Samosas and Spreadsheets: Balancing Books, Bridging Cultures

00:00:00.450 [Music]
00:00:11.759 uh hey everyone uh welcome to 50 Shades
00:00:14.240 of Accounting. Uh today we are doing
00:00:16.079 something really really different. Uh we
00:00:18.480 have got two very special guests who
00:00:20.160 came in all the way from Hawaii and we
00:00:22.400 are recording this podcast from India
00:00:25.439 from our offices here. I’ve got Sean
00:00:28.160 with me who is the performance and
00:00:30.240 people director and I’ve got uh Ryan
00:00:32.800 with me who is the audit partner with
00:00:35.120 Accuity which is one of the large firms in
00:00:37.120 the US. Hey guys, how are you? Good
00:00:39.760 morning Sagar. Uh thank you for having us
00:00:41.680 here today. Our pleasure. Great Sagar.
00:00:43.440 Thank you for being such aosable host
00:00:45.200 for us. Wow. Thank you very much. Uh so
00:00:47.840 I think we can straight away dive in. U
00:00:50.399 so Sean we can start with you and uh
00:00:53.120 first question how your visit has been
00:00:55.520 thus far? Did you uh learn any Hindi
00:00:58.239 words? Yeah.
00:01:01.039 Yeah. Thank you. I guess before we even
00:01:02.800 start this, thank you for you and the
00:01:04.239 team for the hospitality that you’ve
00:01:05.840 shown us uh for the past 4 days and it’s
00:01:08.799 been a really great experience. And um
00:01:11.439 yes, I I met with our team and they were
00:01:14.400 we’re joking around and they taught me a
00:01:16.320 couple phrases and um they they said uh
00:01:21.119 hope
00:01:23.040 it’s u means how are you? Yes. And I’m
00:01:27.040 glad they did not teach you anything. So
00:01:29.600 we joked around about that as well. So
00:01:32.400 very nice. Uh so uh Ryan I’ll come to
00:01:35.360 you now. Um of course you have been here
00:01:37.439 for a few days. Okay. So Ryan I’ll come
00:01:39.600 to you now. You’ve been of course here
00:01:41.360 for the last few days. Uh you’ve been
00:01:43.280 meeting the team, you’ve been meeting
00:01:44.720 the talent. Uh you’ve got a substantial
00:01:47.200 team on the audit side here. Anything
00:01:50.159 which really stood out when you met the
00:01:52.560 team here? I think finally being able to
00:01:55.119 put physical faces to the the people
00:01:57.840 we’ve met online for the past year. It’s
00:02:00.000 great to build relationships. Um, one of
00:02:03.040 the things that really stood out to me
00:02:04.560 is Hawaii has a concept called the Aloha
00:02:06.960 spirit which you welcome everyone as as
00:02:09.679 family and we’ve felt like that from day
00:02:12.319 one here. So, it’s it’s been so seamless
00:02:15.440 to get to know the team and thank you as
00:02:17.200 Sean had mentioned again for your
00:02:18.440 hospitality. We really didn’t expect the
00:02:20.640 Aloha spirit to meet us halfway across
00:02:22.480 the world. So, now guys uh thank you
00:02:24.959 very much for your kind words. In fact,
00:02:26.640 we’ve got exactly something similar in
00:02:28.480 India. We call it Atiti Devo Bhava which
00:02:31.920 means that uh while the guests start
00:02:34.080 coming in they’re like gods to us and
00:02:36.640 that’s the interesting part with these
00:02:38.239 you know global teams in place now we
00:02:39.920 can really share the culture the values
00:02:42.319 and end of the day I think it’s uh it’s
00:02:44.720 being human it’s H2 which works
00:02:46.800 everywhere but thank you very much for
00:02:48.319 that really appreciate that all right
00:02:51.840 I’ll move to uh the third question now
00:02:54.480 and I’ll come to you Sean u uh we always
00:02:57.519 talk about that while you are working on
00:02:59.840 the screen, you know, especially post
00:03:02.080 pandemic where uh you’re sitting in
00:03:04.400 those boxes, right? You mentioned it
00:03:06.000 other day. The relationship is always
00:03:08.159 very very transactional and when you
00:03:10.560 meet somebody in person, it becomes
00:03:12.480 transformative. All of a sudden, you
00:03:14.400 connect and you respect each other and
00:03:16.720 there’s a bonding there. So, what’s your
00:03:18.959 take on that after you met the team
00:03:21.280 overall here? No. Yes. when we came here
00:03:23.920 to the office on the first day and we
00:03:26.080 met everyone in the lobby and I
00:03:28.480 mentioned that it’s so much different
00:03:30.799 than seeing someone in the box on a
00:03:32.640 screen and to see someone in person and
00:03:35.280 to be able to just interact with people
00:03:37.840 um it’s just very different and we’re
00:03:40.799 we’re creature we’re we’re humans and we
00:03:43.120 we want to connect with each other and
00:03:45.599 to be able to do that and to be able to
00:03:47.920 coach and train in person and to share
00:03:51.840 shared experiences and to see how people
00:03:53.680 live halfway around the world and we
00:03:55.519 realize that there’s a lot of things
00:03:56.560 that connect us as people. Absolutely. I
00:03:58.879 think that’s the that’s the the value
00:04:00.799 that we’ve taken away from this
00:04:02.480 experience here. Well, thank you for
00:04:04.319 that. In fact, uh when you mentioned the
00:04:06.159 board box again, I was thinking about
00:04:08.640 the box cricket that you guys played.
