Why Grant Thornton's Dan Dickinson is looking to take Yorkshire firms international

Starting life at a new firm always presents its challenges. But for Dan Dickinson, who joined as a new partner at Grant Thornton, these have been genuinely unique.

Mr Dickinson took on his new role as a partner for international tax and finance for the North and Midlands last month.

He has yet to meet many of his new colleagues in person, with all of his meetings having, of course, taken place by video call.

Indeed when we meet at a cafe in central Leeds, it marks the first time either of us have conducted a meeting in person since March.

“I don’t know how tall anyone is,” he jokes.

“That is something you can’t get from a video call.”

Mr Dickinson’s move to Grant Thornton has obviously come at a turbulent time for our country.

He has joined from EY where he spent more than a decade working primarily in international business, a journey which saw him based in Singapore, London and then back in his native Yorkshire.

Born and bred in Scarborough, he developed a fascination with international trade at an early age.

He would go on to obtain a degree in International Economics at Nottingham University before doing a great deal of travel.

He says that when he began his career in professional advisory work, anyone wanting to work in international trade would automatically find themselves pulled to London.

However, having moved back to the North in the last year he is determined to change this, and for good.

“We need to make sure that if people feel they want to do that sort of work they can do it here,” he tells me.

“I wanted the opportunity to help businesses up here that are international in whatever way.

“But I also wanted the opportunity to help some of the newer guys you are just setting up overseas for the first time.

“I spent a lot of time learning my trade in seeing businesses expand overseas and giving them tax advice. This meant making sure there are no surprises and making sure they get the returns on investment they were expecting. A big tax bill can take away all the margin and cause you endless pain.

“I have seen a lot of businesses going overseas in the right way but also in the wrong way – and what I can do is bring that expertise to businesses here.”

During our conversation, Mr Dickinson’s passion and regard for the region’s business community is palpable.

He has high praise for a number of the region’s most exciting and emerging firms and talks at length about the impact the region could have nationally if it were to grow as it is capable of.

It is a state-of-mind, he says, his new team share.

“It wasn’t necessarily that I could do more international stuff, EY is really international as well.

“It was more around meeting people like Andy Wood and how grounded they were in the region.

“I warmed to that and believed in that. It is important for me, coming from this region, that they are so focused on helping companies in this region – whether it is the start-ups, the big PLCs or those international firms that are invested here. The first couple of weeks have proven all of that to be true.”

His home town of Scarborough comes up several times during our 45-minute conversation, in a variety of contexts. On the day we met, lockdown restrictions had begun to loosen around hospitality and tourism firms.

However, with forecasts for job losses in these sectors running as high as 20,000 for North Yorkshire alone, he is worried about the impact places like Scarborough, coastal towns and de-industrialised communities are likely to suffer.

He recalls in the recession of the 1990s that sent many businesses in Scarborough to the wall.

“They are left behind,” he says of these places.

“I am 38 and in my lifetime, which is not that long, this is the third big recession that has happened. I have seen what happened to Scarborough. It doesn’t scar you but it is something you always carry around with you. People are really trying there. But it needs some sort of leg up.”

With so much change about to engulf the world of work owing to the pandemic, political upheaval and the fourth industrial revolution, it is vital for Mr Dickinson that those caught up in the frantic pace of change are not left behind, not just for the sake of the region but the whole nation. It is, he tells me, why he wanted to come back to Yorkshire in the first place.

“Over time new businesses will come along to replace the ones that go by the wayside,” he says.

“It is that bit in the middle we need to worry about. The people who could be too adversely impacted by it so that they don’t start the exciting new businesses or change the current ones.

“What we need is a retasking. It is what didn’t happen post financial crisis or after the coal mines closing. There was nothing there. I am happy that from a personal and business perspective that there is opportunity up here to make a difference. I would not have come back just for personal reasons. It is not just for my love of this region. If this region grows it helps the whole economy.”

For someone so ensconced in the world of international commerce, one would expect Mr Dickinson to be troubled by the impact of Covid in terms of less willingness to travel.

However, the opposite is true.

“If you picture your traditional acts like getting on a plane and talking about investing in the UK – there is no real substitute for that.

“To learn about Singapore business culture I had to go and live there for three years.”

He adds: “I hope it does come back. It won’t come back the same but that is not a massive barrier to trade, people will get used to it.

“Think about fundraising, you need to trust someone. If you are trying to convince someone to give you money they need to trust you – can you get that from a screen?

“People have been quick to blame globalisation for the crisis but I say thank God for it. We have had pandemics before. There was a pandemic in 1918 long before we had a globalised economy.

Can you imagine this happening now with no internet, the healthcare links we have, the supply chain links that allowed us to bring in PPE?”

Mr Dickinson is concerned about the impact the crisis may have on the myriad plans to upgrade Yorkshire’s infrastructure.

He said: “Infrastructure has got to be a big part of this. I hope Covid doesn’t stop the momentum that was building on infrastructure.”

Jobs also remain an issue for the region, although he is convinced there is a way to build back smarter.

“No-one is going to reopen coal mines for the sake of it just to give someone a job,” he said.

“It has to be tied into the future.”

Grant Thornton are sponsors of the YP Business Awards. Visit www.yorkshirebusiness excellence.co.uk to enter this year’s awards.