Business leaders can follow past innovators, says Deloitte partner

US President John F Kennedy on Albert Quay, Cork, in June 1963, facing crowds gathered at Lapp’s Quay. Today, Deloitte’s Cork offices are on the same block which once housed the Nat Ross storage depository on the right of the photo.

Business leaders seeking to navigate their way beyond Covid-19 can find inspiration in the resilience and intelligence of past generations, says Honor Moore, partner in charge of the Deloitte office in Cork.

She was speaking ahead of a new series of conversations with senior business leaders based in the Cork region, to be hosted over the next number of months by Deloitte and the Irish Examiner.

The series will look to understand what makes these people and their businesses a success, how they demonstrate leadership and tenacity in this ever-changing world, their views on the future and the challenges and opportunities that the future may bring with it.

“As I thought about the development of these organisations, I started to think more about Deloitte, and how our business has changed and adapted over time — never truer than in the past 18 months,” said Honor. “While some days it feels as though the past 18 months have lasted a lifetime, it is inconsequential in comparison to the long, proud history of Deloitte in Cork which goes back almost 150 years.”  

This summer, Ms Moore conducted some research into that history. She was struck time and time again by the connection between the Deloitte of today and its predecessor firms.

“As I read through the lists of clients from the early days of our firm, names such as Ladyswell Brewery, Cork Consumers Gas Company, Cork Harbour Board and Thomas Crosbie & Co drew my attention.

“The current incarnation of each of those entities — Heineken Ireland, Ervia, the Port of Cork and the Irish Examiner respectively — are all clients of Deloitte today. Deloitte was built on a bedrock of indigenous business, and while we have broadened our reach over the years to include key multinationals, working with indigenous businesses remains at the core of our business offering and we are extremely proud of that.” 

Honor’s research also led her to learn about the men (and they were all men!) who were key in laying the foundations of the firm that she is so proud to be part of today. These included:

• Charles John Higginson who before commencing practice as a public accountant in 1876 was the accountant of T Lyons & Co, a company formed by the merger of three wholesale and retail drapers and floated on the Cork Stock Exchange in 1873;
• Edward McCarthy, who ran an extensive practice from his home at 27 South Mall (he was away ahead of us all with the working from home!) was one of 31 petitioners to Queen Victoria in 1887 seeking the formation of a chartered body, now Chartered Accountants Ireland;
• AJ Magennis, who, as well as running a very successful practice, was named as the first lecturer in accounting when Queens College Cork became University College Cork, a constituent college of the National University of Ireland in 1908, thus beginning a long relationship between UCC and Deloitte, which continues to this day. In 1927, AJ Magennis was appointed as UCC’s first Professor of Accountancy and Business Administration and remained a professor emeritus until his death. He also served as Chairman of Cork Harbour Board, President of Cork Chamber of Commerce and Chairman of Cork Rotary Club.

Honor Moore, partner in charge of Deloitte's Cork office.

Honor adds: “And then, finally, there was Bernard Uniacke, of whom I was extremely fond, for whom our firm was a real family affair — his sister Maura worked with him and, like Bernard, their father Philip was a partner in the firm.

“Following the merger of their Cork-based firm, operating as Touche Ross, with the Dublin firm of Deloitte Haskins & Sells, in 1991, Bernard was one of the early chairpersons of the enlarged firm, which we know today as Deloitte Ireland.”

 Reflecting on what Deloitte has achieved over its time in Cork, Honor thought about how proud these forefathers would be in knowing the firm they laid the foundations for had developed into a thriving practice, with a team of over 200 in Cork alone, providing audit, tax, corporate finance and risk advisory services to businesses across this region, as well as being part of the largest professional services firm in the world.

“I also thought about how resilient our business is,” she adds. “We have all understandably been wrapped up in the pandemic over the past 18 months but perhaps it’s worth reminding ourselves that our forefathers dealt with pandemics, countless recessions, a civil war and two world wars, and each time managed to not only survive but to emerge stronger.

“I often think that the word ‘leader’ is used too liberally these days, but when I look back at these leaders who developed our firm over the past 150 years, I see similarities with the leaders of our business today — intelligent, pragmatic people — committed to working with our clients to get the best answers for their businesses.” 

In the coming months, the Deloitte & Irish Examiner series will see some of Deloitte’s key leaders sitting down with the luminaries behind some of the most successful businesses operating in the Cork region.

Next week, kicking off the series will be proud Cork woman and CEO of Vodafone Ireland, Anne O’Leary, in conversation with Caroline O’Driscoll, Deloitte tax partner.

“I look forward to reading what Anne and our other indigenous, Cork-based clients have to say in this series over the next number of months,” concluded Honor Moore. 

• Honor Moore is the partner in charge of Deloitte’s Cork office. As a partner in the firm’s audit & assurance practice, she advises business clients in both indigenous and international markets. She has considerable public sector and not-for-profit experience. Honor holds a BComm from UCC and is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland. She is a board member of Cork ARC Cancer Support House.