Headstart: Information management – A week in the life

Headstart: Information management - A week in the life

It’s a new week in the life of Laurence Longe, national managing partner of Baker Tilly. He has been managing partner since July 1996, when Baker Tilly had 68 partners and a £29.2m turnover. Today, the £79.2m firm is ninth in the Accountacy Age league tables. Laurence says the firm has a robust culture which celebrates individual and collective achievement. He is also a non-executive director of a major literary publishing company.

Monday
Woken very early by the cockerel at our Hertfordshire home. Who needs an alarm clock when you have a dawn chorus of hungry chickens, ducks, geese and guinea fowl? One benefit of my role is being less office-bound than many of my colleagues and working from home helps me catch up on e-mails, phone calls and other administration. The downside is endless meetings; I’ve just finished an intensive period travelling in the UK, Europe and the US. Acquired a peacock and a peahen and named them Baker and Tilly!

Tuesday
Very busy day in London. Started by interviewing a potential new partner; saw our lawyers; had a quick meeting with our national finance partner; lunch with a journalist from a Sunday broadsheet and then met our London managing partner.

Wednesday
Although managing the business obviously takes up most of my time, I still look after a few special clients and met one this morning. Travelled to our Birmingham office for a meeting with the partners. Had dinner with a member of our national management team and our chairman.

Thursday
Travelled to our Milton Keynes office for a breakfast meeting with the partners. Slightly tired but buoyed by the performance of this office – a three-year old start-up which is doing incredibly well. Back in London for a lunch meeting with our bankers. Constitutional committee meeting in the afternoon. Received a wonderful box of books from the publishing company – one of the perks of being a member of their board. Tickets and bumph arrived for a summit conference in Amsterdam.

Friday
Another early start in London – the quarterly meeting of our office managing partners. Worked through lunch. Phone interview with Accountancy Age, tied-up loose ends and then off to Hertfordshire at 7.30, remembering Amsterdam tickets and itinerary … fly out Saturday morning.

This ‘Week in the Life’ describes a period before last week’s tragic events.

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