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A Service for GoodA Service for Good

Earlier this month, the South African arm of professional services firmMazars was an exhibitor in the Africa Utility Week 2015. Essential Business spoke to managing partner of the Cape Town office, Michelle Olckers, to find out what the renewable sector means to the companyand their plans to boost innovation.

A Servicefor Good

From the 11th to the 15th of

May, the fifteenth annual Africa

Utility Week connected power

and water professionals for five days

of networking, trade exhibitions and

conferences in Cape Town. Among

the exhibitors was the Cape Town

office of Mazars, one of the world’s

leading professional

servicescompanies providing

auditing,accountancyand business

advisory services.

“We’ve seen that energy, and

particularly renewable energy is a

huge focus in South Africaand, with

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our current energy challenges, the sector is

fast becoming an important stakeholder in

finding a solution. Given the growth and

Mazars’ expertise and capability within the

sector, our involvement with the Africa

Utility Week was a good opportunity to

introduce our brand and different service

lines to the industry. We’ve found a lot of

potential new work coming from this

sector, so we thought this was a great way

to meet potential new clients and showcase

the good work we are already doing,” says

Olckers.

Mazars has twelve offices in South Africa,

and offers services around project

financing, financial model reviews, and

REIPPP bid submissions to the renewable

energy sector. The bulk of the interest in

these services comes from the

Johannesburg and Cape Town areas, where

the renewable energy developments are

currently focused.

“A Partner from our office, specializing in

renewable energy, was on hand to

showcase Mazars’ services. She found it to

be a great experience with fantastic

exposure for our business. A lot of good

contacts were potentially made from the

event,” continues Olckers.

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Mazars’ early entrance into the renewables

sector has proven to be a wise decision for

the company, providing them with a head

start over competitors. While this may be

bringing a substantial amount of work to

Mazars, it’s not without its challenges.

“We’re often underestimated compared to

the big four. We offer exactly the same

services and have the same expertise,

qualifications and capabilities, but the big

brands generally seem to dominate the

market,” explains Olckers.

“So I think our challenge is to really get

ourselves recognised, that’s why we’re

getting involved with more initiatives like

the Africa Utility Week. We try to support

different initiativesin specific sectors, as

these show that there are different

opportunities available in South Africa,”

she tells us.

“I think what’s happening, specifically in

the audit market, is that economic

pressure is causing the bigger firms to

reach out into areas they didn’t previously

get involved with. And it’s our aim to show

why we’re able to offer those services in a

better and more effective way for our

clients. That’s the reason why they are with

us,” says Olckers.

Mazars is founded on the premise that a

strong relationship between partner and

client is the key to successful business.

These strong relationships are then

leveraged to generate more services and

more leads.

In addition to the relationship-building

work of the partners, Mazars also benefits

from having a notably young workforce

that excels at bringing energy and new

ideas to the company.

“Probably 80% of our professionals

worldwide are millennials, so we definitely

have a young workforce, and we believe it’s

important to listen to what they’re saying.

That’s why we came up with

#MazarsforGood,” she says.

Launched in January this year,

#MazarsforGood is an innovation challenge

designed to rally entrepreneurs and

intrapreneurs between the ages of 20 and

30. The goal is to design an innovative

product, service or process that can

positively transform the way companies do

business.

“Being quite a young organisation who

employs a lot of young people, we realise

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that innovation is at the heart of everything

we do. We get challenged on a daily basis

by the young people who come into our

business. So we saw this as an opportunity

to inspire and allow these young

entrepreneurs to really show us what

they’re capable of,” explains Olckers.

“So we launched #MazarsforGood. They

had to choose a category between society,

business and employee, and effect change

within that corporate environment. We’ve

had a lot of people participate so far, and

we haven’t got to the end of it yet, but it’s

going to be evaluated by a jury chaired by

our head of talent management at Mazars

Group level. It’s a fascinating challenge and

it really reflects our interest in innovation,”

she says.

The millennial influence can be seen clearly

in Mazars’ plans for the future, with the

firm set to take a more technology-based

approach and launch new online portals

within the next year.

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Greatsoft

“We’re looking at new ways of interacting

with our clients through portals so that

clients feel they can access us at any time

they want,” Olckers tells us. “Also the client

base is changing, so we’re not just dealing

with the traditional businesses, but

younger entrepreneurs who are starting

businesses.”

“We’re also branching out in terms of our

service offering and have expanded quite a

lot into advisory services. Being a

traditional professional services firm, we

started off with audits, tax and accounting,

but we’re seeing that we need to offer our

clients a broader range of services. We’ve

put a lot more investment into tax

consulting, as companies aren’t just

working within one jurisdiction anymore.

They’re operating across the globe, and

we’re now able to assist with that.”

Recovery and restructuring services have

also been a big add-on for Mazars this

year.

“It’s sad, but there are a lot of businesses

that are struggling, and either going into

liquidation or needing assistance to ensure

they get out of that position,” explains

Olckers.

“We’re recognised in South Africa as one of

the leaders in business rescue as we got in

early and are offering the service with very

skilled attorneys and accountants. Through

the business rescue process, we can

actually help businesses not go into

liquidation, but rather create an

opportunity to becomesomething a little bit

different but hopefully still exist, thereby

preserving economic viability and jobs.”

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Physical Address

Mazars House

7441 Century City

Cape Town

South Africa

+27 21 818 5000Tel:

+27 21 818 5001Fax:

cpt@mazars.co.zaEmail:

Contact our office in South Africa

Contact Details

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