Conversations in Business with RSM

RSM Director and Real Estate industry expert, Michael Steenkamp, chats to Steve Marriot, CFO of property group, Respublica. Michael and Steve discuss the current conditions and environment within the Real Estate sector at the moment, as well the challenges and factors that have been impacting this industry.

The business landscape is changing globally as women continue to break barriers across company types and industries. According to an S&P Global report, companies with female CEOs, females CFOs and higher gender diversity on their board of directors are actually proving to be more profitable. And according to Harvard Business Review, female managers often outperform their male counterparts in leadership competencies. Various pieces of research also show that women excel in crucial areas for business management, such as emotional intelligence, relationship-building and communication. The rise of women in business leadership positions is not a passing trend and is proving to actually be a strategic advantage for forward-thinking organisations. RSM South Africa CEO, Noma Ashom, and female leaders from within the firm, discuss the role of female leaders in the workplace.

Both local and global tax is changing rapidly, with the introduction of numerous new global tax legislations, as well as local legislative amendments. The tax position of an organisation should consider more than just compliance and should consist of a clear tax strategy which aligns with the overall corporate strategy of the business.

Businesses can no longer afford to treat ESG as a tick box exercise. It has become a business imperative. Suzan Dolamo, RSM South Africa's Sustainability Assurance Leader, chats to Trust Chikwiri, Head of Governance, Risk and Compliance, about the impact of ESG on business strategies, with a focus on risks.

ESG practices are becoming an important consideration for businesses across the globe. RSM's Thilen Pillay chats to Belinda Careirra, Co-CEO of from Sustainable DNA, around the basics of ESG and how this currently impacts businesses from a South African perspective.

As digital assets continue to develop, we are seeing more and more corporates utilising digital assets in their organisations. However, as it stands, the International Financial Reporting Standards are still unclear around their accounting treatment. RSM's Head of Information Systems, Thilen Pillay, chats to our Head of IFRS, Michael Steenkamp, around how we should be accounting for digital assets in the financial statements.

The ease of accessibility, together with the simplicity in which digital assets can be traded globally, has presented a unique challenge to tax authorities throughout the world regarding recovery of taxes from these transactions. RSM Directors, Thilen Pillay and Ozeyr Ahmed, discuss the tax implications as they currently stand for digital assets in the South Africa landscape.

The disclosure of directors' remuneration is now a requirement of the Companies Act. The aim is to ensure that companies comply with the principles of transparency, accountability and integrity and maintain high standards of corporate governance. RSM Legal Director, Phillip Kruger, chats to Audit Director, Henk Heymans, about the key considerations of the legislation, as well as the challenges they are seeing with their clients.

For businesses to thrive, the ability to acquire, merge and re-organise a business is critical and inevitably, these transactions trigger tax implications for one or both entities concerned. In South Africa there are specific tax rules dealing with mergers & acquisitions and corporate restructuring. All of these are aimed to defer the tax implications that would otherwise have arisen. RSM South Africa’s Head of Tax, Dieter Schulze, and Corporate Tax Expert, John Jones, give an overview of the special tax rules designed to assist with corporate restructures and mergers & acquisitions in South Africa.

Innovation is a buzz word that has been thrown around strategy sessions for years but the reality is that very few organisations are actually innovating. In this episode, we chat to RSM International's Global Chief Innovation Officer, Paul Herring, about the trends that he is currently seeing in business innovation.