The Strength in Staying Local – Insights From The CEO
In a professional services landscape that’s becoming increasingly globalised, I believe there’s real strength in choosing to stay local.
At Aintree Group, every member of our team is based here in Australia. We don’t outsource our work offshore. We don’t build service models around teams our clients will never meet. And that’s not a throwaway line or a marketing position. It’s a deliberate decision that has been core to how we’ve grown over the past 21 years.
It matters to us as an employer, but importantly, it matters to you as a client and a member of our community.
Creating Continuity
When you engage Aintree Group, the people doing the work are part of Aintree Group. They work within our teams, our systems, our standards and our culture. They are accountable to the people you know and trust, and they are connected to the broader team supporting you.
That creates continuity.
It means the person working on your accounts, your tax compliance, your legal matter or another aspect of your affairs isn’t operating several steps removed from your adviser. They are part of the same team, with access to the same conversations and an understanding of the broader context in which we are advising you.
For an integrated professional services firm, that matters enormously.
Your affairs don’t exist in isolation.
A tax decision can have legal consequences. A business restructure can affect wealth planning. A property transaction can involve accounting, finance and legal considerations. The value of an integrated firm comes from our ability to bring those perspectives together, and that becomes much harder when parts of the work are fragmented across external or offshore providers.
Keeping our team onshore allows knowledge to stay within the business and relationships to develop over time.
It also means we are investing in the people who make up our communities. This includes:
- Young professionals starting their careers;
- Parents building flexibility into their working lives; and
- Experienced practitioners who want to contribute to a high-performing firm while maintaining balance.
We are creating real opportunities, real jobs and real career pathways here in Australia.
That matters deeply for professional development, and ultimately for our clients.
Benefits All Around
If you’re starting your career in public practice accounting, law or financial services, you deserve to learn from experienced people who work alongside you. People who can guide you, challenge you, review your work and help you understand not just what needs to be done, but why.
If you’re stepping into Supervisor or Manager roles, you need the opportunity to genuinely lead and develop people. Management isn’t simply allocating work and checking an output. It is coaching, teaching, problem-solving, providing feedback and taking responsibility for the quality of what your team delivers.
And our clients are ultimately the beneficiaries of that development.
The graduate we invest in today becomes the accountant who understands your business tomorrow. The accountant we develop becomes the Manager who knows your history, understands the decisions we’ve made together and can confidently guide the next generation of people working with you.
That continuity has value.
The Importance of Connection
Over the past few years, I’ve interviewed accountants from firms that rely heavily on offshoring. Many tell me they’ve simply come to accept it as ‘part of the profession now.’ They are often surprised when I tell them we don’t offshore, and that where possible we actively choose partners who share our commitment to keeping work local.
But when candidates speak openly about their experiences, the story is often different.
They talk about spending significant time correcting work, feeling disconnected from the people completing it, and trying to develop or manage people who aren’t actually part of their firm.
For me, there is a bigger question here than efficiency or cost.
What kind of profession are we building?
We continue to see concern about the declining number of Australian students choosing accounting and other professional careers. At the same time, we can’t lament a skills shortage while steadily removing the entry-level work through which people traditionally learned those skills.
A strong, vibrant and ethical professional services community in Australia depends on firms being willing to back local talent, develop future leaders and take responsibility for training the next generation.
And as a client of Aintree Group or even part of our wider community, you are part of that story too.
Better Together
By choosing to work with us, you are supporting an Australian business that employs Australian professionals, develops graduates and emerging leaders, creates flexible career opportunities, and invests in the long-term capability of our profession.
But we don’t expect you to support that philosophy at the expense of service.
Quite the opposite.
We believe the model makes the service better.
Our Difference
You get people who are accountable to Aintree Group. You get greater continuity and knowledge retention. You get teams who work together and understand the Australian business and regulatory environment. You get professionals who can walk into a meeting together, share knowledge quickly and take collective responsibility for your experience.
And, importantly, you get the opportunity to build relationships with the people actually doing the work.
For us, staying local isn’t about resisting change. We embrace technology, automation and AI wherever they can make us smarter, faster and more effective. But we believe technology should enhance the capability of our people, not replace our responsibility to develop them.
That’s an important distinction.
So yes, we do things differently at Aintree Group, and proudly so.
Keeping our work onshore is an investment in our people, our clients, our communities and the future of the professions we’re privileged to be part of.
And after 21 years, I remain convinced that strong professional relationships are built through people who know each other, learn from each other and take responsibility for the work they put their name to.
That’s what staying local means to us, and that’s what it means to be a client of Aintree Group.
About the CEO – Andrea McKenna
With a background in politics, marketing and communications, Andrea brings a broad perspective to leadership and problem-solving. Her extensive knowledge of operations and strategy is backed by decades of experience as both a business owner and adviser. She has a strong interest in optimising systems and processes, and is a passionate advocate for life-long learning and the power of curiosity.
Andrea is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs, small businesses and community organisations overcome challenges and achieve sustainable success. Beyond her professional commitments, she serves on numerous committees and advisory boards, and provides mentorship to the next generation of industry leaders.
