While there remain business challenges out there, from the outworkings of Brexit and a post-pandemic environment, they may seem less choppy waters to navigate compared to 30 years ago, says Eamonn Donaghy.
The Belfast-born chartered accountant and tax adviser has been working across the sectors here for more than three decades, and is now executive chairman with HNH.
“While I am still spending a lot of my time advising my clients, in my role I am assisting my corporate finance colleagues to source, resource and deliver our suite of services in corporate finance, M&A and tax,” he says.
HNH has offices in Belfast and Edinburgh with plans for expansion. It currently has 30 members in the team, with that expected to rise to 40 in the next year.
“While it might seem strange to say for a 30-year veteran, every day is still a learning day and especially so in the dynamic and ever changing world of tax,” he says.
“As a corporate finance house, we are involved in a multitude of merger and acquisition deals, due diligence exercises and family wealth planning advice. Every deal or transaction is different and the complexity of the UK tax system means that we have to consider each transaction on a case-by-case basis.
“I come into the office every day – I am a big advocate of being in the office as it greatly enhances collaboration and learning, that you just don’t get from a Teams call. Together with my colleagues we provide tax advisory services to our clients on an enormous array of both commercial and technical matters.”
Looking at the current business landscape here, in terms of both business growth and entrepreneurship, Eamonn says “I can say that entrepreneurship in this part of the world is not only alive and well but is thriving”.
“The business community here has had a history of not only doing well in adverse situations but in many cases going out and taking on the world and winning,” he says.
“While the current post-Brexit, post pandemic and post interest rate spike is looking flat at the minute, these may seem less of an issue when compared to what the business community of 30 years ago had to face and yet they managed to not only survive but also to grow.
“I am very blessed to regularly meet some of our most successful entrepreneurs who are looking to either grow their business, pass it on to the next generation or even sell on. Their success is demonstrated by the value that their businesses are worth, the number of people they employ or by their expansion plans.
“Of course, it would all be easier if interest rates fell, tax rates were reduced and there were no border checks and forms, but that all said, time and again businesses here have overcome a myriad of problems to successfully grow and expand. I don’t see any reason with this can’t continue.”
On the barriers and challenges, however, he says while Northern Ireland boasts a raft of great entrepreneurs and business – we still don’t have enough of them.
“As a former senior politician used to regularly tell me, Northern Ireland has some great businesses and entrepreneurs, but it just does not have enough of them,” he says.
“I think that is still the case here. We are still too dependent on the public sector and the impact of having no local government for several years has significantly stunted the growth potential of the last decade.
“The impact of Brexit has led to a forest of regulations and forms that has caused significant upset and undue cost – irrespective of your view on whether Brexit was needed or not. Having said that, there is still a great opportunity for businesses based here. We have a foot in both camps and whilst weaving through the bureaucracy is not easy, businesses here should try to make the best of both markets.”
Turning to his own management style, Eamonn says “leadership is not easy”.
“The old saying of leading by example is a maxim I have tried to follow most of my career,” he says.
“However, I have also learned that empowering your team to take responsibility and giving them the education and tools to succeed is the best way to develop not only the individual but at the same time grow and expand the business.
“Self-assessing your own management style is always a dangerous thing to do. However, despite being in a leadership role for over 25 years, I realise that just as soon as you think you have everything under control, the goal posts move and you have to refocus and pivot.”