Established in 1898, Bryden Johnson was a ‘genuine, general accounting firm' when Gordon Bull joined it straight from school. And that was how it remained for the next 30 years, working mainly with clients in the owner-managed business sector.

In 2002 Gordon took over as senior partner. "Four years ago, we were a typical, medium-sized chartered accounting practice - a three partner firm, all very different characters and not a very cohesive management team. With our old partner leaving, there was a loss of some clients, so attracting new business was a priority, plus we all felt that we wanted a change in our working culture to make us less ‘traditional'.

"We now realise that we set ourselves unrealistic growth targets and we were lacking any real business plan to give us direction. In hindsight, we just assumed that if we all invested enough personal energy and worked hard, then growth and change would happen."
The partners found themselves working long hours tackling the numerous day-to-day problems associated with running a business, but achieving little growth for the practice - and life seemed just to revolve around work.

In 2003, Gordon was invited to attend a seminar given by an Australian company that had just opened a branch in the UK. The company was Shirlaws, a business coaching organisation established in 1999, which specialises in helping SME businesses achieve sustainable and profitable growth.

Shirlaws' core premise is that to sustain business growth, there has to be a balance between commercial issues, such as the drive for revenue, achieving efficiencies and maximising profitability, and cultural issues, such as communication skills, team building and leadership.

"There were about 45 people in the room," explains Gordon. "We were asked to list the main problems that we experienced running our businesses and came up with about 50 things, from cash flow, personnel issues and competition, to succession planning. Shirlaws showed us that in fact there were not 50 diverse problems that needed to be addressed in isolation, but rather we needed to look at the balance between strategic and people issues if we wanted to move a business forward."

The Shirlaws methodology first reviews a business against a model based on the energy levels of the owner or management team. This follows a pattern of stages, from the initial euphoria of setting up a business and achieving the first levels of success, to a stage when it becomes more difficult to achieve the same momentum of growth and, no matter how many hours are invested in the business, it just doesn't seem to move forward. Hitting this ‘brick wall' is a classic scenario for an SME and one that Gordon immediately recognised.

"I suddenly had a ‘road to Damascus' moment. I realised that my partners and I were on a hamster wheel - getting exhausted but going nowhere." he explains.

Shirlaws' coaches work with a range of frameworks to support clients through various stages of change and growth, depending on where the business is in its life-cycle. At Bryden Johnson, Shirlaws worked alongside the partners and staff to assess and maximise their position in the marketplace and to analyse how best to make new sales. They helped the management team rationalise who did what in the business and showed the partners how to ensure everyone worked to their capacity, avoiding the need to increase staffing levels unnecessarily.

"At first, my partners were sceptical, but agreed to bring in the business coaches because I was so enthusiastic. Shirlaws worked with the senior team initially, and made us take a fresh look at our business and broke that cycle of focusing just on the immediate, day-to-day problems and issues. They then worked with the rest of the company, helping us to empower the staff to take decisions."

In the last 18 months Bryden Johnson has seen a noticeable change as the business has developed a vision and focus that has influenced the culture of the business, the way the staff interact and carry out their functions and has directly impacted on turnover.

"Fundamentally, this is a much nicer place to work now," explains Gordon Bull. "It's more relaxed and people are more energised, because they are clear about what their roles are and how they can make decisions. At a senior level, we now have the ability to think more clearly and at our partner meetings we have conversations that allow us to move the business forward, rather than just discussing administration issues. The way we now work, how we take decisions about the business and how we interact with our clients, have all positively affected our bottom line.

"Since bringing in coaches to help develop our skills, the turnover in our accountancy business has seen a steady increase and we are handling a much better quality of work with good clients. I would estimate that in the last 12 months, we have increased new work by 10 per cent over last year. In our newer financial services business, a more focused way of operating has seen turnover increase by 200 per cent - and we are all working less hours."

The amount of time Shirlaws' coaches spend with a client will vary, depending on the projects that are being undertaken. At Bryden Johnson, Shirlaws coaching sessions ranged from half a day a month to four days a month.

"Shirlaws' business coaching is a hybrid between traditional consulting and coaching," explains its UK CEO, Glyn Heald. "Our coaches work alongside the clients, giving them as much support as is necessary throughout the projects and both clients and coach are focused on achieving positive results for the business. When we start working with a client, it is not unusual to find senior partners or CEOs spending a considerable amount of their time on issues that are not directed towards achieving business growth. "

Gordon Bull is clear that Bryden Johnson would be a very different business if it hadn't opted to work with Shirlaws' coaches. "Looking back, we were diffuse and directionless a couple of years ago and I doubt the business would have grown at all - in fact I'm sure it would have become much smaller. Some people have said ‘you're accountants - you should know what you're doing,' but even the best can benefit from the additional skills that a coach can bring. Look at Tiger Woods - he works with a coach, and you can't get better than that."