Dear MRM Clients,
The passing of time is generally measured between landmark events. Whilst the writing of a firm’s newsletter hardly qualifies as anything close to a meritorious event it does however cause me to shake my head as the last time I penned anything was over 2 years ago. This made me sit up a bit as I would not have thought much more than a year had passed. This led me to reread my last update to you all, only to realise that the truth in the saying “As much as things change, nothing changes” rings true.
Despite the economic chaos of the past 24 months the 9 guidelines I raised remain largely unchanged, remarkably.
As South Africans we are adept at negotiating economic hardship and change, a skill that, in my opinion, makes us some of the most adaptable business people in the world. Whilst First World countries are struggling to come to terms with the effect of Donald’s pilgrimage across the globe for commodities and its commensurate yoyo effect on global financial markets coupled with the devastating effects of mass Xenophobia, us Saffa’s just check it in as another day at the office and another challenge for us to
rise above. I am by no means trivialising any of this but do take perverse pleasure in having the rest of the world in the life raft with us for a change.
These are blips however, they will pass, equilibrium will return and a new type of normal will redefine us. Then you have rare events, ones that change the course of humanity and require the rewriting of the textbooks, so to speak. I am of course referring to Artificial Intelligence, something which was only vaguely on my radar the last time I wrote to all of you.
AI is considered to be the 6th technological milestone in our history. The first being the advent of fire, allowing us to finally cook our mammoth meat and the last two being the invention of the printing press in or around 1450 AD and the Industrial Revolution in 1760 AD. The printing press enabled thought sharing, essentially a precursor to the internet and the Industrial Revolution spawned mass production and diversification of labour skills. The significance of these events issuch that they changed the cultural
and technological foundations of humanity.
So, if we don’t have enough shit to deal with, here we find ourselves in the center of this maelstrom.
So, I asked AI, ‘What are the top 5 effects AI will have on our lives over the next 5 years?”
- AI will evolve into persistent personal ‘agents’. They will know your preferences, plan your holidays, manage calendars and act as co-workers.
- Medicine will be overhauled, moving from reactive care to proactive prevention. The first major change since the advent of man I think.
- Administrative tasks will fully automate, in theory human labour changes from repetitive labour to strategic problem solving
- AI Powered robotics will take over routine manual labour and assist in domestic tasks.
- Education will be entirely overhauled, again, a process which has seen very little change in over 100 years.
I have no doubt in the veracity of this as I see clear examples already of where AI is making huge ground in each of these spheres.
So, in one sweep we are removing labour from the big administrative employers. Banks, Medical Aids, Insurance Companies. Admin departments in companies, human components slashed by half at least. Domestics are gone, replaced by robots. Blue collar labour drastically reduced. Legal firms, workload drastically curtailed, more litigation, less contractual. Tertiary education changes, the doctor of today becomes trained in vastly different skills than the doctor of 30 years ago. The skills divide between generations of professions become marked and often beyond that of bridging.
It’s scary but it’s here and we are all on this roller coaster, hanging on and wondering what the end looks like. So, we need to all consider our businesses. The plumber is relatively AI proof whilst the marketing and branding agencies have already been severely impacted. The wheel has turned for the tradesman and the sun is setting for many professionals, at least in the conventional sense.
So, what the hell do we do?
- Consider our businesses services/products. How sensitive is our business to this threat and how do we ‘tweek’ what we do in anticipation.
- How can AI improve our bottom line (Lets go glass half full), our staff costs continue to escalate whilst tech continues to decrease in price. Do we restructure how we do things and how do we implement tech and AI cost effectively to achieve this aim?
- Where do we need to upskill ourselves/our key personnel to make sure we keep our edge? We all have to pull ourselves away from the coal face to analyse our businesses in depths greater than ever before. We need detailed knowledge of what we are spending our money on, what our workflows are and how long they take, changes in our customers spending patterns (as they adapt as above).
This is not something that will go away and it’s not something to attend to later. Opportunity exists from being proactive rather than reactive. As South Africans our superpower is change adaption, let’s use it. You are more than welcome to set up a meeting with one of the firm’s partners if you want to address this further. Whilst we are not experts, we are using it extensively and are assimilating clear strategies with many of our clients in this regard.
The other side to this coin is on a macro level. The impact on unemployment numbers is potentially horrific and there are social effects many people have not considered yet. All of that however is for another day as any predictions on that would be wild and encompass many more pages.
Eish, I hope that wasn’t too boring, it was a challenge to get it all down without being too verbose, as is my natural inclination. Anyway, that’s my tech diatribe for the day, let me try and get everyone up to date on what has gone down at MRM for the past 24 months which may also prove challenging to my weak summation skills but here goes.
