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10:07 AM 26th July 2021
business

KPMG Invests In Family Business Talent In Yorkshire

 
KPMG Private Enterprise’s UK family business practice now has five professionals based in Yorkshire who have achieved the globally recognised STEP qualification in advising family businesses.

Leeds-based Dion Windelinckx, Anthony Barratt, Alison White, Nathan Potton and Jonathan Turner were among 50 KPMG professionals across the UK to become STEP qualified.

With more than 500,000 family businesses in Yorkshire, representing nearly 90 percent of private sector firms, their prosperity is critically important to the economy as it recovers from the pandemic. This, KPMG says, is one driver for investing in the specialist training for its cross-discipline team.

Ian Beaumont
Ian Beaumont
Ian Beaumont, KPMG’s head of Family Business in the North, comments: “Our investment in equipping our people to be the best family business advisors possible is a sign of our commitment to support family firms in Yorkshire. The significance of their role in the local economy means it’s imperative that we fully understand their ambitions and challenges so as to be a valuable member of the ecosystem they call upon to help them prosper.”

KPMG Private Enterprise recently published a report on the ways family firms responded to the COVID-19 economy and how they are positioned for the future. It found clear differences between family and non-family owned businesses in their handling of the challenges, from the extent to which they have transformed, to the practical steps they took to manage costs. It also uncovered themes in the strategies deployed by families in business, spanning transformation, patient capital and social responsibility.

Ian Beaumont says:

“We found that seven in ten family businesses around the world suffered a drop in revenue during the pandemic though nine percent achieved a rise. Family firms were 42 percent more likely than other ownerships to implement transformation strategies and those with multiple generations in the business were a further 45 percent more likely to transform themselves. This suggests the next generation really stepped up to help businesses pivot or digitise as needed to survive or thrive in a dramatically changed market. We are now seeing them build on this influence, in many cases developing and integrating their business’ ESG approaches into their broader strategies.

“Family businesses demonstrated their extraordinary competitive advantage in being able to act and adapt quickly, while simultaneously benefiting from the well capitalised positions and generational insight of their heritage.”

The KPMG professionals who successfully completed the STEP Advanced Certificate in Advising the Family Business includes colleagues in Private Enterprise, corporate tax, private client advisory, deal advisory and KPMG Law. All work with a broad range of clients to address the needs of the business and the family in parallel.

STEP is the global professional association for those advising families across generations and its qualifications are regarded as the gold standard for experts offering practical advice and support to family-owned companies. This qualification, which shares knowledge of the theory and practice behind the family business system, is subject to the rigorous quality assurance procedures of Alliance Manchester Business School (Alliance MBS), a school of the University of Manchester.