“Networking & Capacity Building”

Vinay Talwar’s Beat

A couple of days ago I attended a Seminar organised by the Institute Of Chartered Accountants of India on “Networking & Capacity Building”. I had more gone there for the heck of it and to also see what the CA community is doing wrt ‘Networking’.

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised to find around 400 attendees for a topic that I thought was alien to this staid profession. One of the speakers turned out to be an old friend of mine, Vinod Jain, who has been very active in the affairs of the Institute and has played an active role in the Regional Council as well as the Central Council. Vinod made a very powerful presentation on the various aspects of Networking & Capacity Building and most of all on the “need” for the same. I feel the most important take away for me, and for most of the participants that I spoke to, was for us to get out of the thought process of the past ( ekla chalo re ) and the urgency to adopt this collaborative approach for ‘survival’ let alone growth. Vinod’s story telling style, he gave an excellent example from Mahabharat, aptly got the message home to the participants.

Amal Ganguly, who retired as the head of PwC in 2003 was the Guest of Honour and he did a good job of answering the doubts and queries of the participating CAs. His clear message wrt partnerships and their longterm survival was – forget this ‘goodwill’ business and the only claim that an exiting partner should have should be to his/ her share of ‘Capital’ and nothing else, only then will partnerships thrive and survive !

Roy, Dy Secretary of the Institute, took the participants through the various provisions of the Guidelines framed by the Institute wrt Networking as well Mergers & Demergers between its members.

Having been in business for most of my active working life, for once, I came away with the impression that the Institute of Chartered Accountants is taking a proactive interest in furthering the cause of their members by helping them keep pace with the times. With the GATS discussions rapidly moving forward this topic has assumed much greater importance. I am sure there are a number of issues that still need to be thrashed out, both legal and cultural, but as it is said – a job well begun is half done.