Hello, my name is Gillian Bowen and this is Small Firm, Big Impact.

Our practitioners wear multiple hats.

They're accountants, but they're also business owners.

And there are some challenges that come with that because quite often, you know, in a small firm it can be quite, quite lonely as well.

So and the talent the talent challenge is it's, you know, it's pretty profound for our smaller practices, especially maybe some of those that are more, I guess, more rural.

It's the podcast giving chartered accountants the up to date information they need to do their jobs.

Each episode, I share resources, tools and expert advice provided by Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and a range of people across our profession.

So get following the pod in your favourite podcast app.

Let's start a conversation.

Today we have Tinashe Kamangira FCA, who's just wrapping up his term as the CA ANZ President for 2024.

The topic: How did it go?

What did he get up to?

A check in on the year that was.

Tinashe.

Welcome back to Small Firm, Big Impact.

Really excited to be back.

And thanks for having me.

You're you're so welcome.

So when we first caught up with you in February 2024, at the start of your term, that feels like a lifetime ago, we promised listeners that we would regroup at the end of the year to see how it all went.

In particular, your catch ups with CA ANZ members in smaller firms.

So thank you again for coming back on and joining us.

And before we do that and that, you seem to have now a bit of a moment as things are winding down, what's your reflection on the year?

It's been an amazing year.

It's gone by so quickly.

I can't believe that it was February.

It just feels like that was just yesterday.

Um, it's it's been such a fantastic year.

It's been an absolute privilege to be president of our amazing organisation at a time like this.

You know, there's some challenges facing our profession, but I'm really, really confident that, um, you know, as a professional body, we can really lean into these challenges and, um, make the changes we need to.

It's always good to self-reflect.

So yes, I can see why that is a good point to make.

Now you've travelled widely as president.

What's on our members minds?

The number one thing our members mentioned to me is just attractiveness to the profession.

It's around talent.

How do we get young people into our profession.

And also how do we keep them in our profession is the other one.

So talent retention is just the number one issue facing our members everywhere I go, whether it's in Australia, New Zealand, in Asia or in Europe as well.

Mhm.

Mhm.

And it's, not to go beyond too much beyond the profession, but it also feels as though there's lots of professions, lots of businesses that are struggling.

So there would, as in struggling to find talent, I'm sure that many of our members who look after a range of businesses across a range of sectors say their clients are telling them the same thing.

Yes, across the different sectors, whether it's, you know, whatever industry you're in, whether it's hospitality, whether it's, you know, engineers everywhere, there is a shortage of of talented people.

So that's a real challenge for our global economy, I think.

And we're saying if you if you have a choice, come and be a CA, you see there, you see what I did there anyway, you said at the start, uh, that, um, you know, when we first spoke in February that you wanted to focus on meeting with smaller practices.

And I know, I know that you have.

So what did you hear?

What did you learn?

Yeah.

So I've been really fortunate.

So I got to meet a lot of smaller practices, whether it's in Perth, in Melbourne, in Brisbane I think it's Hamilton, Christchurch, Rotorua.

So just, you know, lots of different small practices.

And I'm talking about, you know sole practitioners to five partner firms.

And you know the challenges they're facing are around you know regulation.

So there's increasing regulatory compliance for the practices themselves.

You think about some of the changes coming into AML and and all of that.

So you know that does really impact the firm, particularly the smaller ones.

Um, the other one is our practitioners wear multiple hats.

Right.

They're accountants, but they're also business owners.

And there's some challenges that come with that, because quite often, you know, in a small firm it can be quite, quite lonely as well.

So and the talent the talent challenge is it's, you know, it's pretty profound for our smaller practices, especially maybe some of those that are more, I guess, more rural.

Um, you know, we sometimes forget how much more challenging it is to attract people to some of our regional areas.

Mhm.

And I know um, we've talked about this before and I've, I've, I mention it regularly when I say goodbye at the end of the podcast.

But Chartered Accountants in the last year, over the time that you've been president has set up a dedicated space on the CA ANZ website just for smaller practices: The smaller practices centre.

So I will make sure I put a link to that in the show notes for this episode as well, because the team that looks after that is purely focused on smaller practices and constantly updating it with resources that are curated just for them.

Have you been able to help spread that message?

Yes, I have, and I would encourage all our members as well, particularly from those smaller practices to update their preferences.

Um, there's an email that comes out with the updates to what's happening in the smaller practices space as well.

Um, and so that's really important.

So when I speak to, you know, a lot of our members don't know that some of these resources are there.

And, um, you know, we need to do a better job at, in fact, um, guiding our members to those resources.

But, um, if you go on the website, you'll be able to find it pretty easily.

