“Impossible.” This is what colleagues of Giuseppe Bernoni said when the young chartered accountant decided to start an accountancy firm in partnership with a woman, in the mid Sixties.
Since the beginning of his activity, he has always worked industriously and demonstrated that what had been started as an intuition being completely unconventional in those years could become the key for success.
The professional career of Mr. Bernoni has its roots in the awareness that "any profession related to the legal and economic environment implies a complexity that does not allow people to work alone, but only basing on human and professional skills of colleagues. This is a fact that professionals, being generally individualistic, find it very hard to accept. Moreover, clients find it difficult to accept that, too."
"However, the situation has definitely improved over time", continued Mr. Bernoni. "In fact, my colleagues are increasingly realising that, in order to provide the broadest and most complete possible service, it is necessary to create a structure able to meet the clients’ needs". Also, the opportunity to provide a broad service allows professionals to work on industry specializations, which could be considered as a value added element some years ago, but which is now a real key factor for any activity.
Though he knows that professional firms have still a lot to do, Mr. Bernoni has no doubt about the next step for already structured firms. "It is crucial to work on internationalization and this is why we chose to join Grant Thornton. Associating to such organizations means offering clients the opportunity to be assisted all over the world with the same standards. This is an inestimable added value on which structured organization should work on, e.g. by enhancing their integration with professionals operating in the legal sector in the medium term".
"Professionisti&Studi, associarsi per competere", therefore,is not only the title of the latest book written by a man who has always considered his relationship with colleagues as the fundamentals of his activity, but also an actual lifestyle which few people besides Giuseppe Bernoni could adhere to.
