Our DNA - BDO

**Our DNA: Elevating people. Elevating business. Elevating society.**

Our DNA comprises our purpose, our values, our brand, our story and our vision – why we are, how we are, what we stand for, where we come from and where we are headed.

Our Purpose

Our purpose:

Our WHY

Our motivation is to help people get to where they want to be – whether that’s our colleagues, our clients or in the communities we serve. We are people helping people achieve their dreams and ambitions.

Our purpose defines why we exist and our firm’s people-first culture, where people are able to bring their best selves to work. Our purpose describes a firm in which our people thrive together, fostering a growth mindset which encourages teamwork and ensures we deliver exceptional client service.

Our DNA

Our values:

Our HOW

Our values define us. Our numbers can be correct; our research can be on point; our clients may even be happy. But if we do not act from a shared set of values, we fail our purpose and betray our DNA .

Our values are critical to us achieving the principles of our Clarity Charter, which is our firm's clear and public pledge to be ethical, independent and quality driven. It’s all about clear thinking, clear doing and being clear about what’s appropriate in the delivery of our services. Clarity Charter

Our values inform and inspire all our conversations, all our work, all our advice and all our relationships. They’re a part of our internal culture, how we work and how we engage.

Our story:

WHERE we come from

The entrepreneurial mindset of our founders and partners comes to life in our challenger ambitions and attitude to growth. This drives our focus on personalised relationships with clients to deliver an elevated client experience. Our DNA includes the courage, confidence and fortitude to make the right decisions and act with integrity, as our commitment to clarity and quality demonstrates.

The BDO network's global roots go back to 1910, when the firm Seidman and Seidman was founded in the USA. The forerunner to BDO - the Binder Seidman International Group - was founded in 1963. It went on to adopt the acronym BDO in 1973 - from the initials of the three founding European firms: Binder (UK), Dijker (Netherlands) and Otte (Germany).

The firm that was to become BDO South Africa, Charles Welby Steward, was founded in 1916 in Cape Town. In 1963, an agreement was reached between Charles Welby Steward, Durban firm Arthur Hopewell and Spencer Shaw Hood (founded in Johannesburg in 1938) to trade under the latter’s name and use the same audit methodology.

A series of subsequent mergers and acquisitions saw a new firm, Spencer Steward & Co, join the BDO network in 1980. This became known as BDO Spencer Steward in 1988. The firm continued to grow through mergers with Dreyer & Dreyer (1984), Ironsides (1986) and Henry & Storey (1987), while the tax practice was bolstered in 2001 when specialist tax firm Munnik Fourie joined.

As the brand continued to develop, we took an acquisition approach in order to achieve our growth ambitions and have become the true powerhouse of the mid-tier. Further significant mergers included Moore Stephens in Johannesburg and Cameron Prentice in Cape Town joining BDO in 2010. Then, five years later, we acquired RW Irish in Johannesburg.

The next significant M&A activity saw the acquisition of Grant Thornton in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Durban, as well as the incorporation of a large financial services team into our audit practice. We have also strengthened our capacity to deliver technology solutions to financial services clients.

As a result, our firm has more than doubled its size in recent years, allowing us to realise our ambition to elevate people, business and society throughout South Africa and the African continent.

Our Brand

Our brand:

WHAT we stand for

BDO SA is bold and courageous and challenges established ways of doing and being. We also challenge our competitors, as we take our rightful place as a substantial player in South Africa, the rest of Africa and the world.

In this context, BDO is able to activate the BDO elevation multiplier effect, which enables the firm to take advantage of the abundant opportunities in the audit, advisory and tax environment, while challenging the industry monopoly narrative on large-scale and complex projects.

Central to our challenger brand positioning is our bold, clear, distinctive, inclusive and determined brand value proposition: Elevating people. Elevating business. Elevating society.

Here is our brand manifesto

Our Brand

Our vision:

WHERE we are headed

Our bold global vision is Global solutions. Driven to be the best. Our vision aims to unify everyone in our global organisation to deliver our purpose. It sets out our ambitions for the future, is the bedrock of our global strategy and demonstrates our shared ambition to achieve our core global purpose: People helping people. 

The global vision is grounded in South Africa by our own strategic and brand pillars, whose focus is on growth, both personal and professional, as well as on business and community. Through all these commitments we live out our brand value proposition: Elevating people. Elevating business. Elevating society.