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Business Risk Services
Our Business Risk Services team deliver practical and pragmatic solutions that support clients in growing and protecting the inherent value of their businesses.
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Corporate Finance and Deal Advisory
We offer a dedicated team of experienced individuals with a focus on successfully executing transactions for corporates and financial institutions. We offer an integrated approach, with our corporate finance specialists working seamlessly with tax and other specialists to ensure that every angle is covered.
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Economic Advisory
Our all-island Economics Advisory team combines expertise in economics and business with a wealth of experience across the public and private sectors.
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Forensic Accounting
We have a different way of doing business by delivering real insight through a combination of technical rigour, commercial experience and intuitive judgment. We take pride in delivering responsive and tailored solutions to all our clients, capitalising on the wealth of experience housed within our Belfast and wider Forensics team
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People and Change Consulting
The Grant Thornton People & Change Consulting practice works with clients on these issues as well as on all aspects of how they attract, retain, engage develop, deploy and lead their people.
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Restructuring
We work with a wide variety of clients and stakeholders such as high street banks, private equity funds, directors, government agencies and creditors to implement solutions which provide the best possible outcomes.
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Technology Consulting
Motivating and assisting our clients to pursue, maintain and secure the benefits of digital solutions is at the core of our Digital Transformation teams' agenda and goals. We work with business leaders to deliver efficient digital strategies and operating models that provide new or enhanced capabilities.
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Corporate and International Tax
Northern Ireland businesses face further challenges as they operate in the only part of the UK that has a land border with a country offering a lower tax rate.
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Employer Solutions
Our team specialises in remuneration and incentive planning and works closely with employers, shareholders and employees to ensure that business strategies are aligned and goals achieved in the most tax efficient, cost-effective manner.
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Entrepreneur and Private Client Taxes
Our team of experienced advisors are on hand to guide you through any decision or transaction ranging from the establishment of new business ventures, to realising value on exit, to succession planning and providing for loved ones.
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Global Mobility Services
Grant Thornton Ireland offer a different approach to managing global mobility. We have brought together specialists from our tax, global payroll, people and change and financial accounting teams across Ireland and Northern Ireland, while drawing on the knowledge and insights of our global network of over 143 offices of mobility professionals to provide you with a holistic approach to managing global mobility.
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Outsourced Payroll
Our outsourced service provides valued service to over 150 separate PAYE schemes. These ranging from 1 to 1000 employees, working for micro, SME and global employers. The service is supported by the integrated network of tax and global mobility teams and the wider Grant Thornton network delivering a seamless service. Experienced staff deliver a personal service built around your business needs.
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Tax Disputes and Investigations
Our Tax Disputes and Investigation team is made up of tax experts and former HMRC investigators who have years of experience in dealing with a variety of tax investigations. Our expertise and insight can guide you through all interactions, keeping your cost at a minimum while allowing you to continue with the day to day running of your business.
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VAT and Indirect Taxes
At Grant Thornton (NI) LLP, our team helps Northern Ireland businesses manage their UK and global indirect tax risks which, as transactional taxes, can quickly become big liabilities.
Corporate culture is finally moving to centre stage. A series of corporate scandals and the banking crisis has raised serious questions about the standing of business in society, in turn questioning whether poor behaviour reflects a flawed internal culture. To find out more about the information that boards are currently receiving in relation to culture in their organisations, the Institute of Business Ethics (IBE) surveyed 28 large companies in a wide range of sectors. They found that 82% of respondents said their board monitored data related to culture. This is a significant new challenge for business leaders, and requires a systemic approach to measuring culture.
The Central Bank of Ireland has recently undertaken Behaviour and Culture Reviews at the five main Irish retail banks. These reviews focus primarily on the executive leadership teams, due to the importance of these teams in setting ‘the tone from the top’, including the drivers of behaviour in terms of group dynamics and mindset. The outcomes produced provide detailed insights into behavioural and structural patters in leadership, decision-making, communication, group dynamics and mindset that affect the way consumer needs are considered. The banks are required to deliver action plans to address any risks identified in these reviews.
Measuring corporate culture is a challenge and responsibility for all boards, as a way of understanding ‘the way we do things around here’. Culture is the combination of factors that define the way people in an organisation behave. Culture starts with a clear set of values and purpose, which leads on to the development of a framework, in which the values are built into the way the company and its staff operate on a day-to-day basis. Embedding the desired culture is the main job of the executive, but boards have a vital role in measuring and monitoring the culture, to ensure there is alignment between the rhetoric and the reality.
An effective board is fundamental to safeguarding the long-term success and sustainability of any company. Effective boards understand the role and influence of organisational culture and diversity in decision-making at both board and executive levels.
Increasingly, the evaluation of a board’s effectiveness requires consideration of the dual aspects of the role of the board, to consider its conformance and performance dimensions. Whilst the governance and compliance processes remain important pillars, forward-thinking boards increasingly embrace a review that goes beyond the compliance dimension to generate insights into the human and behavioral aspects of board performance –the culture. More and more of our clients are requesting culture measurement as part of their board review, to address proactively any aspects of the culture that are not aligned.
An important part of board oversight of culture, however, remains the assessment that flows from first-hand observation. The demeanor of the CEO, the degree to which he or she embodies the desired values and the way in which the management engages with the board speaks volumes.
The level and direction of debate over the last couple of years leaves little doubt that culture matters to companies. The way employees behave and the way the company relates to the outside world can have a profound bearing on its reputation. Measuring culture is no longer an optional, nice thing to do. The increased focus on culture provides a great opportunity for boards to develop their thinking and practice to be truly effective