Richard Searle, Managing Director, BDO Limited

Our first Awards blog, hmmm, what to write? This should be easy but, of course, accountants don’t “do blogs”!  Accountants are supposed to be boring and certainly aren’t supposed to get excited, are they? Good job we’re not just a boring firm of accountants then isn’t it?  Contrary to Monty Python’s preaching, accountants can get excited so when we learned that we have been shortlisted for the Best Large Business award, we had just the excuse we needed. I would love to match Rob Jones’ recounting his O-level experiences but that would require creative imagery and, as we know, accountants don’t “do creative”, do they?

Joking aside, everyone here at BDO is delighted that our efforts have been recognised by the shortlisting – efforts not only in the submission but also in our on-going efforts to ensure that we continue to be first choice for our staff and clients. Our submission was a genuine team effort involving staff across all teams and from all levels, from first-year trainees to directors. For me personally, I loved hearing the passion with which our team brainstormed our submission. This made the job of drafting the wording much easier with so much good material. However, it also made it difficult to cut down the submission to the required number of words – hyphens and abbreviations work wonders!

It was all worth it.  Of course the race is not over and we still have a long way to go with many excellent firms being shortlisted in all categories. We are proud and delighted to be associated with all of the businesses that have been shortlisted and look forward to the challenge ahead.

Congratulations to all our fellow nominees – let the excitement and creativity commence!  Now, where did I leave my calculator…….?