00:04:10.879 So, there’s a story to tell. It’s just
00:04:12.799 not baseball, it’s also cricket. I don’t
00:04:15.760 know if I would call what we did playing
00:04:17.199 cricket, but it was a great experience.
00:04:20.560 Yeah, it is. I especially like I
00:04:22.479 especially like the stance you were
00:04:23.840 taking in cricket because in cricket we
00:04:25.360 go like this but you were like wow I
00:04:27.919 want to hit you back. Yeah. So it was
00:04:29.520 good. Thank you for that. And uh I’ll
00:04:32.639 change the gears here now a bit. Uh Ryan
00:04:36.479 and uh I know you’re a large firm.
00:04:38.960 You’ve got substantial reputation of
00:04:40.800 course in Hawaii. Could you take us
00:04:43.680 through why did you choose QX and what
00:04:47.440 was the reason behind it? and of course
00:04:49.520 some some uh examples if you can give to
00:04:53.040 the context there. I wasn’t involved in
00:04:55.199 the initial process but what was
00:04:57.040 important is really the the quality of
00:04:59.360 candidate that QX was putting forth the
00:05:01.440 intelligence of the people that Sean was
00:05:03.600 able to meet and then ultimately the
00:05:05.680 quality of work as well that was
00:05:07.520 executed once we partnered with QX and
00:05:10.240 having worked with the team for the past
00:05:12.080 year I can say that everything that was
00:05:13.840 important upfront really has proven out
00:05:16.160 in real life and our real life
00:05:17.600 experiences. So it’s it’s been nothing
00:05:20.240 but great to to work with everyone.
00:05:22.320 Well, thank you very much for that. And
00:05:23.600 Sean, any lights that you want to throw
00:05:25.520 there if you were involved in the
00:05:27.199 process of selecting a provider? Yeah.
00:05:29.919 Well, so I wasn’t involved either in the
00:05:32.320 selection of the the provider, but I
00:05:34.560 think I do know that what was really
00:05:36.320 important was having that for review,
00:05:39.120 right? And so it’s having quality
00:05:41.680 candidates, quality offshore
00:05:43.919 individuals, professionals that are
00:05:45.600 doing the work, reviewing their work,
00:05:47.840 but also having another individual
00:05:49.600 that’s reviewing their work before our
00:05:52.160 people in our office locally um start to
00:05:55.520 review that work. And we recognized that
00:05:58.080 for this to work, we needed to have a
00:06:01.120 good partner, right, that provides
00:06:03.840 quality candidates and that review so
00:06:06.000 that our people would be open to
00:06:07.680 adoption. And that’s what we found on
00:06:09.840 our end. Thank you for that. Uh because
00:06:11.840 I think end of the day um in the
00:06:13.600 accounting and audit both equally
00:06:16.479 uh what I normally say is that uh if you
00:06:19.120 do not have the right operating model it
00:06:21.280 will not work. Yeah. And right operating
00:06:24.160 model means you’ve got governance,
00:06:25.680 you’ve got reporting, you’ve got forrite
00:06:27.759 review system and we call it manage
00:06:29.520 solution here onboarding transition and
00:06:31.919 so on so forth. And we take super proud
00:06:34.000 in having a methodology which works and
00:06:37.199 it has all those components of the
00:06:38.960 engine which hopefully works every time
00:06:41.120 right guys you know but that’s an
00:06:42.560 important piece there so thank you for
00:06:43.919 picking this up I’ll move to the next
00:06:46.800 one now u you know uh and it’s probably
00:06:50.479 the second last question so you can take
00:06:52.720 it easy super easy now uh if you were to
00:06:55.759 summarize and I’m going to keep it open
00:06:57.280 for anyone to pick it up pick it up uh
00:06:59.680 if you were to summarize the experience
00:07:01.520 both professionally and personally of
00:07:03.440 your visit in India. In one sentence,
00:07:07.120 what would that be?
00:07:10.160 I would say that it’s been eye opening.
00:07:12.960 Mhm.
