as soon as these things happen, people start to become more fearful of it and be aware of it. I mean, it’s always in the background, there’s always that risk, but I think stuff like interest rates, and then, you know, corporation tax rates going up potentially 6% for a number of businesses in a year as well. These are all factors that have kind of taking free cash out of businesses that previously would have been there to make other decisions, whether it’s around investing additional heads, or hires, or, you know, investing in technology, your transformational projects, it just it does hinder that, or at least prevent people from jumping two feet in sometimes. But yeah, we’ve got plenty of businesses that will continue to invest heavily. And you see them doing exceptionally well. And I think we’re in an environment where there’s lots of businesses that will do that. But that uncertainty in the market definitely is a factor and a challenge for some of our customers, for sure.

Laura
Absolutely, that makes perfect sense. And I think you kind of touched upon some of the ways in which you can resolve some of these not necessarily resolve but work around those issues. And I mean, do you see technology helping to resolve any of those customer challenges? And if so, how do you see that playing out?

Duncan
Yeah, I mean, for sure, I think you know some of the tools that we work with, and you guys utilise as well, as you know, good financial data is always helpful. But I think, you know, understanding where your business is currently looking at scenario planning forward in terms of cash flow, forecasting those decisions and seeing what the bearish outcomes might look like versus the bullish outcomes. And sometimes people just get comfort over, almost looking at those worst case scenarios versus the optimum scenario. And I think if you can get your head around that sometimes it isn’t always as doom and gloom as you think it would be. But I think people just become fearful when they don’t know what the outcomes can look like. So, I think, absolutely using technology to enable you to, to pull together some of those models or financial forecasts for clients can be really, really helpful.

Laura
Yeah, absolutely, I think like you said earlier, I think this was something that you said about that what the Wilson Partners are doing is making sure that you have access to that real time data. And I guess, not just that you need it in a very concise and easy to get to format, because especially with larger businesses, you get so much data coming in, and being able to then navigate what data you need to view or how you can access it that can become quite daunting in itself. So being able to get that easily and, you know, see what you want very quickly, I think is is really important.

Duncan
For sure, yeah. And I think that’s why, you know, we’re seeing it in the landscape, certainly with the Microsoft platform itself you can pull in data from all sorts of different sources now with open APIs, and then you can create dashboarding, or Power BI dashboards that just enable you to digest that information in a real simple manner. And I think, you know, for us, especially, we understand some of that data, and we love numbers. So, we may, well want reams and reams and reams of spreadsheets, but there’ll be a load of people, including probably a good 90% of the directors for businesses we work with, and owners we work with that just want, you know, very simple slides or dashboards to be able to see that impact just so they can make those decisions. They don’t need to understand necessarily all the nuances behind the scenes, but they just want to see, okay, if I do x, what is the outcome? And what did I do? Why what’s the outcome and keeping it very simple?

Laura
Absolutely. I think people have such busy lives. They don’t want to be, you know, trailing around trying to find what they need, they want it here and now.

So, yeah, I absolutely agree. And I think, like you said, technology is changing with AI, it’s coming quick and fast, especially, like you said, Co Pilots coming into, the whole Microsoft stack. So, it’s something that like you said, it should be an enabler, it’s not a replacement, use it as an enabler to, get your real time data and be able to view these things. And I think that that is really important. And I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there that it is an enabler, use it to make better decisions.

Duncan
And I think with technology that, you know, they said the danger is people sort of sit there and worry that it’s taking over roles, but I think you know, using the context around people’s personal situations, and certainly one of the things we talk to our clients about from day one is there’s no right or wrong, you know, what is their lifestyle design that they’re after. And it will vary from client to client. And, you know, to sit here and say 100% growth of a business in 12 months is great. It just might not be at all, you know, there might be business owners that are happy to be, you know, plateau or 5% growth, they don’t need that huge extra risk and stress in their lives. So I think it’s really taking some of that data and the context around who you’re talking to, and what their ambitions are, I think that’s the bit where the people in the relationship will be really, really valuable, as opposed to, you know, the technology that enables you to have those conversations.

Laura
Absolutely. I think that’s a brilliant point. And that’s a great point to end on. Because I think that’s about all we have time for today. But Duncan, thank you ever so much for joining me you’ve been brilliant, and it’s been great to hear your insights.

Duncan
Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it.

Laura
Thanks so much!