The wait is finally over! It is with great pleasure that we announce the shortlisted nominations for the Indirect Tax Awards 2011. The calibre of nominations was exceptionally high this year and each of the categories were hotly contested. Over a thoroughly enjoyable lunch, tough decisions had to be made by judges, so congratulations to the successful shortlisted entries and commiserations to all those who this year have been unsuccessful. We would like to thank everyone for their nominations and for their continued support of the awards.

We at BLT would also like to take this opportunity to extend our thanks to the judges for their invaluable input and time: Mike Arnold, Nick Burgin, Michael Conlon QC, Katie McGavigan, Chris Needham & Greg Sinfield. We would also like to thank the sponsors, The Institute of Indirect Taxation, represented at the judging session by John Voyez.

The shortlist is as follows:

Best In-house Indirect Tax Expert or Team

Caterpillar
Nomura
Volkswagen

Rising Star within Indirect Tax

Ruth Corkin, James Cowper
Debbie Hannon, Ernst & Young
Lorraine Young, Menzies

Best Indirect Tax Consultancy Team

Centurion VAT Specialists
Deloitte Real Estate VAT Team
KPMG VAT Process & Technology Team

Outstanding Contribution to Indirect Tax

Roderick Cordara QC
John Crawford, The VAT Consultancy
Alan Maher, Centurion VAT Specialists

Congratulations to these once again. The winning entries in each of these categories will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on 13th October.

We’re helping The Consultancy Company recruit once more. Following our Spring 2011 campaign for consultants, they are hiring again.

They’ve been around for almost as long as BLT, and have an interesting business model which I haven’t come across before. It’s a fee-sharing one: 70% of fees on average are redistributed to the consultant team.

They attract experienced senior managers/directors looking for a new career direction, and experienced consultants who want a different way of working.

I like their proposition that you can do as little or as much as you want with them – a way of addressing the work/life balance issue which is the consulting industry’s big turn-off for many people.

They are looking at the moment for Supply Chain consultants. If you’d like me to put you in touch with them, email me your cv – TheConsultancyCompany@blt.co.uk Don

McKinsey have just published a paper* which says that big companies which divest, rather than acquire, seem to do better. They analysed a sample of sixty 60 large disposals dating back over twenty years and found that operating margins went up in the five years after the disposal – both for the parent company and the demerged subsidiary.

A business mantra is that ‘businesses can never stand still”. Like sharks, they need to keep moving forward or they die. But is appears that ‘moving forward’ doesn’t necessarily mean just getting bigger.

If working for a top tier strategy consultancy - where advising on mergers and disposals
is just all part of a day’s work - appeals, then contact us here at BLT. We have strong relationships with a number of the top, top tier firms stretching back over twenty years. We’ll be happy to advise whether you can make a career with one of these firms.

Don Leslie dfl@blt.co.uk

*"Finding the Courage to Shrink” by Bill Huyett and Tim Kollett