00:07:14.360 And we you have an idea or I’m not even
00:07:17.680 really sure what it is, but you don’t
00:07:19.199 really know or we didn’t know what what
00:07:20.720 to expect before we got here. Yeah. and
00:07:22.960 it’s halfway around the world and we got
00:07:26.560 here and it’s just working with with
00:07:30.720 everyone here and the hospitality that’s
00:07:32.960 been shown. It’s just been um I feel
00:07:35.840 like we really enjoy and we’ve been able
00:07:38.479 to connect with our people and and the
00:07:40.639 QX folks here and um yeah, I think
00:07:43.759 that’s that’s the thing for me that that
00:07:45.440 I’m going to take away from this this
00:07:47.039 time that we’ve had. Thanks a lot.
00:07:49.039 Anything you would like to add? I think
00:07:50.479 for me it’s been unexpected, exciting,
00:07:53.759 and nothing short of being memorable.
00:07:56.240 It’s something I’ll remember for the
00:07:57.759 rest of my life. Honestly, it’s as Sean
00:07:59.919 had mentioned, it’s great to finally be
00:08:01.680 able to meet everyone in person and
00:08:03.280 hopefully carry on relationships, you
00:08:05.280 know, for many years to come and
00:08:07.840 culturally it’s it’s been great. I think
00:08:09.840 thank you for again for being such a
00:08:11.360 great host for us here. It’s It’s a
00:08:14.080 place that we probably wouldn’t have
00:08:15.280 visited otherwise and somewhere where I
00:08:17.039 think we we’d love to come back to again
00:08:19.360 now after after the weeks. You got to be
00:08:21.120 coming back. Yeah.
00:08:23.520 Uh super. Thank you for that. That’s
00:08:25.919 great. Uh Brian and uh Sean and if I was
00:08:29.440 to ask you that uh this partnership that
00:08:31.680 we’ve got, what is one or two major
00:08:35.120 impact that it has created within your
00:08:37.279 organization? Could you kind of talk
00:08:39.279 about that uh for the audience who are
00:08:41.599 probably still thinking should we be
00:08:43.200 outsourcing audit on the US side?
00:08:47.200 It’s provided a trusted partner on the
00:08:49.519 audit side. I think we we recognize and
00:08:52.080 appreciate the quality of work that is
00:08:53.839 performed out of the QX team and it’s
00:08:56.320 given us that that comfort that we have
00:08:58.800 a reliable partner now who can fulfill
00:09:01.200 our staffing needs and really help build
00:09:02.959 capacity for us in Hawaii and also allow
00:09:06.320 us to explore additional business
00:09:07.680 opportunities as well. So it’s really
00:09:09.519 opened up an entire world of
00:09:11.279 possibilities for us. No, thank you for
00:09:13.519 that. But I think it makes sense because
00:09:15.120 uh having the scalability factor kicking
00:09:18.080 in it simply means that you can go out
00:09:20.080 and uh kind of hit the market and
00:09:22.000 continue to grow which has been a
00:09:23.640 problem when it comes to uh the genz not
00:09:27.279 taking accounting and audit as the
00:09:28.800 future profession of is so that is very
00:09:31.279 very helpful. Anything you would like to
00:09:32.880 add Sean there? Yeah. So, so part of my
00:09:35.600 role in my current position is to is the
00:09:38.720 recruiting aspect of everything as well
00:09:40.320 as the management of our professionals
00:09:42.560 and and that that includes ensuring that
00:09:44.480 we can properly staff our our
00:09:46.399 engagements and as any other CPA firm
00:09:50.560 knows there’s going to be attrition and
00:09:53.680 often times that attrition is unexpected
00:09:56.399 and it tends when it rains it tends to
00:09:58.160 pour right in the sense that when there
00:10:00.000 is attrition it tends to snowball and
00:10:03.279 what we found with our partnership with
00:10:05.519 QX is that this allows us it provides a
00:10:07.839 cushion to properly staff our
00:10:09.440 engagements um without a drop off in
00:10:12.240 audit quality and and to really service
00:10:16.160 our clients and to as Ryan mentioned to
00:10:18.959 also scale and explore additional
00:10:21.680 opportunities and so this has been a
00:10:23.839 this has really worked out well for us.
00:10:25.519 That’s that’s a great uh input there.
00:10:27.760 Thank you very very much. Really
00:10:29.200 appreciate that. So with that we can
00:10:31.279 call it a wrap. Yeah. Thank you very
00:10:33.440 much and uh thank you everyone in the
00:10:35.920 audience for tuning in. Um this was very
00:10:38.320 interesting for us because uh anywhere
00:10:40.640 when you see the people side, culture
00:10:42.399 side of two you know different nations
00:10:44.560 in two different practices getting
00:10:46.399 together there’s always a different
00:10:48.079 element which is attached to it. Uh but
00:10:50.320 again thank you very much for logging
00:10:51.680 in. See you until the next time. Thanks
00:10:53.440 a lot. Thank you please.
00:10:56.860 [Music]