Over the last 18 months theGrogroup has been privileged to run the first two  strategic leadership programmes for the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAEW) exclusively for Managing Partners of accounting firms. The strategic leadership programmes  first began in 2016 with a select group of individuals who’s firms ranged from £1m to £25m fee income and who had chosen to participate on the programme in order to:

• Create and deliver on strategy
• Drive growth in business development
• Learn from others about mergers and acquisitions
• Share best practice
• Drive success of their business

Each of the individuals that have taken part in both strategic leadership programmess have been very open and willing to share their firms challenges and successes. It has been an incredible journey for all concerned and has resulted in a string of opportunities for those people taking part. We are also delighted that these participants have been willing to share some the outcomes that have resulted from the programme, which include:

• A merger between two firms who from meeting on the programme realised how much their goals were similarly aligned
• The sale of a team to another firm because they had more of a specialisation in that area
• The restructuring of a firm and the departure of the previous managing partner. The Managing Partners program had been the catalyst which encouraged the existing managing partner to drive change, push ahead with clear plans to grow the practice and drive client service.
• One managing partner arrived with plans of mergers and acquisitions to grow his practice, and even to double in size over the next few years. However, he found that his personal goals would be met more quickly if attention remained on his existing business and organic growth became his focus. One year on and his firm has just had three record-breaking months!
• One managing partner was from a specialist law firm. He found the specialist assignment focused on practice management and finance particularly important as it allowed him to position a change in the way that clients could be invoiced to his fellow partners.
• Everyone was in awe of the firm that had succeeded in the transfer of all clients onto Direct Debit or Standing Order payments such that ‘lockup’ was reduced by over 80%.

The ICAEW Managing Partners programme itself is delivered by a range of specialist experts in their field.

Whilst Paul Richmond, the Managing Director of theGrogroup is the course director, he is joined by Jane Bleach, who has served at board level in a top 10 accounting firm as head of risk, Andy Raynor, the chief executive at ShakespeareMartineau, Liz Whitaker an expert in the field of communications in professional services firms, and Simon Dawkins, who has 20 years experience in finance and professional service firms. This team provide a varied but consistently high standard of delivery and the pace of the programme and the opportunity to share with a like-minded peer group, enables all the principles to be put into practice rapidly.

A key aspect of the programme is coaching, which is delivered on a one-to-one basis, and happens either formally or informally over the weeks and months that the programme is delivered.

If you would like more details on this programme or a coach who can help you drive your practice then please do speak to Kate Hennig on 0115 8559464 or email kate@thegrogroup.com