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This article was first published in the March 2016 China edition of Accounting and Business magazine.

In 2011, Grant Thornton China subsidised the education of 50 disadvantaged students at a secondary school in the province of Anhui. With the firm’s assistance, all were able to complete their secondary education, more than half of them entering university and the rest enrolling at vocational colleges. 

The initiative is illustrative of an ongoing story that shows how, with the right mindset, a company can change people’s lives. ‘Our target is not just to help one or two groups of poor students. We will keep providing education subsidies to help other needy students,’ says Xu Hua, chief executive officer and managing partner of Grant Thornton China. 

Established in 1981 as one of China’s first accounting firms, Grant Thornton China is a pioneer among China CPA firms in implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the country. Headquartered in Beijing, it now provides a range of charitable services to help the disadvantaged, from orphans and children living in poverty, to the sick and communities affected by disasters.  

‘Through our CSR projects, we hope to help our staff understand that each person has a social responsibility. As well as helping the needy realise their dreams, we want them to learn about their own value and be determined to give back to the society themselves,’ Xu says.

A central character in Grant Thornton China, Xu’s role extends far beyond his involvement in its CSR programmes. 

As CEO, he is responsible for developing overall strategies for market development, brand building and quality control. He also oversees the setting up of new offices across China, takes the lead in establishing the firm’s strategic position and core competitiveness, and has a key role in nurturing talent. 

‘I am responsible for reorganising internal resources, enhancing services and creating innovative products so as to upgrade our services and our impact in our markets,’ says Xu.

To this end, he has adopted the philosophy of ‘local wisdom, global vision’ as the firm’s strategy for development.

‘By combining our expertise in the Chinese market and the support of our global network, we provide holistic professional services to help clients grow,’ he says, adding that mobilising the firm’s international resources is invaluable in helping Chinese clients expand overseas.

In parallel to these goals, Xu focuses on strengthening cooperation between the Beijing headquarters and its offices elsewhere in the country, and between Grant Thornton China and its affiliates from around the world. 

‘We have learned from our global headquarters how to nurture talents with leadership, and strengthen our business and management,’ he says. 

The hard work of Xu and his team has reaped rewards. In 2015, Grant Thornton China climbed two places to rank 10th in the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ Top 100 Chinese Accounting Firms. The firm recorded a 50.3% increase in revenue, as the second fastest growing firm in China, and one of the 12 accounting firms whose annual revenue exceeds RMB1bn, according to the ranking.

Offering a full range of auditing, tax and advisory services, Grant Thornton China now has a network of 23 offices across China and Hong Kong, offering access to more than 200 partners and 3,500 staff including nearly 1,000 CPAs.

Xu attributes the firm’s rapid growth to a combination of factors, including its customer-focus strategy. ‘We make it our top priority to listen to the needs of our clients,’ Xu says. With this in mind, a special team has been established to provide comprehensive solutions to targeted customers to help them grow.

Making quality the highest priority is another key success factor. ‘Apart from our internal quality control, our global headquarters regularly check on our work to ensure service quality,’ he says, adding that Grant Thornton China has adopted global accounting standards.  

At the same time, a determination to build scale and brand have helped to advance the firm, which has also benefited from the strengthening of internal capabilities and the implementation of effective strategies in market development, services and talent development. 

‘We have attracted international talents through various channels,’ Xu says, adding that the firm has also worked with strategic partners such as ACCA to nurture local talents and develop the accounting industry.

Giving back

As the firm has become successful, so it wants to give back to society. Xu believes that a good business is more than just a strong reputation in the business world, it is about having ‘the respect of the public’ too. He places as much importance on the firm’s performance in the community as in its business activities, and has made ‘community’ one of four strategic areas for development – along with market, customers, people and culture. 

‘Corporate responsibility reflects our values as a firm, and it’s a part of our business that we’re committed to improving,’ Xu says, adding that the firm aims to grow in step with its staff, community and clients and their CSR programmes. 

