Celebrating 19 Years of Finsmart Accounting with Its Strongest Pillar - Its People

Last Saturday, we were together with our colleagues, but not because our clients needed us or we had an important deadline.

Finsmart turned 19 last week, and it was a moment of celebration. If you are, in any way, associated with us, you know, we are big on celebrations – whether it is work-related or personal.

We couldn’t let such an important milestone go without making a big deal of it. 

We marked it by stepping out together as a team. We ate, drank, danced, laughed, and stayed longer than planned. There were no speeches, no attempt to package the moment into something inspirational.

That was deliberate.

Because if there’s one thing 19 years teaches you, it’s this: longevity has very little to do with big announcements and everything to do with people who quietly keep choosing to stay, build, believe in the values, and move forward together.

How did we make it to 19?

Let’s be honest. Not a lot of organizations make it to 19. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics support this. They report that only 25% of businesses make it to 15 years or more.

Firms that don’t succeed don’t lack emotion or intelligence; sustaining momentum is what often takes a backseat. Markets are constantly evolving, expectations shift, and teams adapt. The early excitement fades before you know it, and then it’s all about building something that lasts. 

At Finsmart, encouraging people to adapt is far more important than chasing perfection. Our people learned, recalibrated, and stayed invested when the path wasn’t linear. And that is not accidental; it was human effort that compounded over time. 

What last Saturday represented wasn’t a milestone on a timeline. It was a reminder of what actually holds a company together after the early years are over.

People don’t stay for slogans.
They stay where they feel respected.
They stay where growth is real, not promised.
They stay where effort is recognised, not exploited.

Over 19 years, Finsmart has evolved in size, structure, ambition, and geography. The work has become more complex. The expectations are higher. The stakes are bigger.

But the constant has been this: people were never treated as interchangeable.

That belief shows up in small, everyday decisions. In how teams are built. In how responsibility is shared. In how leadership is earned, not assigned. In how mistakes are handled without blame becoming the default response.

You don’t build a 19-year-old company without getting many things wrong. What matters is whether people are trusted enough to learn from those moments.

The celebration mattered because it reflected that reality 

When people from across teams, tenures, geographies, and languages can sit together without any superiority dictating conversation, it says more than any culture deck ever could. When laughter isn’t polite, and participation isn’t forced, it signals something deeper.

Comfort like that isn’t created by perks. It’s created by consistency.

Consistency in how people are treated on regular workdays. Consistency in expectations. Consistency in values, even as the company scales and adapts.

That’s the part most organizations underestimate.

19 years also symbolize growth

Nineteen years also means people have grown with the company, not just within it.

Careers didn’t move in straight lines. Roles evolved. Personal lives needed to be taken care of. Confidence was built gradually. Leaders emerged because they earned trust, not because they were labelled early.

Some team members have seen multiple phases of the business, just like in their lives. Others joined later and became integral quickly because the environment allowed them to contribute meaningfully.

Different timelines. Same sense of ownership.

That doesn’t happen in places where people are treated as short-term capacity.

There’s a popular narrative in business about moving fast, scaling aggressively, and constantly reinventing. Those things matter. But longevity requires a different discipline: knowing what notto change.

At Finsmart, the belief that people are the long-term advantage, and they are never negotiable. It has shaped decisions around growth, collaboration, and leadership. It’s the reason teams are trusted with responsibility. It’s the reason ownership doesn’t sit with a few individuals at the top.

We have built an organization where everyone can build an identity of their own. 

The 19th-year celebration was about celebrating the journey

When we all came together to dine, drink, and dance, it wasn’t about nostalgia. It wasn’t about “how far we’ve come.” It was about acknowledging something more grounded: that the work of building a company is emotional, demanding, and deeply human.

People don’t give their best to places that don’t give anything back.

Nineteen years in, Finsmart’s success is not defined by how long it has existed, but by how many people have grown, stayed curious, and stayed committed along the way.

That’s not a soft achievement.
That’s the hardest one.

As Finsmart moves into its next chapter, the challenges will be different. Growth will look different. The work will demand new skills, new thinking, and new ways of collaborating.

But the foundation remains unchanged.

It will never be about a single idea or strategy. It will always be about people choosing to build something together.

Last Saturday was simply a moment to acknowledge that truth.

Nineteen years strong — not because of time, but because of the people who made time matter.

Here’s to growth, success and many more years of milestones.