Listening to our Directors and Principals

6 LISTENING TO OUR DIRECTORS AND PRINCIPALS | BDO LLP

CULTURAL EVOLUTION

We discussed the implications on our culture of being a growing firm.

 Some Directors have been at BDO for 20 years and have seen teams grow from four people to 200 people. Culture plays a big role in why they’ve stayed – and they appreciate that business and team growth naturally evolves that culture over time  They want to ensure we guard against becoming ‘a faceless, corporate monolith’ as we grow  The groups were keen that we give people confidence that we aren’t trying to become a Big Four, that we’re proud of who we are and that we don’t worry about who we aren’t  They highlighted that the firm plays a role in this: knowing what we want to protect about our operating model and culture as we grow, and what we accept needs to change as we grow “ We need to recognise that there aren’t easy fixes to big commercial, cultural challenges.

 For example, one Director highlighted: we pride ourselves on our entrepreneurial legacy and mindset, but the risk management and policies that come with being a bigger firm could counter that  They discussed that they personally played a role in ensuring people don’t become a number on a timesheet of a larger firm. For example, by listening to the individuals and giving team members confidence to speak out  They debated whether cultural evolution was such a big topic because of our recent growth, a year of remote working or looking ahead of agile working. They agreed it’s probably all of these

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