R Rajan Associates, Chartered Accountants (RRACA) was established in 1981 in Coimbatore and carryies a legacy of more than 40 years. The firm joined BOKS International in 2020, and takes pride in providing three decades of professional services, with their partners boasting over 150 years of combined experience. The Firm currently has 5 branches, one each at Coimbatore, Thrissur, Kochi, Bangalore and Pondicherry. They are sector agnostic and provide services to various companies/firms/business houses across all five branches. RRACA endure to deliver value to their clients through reliable and efficient professional aptitude in a time bound manner.
We asked Hari Vasudevan to answer our questions on some key issues in the accounting and legal sectors:
In your opinion, what is the future for your profession?
Technological advancements have changed the way of doing business. Business processes has changed and so should be the audit processes to check these. Technology has both simplified and made complex the audit procedures.Advent of artificial intelligence will be bringing in new methods, techniques, practices etc. Consulting profession has also undergone changes as per the new needs of business class. We believe that one should embrace the new technology and thrive to render the services as per the need of the hour thereby ensuring growth to ourselves and our stakeholders.
What is your growth strategy?
We are planning to increase our presence in South India by opening new office as necessary. South India comprises of states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telengana& Union Territories of Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. Out of the 5 states, we already have major presence in 3 States. The South Indian market is still growing and the Policies of Government of India like “Make In India”, “AtmaNirbhar Bharat” etc. have boosted the rate of growth. By establishing a strong foothold in South India can, we believe that we would be able to tap the opportunities in this segment. Since more foreign Corporates are expected setting up their manufacturing and business facilities in India as part of Make In India Campaign, our strategy will also include tapping this opportunity.
We Also plan into tap into the growing knowledge based outsourcing or KPO and expect it to substantially increase our presence in the accounting space. With the COVID-19 pandemic, most organisations are now open to working from remote locations and with the cost advantage of having work done from locations such as South India, we expect a substantial growth in this area.
Where do you see your firm 5 years from now?
We look forward eagerly with our partnership with BOKS International. We believe that, being a part of BOKS International would help us achieve our growth strategy by overtaking the competition. In the next 5 years, we would be targeting to be one of the Top Consulting Firms in South India and positioning ourselves with higher access to knowledge and technology to offer highest client satisfaction.
South India is emerging as a hub for outsourcing hub for accounting and finance, which is an area we have turned our focus on and we believe that in the next 5 years atleast 30% of our revenue will start flowing from this segment.
What is your biggest challenge?
India’s regulatory, taxation and legal system is ever evolving and yet to be robust. Keeping abreast of these legal, regulatory and taxation laws will pause a challenge to anyone dealing with Indian economy. We would invest in best human resource, better research & knowledge repositories and technology to tackle this challenge. Further, the Five South Indian States use five different local languages might come as challenge. Since we are already having presence in 60% of these states and have our locally placed resources there, we believe that we are better placed than our competitors in this aspect.
What percentage of your work is international?
5%-15%
What business advisory services do you offer?
Our clientele includes both Indian and Foreign clients. Ours is boutique firm and we offer following services in following areas in India scenario:
1. Audit and Assurance
2. Tax planning and compliance
3. Regulatory matters
4. Business Valuations
5. Knowledge Process Outsourcing
6. Accounting and Bookkeeping
7. Company Secretarial Matters
8. Due Diligences and Internal Control Audits
9. Investment Advisory and compliance
10. Legal Matters and vetting
11. Management Consultancy
12. Financial Modelling and planning
What was your main driver for being part of BOKS International?
We believe that we could increase our service quality, professionalism by being a part of BOKS International. Working with foreign clients will be driving us to deliver better service quality and to ensure customer satisfaction. Further, our share from foreign clients is only 5%-15% right now. Being a part of BOKS International, we believe that we would be having better access to foreign markets and referrals and thereby increasing the share of revenue.
We also believe that we are at the right location for adding value to all BOKS international member firms by being a delivery center for professional work outsourcing.
Where do you see BOKS International 5 years from now?
We appreciate the high standards applied by BOKS International’s management in it’s operations. This would translate to solid growth of BOKS International in previous years. Before we joined the BOKS International, it had presence only in Northern Part of India. Our joining has resulted in Southern India to be also under the network. Likewise, in the future, we are confident that this strong growth will be continuing and it will lead to presence in several new countries and locations and becoming a well recognized global network.
How would you describe your typical client?
Our typical clientele is mostly from the SME Sector. They include Services, Trading activities as well as manufacturing. We also have enterprises in financial services sector under our clientele. Our clients include family run concerns, start-ups, business houses and listed entities.
Tell us about a recent international assignment
We recently advised a US Company on setting up its Indian Operation and establishing a Captive Unit here in India. We were part of the end-to-end advisory and implementation of the assignment. It involved liaison with various Government Bodies, assistance with obtaining necessary registrations and approvals, making required filings, providing advise on tax and regulatory matters in India etc. Since, we were involved right from advisory to implementation of the plan, we tailormade the plan of actions as per the client’s need and implemented it flawlessly.
How do you target clients who are looking for international services?
We actively and closely work with all our clients on regular basis. Hence, we would be knowing if any such requirement arises to our clients. Further, our existing clients also do refer our profile to their acquaintances who are in need of the international services. Once we are aware that a requirement has come, we will analyse the requirement and try to deliver it, whether by our firm or by the other member firms of BOKS International depending on the nature of the assignment.
Do you specialise in a particular sector or service?
We are a sector-agnostic firm. Each of our partners’ is specialised in different areas and they prepared and mentored their team as well. Our services offering includes Taxation, Assurance, Regulary matters, Mergers & Acquisitions, Funding related matters etc. Further, we extensively work with Start-ups in India.
