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business confidence, given that the FTSE is dominated by global companies and hence driven more by exchange rate movements than any resilience or expression of confidence on the part of UK companies.


The general consensus in the room was that 2015 had been a very good year for business, and that 2016 had continued this trend, with no tangible slowdown yet evidenced post-Brexit, although it was still early days.


2008 was a wake-up call for industry


Alec Stevens


“Clients are now more agile, better prepared with stress-testing, and more equipped for coping with uncertainty than they were in the run-up to financial crisis almost 10 years’ ago”, noted accountancy partner Miles Hewitt-Boorman.


This point was echoed by Davis, who agreed that, given the number of shocks the UK economy had been through since 2008, “uncertainty is now the new certainty”.


Kirk added that as the process of Brexit was going to be prolonged companies would have to adapt to changing conditions but agreed that companies are in a better position to do so than in 2008.


Nicola Kirk


Head of finance Alec Stevens: “A lot of our current senior staff weren’t in senior positions during the UK’s recessions in the late 1980’s, so the 2007 financial crisis was a new experience. We downsized and this was a particularly difficult period. Since then, we have put all our senior team through the Henley Business School leadership training programme, and they are all fully conscious of, and armed to deal with, the economy we’re now working in.”


Aki Stamatis


Hicks added that from a banking and credit control perspective, the events which usually ‘wrecked businesses’ tended to be outside normal forecasting parameters, rather than the usual 10-20% stress-based variance scenarios. Hence, in the long-term, the businesses able to thrive would always be those able to keep reinventing themselves and adapting to ever-changing business environments, Brexit being just one of those challenges.


Kirk expanded on this ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking, explaining that while the legal profession was not renowned for its innovation, Gateley was entrepreneurial and was the first full-service commercial law firm to float. The firm had always been a financially resilient business having previously relied largely upon internal funding for expansion. The change in status had made it possible for Gateley to move quickly in response to new opportunities, hence the opening of its new Reading office in 2016. Furthermore, Gateley’s new plc status had enabled it to acquire complementary non-legal services, such


46 businessmag.co.uk


as Capitus which provides tax advisory and consultancy services in relation to capital allowances, international tax depreciation, investment incentives and R&D tax reliefs and Hamer Associates a leading specialist in the fields of easements, wayleaves, compulsory purchase and compensation, in order to diversify its revenue streams and sales reach.


Head of business space for the Thames Valley at Vail Williams, Charlie Nicholson agreed with Kirk, pointing out that Vail Williams had also elected to diversify recently, the purchase of a rating specialist to open up new opportunities being a case a point. Nicholson also noted that the way Vail Williams approached the property market had also changed over recent years, becoming far more consultative-based as opposed to transactional-driven, so as to react to both landlords’ and occupiers’ needs and to help plan and design workspaces to help businesses attract and retain staff.


Bloxham added that for multi-national companies, international diversification was also a bonus, pointing out that any UK slowdown had been more than balanced out by growth in GCS’s other global offices, particularly the US and Ireland.


Davis: “We also operate in the Middle East and Asia, which are proving to be growth areas for us.”


Strong leadership, not cheap money is required


Everybody was in agreement that strong leadership would be required from the Government to promote long-term confidence in the economy and ease the fears of investors who might seek to delay longer-term CAPEX and investment infrastructure decisions. Stamatis wanted to see a strong Autumn Statement from the new chancellor (due November 23, 2016), with Hewitt-Boorman agreeing that it was vital for the chancellor to set the right tone for the business community.


Given that the business vote in the South East had leant towards ‘Remain’, there was some discussion as to how much planning and forethought had been put in place in the event of a ‘leave’ vote?


Bloxham suggested: “The Government led us into a situation which most businesses didn’t want.”


Stamatis responded: “I’m not sure I would say we were led into Brexit. This was an emotional decision, with logic being used in hindsight to explain it. Where Brexit will go in the future, nobody really knows, but we are now dealing with the ramifications of that decision and have to get on with it. At least there appears to be some leadership from the top, but it will be interesting to see what happens over the next six months.”


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – NOVEMBER 2016


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