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Business valuations
We offer expert valuation advice in transactions, regulatory and administrative matters, and matters subject to dispute – valuing businesses, shares and intangible assets in a wide range of industries.
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Capital markets
You need corporate finance specialists experienced in international capital markets on your side if you’re buying or selling financial securities.
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Complex and international services
Our experience of multi-jurisdictional insolvencies coupled with our international reputation allows us to deliver the best possible outcome for all stakeholders.
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Corporate insolvency
Our corporate investigation and recovery teams can help you manage insolvency situations and facilitate the best outcome.
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Debt advisory
An optimal funding structure for your organisation presents unprecedented opportunities, but achieving this can be difficult without a trusted advisor.
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Expert witness
Our expert witnesses analyse, interpret, summarise and present complex financial and business-related issues which are understandable and properly supported.
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Financial models
A sound financial model will help you understand the impact of your decisions before you make them. Talk to us about our user-friendly models.
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Forensic and investigation services
We provide investigative accounting and litigation support services for commercial, matrimonial, criminal, business valuation and insurance disputes.
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Independent business review
Is your business viable? Will it remain viable in the future? A thorough independent business review can help your organisation answer these fundamental questions.
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IT forensics
Effective ESI analysis is integral to the success of your business. Our IT forensics experts have the technical expertise to identify, preserve and interrogate electronic data.
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Mergers and acquisitions
Grant Thornton provides strategic and execution support for mergers, acquisitions, sales and fundraising.
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Raising finance
Raising finance - funders value partners who can deliver a robust financial model, a sound business strategy and rigorous planning. We can guide you through the challenges that these transactions can pose and help you build a foundation for long term success once the deal is done.
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Relationship property services
Grant Thornton offers high quality independent advice on the many financial issues associated with relationship property from considering an individual financial issue to all aspects of a complex settlement.
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Restructuring and turnaround
Grant Thornton’s restructuring and turnaround service capabilities include cash flow, liquidity management and forecasting; crisis and interim management; financial advisory services to companies and parties in transition and distress
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Transaction advisory
Our depth of market knowledge will steer you through the transaction process. Grant Thornton’s dynamic teams offer range of financial, commercial and operational expertise.
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Virtual asset advisory
Helping you navigate the world of virtual currencies and decentralised financial systems.
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Corporate tax
Grant Thornton can identify tax issues, risks and opportunities in your organisation and implement strategies to improve your bottom line.
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Employment tax
Grant Thornton’s advisers can help you with PAYE (payroll tax), Kiwisaver, fringe benefits tax (FBT), student loans, global mobility services, international tax
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Global mobility services
Our team can help expatriates and their employers deal with tax and employment matters both in New Zealand and overseas. With the correct planning advice, employee allowances and benefits may be structured to avoid double taxation and achieve tax savings.
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GST
GST has the potential to become a minefield and can be expensive when it goes wrong. Our technical knowledge can help you minimise the negative impact of GST
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International tax
International tax rules are undergoing their biggest change in a generation. Tax authorities around the world are increasingly vigilant, especially when it comes to global operations.
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Research and Development
R&D tax incentives are often underused and misunderstood – is your business maximising opportunities for making claims?
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Tax compliance
Our advisers help clients manage the critical issue of compliance across accountancy regulations, corporation law and tax. We also offer business and wealth advisory services, which means we can provide a seamless and tax-effective offering to our clients.
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Transfer pricing
Tax authorities are demanding transparency in international arrangements. We businesses comply with regulations and use transfer pricing as a strategic planning tool.
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Audit methodology
Our five step audit methodology offers a high quality service wherever you are in the world and includes planning, risk assessment, testing internal controls, substantive testing, and concluding and reporting
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Audit technology
We apply our audit methodology with an integrated set of software tools known as the Voyager suite. Our technology has been developed to produce quality audits that are effective and efficient.
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Financial reporting advisory
Our financial reporting advisers have the expertise to help you deal with the constantly evolving regulatory environment.
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Business architecture
Our business architects help businesses with disruptive conditions, business expansion and competitive challenges; the deployment of your strategy is critical to success.
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Cloud services
Leverage the cloud to keep your data safe, operate more efficiently, reduce costs and create a better experience for your employees and clients.
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Internal audit
Our internal audits deliver independent assurance over key controls within your riskiest processes, proving what works and what doesn’t and recommending improvements.
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IT advisory
Our hands on product experience, extensive functional knowledge and industry insights help clients solve complex IT and technology issues
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IT privacy and security
IT privacy and security should support your business strategy. Our pragmatic approach focuses on reducing cyber security risks specific to your organisation
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Payroll assurance
Our specialist payroll assurance team can conduct a review of your payroll system configuration and processes, and then help you and your team to implement any necessary recalculations.
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PCI DSS
Our information security specialists are approved Qualified Security Assessors (QSAs) that have been qualified by the PCI Security Standards Council to independently assess merchants and service providers.