Firstly, we have had a continual introduction of new business to the firm. Welcome to everyone, I hope you are finding your ‘forever’ accounting home with us and everyone is treating you well. We have put a lot of time and effort into addressing our service levels and it takes careful constant evaluation of these to make sure that we don’t slip as client and staff numbers increase. We are passionate about keeping the firm’s ethos closely aligned with that of the firm’s founder, the late Michael Rogers. Whilst
a vastly different place to the one he started all those years back I like to think he would be satisfied with how we are going and only hurling abuse at me, infrequently, from on high. If you do have any issues however, please go straight to your account partner in order that we can address any dissatisfaction before anything escalates.
The unsung heroes behind the firm’s partners is obviously our stalwart management team. This team has built itself to a level that we are incredibly proud of and one that embodies our ethos in its purest form. You would all be familiar with Devasha Girdharie, our tax specialist with over a decade’s service with our firm and immeasurable experience and Tanya Van Heerden, front of house and master of operations. Don’t forget, if you can’t find someone, or you don’t know who to speak to, you speak to Tanya. She is currently in disgrace for dropping the quality of sweets in the client sweety jar but has promised to be better with the next restocking.
We have had two big additions to management since my last communique, the first being Caroline Message, who has taken over management of our Compliance Department and now directly in charge of Tammy’s chickens. Caroline has been with the firm for a decade and I can safely say, has worked in every one of the firm’s departments over her time with us. We are on the eve of her admission into the Institute of Professional Accountants as a fully-fledged member and cannot think of anyone better suited to handle this extremely demanding role. Being in the middle of our busy season, she probably frequently regrets acceptance of the same. There have been reports of her using bad words of late, a far cry from her calm demeanour and religious upbringing. I suspect Tammy’s bad influence here.
The second addition is that of Casey Volek as manager of our beleaguered business services department. Many of you know we have been tearing our hair out with this division and we have had a succession of unsuccessful staff and managers through here. Casey served her articles with the firm some years back and may be familiar to many of you from that time. She then went on to cut her teeth in Commerce, specialising in property management and accounting yet still working on clients in different spheres of business. She has returned to the fold and her rightful home now armed with all of this and is doing a phenomenal job along with her handpicked team. We can finally breathe a sigh of relief that that division is now back on track and providing the quality of work and efficiency that MRM pride themselves on. Casey is also on the brink of being admitted to the Institute increasing the firm’s registered practitioners to 5. If you think you may be able to benefit from outsourcing all, or some of, your businesses accounting or compliance, give Casey a shout and she can have a chat with you.
Then we have the firm’s payroll outsourcing services still stoically guided by Taryn (18 years’ service) and Ameel , directors of MRM Labour Counsel (Pty) Ltd, our company which trades these services. They too have been increasing efficiency through a combination of well-trained staff and efficient use of technology. They have been looking at their pricing models and are busy putting together some really well priced packages. If you have a small staff complement and are doing your payroll on spreadsheets and hating your life attending to all the statutory paperwork, do yourself a favour and give them a shout for a quote. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the price they will offer you to take that crappy job off your hands.
Aside from these peeps we are operating a big engine room to make sure we get everything done. If you want to check them all out, they are on our website www.mrmfs.co.za, and you can also read past editions of our newsletters linked from the MRM News button. With reference to the above, you can also link through to Labour services website to see the services they are offering.
Aside from this we have been working on another MRM subsidiary, Baobab Wealth Partners (Pty) Ltd.
This business has been started to supply an alternate method for people to use motor vehicles and has substantial commercial advantages to conventional ownership. It’s fairly complex as it’s been a brainchild of mine, in my thoughts at least, for some years now. Through a fortuitous link up with Alpine Motors Group of Companies we were able to tie a bow on the deal. If you are thinking of buying a new car for cash, give us a call first, we may have something that will work out substantially more cost effective for you and beneficial to your business.
Ok, now I am starting to run out of words and am paying the price for being absent from your lives for so long, at least from a written word point of view. In conclusion, I have written much about changing environments, AI and the like. At MRM, we change in the background however will never step away from valuing our face-to-face interaction with our clients. You all know we don’t ever charge for consultations and view this as part of our service offering. We find immense value in ‘checking in’ with our clients even if it’s just for a quick cup of coffee and a company health check. All you need to do is give Tanya a ring and she will fit you in at a mutually agreeable time.
Until we speak again,
in the immortal words of Mr Spock from Star Trek, “Live long and prosper”.
C J JOOSTE
