Going Further Together To A Better Future: Russell Bedford Annual Global Conference 2021

Opening the 38th Russell Bedford Annual Global Conference, Russell Bedford’s Chair, Bruce Saward, welcomed almost 300 members to this year’s conference, extending a special welcome to colleagues from new member firms attending their first AGM from France, Canada, Bolivia, Ghana, USA, Switzerland, Senegal, Malta, Nepal, Nicaragua, South Korea and Italy.

Bruce delivered an introduction to Russell Bedford’s new Strategic Positioning entitled, Going further together to a better future, which has been an ongoing focus of the network throughout 2021. Bruce highlighted his belief that, although growth will be the natural outcome of fulfilling the network’s vision, success relies on a collaborative full network approach saying: "It is important that we are all aligned to our core values and share responsibilities and commitments.”

Unlocking your firm’s potential through diversity and inclusion was the topic of the first session of the conference and the network had the pleasure of welcoming Communication and Culture Change Specialist, Shola Kaye. Revealing some incredibly powerful and practical strategies for driving engagement within organisations, Shola made the case for improved diversity in the workplace. She expressed how important it is to lead with empathy, ensuring that equity and inclusion are top priority for creating a culture where everyone feels like they belong throughout the organisation and not just at the hiring stage.

The benefits are hard to contest as Shola shared that a business’s reputation can hang on a poor or well executed D&I strategy, with statistics suggesting that engaged workers outperform others by 21%. She left us with a thought-provoking description of diversity as the art of thinking independently together.

A conversation between partner at our Malta member firm, John Debattista, and Jonathan Labrey (Value Reporting Foundation) was up next, where the two discussed prospects for future global extended external reporting standards.

Mouhammad Saleh, partner at Russell Bedford’s Lebanon member firm, led the final session of the day, a discussion forum on the audit of the future. Mouhammad was joined by panellists Vanessa Albuquerque (Belo Horizonte), Mariam Bermúdez (San José), Gisela Coimbra (Rio de Janeiro) and Mahmoud Saghir (Beirut) who shared their views on the topic.

Day two commenced with a report from Russell Bedford’s CEO, Stephen Hamlet, who revealed some of the network’s impressive successes over the past 12 months, including a dramatic 18% increase in revenue, while commending Russell Bedford members for their continued assistance to businesses, along with their impressive performance and growth, during these challenging times.