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Process improvement
As your organisation grows in size and complexity, processes that were once enabling often become cumbersome and inefficient. To maintain growth, your business must remain flexible, agile and profitable
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Procurement/supply chain
Procurement and supply chain inputs will often dominate your balance sheet and constantly evolve for organisations to remain competitive and meet changing customer requirements
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Project assurance
Major programmes and projects expose you to significant financial and reputational risk throughout their life cycle. Don’t let these risks become a reality.
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Risk management
We understand that growing companies need to establish robust internal controls, and use information technology to effectively mitigate risk.
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Robotic process automation (RPA)
RPA is emerging as the most sophisticated form of automation used to help businesses become more agile and remain competitive in the face of today’s ongoing digital disruption.
![insight featured image](/contentassets/01338764ffe34764a094a52ff494573a/risk-management-feature-image.jpg)
According to our latest research, over a third of Kiwi businesses don’t have a risk register and the majority only specifically plan for risks like health and safety, IT failure, business continuity, and reputation management, while others like environmental risk, fraud, and loss of key income are further down the priority list.
They tend to feel confident bad events probably won’t happen and if they do, there’s insurance, Government help or local council support to sort it out. Certainly those can be invaluable sources of assistance when life takes a turn for the worse, but they won’t necessarily prevent your business from struggling or even failing under the wrong circumstances.
Think about uninsurable events and non-financial costs
After a tumultuous few years, a significant number of businesses in New Zealand have dealt with an insurable event. There have been floods, cyclones, fires and even a volcanic eruption over the past five years – and there’s no forgetting the pandemic that took almost everyone by surprise. That certainly led to a higher number of corporate failures – in 2021, the number of business closures exceeded the number of new companies registered for the first time in a decade.
Insurance and government payouts may cover the financial cost of these types of events. But there are often other problems to contend with that a payout can’t solve. Business owners in Kaikoura, for example, had to wait 13 months for the main arterial road to be repaired after the 2016 earthquake. During that time, their booming tourist industry was almost brought to a standstill.
Bigger than just health and safety
Despite the genuine likelihood of these types of risks, we still find few Kiwi businesses have effective risk management strategies in place. There always seems to be some more urgent matter senior leadership or owners need to deal with, so risk management keeps getting pushed to the back burner. Nothing happens, and then suddenly a risk occurs and there’s nothing in place to help deal with it.
When it comes to organisations with a risk register, they typically focus on health and safety because it’s regulated - businesses must comply, and they generally do.
Although a comprehensive health and safety risk management plan probably puts your business ahead of others, it’s only one part of a well-managed risk strategy. You should also be thinking about the vast range of risks that could impact on your business, such as:
- Natural disasters
- Illness
- Infrastructure failure
- Cyber security
- Reputation damage
- Loss of key personnel and income
- Supply chain disruptions
- Fraud
- Legislative and regulatory changes
All that, and a host of industry-specific risks as well as those that are unique to your business aren’t always insurable. For example, your sector may be experiencing a skills shortage that’s inhibiting your ability to grow, or trade at your existing level, or worse, continue operating at all.
So how can you take your risk management practices from ok, to great?
Developing a risk strategy can feel daunting, but the first steps don’t need to be expensive and time-consuming. Here’s a few simple tips to help get you started:
1. Assess your risks. Sit down and brainstorm – what could go wrong? There’s probably a long list, but rating a risk for its likelihood and potential harm lets you decide whether it should go onto your risk register.
2. Record them in a risk register. The register keeps track of each risk, its likelihood and potential harm, as well as what is being done to manage it.
3. Put plans in place to TAME each risk. Each risk can be approached in one of four ways:
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- Transfer: A common way to transfer a risk is to insure against it, so your insurance company carries the risk instead of the business.
- Accept: Sometimes, you just simply accept a risk because the cost of treating the risk is greater than the risk’s potential harm.
- Mitigate: Mitigation is about reducing a risk. For example, if your product needs to be manufactured using specific materials, they might become unavailable leading to delays and increased costs. This risk can be mitigated by putting strategies in place like contingency planning, and diversifying suppliers.
- Eliminate: Elimination gets rid of a risk. Take an old or unsafe piece of equipment for example; you could upgrade it to eliminate the risk of anyone being injured by it.
The best choice will depend on each risk, and a cost-benefit analysis of how best to deal with it – as well as your business’s general appetite for risk.
4. Insure and create policies. Once you have your risk register and a plan to deal with each risk, you’ll need to put your plans in place. That might mean insurance, new risk management policies or changes to existing ones.
5. Review and refresh annually – or anytime when an unexpected threat occurs. The job of risk management is never over. Your business should review its risk management strategy regularly or at the very least, once a year. You may also need to check that you are complying with the terms of your insurance policies, so you always remain covered.
Making your business as resilient as possible
Once you have risk management behaviours embedded in your business, you may also find your risk management strategy is paying for itself. That might be through greater productivity, fewer supply delays, or more timely project completion.
Resilience was one of the buzzwords of 2021 and most businesses would be ready if another pandemic swept the globe. But how resilient is your business when it comes to other types of risk? A strong risk management strategy could easily make the difference between survival and failure in the face of a major unexpected disruption.