Deloitte and Drivers Jonas: Two years on
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Two years ago, the Drivers Jonas team joined their new colleagues at Deloitte in Brindleyplace, Birmingham. As Gary Cardin and the Drivers Jonas team unpacked their desks and looked about them, the atmosphere was tentatively optimistic. “We’d worked hard up to that point to achieve a leading place in the real estate sector, and whilst I think some of the team wondered if we were about to leave our property roots behind, we all had faith in the move and didn’t see any benefit in clinging to the past. “If you put up barriers then of course you’re not going to enjoy success – I wasn’t prepared to let that happen.” The merger gave inception to Drivers Jonas Deloitte, now affectionately known as DJD. Many observers mused that two such seemingly different organisations couldn’t possibly work successfully together, but Deloitte’s Jonathan Dodworth was confident. “I remember the Drivers Jonas team being warmly welcomed into Deloitte – their frequent charity cake sales may have had something to do with it! But we weren’t combining from a standing start; Birmingham has such a uniquely networked business community that most on the Deloitte side were already familiar with the Drivers Jonas personalities coming on board. “For those that weren’t, it wasn’t long before new partnerships were forged as we were able to combine the teams in the same office almost immediately. Every single client we work with has some form of property need and I think many Deloitte teams only fully realised the unique benefits of the merger once it had happened.” But of course, it hasn’t all been plain sailing. Gary admits: “There have been challenges presented by some systems, but we recognise these as challenges that essentially any business faces, and we have managed them without any problems and our clients still enjoy unparalleled levels of service. I think it helped that when we came on board, Chris Loughran had also just recently taken the helm at Deloitte’s Birmingham office and we each embarked on the journey at around the same time, developing a modus operandum together. Jonathan adds “We may have had our own ways of doing things, but the core of what both Deloitte and Drivers Jonas Deloitte do is understanding our clients’ needs and solving their problems. “I never had any doubt that we could adopt and support the Drivers Jonas Deloitte arm of the business without unbalancing its already successful formula. We found an instantly tangible benefit in the connections that the DJ guys brought with them – they’re an exceptionally well connected team! Gary adds: “For the Drivers Jonas team, adapting to the regulation side of things at Deloitte was an eye opener, but one that was necessary. In fact, it’s the way the business world is heading and the property sector needs to keep up. Any new procedures we’ve implemented go further towards protecting us and protecting our clients.” “In the last two years we’ve actually strengthened our edge in real estate, maintaining the direction and individuality we had before the merger, while benefitting enormously from the additional skills we have to hand in the Deloitte family. If you fully embrace the change and move forward, the market will see this and move forward with you!” Jonathan concludes: “I’ve found the additional property expertise that DJD colleagues bring to the firm invaluable from an audit perspective. In one recent example a large manufacturing client had some property issues and DJD was able to bring forward immediate business solutions. “Every day and every conversation we have with our clients, we find some new area where the new skills we have might be useful. There is still a lot we can learn and that we want to do – not least to continue demonstrating to all clients the full range of how we can help them” More articles in
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