It all officially started on January 24, 2018. After being installed by a hammer blow, it was time. My board year as External Affairs at Asset | Accounting & Finance has started. After a few weeks of conveyance it was time to take over the baton from Roel Dolders. Not sure what awaited me, but never less motivated. It has already been about 8 months since I entered the rooms for the first time as an official boardie. Now that I am trying to write down my experiences from the past time, I realize how quickly time has flown by. Before I know it I will announce my successor and then it is my turn to pass on everything I have learned. The question many ask is why I chose to do a board year if I could have just graduated and start my career. I was always pretty sure that I wanted to do a board year, but at the moment I had to decide, the doubt struck. Was this really what I wanted? Now that I look back on the past few months, I can say with certainty that I never had any regrets. This is where all the clichés such as “personal development” and “building a network” come into play. But clichés would not be clichés if they were not true. Yet you have to look further during a board year than the aforementioned. In my position as External Affairs, I am responsible for the acquisition. During the summer period I was able to visit all the current and perhaps new partners. Here the brochure, which you have made together with your co-external, will be discussed. During the talk you try to come to a suitable cooperation together. The many talks have made this period the busiest yet crucial. It is not only valuable for yourself, but also for the association, that it is possible to do this. Knowing how important it is to succeed, that gives you just that extra motivation. Acquisition and company contact obviously play a major role within my function, but that is not all. As a winter external, I am also the coordinator of the Financial Business Dinner and the Finance Expedition and I manage and maintain our social media channels. These tasks are the common thread, but not a single week is the same. Of course you have the recurring meetings and calling moments, but beyond that there are always changing tasks such as designing a flyer or arranging a DoMiBo. ”I find myself having a moment almost every week that I am proud of. Is it not something that I achieved, then it is something that we have achieved together as an association.” A board year is not, as some people think, a year filled with “alcohol and parties”. It requires hard work and long days but you also get a lot in return. I find myself having a moment almost every week that I am proud of. Is it not something that I achieved, then it is something that we have achieved together as an association. This can vary from bringing in a new partner to finally getting the hang of InDesign. Apart from these practical matters, the active members also contribute to making my board year memorable. If you see that an activity is well visited, they have fun and that the members meet outside of A&F activities, then you will stop and think about what a beautiful association has been built up over the years. A feeling of pride cannot fail. Nevertheless, a board year does not only consist of enjoyable moments. Sometimes you are brought down to earth. There are always setbacks and sometimes it does not go the way as you had hoped. Yet, I firmly believe that this is an essential part of a board year. It forces you to think outside the box and lets you realize that real life is not without bumps on your path. All of the above mentioned does not come close to everything you experience, but I do not think it is possible to describe it in detail. There are no best moments or biggest disappointments. There’s not that one thing that teaches you the most. You have to look at your board year as a whole. And when I look back on that, I can recommend everyone to make the same choice as I did and just go for it. If you want to know more about my board year after this article, visit room E1.07 and ask your questions during a cup of coffee!
Interview Jolanda Lamse-Minderhoud
From the Goese Lyceum to the Board of Directors of PwC, please tell us about you. I’m someone who works out of passion, and I have a great sense of responsibility. That’s the reason why I like to do things right and why I don’t give up quickly. The Goese Lyceum is where I went to high school, and after that I studied Business Administration. I started my career at PwC in Bergen op Zoom, and during this period I obtained my RA-title from NIVRA/Nyenrode. My idea was to work at PwC for 3 to 5 years, learn a lot from that organization, and after that do something different. I’m also someone who likes a challenge and personal development is of great importance to me. After a couple of years at PwC, many new opportunities arose from within the firm. This, in combination with the diverse mix of clients, is the reason I’m still working at PwC. My position is comprised of both working with numbers and with people, a combination that still intrigues me. In 2006 I became a partner. My idea was to hold on to that position as long as I still liked it, and I had to be passionate about it. This eventually led me to become Head of Human Capital of the Dutch board of directors and of PwC Europe and EMEA. What do you think about the combination between working and learning? Back in the day the working-learning approach was the same as it is now. One works 4 days a week and the other day one goes to school. I’m someone who likes to study topics that are closely related to the work I do. The knowledge I obtained on Friday, I could put into practice on Monday. Working and learning is a tough combination, because you need to prepare for classes and have to work at the same time. It is key to remain persistent and to make decisions. In the end, it proved to be a great combination for me personally. What does Jolanda Lamse-Minderhoud’s work week look like? When I started at PwC, I worked at our client’s offices from Monday until Thursday. The teams changed frequently. Sometimes you would start your day at the PwC office, but most of the times you would work at the same client’s office for a couple of weeks. When I look at my agenda now, there is much more variation. It’s important to be