At the recent Mercia Partners' conference John was asked how he started Mercia. He explained that he hadn’t. Four firms of accountants had got together and employed John to go down to London to attend CPD conferences. In those days very few CPD courses took place around the UK. John was then required to come back ‘oop north’ to run the same courses for the founding firms' staff. They each paid 25% of his fees.
I wonder if anyone is doing much the same thing today?
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2 comments:
The actual genesis of \Mercia was even earlier. It started when Brian Carruthers and myself started teaching staff on Saturdays using the Mann of Moorgate bookkeeping course. That was in the late 1970's.
we then expanded the idea with Blyhens of Nottingham and Cooper Parry of Derby and the four firms formed Mercia Accountancy Tutors Ltd. I gave the name to it as it covered part of the old Anglo Saxon region of Mercia. Our first full time employee was Jonathan Lodder. When he left we then advertised and recruited John Welsford from Thornton Baker. The big breakthrough came when I managed to get the training contract for the UK200 group and that put Mercia on the map, as a commercial enterprise. John Welsford then developed the company beyond that. He then engineered the gradual removal of the four founding firms, firstly Cooper Parry and then bought the other three out after threatening a boardroom coup. Much against my wishes we had agreed a share option scheme which gave him the springboard to take control.
So, there it is. John is a great lecturer and operator, but without those beginnings he would never have done it himself.
John Soars
Former Partner of Newby Castleman Leicester
The actual genesis of \Mercia was even earlier. It started when Brian Carruthers and myself started teaching staff on Saturdays using the Mann of Moorgate bookkeeping course. That was in the late 1970's.
we then expanded the idea with Blyhens of Nottingham and Cooper Parry of Derby and the four firms formed Mercia Accountancy Tutors Ltd. I gave the name to it as it covered part of the old Anglo Saxon region of Mercia. Our first full time employee was Jonathan Lodder. When he left we then advertised and recruited John Welsford from Thornton Baker. The big breakthrough came when I managed to get the training contract for the UK200 group and that put Mercia on the map, as a commercial enterprise. John Welsford then developed the company beyond that. He then engineered the gradual removal of the four founding firms, firstly Cooper Parry and then bought the other three out after threatening a boardroom coup. Much against my wishes we had agreed a share option scheme which gave him the springboard to take control.
So, there it is. John is a great lecturer and operator, but without those beginnings he would never have done it himself.
John Soars
Former Partner of Newby Castleman Leicester
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