“The company’s growth is intrinsically connected to our close relationship with our clients.”

Interview with José Miguel Contreras

President of the Board of Directors of Morison ACPM  In this interview, José Miguel Contreras, founding partner and president of the Board of Directors of Morison ACPM, talks about key developments in 2017, our company’s current situation and the most important challenges for 2018.   JOSÉ MIGUEL CONTRERAS. 2017 was a very important year in terms of demonstrating to our clients, to the market and even to our own employees that we were serious about the 2020 Strategic Plan. Basically, because as a result of this plan, which was approved three years ago, several of the projects and ideas we defined regarding our short- and medium-term vision for Morison ACPM were implemented in 2017, serving as a definitive guide for our company’s future. We advanced in the way we wanted and designed. The idea of growth, which as we’ve explained on several occasions is the basis for our being able to offer the increased specialization of our professionals and, consequently, provide our clients with better service, has made a very significant qualitative leap in the last two years. In the audit and consulting company rankings issued by the newspaper Expansión, we were in 30th place at

the end of 2016, with turnover of 4,850,000 euros, while in 2017 we moved up to 26th place, with turnover of 7,100,000 euros. These figures are coupled with two elements that it is very important to stress. On the one hand, we’re 26th among all audit and consulting firms. But if we limit ourselves just to companies, excluding partnerships, networks and other “inventions”, we’re in 12th place, a very important position among medium-size Spanish firms. This allows us to be more competitive, complete and decisive than smaller companies while at the same time more streamlined and accessible than big audit and consulting firms, as our company’s motto makes clear. On the other hand, we’ve increased our staff significantly. In 2017 the number of professionals rose to 110, and in 2018 we continue to grow. This January, we welcomed to Morison ACPM three new audit professionals and added another professional to the tax department. And good professionals are what make a company great. Are you going to continue growing in 2018? JOSÉ MIGUEL CONTRERAS. Obviously, you can’t grow in the same way every year because you need to secure what you’ve gained and incorporate it into the group’s philosophy and style. To do this naturally, you need to synergize efforts. This year, our growth will be less percentage wise. But this doesn’t mean we aren’t going to continue striving to grow. Probably the opposite is true: we’re working harder than ever on accomplishing this. What lines of growth are you working on? JOSÉ MIGUEL CONTRERAS. There’s growth in business areas and growth in geographic areas. We believe both are necessary and important for our company. At the end of the 2017, we started a line of growth, which will increase in 2018, based on regional expansion - both in Catalonia and Madrid, close to our two operating centers in Spain. This allows us to couple growth with something we stand firmly behind as an intrinsic value of our company: a close relationship with our clients. Establishing a presence within the country allows us to forge close relationships with our clients, which they appreciate very much, and it also forms part of our business vision. These operations represent less in economic terms, but they contribute in a very important way to making our company bigger. On the other hand, we also have operations of higher economic value underway in Madrid, Barcelona and other Spanish provincial capitals. These are works in progress that need to mature and continue to define themselves. Any valuable operation develops at its own pace, and this needs to be respected. Business dealings and the effort we devote to them indicate that our growth has not stopped. In fact, looking ahead to 2020, we see ourselves as a company with a turnover of close to 20 million euros a year, which means there’s still a lot of work to do.  

There’s growth in business

areas and growth in

geographic areas.

