Our guest for this episode of our Learn Better podcast is Arun Mehra FCA - the CEO and founder of Samera, which is an accountancy firm based in Surrey. Arun has over 20 years of experience running a firm, which he grew from one client to several hundred.
Our host, Stuart Pedley-Smith, speaks to Arun to gain his insight into the topic of offshoring accountancy practices, discussing whether it’s possible to do this as a smaller firm and whether you need a global team to grow a global environment in a business.
Key topics discussed
The benefits of offshoring
Arun explains some of the difficulties he had in the past regarding maintaining a stable workforce, due to retention and turnover. Hiring offshore colleagues helped to give his team more stability, where he realised that the complications he had were not uncommon, and that big accountancy firms have been hiring offshore accountants for a long time.
From the perspective of a smaller firm, Arun explains how they often have doubts surrounding whether offshoring accountancy services is possible for them, as well as concerns about how their existing clients would feel.
”If you're going to grow a business, we're in a global environment. We need to use global team members to support it.”
Authenticity
The conversation moves onto the topic of ‘character,’ and Arun’s decision to use his social media to speak about things that have not gone to plan in his career. Arun states that clients value authenticity and that making mistakes and learning from them is a key part of development. He notes that his honesty has helped him gain more respect from both existing and potential clients.
The difference between offshoring and outsourcing
Stuart brings the conversation back to offshoring and outsourcing, highlighting the slight differences between the two.
Arun describes his experience of outsourcing and offshoring in the past, and the inconsistencies that he found within the output produced. He talks through the changes that he made when creating his offshoring firm.
Talking through the differences, Arun explains how outsourcing usually requires paying a fee for service, whereas offshoring is hiring someone from outside of the UK as a team member. When looking at the pros and cons of the two, Arun explains how he noticed his business benefits much more from offshoring due to the stronger relationships and consistency that his clients see.
”When you're delivering a service, especially a service business, it's all about the relationships.”
The pandemic and the changes it brought
Moving onto online meetings as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, Stuart and Arun discuss how this can save time and how relationships can still be built online. Arun talks about how it’s a different world today compared to pre-pandemic, and people want to make the most of their time. However, he does appreciate that face-to-face meetings can be important.
Starting to offshore
Stuart asks Arun how he began hiring offshore accountants. Arun initially used recruitment websites in India to hire his first offshore team member and then utilised his connections to find other potential hires. He mentions that he visits his team in India around four times a year to build relationships with them.
Moving the discussion onto Arun’s criteria for hiring overseas professionals, he explains that they are always looking out for those with UK or US technical qualifications as well as qualifications with the Indian Chartered Accountant Institution. They also look for confident language skills, and the ability to fit into Samera’s work culture which helps them to integrate into the team.
Offshoring outside of India
Stuart questions whether there is scope for Arun to expand his offshoring outside of India. While Arun’s team are comfortable with the existing work culture they have built in India, they are aware that multiple other countries such as the Philippines and Australia take on offshore work. He also raises the issue of language barriers, and how this could create more difficulties when offshoring from other European countries.
Looking into the past, Stuart comments that offshoring likely wouldn’t have been possible ten years ago, while Arun agrees that it is due to the advances in technology.
”It's an interesting dynamic of how the world is working and with different languages and different cultures.”
Artificial intelligence and offshoring
Moving on to the topic of artificial intelligence (AI), Arun expresses that although AI will grow within the accountancy industry, there is still the need for trust and relationships - meaning that the human touch will always be essential. He continues this by sharing his thoughts on how humans may progress up the value chain, and AI is something that we should embrace and introduce into firms.
With Arun’s team working in India, Stuart asks for his views on how aware professionals overseas are of AI. Arun explains that he has noticed that India has the same awareness as he found in the UK, and a lot of those working on developing AI tools are from, or based in, India.
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