able to adjust quickly, because connecting is the keyword of my working week. Last Monday I had a board meeting in Amsterdam, and on Tuesday, I spoke with my international colleagues. Occasionally I catch an airplane, but we are increasingly using new technologies to contact one another. My role within the firm has changed over the years from an executive function to a more strategic one. What was your main reason for remaining an accountant? The beauty of being an accountant is that you see many different businesses. Next to that, accountants carry great responsibility by delivering audit reports. The reasons I’m still a partner at PwC is that I was able to develop myself, and because I’m a good fit in the firm’s corporate culture. Personally, I’m very fond of our company’s goal: “Build trust in society and solve important problems!” It’s very important to me that next to my job, I’m able to contribute to society. Can you name two things you learned during your career? For me as a person: Don’t give up to quickly, even if you feel resistance or if something seems to fail. Afterwards you be appreciated by either clients or co-workers, so bite the bullet! The second thing I learned is to look at something from a different perspective. I call it ‘rethinking’. One can translate this to questions such as “why would I want this instead of why wouldn’t I want this?” or “why should I do it instead of nothing doing it?”. If you think in this manner so much more suddenly seems to be possible. Besides that is important to just try it, without being afraid to lose. Nobody ever got something from doing nothing. The accounting profession has changed enormously. How have you experienced those changes and what are most important developments? The most notable change has been under scrutiny from society. However, I personally think the profession has become more technical, with a focus on good documentation. Nowadays you have to document really well with whom you had contact, why you made certain decisions, why you think it was the best decision, what the pros and cons are, and that you explicitly mention those in the files. I think an accountant’s value has actually increased because of all the public attention, because everybody sees that the accountant plays a crucial role and that his audit report has special meaning. Is the profession still interesting for students? We have to get used to the new reality in which you structure and document your thinking process. Besides that, we also have to transform into the new age of Big Data, with which we are still experimenting. The outside world has not yet have a real answer, because the traditional audit was different. How are you going to put the transformation to use? I think that when we implement all those changes, the profession will still be engaging. You will still be relevant to society, you will still be able to see many different companies, you will work with all kinds of different control systems the clients use, and you will have become very good at structuring and documenting your thinking process. Last but not least: you will still be working with many very interesting people. We have to get over our fear of thinking accountants are not doing their jobs well. The press will always present things somewhat negatively, but in my opinion the accounting profession is still very exciting! When you look at Human Capital, what has
Lessons from a board year
Looking back at my chairmanship at Asset | Accounting & Finance The editorial board has asked me to write an article about last year, in which I was chairman of Asset | Accounting & Finance. Let me start with emphasizing that this article is not meant as a sales pitch for doing a board year, nor is my goal to attract new board members. As a student, you will have heard enough already. Besides, it has never been a problem to attract new board members for Asset | Accounting & Finance (unlike many other student associations). I think because many people know that a board year at A&F is a valuable asset. Such a year is taken seriously, and is more than just ‘a year of fun’. You may have noticed I find it hard to talk about it without sounding like I am doing some sort of sales pitch. This is probably because my board year was amazing. “A board year is just a wasted year in which you spend most of the time in bars” In 2013, I became vice-chairmen of the Investment Night committee. Together with four other committee members I had eight months to organize a symposium on investing in the stock market. Even though I really liked the work, I did not attend that many activities organized by the association. I barely knew the board members and I had no idea what they were doing in their offices all day. The only time I saw them was at the few drinks I attended. This led me to believe a board year was just a wasted year in which you would spend most of the time in bars. During the evaluation conversations that are held with all active members individually, the board asked me if I would be interested in a doing a board year (all members are asked this question). I convincingly replied ‘no’. However, about one year later, after the strike of the gavel, I was appointed Chairman by the General Members Meeting of Asset | Accounting & Finance and was giving a presentation about the policies for the upcoming year on which we had worked in the three preceding months. “I actually had no clue what was awaiting me” When I look back now, I can say I actually had no clue that I had just set foot in a 22nd century rollercoaster, waiting to be launched. Two weeks after the general members meeting for example I was unexpectedly having lunch with the President and Rector Magnificus of Tilburg University, together with another board member. We spoke about the new policies of the university and the role which our student association should fulfill. In addition, they shared some lessons from their board experience and we were told that is was inappropriate that we were not wearing ties (which we had torn off just before they entered the building because we could see from the window that they were not wearing ties either). Two weeks later, I gave a presentation to all Master Accounting and Finance students, explaining them the opportunities we could offer them and why it is so important