RSM Vietnam stays ahead of the changing business environment

Jean Stephens, CEO of RSM International, and Jason Yau, regional leader for Asia-Pacific at RSM, made a day visit to Vietnam in late February. Since the last visit of RSM’s global CEO in 2012, RSM Vietnam has seen incredible growth.

The economy in Vietnam is impacted by global trends and unpredictability, much as other economies around the world. Nonetheless, the national economy grew by 8.02 per cent for the whole of 2022, outperforming all prior international economic forecasts.

As both domestic and international businesses in Vietnam looked to grow and expand, demand for professional services rose at a pace to meet the regulatory changes and increased complexity. With dedication to constantly accompanying and assisting businesses, RSM Vietnam has experienced strong growth. The firm’s revenue increased by almost 22 per cent to $8.6 million in 2022, leaping it to sixth in the rankings among Vietnam's largest providers of audit, tax, and consulting services.

Le Khanh Lam, chairman of RSM Vietnam commented, “Most businesses in the country are seeing a robust rebound and pursuing plans for long-term expansion. RSM Vietnam is delighted to have assisted our clients in unlocking growth opportunities.”

As a consequence of this, RSM Vietnam has made a contribution towards assisting the network in reaching its goal of an Asia-Pacific regional revenue of $1 billion for the first time, as well as a global revenue of $8 billion by 2022.

In 2022, RSM delivered 15 per cent growth globally, with double-digit growth across all regions. As a provider of professional services to the global middle market, it has seen its worldwide fee income leap by 41.7 per cent in the last three years, driven by increased requests across all regions for client support to address shifting fiscal and economic policies, supply chain disruptions, and the business and human impacts of the pandemic.

CEO of RSM International Jean Stephens said, “At RSM, our purpose is to instil confidence in a world of change. Our rapid growth is the result of our professionals supporting clients in over 120 countries to unlock value despite operating in an environment of unprecedented change and unpredictability. To continue our growth and cement our position as the global leader in professional services to the middle market, we will invest in further transforming our business into an insight-driven, digital organisation with compelling products and solutions. Our aim is to ensure we are always creating positive and lasting value for our people, clients, and communities by giving them the confidence to tackle the current trading environment and the shifting global economic landscape.”

Looking at the year ahead, RSM expects demand for tax services to increase in 2023 because of struggles to navigate the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s growing requirements for more digitisation in tax reporting and a global minimum tax rate, as well as the increasingly complex and challenging tax system in Vietnam – particularly for foreign businesses.

Similarly, RSM’s experts anticipate that the rising levels of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) worldwide will remain strong next year. This will be driven by technology-focused businesses looking for alternative sources of funding to scale, private equity firms spending significant levels of dry-powder, and an increase in bolt-on and cross-border deals. RSM highlights that in some instances, businesses are looking to M&As to counteract the negative impact of the skills, supply chain, energy, and inflation crises.

RSM predicts businesses will accelerate organisational change and prioritise innovation, considering ways to integrate AI and automation, re-skill teams, or leverage data analytics and business process outsourcing to both protect and boost performance.

Launched in 2023, RSM’s 2030 Global Strategy outlines a major multi-year growth and transformation programme that targets 100 per cent growth in revenue by 2030. Through the strategy, RSM will make increasing use of global, digital delivery models, enhanced insight generation, and wider use of automation, big data, machine learning, and AI to embrace the new world of work and support businesses through change.

RSM’s strategy will further unite its firms under common international methodologies and structures that enable it to continue to drive service quality and promote responsible business practice, whilst constantly enhancing agility and innovation. With an ever-increasing global client base of growth-orientated, internationally minded companies, RSM remains focused on ensuring they receive exceptional client service, expert human insight powered by technology, and compelling, tailored solutions.

Lam added, “As a professional services firm, we will continually adapt and evolve to ensure our development and that of our clients in a rapidly changing world. By focusing on RSM’s 2030 Global Strategy, RSM Vietnam is confident that the firm can continue to support the success of its clients and stay ahead of the changing business environment in Vietnam, which is likely to become more complex and nuanced in the future.”

The strategy will see significant investment in talent and transform RSM into a seamless global organisation, with teams, culture, governance, and processes that are aligned across borders to empower both clients and RSM's people to achieve their ambitions.

On September 14, RSM Vietnam officially held the opening ceremony of a third office in Ho Chi Minh City at the AP Tower on Dien Bien Phu street, Ward 21, Binh Thanh district.

Recent global geopolitical happenings and macroeconomic factors have caused the domestic M&A market to experience a downturn. Le Khanh Lam, chairman of RSM Vietnam, talked to VIR’s Linh Le about current market trends and projections for the near future.

With the achievements of Industry 4.0, digital transformation has become a strong movement in all sectors in recent years. Finance-banking is one of the sectors prioritised in digital transformation since it is one of the backbones playing a vital role in the national economy, as stated in the National Digital Transformation Programme towards 2025, with an orientation to 2030.