The charitable activities Xu oversees take place under the umbrella of Grant Thornton International, which is committed to creating a positive impact in the regions in which it has a presence. Under the slogan, ‘Everyday I make a difference’, member firms in over 130 countries are actively involved in improving healthcare, helping the disadvantaged and collaborating with charities to alleviate poverty.

In September last year, the audit giant held its first ever ‘global corporate social responsibility day’ to show its commitment to assisting the growth of all the communities it serves. In support of this, Xu and his team hosted a sponsored walk and gala dinner to raise funds for the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) to buy warm winter clothes for students living in mountainous regions. 

Grant Thornton China’s first local CSR initiative was the establishment back in 2008 of an education foundation to help teenagers from financially struggling families to complete their education. 

Since then, Xu and his team have become increasingly passionate about helping the disadvantaged and launched a number of other initiatives. In 2011, the firm began supporting the students at the Anhui secondary school under the auspices of the CFPA’s New Great Wall project. 

‘Though this was not my first CSR project, I was deeply involved,’ Xu says. 

Since 2013, the firm has sponsored disadvantaged students of Aba No. 1 Primary School in Sichuan. Besides regular visits to the school to deliver donated stationery and financial support for infrastructure and daily operation, Grant Thornton China also provides 10 students from deprived families with long-term funding for the completion of their primary education at the school. 

Financial aid

In the same year, the firm participated in the China Certified Tax Agents Association’s ‘Hearts Linked’ funding programme, offering financial aid to underprivileged tax students to complete their college studies. 

In the light of this work, the CFPA honoured Grant Thornton China with the 2013 Poverty Alleviation Love Award. But the firm has not rested on its laurels. From 2014, it began funding another 50 students from Heshui No. 1 Middle School in the province of Gansu, donating a total of RMB300,000 over three years. 

To better understand the students’ family situations and build a closer relationship with them, last June Xu led a delegation of eight staff from different offices on a visit to the school.

‘We attended the inauguration of the “self-reliance class”, where the 50 subsidised students study. We also visited students’ families and presented stationery products and additional money to them,’ Xu recalls.  

Following this, 53 of his staff volunteered to become mentors to the students, offering moral support and motivation by correspondence. 

Apart from its work on the education front, Grant Thornton China is involved in a range of other charitable initiatives. Since 2013, it has sponsored the annual charity dinner of Chunhui Bo’ai Children’s Foundation to raise funds to improve the lives of orphaned and disadvantaged children. A team from Grant Thornton China’s Dalian office in Liao Ning province also regularly takes food, milk and toys to disabled children in an orphanage in the city. 

Efforts have not been confined to China either. When a massive earthquake with a magnitude of 8.1 struck Nepal’s Liaoning province, killing 9,000 people and injuring more than 23,000, and causing widespread hardship and economic losses, the Guangxi office immediately donated RMB100,000 through the China Charity Federation to help with the rescue and reconstruction. 

More recently, Grant Thornton China has stepped up its efforts yet further. At the dinner for Grant Thornton’s global CSR day, Xu announced that Grant Thornton China would allocate a yearly CSR budget to help staff in need, and to assist with environmental protection, education, disaster relief and other charitable activities. Free auditing for non-governmental organisations and non-profit groups is another initiative. 

Xu has harnessed the internet to spread the CSR message, launching a Grant Thornton China blog in September last year on the popular Chinese microblogging website, Sina Weibo. The blog invites people to share their own or their companies’ CSR stories, and to express their views on charitable activities. 

Xu is keen for other companies to join the CSR crusade. ‘The development of a corporate is not isolated – each one is closely linked to different sectors and people in a society, and companies have an obligation to serve that society,’ he says, adding that such efforts will speed up the civilisation of the country.

Xu has evidence of how his firm’s charitable work has changed lives. 

‘Your education subsidy didn’t just give me monetary help, but confidence and courage,’ wrote one student beneficiary in a letter of thanks. ‘Your love is a clear stream, a light in a dark night, illuminating my future direction,’ wrote another.

And a third comment gives hope for the longer term, as Xu hoped it would. ‘I want to become a teacher because you taught me that we should use our ability to help those in need.’ 

Sherry Lee, journalist