The good news is the podcast is constantly giving our resources a plug.

A plug a thon is how I like to refer to it.

And in regards to a plug a thon, um, and your reference there to preferences, the way you do that is through My CA.

So I will put a link to My CA and the preference section in the show notes.

So you can just click on it, log in, and then you can click all the different newsletters that you'd like to receive from CA ANZ, and you may actually get in there and discover that you've clicked: Don't communicate with me.

And that is why you're not receiving any of the information that we've been talking about.

So I will do that.

Look, the other thing you wanted to do was talk about how rewarding the profession is.

We both love discussing that, and in particular when I get experts on the podcast to do that.

But how did you go using the High School toolkit speaking to, and I'm going to, um, uh, feel ambitious, hopefully, future members?

Yes.

I hope I did a good enough job to get them into the CA Program.

So, you know, it was really good this year.

I got to go to two high schools in Perth.

And, you know, one is was a, you know, a lower socioeconomic area.

And the other was, you know, a pretty well off area where, um, you know, I asked the students if they, you know, knew a chartered accountant and, you know, all of them said yes, okay.

Whereas at the other school no one said yes.

Yes.

Right.

And I think that just also goes to some of the changes we're making in terms of the CA Program and making it more accessible to people.

So, you know, some people have different challenges in terms of, you know, the school.

They said very few people actually choose to go to university.

And, you know, the changes that we're making to the new pathways into the CA Program will help attract some people like that.

Right.

Whether it's people, young people that want to sort of earn, um, straight off, straight after high school or, you know, people coming in from different professions.

Um, you know, I speak to a lot of people that have had a different profession and they come into whether it's an accounting firm or another business and want to become a chartered accountant.

And, you know, just opening up that pathway will help us in some way in terms of our pipeline shortage.

Mhm.

Mhm.

Two things there for me to plug and put links to the High School toolkit, which is a resource that you can download as a member and take it with you for your presentation to the class.

So that helps.

And also information about the changes that are happening to the pathways into the CA Program.

So that is awesome.

Look, every CCA ANZ president attends events celebrating our members.

I've attended some and they are awesome to go to.

But for our listeners, can you share some of the variety of the events that you've attended during the year?

And that's, you know, the true honour of being president is getting to go to some of these events.

So we're talking all our new member ceremonies.

So I've managed to get to quite a few of those.

And just seeing the pride and joy in the families when our, you know, when we get these new members.

So whether it's their spouse, whether it's their son or daughter, you know, I get to speak to the families afterwards, especially some of those that have travelled from far away and just, you know, they're so proud of their family and friends becoming chartered accountants.

That's that's a real highlight for me as president.

And some of the other ones are some of our milestone events.

So we get to celebrate, whether it's 25 years of membership, 40 years of membership, 60 years of membership, 70 years of membership.

Yeah, that's incredible, isn't it?

And you know, the best one I've done is Sir George Chapman in Wellington, got a 75 year membership certificate.

Wow.

That's that's that's pretty extraordinary as a professional body and, you know, things like life memberships as well.

So earlier this year I was in in Adelaide and Jeff Lucy got life membership as well and it was a real privilege to spend some time with him and sort of hear about his journey, because he was the former ASIC commissioner and I think the first chartered accountant to be an ASIC commissioner.

So yeah, so yeah, our members are pretty awesome.

And you know, as president you get to see all the different things that our members do.

And there's been other events as well.

Right.

Like conferences or um, you know, webinars or breakfasts.

You get to go along to some of those as well, don't you?

And kind of listen to what the advocacy team might be doing or what the conference team might be presenting to our members in the sense of learning and CPD and all that sort of stuff.

Yes, there's you know, we have a lot of events, I think, you know, 700 events that we had as a professional body just this year, um, with 130,000 registrations.

Right.

So that's a lot of events.

And it's really good because you get to speak to members either before the event, at the event and take that feedback back through through the organisation.

Right.

Um, you know, some of the challenges we're facing are really global, right?

So we had Gabriela from the, from IESBA, the International Board here in Australia earlier this year talking about some of the, the challenges facing, you know, the global profession around ethics and some of the changes that we're making.

Um, I was at the Queenstown conference, which is probably my favourite one.

And, you know, the thing I loved the most about that is just, you know, in New Zealand, which is a little bit different to Australia, we have a lot of female sole practitioners in New Zealand.

So it's always really interesting to hear some of you know, their views of, of the profession and how that's changed as well.

You mentioned IESBA there.

I will give the podcast a small plug.

We recorded an awesome episode with Gabriela when she was here in Sydney for that visit.

I will put a link to that in the show notes because I highly recommend it.

