As part of the Super Connect for Good Competition 2023 supported by Global Good, our Editor-in-Chief, Kosta Mavroulakis, caught up with its London and South East Regional Co-Partner at the Menzies.
Please introduce yourself
I am Rob Kruppa, a Director within Menzies LLP, a top 25 firm of Accountants and Business Advisors headquartered in the South East of England.
Joining Menzies directly from University, I have progressed from Trainee to Director in one of the most successful firms in the UK. My journey has given me the opportunity to grow and develop my professional career, working with fantastic people and a wide and varied client base. My role as head of the Accounts service line for Menzies requires me to steer the progression of the service line in collaboration with an innovative team of client advisors.
Using a combination of technical knowledge and the Menzies BRIGHTER THINKING approach, my primary role is to manage a portfolio of businesses and business leaders, ensuring that my clients receive expert advice that aligns with their long-term strategic goals.
What are some of the most pressing social issues that your company is working to address through its technology?
Business leaders are under a great deal of time and performance pressures in the modern business world, especially in the more dynamic post-COVID economy. From systems advice and implementation to data extraction and interpretation, at Menzies, we utilise technology to ensure that our clients have the information they need to make good decisions. Ensuring that information is gathered and interpreted in a timely and accurate way gives business leaders the best possible chance of making well-informed decisions.
The speed of decision-making can be the difference between success and failure, so utilising technology to the fullest extent is necessary in the current business world.
In addition to enabling business leaders to be agile in their management, effectively utilising technology to provide immediate information enables them to save valuable time and energy. This helps relieve some of the pressures of the role and restore quality of life for those involved, assisting with maintaining psychological well-being.
How does your organisation support and/or work with startups and scale-ups
As professional advisors, Menzies’ role in supporting startup and scaleup businesses can take several forms. In our own service capability, this can simply be supporting the business leaders in gathering and reporting on their finances to ensure they have information to make decisions. Our preference, however, is to be more forward-focused. Using past financial results in conjunction with a strong understanding of the business’s strategic objective, we can help startup and scaleup businesses grow and develop strong and robust pathways to success.
This may be preparing financial forecasts and budgets or reviewing the business to ensure that it is structured for growth. This could even include assisting the business leaders in identifying and targeting an ideal customer base, moving into new markets, or managing suppliers.
In addition to our own expertise, our contact network is wide; therefore, we often connect our clients with each other or with other professional contacts to ensure that they get the advice and support they need in all aspects of their growth trajectory.
Why did you support the Super Connect for Good 2023 Competition as a Judge / Partner?
As a specialist in the technology sector, I have a keen interest in any technology-led business. The Super Connect for Good Competition is a fantastic way for some of the most innovative businesses and business leaders to showcase themselves. Demonstrating their innovations and the real-life impacts these can have provides the entrants with another platform and opportunity to succeed.
As an individual and part of a progressive firm of advisors, I am keen and encouraged to assist entrepreneurs in their journey to greatness with every success they deserve.
In your opinion, what impact will technology have in creating a better future? To what extent do you feel that tech startups and scaleups can contribute to society’s greatest challenges
There are so many areas where technology can help to create a better future, but those most significant I believe, would be in the areas of Healthcare, Sustainability and Education.
Developments in these areas enable a better understanding of ourselves, our environment and our impact. This will enable the development of technologies to combat the negatives and enhance the positives. The pace of development in these areas is already having a daily impact on our lives. As this pace increases, new technologies’ physical, social and economic benefits will undoubtedly improve our lives. Not every great idea is backed with the funding and expertise to explode into the world with a huge impact. Some of the greatest ideas and innovations are contained within much smaller startup and scaleup businesses.
There are so many brilliant inventors, engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs whose ideas could significantly impact our society. Fostering these startups and scale-up businesses and the genius they contain could give rise to technologies of the future that will have the biggest impact.
Menzies was the Super Connect for Good 2023 Regional Co-Partner for London and the South East co-designed by Empact Ventures and Hays.