Being a larger company implies being able to devote one’s efforts to matters one wouldn’t be able to focus on without a sufficient framework. JOSÉ MIGUEL CONTRERAS. Exactly. Technology, training, specialization and communication. These are areas necessary for improving our customer service, and they can only be addressed positively if you have a company structure of a certain size such as ours. This year, the technological effort exerted by the labor department, for example, has situated us ahead of any other market technology. We’re doing different things than other companies that offer this service and we’re increasing our efficiency in managing the accounts of the companies we work for as well as the relationship between Morison ACPM and our clients. We always talk about technological advances that help us to be more professional, more efficient and closer to our clients. Otherwise, for us it’s just not worth it. Services increase. This is good for everyone… JOSÉ MIGUEL CONTRERAS. Especially for our clients. We respond to needs. We’re not a big department store like Harrod’s or Macy’s, a sales business where you can find anything you want. At Morison ACPM what you’ll find are services to improve your company’s performance. We detect and respond to real needs. We don’t sell motorcycles; unless a law is passed that says that CEOs must drive a motorcycle to work. If we believe this service is needed for the company’s good performance, we’ll find the necessary engineers or experts, create a department and offer advice so that our client can choose the motorcycle that best suits its needs. In 2017, for example, the legal department began offering services related to consulting and claims regarding “floor clauses”. The purpose was to prepare companies for the new “data protection law” and the preparation and implementation of “Penal Compliance”, which we began working on the day the new penal code was published in July 2015, in response to the changes made to it, which now holds companies liable that don’t have a crime prevention model in place. It shows we have the reflexes to react quickly to market demands and all our clients’ new needs. More emphasis is being placed on this… Yes. It’s extremely important. Our basic notion is that to know the client’s needs we need to be attuned to the world we live in and to the market, and most importantly, we need to be close to the client and the client’s company. Our communication seeks, essentially, to be closer to the people and companies that we collaborate with.  This year, for example, we organized “Morison ACPM work breakfasts” with audit clients to address concerns and challenges regarding the changes that the New Audit Report entails. It has been a very rewarding experience for everyone

involved. More than fifteen breakfasts have been held in Barcelona and Madrid, and they have proved to be an effective way to communicate with our clients.   Similarly, from within the tax department, a Debate Conference was organized to examine the New Immediate VAT Data Delivery (SII) for companies that had concerns or questions about his application. More than 70 people participated in the event. Also, two new areas were launched in 2017 that still need to be consolidated… JOSÉ MIGUEL CONTRERAS. We kicked off last year with the presentation of our new Insolvency Administration services, and we ended the year with 5 jobs, designated by the courts of Barcelona and Madrid. In the last quarter of 2017, the “Forensic Audit” department project was introduced. Since the beginning of 2018, it is being developed by a multidisciplinary team of lawyers, auditors, economists, private detectives and investigators integrated into Morison ACPM who offer a level of professionalism within reach of very few Spanish companies, aside from the Big Four, and, in addition, at an extremely competitive price compared to them. Morison ACPM is a holding company now, with a Board of Directors, with a company structure. How does this affect the progress of the project? JOSÉ MIGUEL CONTRERAS. The project is precisely that. Or better yet, that’s the corporate structure that we need and want to build our project. 2017 served us, in fact, to consolidate ground previously covered. Although in the media the experts tout larger companies, the reality is, today in Spain the companies that are being created tend to be small. A clear example is the promotion and expansion of the “freelance model” (the maximum expression of fragmentation). If my memory serves me well, in Spain nearly 16% of workers are freelancers. In the EU, it’s 14%. We have more freelancers than Denmark, Germany or Sweden, each of which has just half as many as we do. We’re sold the idea that the freelancer is a symbol of a country’s entrepreneurship, but that’s not completely true. What it indicates is an impoverishment and proletarianization of the business world and a fragmentation of progress: many new freelancers are freelancers despite themselves. In Spain, most companies have an average of two employees, which makes them, in reality, micro-enterprises. This is a drag on our competitiveness at all levels, especially in terms of innovation.

We are a company made up of professional partners.

Our structure and internal rules reinforce

this reality.

We’re escaping from a real situation in the country that prevents companies from earning more, growing more, being more competitive and offering better service. Morison ACPM is a company created by partners. How important is their role? We are a company made up of professional partners. Both internal rules (which protect and establish partners’ rights and obligations) and our organizational structure (which reflects a model in which the professional partner is a cornerstone of the organization) reinforce this reality. Our structure as a holding company allows us to create our firm, to grow as a group and to better accommodate new partners. We have embarked on an ambitious project and being at Morison ACPM better positions our partners in higher segments of the market, gaining in efficiency, in synergies with other professionals and in impact. Since Morison ACPM is a company created by partners, we’ve made sure that our rights are very well protected, which allows for and guarantees being able to benefit from full social peace. We all sacrifice part of our independence to the project but in exchange for fair guarantees. If you believe in the Group and in the Company, there are few complications. The more partners the Group has, the better for everyone, the more security for each partner and more stability in general. The partners plan our future together. We design the project and we manage day-to-day affairs, thanks to the strong and loyal commitment of all our professionals.

January 31, 2018 www.morisonacpm.com