She talks about what is coming up for the profession through the eyes of IESBA for the next couple of years, so I recommend a listen to that if you haven't already.

Looking back on your year, what's your proudest achievement or moment in the role?

Wow, that's a great that's a great question.

I hadn't even thought about that.

And and maybe the reason I hadn't thought about it is it's not.

It's not about me.

That's true.

You don't go around going, oh, God, I'm so proud of myself.

Yes.

No.

You know, there's we've got an awesome organisation.

We have some pretty amazing people that work for CA ANZ.

We have some pretty awesome members.

You know, the parliamentary inquiries earlier this year, you know, as you know, as challenging as it was at the time, you know, that's still a pretty big highlight for me personally.

I'm just getting to speak to the regulators about our role as chartered accountants in the, you know, co-regulatory environment and, you know, helping educate some of the parliamentarians about what chartered accountants actually do.

I thought that was pretty important as well.

Mhm.

Mhm.

Look, what would you have liked then if if anything you don't have to have anything on the, on this list that perhaps you'd like some more time at some, some, some more time to finish.

Is there something that you're thinking I, I haven't yet wrapped that up.

I would like to connect with more young chartered accountants.

Um, so, you know, I was a YCA.

Um, and that's how I got basically to this role of being president through that pathway.

So check, you know, checking in with some of the young chartered accountants.

We have an amazing President's Prize winner in 2024, Adam Cormack from the ACT.

You know, and you know, just speaking to some of our younger members is something that I just wish I had just that little bit more time to do.

Mhm.

Mhm.

Well look as we motor towards the end of of the podcast and start looking ahead.

The, the new, your replacement has, has been announced.

Um tell me about the wrap up.

Tell me about the transition from one to the other and how all of that's come together.

So we have some pretty amazing traditions as an organisation.

So at the end of the President's tenure, you you get to have a President's dinner.

Um, which we had last night, and I had some family, some friends and lots of people that had been involved with Chartered Accountants with over a long period of time.

And the President gets to, you know, talk about their time as President.

And it was really, you know, awesome for me to share my journey to becoming Chartered Accountant's President.

Um, and then we have the awesome handover as well.

So it's a you know, the President's pin is actually handed over.

Um, we don't have the chains anymore.

Um, you know, the old chains, they're they're just up in the air.

I think they're up somewhere.

Yes.

Yeah, they might be at.

Upstairs.

Upstairs?

Yes.

So that that ended with the old, you know, the old institute.

So.

But yeah, you have that ceremony and just hear from the new President about some of the things that they're looking forward to.

So Grant will be an amazing ambassador for our organisation as well.

And, you know, it's a continuation in so many ways, right, that the President does change.

But in so many ways, you know, the challenges haven't changed.

So, you know, attractiveness of the profession is something that Grant will continue to work on.

I know Grant is also really excited about the new strategy.

So, uh, next year, CA ANZ will be launching our new strategy that will take us through to 2028, ...

2030.

Mhm.

Mhm.

...............................

And for those wondering well will we get to hear from Grant.

The answer is yes.

I'll be doing a podcast record with him in the new year, similar to what we did with Tinashe.

So you'll be able to meet him via the podcast and hear what he has planned for the year ahead.

Look, as we wrap up some final thoughts from you.

What's next?

Anything to leave our listeners with before we go?

I will be doing a lot of reading.

Reading some books over the summer.

I'll be working on my gardening.

It's been neglected.

And definitely spending time with some family.

So, you know, I think I mentioned I've got two very young children.

I think at the beginning of the year they were one and three and now they're two and four.

So yeah.

It flies.

By.

And just really looking forward to spending some time with the family over the summer break.

And next year in 2025, I'll have some exciting announcements to make about my own personal professional journey.

So

I love that.

Really looking forward to that.

Looking from, um, myself as as the host here of Small Firm, Big Impact this is our final episode for the season, for the year, and we'd like to wish you and your families a very happy and safe break as you take some time out from work and then get back into the thick of things next year and that is when we will talk to you again.

That is all we have time for.

If you want more great content, experts, interviews and resources tailored to you, check out the podcast page on the CA ANZ website.

I'll put a link to it in the show notes along with everything else I've promised, so it's easy to find.

And of course you'll see links to the podcast in the newsletters you receive from CA ANZ and on our socials.

If you want to get in touch with the podcast email us: podcast@charteredaccountantsanz.com and follow the pod in your favourite podcast app.

Let's start a conversation.

Thank you Tinashe Kamangira for being my guest on Small Firm, Big Impact.

Thank you very much for having me.

And also thank you to all our members for all the support over the year and wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas to you.

Bye bye.