Up close and personal with – Richard King

RICHARD King is head of audit for the West Yorkshire practice of accountants Baker Tilly. In this week’s personal profile he reveals his love of Yorkshire and his best deal to date.

What aspects of your job/profession do you enjoy the most?
I love the variety, the challenges, and the people. Playing the odd round of golf isn’t bad either.

What key challenges do you anticipate will affect your sector/profession over the next six months?
Despite the challenging environment we have not really seen a drop off in activity at Baker Tilly. Looking at my own clients, the availability of suitable finance is unsurprisingly one of the major challenges being faced. There are still deals to be done, but investors and lenders are more cautious.

What key skills do you think every business leader should have?
For me, one of the key skills is the ability to build, develop and motivate your team.

Why do you think Yorkshire is a good place to start up/operate a business?
There are so many reasons. In no particular order: great educational institutions, a keen work force, it’s a beautiful place to live, a fabulous professional support network, an abundance of common sense….

If you could improve anything in the region what would it be?
Assuming you can’t do anything about the weather it would have to be transport – I commute up the M1!

Do you think that red tape is hindering business growth in the UK?
I do, which would be fine if the playing field was level but in this global world it isn’t.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
In order to become someone’s trusted advisor you first have to gain their trust.

And the worst?
I can’t think of any. It is up to you what you do with the advice you receive, good or bad.

What is the best deal/business achievement you’ve been involved with?
Recently, the best deal I worked on was the acquisition and subsequent listing of Darwen, followed by its acquisition of the much larger business Optare. As always there was quite a bit of time pressure and some interesting accounting debates were had relating to the first time adoption of IFRS and fair value accounting. At least I found them interesting.

What was your first job and what did you spend your first wage packet on?
My first job paid the princely sum of 70p an hour (I am older than I look). I was 15 and it was working at Twycross Zoo doing general tasks such as litter picking and gardening. Twycross was famous for supplying the PG Tips chimps. I can still remember knocking on Molly Badham’s door and asking her for a job. She asked when could I start and I replied tomorrow. See you at 8am was the response. If only all job interviews were that easy! Even though I looked about 12 the first thing I bought on the Friday lunchtime was a pint of Pedigree. After that I saved up for a new bike.

If you could choose to start your career over again would you do anything different and if so what?
I would start paying into a pension straight away, other than that, nothing.