The Benefits of Base Camp

Base Camp Testimonial

WK is a chartered accountancy and business advisory practice of 5 Directors and 45 staff, with offices in Blenheim and Christchurch, New Zealand. After several years with a focus on defining our Firm’s values and common goal and vision, we decided to challenge our progress in this space by committing to Base Camp in May 2019.

Over two eventful and thought-provoking days in the beautiful (albeit, wet), Marlborough Sounds, Mike and Vince challenged our thinking around everything that WK was and should be. Key to this was a clear understanding of why we do what we do and what is possible in a wider context of the people and places that are important to us. An aspiration of being the Business Advisor of Choice grew to a commitment towards having the single biggest impact on the communities we live, work and play in.

The challenges, learnings and connections that were developed over the two days were brought together in a set of common values on conclusion of Base Camp. We moved from the mode of our directors communicating our strategy (with only limited traction), towards an entire Group with a full contribution to, understanding of and commitment to, a powerful vision.

What we learned and agreed upon at Base Camp has been at the forefront of our Group strategy and decision-making ever since. The hard work on this started when we got back to the Offices and we were committed to not leaving the opportunities behind. Our values are pride of place on our walls and the learnings engrained in our everyday work lives. Never was this more apparent than through the recent Covid-19 lockdown. Universally, our people saw this not as an unwelcome disruption and the need to down tools, but an opportunity to reach out to all our clients and make sure that we were doing all we could to help in any way, often well outside the boundaries of traditional accountancy advice. The talking and planning of Base Camp had become the doing of lockdown.

From the confines of our home offices and kitchen tables, we’d made an impact. One that we’re proud of and one that has very strong origins in the learnings and developments gained at Base Camp.

Vaughan Harris

Director