Motivation | Breakthrough
Triumph after traumas
AAT Triumph Award winner Ian Morgan FMAAT shares the story behind his leadership success during the toughest period of his life
Words Jessica Bown
AT A GLANCE
1
Award-winning resilience
Ian won AAT's Triumph Award 2025, having demonstrated incredible commitment to his work after a series of traumatic events in his personal life.
2
Change of direction
After several clients sold their businesses at a similar time, Ian and his wife had to pivot their firm's focus to stabilise it and enable it to grow.
3
Time and space
All MBS staff now work from home, and are trusted to work to their strengths, enabling them to find the balance they need in the home and professional lives.
Having endured a series of traumatic business and family experiences in a short space of time, Ian Morgan was chosen as the recipient of the AAT Triumph Award.
The accolade, which is part of the AAT Impact Awards, is given to an exceptional individual who has achieved success while overcoming significant challenges during their accountancy journey, demonstrating resilience, perseverance and determination.
Morgan, director and strategic finance expert at MBS Accountants, was chosen from a shortlist of strong candidates for his unwavering commitment to clients through incredible difficulties, leading his team without pressure, coaching them with care, identifying potential and backing them to succeed.
“It’s a great honour, but I see this very much as an award for the team rather than for me personally,” says Morgan, who began his accounting career in practice before joining forces with wife Samantha in 2010 to develop her bookkeeping business into a full accountancy firm.
Finding strength in adaptability
MBS Accountants has been reinvented several times since 2010 to meet both client requirements and the needs of Morgan and his team.
“Both my wife and I trained with AAT,” he says. “When we went into business together, we initially focused on small companies such as sole traders and start-ups.
“But that was very hard work, so we changed tack by having fewer clients but taking on more businesses that were three to four times the size of our typical clients.”
After growing and flourishing for many years, the practice then became something of a victim of its own success about a year ago.
“One of the services we provide is to help businesses with the process of selling their companies,” Morgan says. “We help them to turn things around where needed and be ready to sell for a good price.
“However, when several of our biggest clients exited at the same time, it was a great result for them but less so for us.
“We lost about 20% of our income in one go and had to take a step back and cut costs in the short term, including making some redundancies.
“It was tough but we got through it by always being honest with our colleagues and having an open and communicative management style.”
This business is now back on track and growing again, this time by acquiring rival firms.
“Our current growth plan is acquisition based. We bought a practice last year and we are looking into the possibility of buying some others,” he says.
“We are also reducing the number of clients we have that are on the exit path and are ready to do so quickly.”
“It’s a great honour, but I see this very much as an award for the team rather than for me personally.”
Personal challenges
Morgan’s sage management of his business difficulties was not the only reason he was chosen to receive the 2025 AAT Triumph Award.
In the past year, he has also faced several personal challenges involving family members.
“My eldest daughter suffered a fractured eye socket after being attacked while on a camping trip to celebrate finishing college,” he recalls.
“Then my mother-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer and my younger daughter, who was 16 at the time, was run over by a tractor trailer after falling from it while participating in a carnival parade.
“My wife and I really had to concentrate on the needs of our family at that time.”
Fortunately, the firm was set up to continue to thrive in such circumstances.
“That period certainly tested the business’s ability to function without us, which is something we have tried to develop,” Morgan adds.
“In the accounting sector, most businesses are built on the back of the founder or founders being good accountants. In the earlier days of our business, for example, we had 600 clients on the books but 99% of them wanted to deal with me.
“Now we take a more team-based approach that allows other individuals to shine and takes the focus off me, which proved very useful at that time.”
Providing the space to be great
Having been based in an office in Gloucester, MBS Accountants is now a fully digital business with team members located around the UK and in the Philippines.
“All the members of the team work from home now,” Morgan explains. “Going remote gives us a lot more choice when it comes to taking on quality candidates.
“We are careful to seek out people with the right characteristics and skill levels for each role. The aim is to ensure the team has all the required skills as a whole and then let each individual play to their own personal strengths.”
This way of working is based on his management philosophy, which involves giving people the space to be great.
“Workplace relationships often resemble those between a parent and a child in that the boss makes all the decisions and solves any problems that arise,” Morgan says.
“But for everyone in the team to reach their full potential, I think workplace relationships should be adult to adult. It’s amazing what people can do when they are given the opportunity.
“This approach also allows you to run the business rather than struggling to do everything with lots of assistants.”
Given the lessons learned over the last year or so, Morgan has also adapted his attitude to taking on new clients.
“We have become choosier about the clients we take on and will turn down those we don’t think are right for us,” he adds.
“If you don’t try to be everything to everybody, you can end up being really important to somebody.”
Throughout his career in accounting, Morgan has written several books on financial management and building a successful business. His latest publication, From Chaos to Clarity: how to take control of your business finances and build REAL profit, is available to buy on Amazon now.
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Triumph after traumas
SAAT Triumph Award winner Ian Morgan shares the story behind his leadership success during the toughest period of his life
Words Jessica Bown