to seize them. Shortly after that, I organized and chaired a meeting where I welcomed the general directors of the Accountancy department of Tilburg University and the Big Four Accounting firms (EY, KPMG, PwC and Deloitte) at one of the most beautiful conference halls of the university. We discussed the future of the accountant’s profession and the university’s role in it. We also discussed the quality of students that got their degree at Tilburg University, and we compared it to students of other universities. The meeting went perfect, and as the icing on the cake, the Big Four stressed that there is a big difference in the quality of students who had been active at Asset | Accounting & Finance, and students that hadn’t. “We are comparable to a company with 110 employees” Next to these highlights there was also the daily course of business. When I have to explain to people what I actually did on an average day, I like to compare the student association with a company. A company that acts as an intermediary between students and the business arena. A&F has about 110 ‘employees’ (committee members) and a (sometimes double) fulltime board consisting of six people. Like in most companies, the board decides on the policy and sees to it that it is properly executed. To get a broad idea of what this policy covers: it is a booklet containing about 50 pages and includes everything the association does: an overview of the activities portfolio, working out strategies for acquisitions (new partners), budgeting, social media, long-term vision, active member’s policy, and so on. Besides that, the board coordinates the committees which consist of four to seven people (it is like leading a team or taskforce). Every committee has one specific task, such as organizing a study trip to Rio de Janeiro, delivering content for our blog, or organizing a symposium about accountancy. And where a company relies on its employees, we rely on our amazing committee members. That is why we try to make it as fun and valuable as possible for our active members by organizing (in)formal activities, trainings and drinks. “The decisions you make can amount to tens of thousands of Euros “ It took a while for me to really realize how big the budgets were. Sometimes the decisions you make can amount to tens of thousands of Euros. This was for example the case when we had to decide whether to launch a new website that would contain a native CRM system that would simultaneously administer all 6000 members, or when we had to negotiate with Studystore about a new contract for our students to buy books at a discount. Overall, big decisions, with big consequences. That made me realize why recruiters value a board year so much. It may sound cliché, but I
‘Just Graduated’ Tom Janssen
My name is Tom Janssen, 25 years old and born and raised in Breda. After completing my high school education here, I started at Tilburg University with the bachelor International Business Administration. After this bachelor, which gave me a broad perspective on the business of corporations, I decided to enroll for the Strategic Management master. The content of this master definitely matched my interests, however I believed the program did not fulfil my needs in preparation for a role in this field. Nevertheless my internship at HLB Van Daal & Partners, were I wrote my master thesis, provided me an opportunity to apply my theoretical skills in practice. Here, I realized that I enjoyed working together with clients and discuss potential solutions of their problems. Finally I defended my master thesis, which was titled ‘Social media as a strategic value driver: A case study in the Dutch accounting industry’, successfully in June 2012 with a 7.0 and graduated for my master. As explained my needs had not been fully met by this program and during the completion of my thesis I decided to pursue another area of my interest by beginning my second master, in finance. At the same time I figured out that I wanted more out of my student life and became an active member at Asset | Accounting & Finance as Vice-Chairman in the iFinance committee of 2012. I fully enjoyed the life at the student association and was asked to join the board of 2012, a position which I proudly accepted. As board member External Affairs I learned and improved a large number of organizational, process and social skills. But most importantly, I have met a great variety of very nice and interesting people, of whom I still have regular contact with and consider my friends. One of the highlights of this year was the studytour with destination India, which I will never forget. Therefore I would recommend any student a very active student life, and not comply to the increased focus on finishing your studies as fast as possible under pressure from more governmental pressure. This is the period were you can meet loads of new people, and find out your personal talents and interests. Finally, I ended this fantastic period by graduating from the Finance master with an 8.0 on CEO compensation, firm risk and the effect of CEO characteristics: Evidence from the U.S. financial industry in December 2013. As External Affairs I already had a great opportunity to get to know a lot of potential employers. During my studies I found out that I wanted to work in consulting, since I enjoyed looking for solutions to complex problems for a wide variety of clients. After my graduation I talked with a number of companies and decided to join the consulting firm of PwC as of May 1, 2014. The company fits my personal preference for an informal organization, with an international network and a great potential to learn perfectly. Reviewing and getting in touch with a lot of potential employers has certainly benefited me in selecting the right match and is something I would recommend any student. As a member of the finance competence of PwC consulting I am currently staffed at a big regulatory reporting project at a large international bank as part of Basel III requirements. The first couple of weeks of the working life were pretty exhausting, with a lot of new impressions combined with the time I had to travel between Tilburg and Amsterdam, before I moved there. Looking back at my first six months at PwC, I am still convinced I have made the right choice and enjoy my work very much!
