Presentation by Mr. Albert S.C. Au Member, IFAC SMP Committee at IFAC SMP Forum, March 2012

1. IFAC SMALL AND MEDIUM
PRACTICES FORUM 2012
Session 3
Helping SMPs Meet the Challenges
and Seize the Opportunities of
Tomorrow
Chair :
Albert S.C. Au
Member, IFAC SMP Committee
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2. IFAC SMP Forum 2012
Helping SMPs meet the challenges and seize the
opportunities of tomorrow
• What are the challenges to SMPs?
– Resource constraints
– Regulation and compliance overload
– Complexity and changing business landscape
– People issues- retention and succession
– Fierce competition
– Lack of brand and reputation
– Fast pace of change of technology
– Economic uncertainty
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3. IFAC SMP Forum 2012
Helping SMPs meet the challenges and seize the
opportunities of tomorrow
• Opportunities
– SMEs make up more than 90% in most economies and are the engines of
growth and innovation.
– SMEs need business advisors and personalized services, which best suits
SMPs.
– The Big firms are slow, like an ocean going vessel in making changes and
directions.
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4. IFAC SMP Forum 2012
Helping SMPs meet the challenges and seize the
opportunities of tomorrow
• How to respond?
– Proximity to clients and be the trusted advisers of SMEs.
– Be versatile, be quick
– Innovate
– find new markets, new services
– look beyond traditional geographical boundaries
– exploit the new technologies
– Differentiate from the rest of the pack- find your niche and don’t be a jack
of all trade
– Don’t ever compete on price
– Compete on quality and personalized service
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5. IFAC SMP Forum 2012
Helping SMPs meet the challenges and seize the
opportunities of tomorrow
IFAC SMP Quick Poll: 2011 Round- Up
Executive Summary
• Challenges & Issues facing SMPs and SMEs:
For SMPs, the 2 foremost challenges are:
– Keeping up with new regulations and standards
– Attracting and retaining clients
For SMEs, the 2 biggest challenges are:
– Burden of regulations
– Economic uncertainty
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6. IFAC SMP Forum 2012
Helping SMPs meet the challenges and seize the
opportunities of tomorrow
IFAC SMP Quick Poll: 2011 Round- Up (continued)
Executive Summary
• Opportunity for practice growth
– Business from new clients is the main driver of growth
– The fastest growing practice area in 2011 was accounting and compilation
work, followed by advisory/consulting services.
New business with existing clients is also an important opportunity
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7. IFAC SMP Forum 2012
Helping SMPs meet the challenges and seize the
opportunities of tomorrow
• What is the SMP Committee doing to help?
– Helping IFAC member bodies support their SMPs
• What role should we play?
– Shaping regulation, policy and standards
– Resources and tools – implementation guidance; practice management
support; business advisory practice development
• SMPs are constrained by limited in-house resources, and therefore face
challenges in efficiently implementing international standards and running their
practices.
– Communication to stakeholders to raise awareness and value proposition
of SMPs in supporting SMEs.
• How can members bodies best support their SMPs, to
help them to support SMEs?
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8. IFAC SMP Forum 2012
Helping SMPs meet the challenges and seize the
opportunities of tomorrow
• This gets me back to the topic of our panel discussion:
• Helping SMPs Meet the Challenges and Seize the
Opportunities of Tomorrow
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9. IFAC SMP Forum 2012
Helping SMPs meet the challenges and seize the
opportunities of tomorrow
• An introduction of our panelists
• Brendon Yeo, Member of the Executive
Council, Association of SMEs, Singapore
• Stuart Black, Australia, IFAC SMP Committee member
• Florin Toma, Romania, IFAC SMP Committee member
• Don Ho, Member of Council, Institute of CPAs of
Singapore
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10. IFAC SMP Forum 2012
Helping SMPs meet the challenges and seize the
opportunities of tomorrow
Q&A
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11. IFAC SMP Forum 2012
Helping SMPs meet the challenges and seize the
opportunities of tomorrow
Thank You
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12. www.ifac.org