3a, the Msida-based accountancy and business advisory firm, has brought knowledge organisation Misco and corporate strategy specialist Franco Azzopardi on board in a bid to widen its service offering to business clients.
By acquiring a stake in the two-year-old firm, Misco and Mr Azzopardi have cemented their commitment to the young team of professionals and will supplement the board with their wide experience and varied expertise.
Misco directors Joseph F.X. Zahra, Lawrence Zammit and Anthony Carabott join the board of 3a as non-executive directors.
3a was founded by Neville Cutajar, Christian Vella and Clive Farrugia after they stitched together a management buyout of the firm they had previously worked at for 10 years. The buyout, the first of its kind to take place in Malta, meant the three young directors - all were under 30 at the time - took on the firm's portfolio and its staff.
Initially, Mr Azzopardi, who had previously worked with the three at the original firm, was often roped in by 3a as an advisor.
"When they set up 3a, the members of the founding team went from managers carrying out audits to directors, from employees to employers," Mr Azzopardi told The Times Business. "They worked hard to create the best working environment possible to enable them to attract top-notch talent to the firm. Eventually I joined 3a as a director. The plan was never for 3a to remain an accountancy outfit providing only tax advisory or compliance services. 3a wanted to widen its remit to provide a diversified range of business advisory services to a wide portfolio of local and international firms in various sectors."
Impressed by the young directors' potential and their openness to new business opportunities, Mr Zahra regularly mentored the board and top management and the transformation began. Franco Falzon, an international tax consultant, also joined the 3a fold.
A few years into his own career, Mr Azzopardi, an accountant and auditor with 27 years' experience, furthered his studies in corporate finance to satisfy an ambition to go from backroom to boardroom. He has since carved out a fully-fledged career in directorship and currently sits on numerous local and international boards, including that of APS Bank.
"I often found that my accountancy training did not satisfy the needs of demanding business clients," Mr Azzopardi said of his own career transition. "Accountants have ample training in tax, accounting and auditing standards - everything fitting into specific boxes - but they often lack advisory skills for aspects of business like investment appraisal and opportunity costs. They are often unable to satisfactorily fulfil requests for the strategic and visionary requirements of financial advisory and consultancy. Entrepreneurs crave people who are able to supplement the boardroom."
In its infancy, 3a continued to build its relationship with Misco with a view to increasingly bring its newest recruits closer to the business community by enabling them to provide specific services. Now, thanks to the increased involvement of Misco's directors in 3a, the young firm's board has been supplemented with ample experience to infuse the organisation with a new mindset - the quality consciousness, client centricity and responsiveness needed to win the desired new business.
"3a seeks to be closer to business people by being able to assist them in making informed decisions and pre-empting them. We want to distinguish 3a with this characteristic. There is still a lot to do but I believe Misco's involvement, even at equity level, balances the youth at 3a with a certain vintage."
Mr Azzopardi is confident 3a's differentiation will get noticed. The firm's original portfolio of target clients consisted of SMEs and family businesses. Considerable investment in online marketing tools and search engine optimisation has translated into enquires being received from overseas firms and a widening of the portfolio. The organisation's re-engineering aims to bring about a paradigm shift to not only broaden the client spectrum but also to compete with longer-established firms.
"3a believes in the importance of agility in responding to clients' needs, and customer relationship management. This new focus will be strongly reinforced by Misco as it is hugely attentive to these elements itself," Mr Azzopardi pointed out. He added that 3a, whose current team is made up of 15 professionals specialising in a number of accountancy disciplines, had no plans to seek international representation.
"3a's aim is to internationalise from Malta outwards, not the other way round," Mr Azzopardi explained.
"It is a tall order and a very ambitious project, but we are committed to realising it. Talent retention is to be the firm's unique selling point, so that clients have ready access to specialised knowledge within this team. 3a also aims to lend a considerably different tone to clients' business plans. I believe that by morphing 3a into a multi-disciplinary organisation the firm will have a very strong team."