INTERVIEW: ‘Companies become future proof when they embrace change’ | Mark Aquilina, James Sammut

A year ago, professional services company NOUV acquired Tuning Fork, a business advisory firm specialising in business process optimisation, cyber resilience, sustainability, and risk amongst others.

“A year ago, we took a leap of faith because we wanted to give both our firms a unique position in the market. One year later, not only were expectations met but together we achieved more than we ever expected,” Mark Aquilina who founded NOUV in 2008, said.

Today, the firm, which also incorporates 36N Capital and GetGovernanz, is a uniquely positioned boutique consultancy firm offering a complete portfolio of management and financial advisory services coupled with a range of business support services.

“The idea of acquiring Tuning Fork was harboured from an increasing need to offer different skill sets from the traditional CPA-related services. From a cultural point of view, we were already very attuned, and we both knew that this synergy would give us a broader client base and more diverse competencies. I was convinced this would be a renaissance for both NOUV and Tuning Fork,” Aquilina said.

“Within a year, the group almost doubled in size and the achievements in 2021 were significant. We share common values and beliefs, and our next objective now is to grow sustainably, grounded on these solid values, guiding policies and robust systems.”

“From an operations point of view, we are still establishing and implementing a new way of doing things and to date, we have successfully centralised and consolidated the administration, finance and marketing functions,” James Sammut, who heads Tuning Fork’s operations, said.

Obviously, the acquisition meant an increase in people working at NOUV.

“Today, we are a headcount of 50. In fact, we have had to move to new and larger premises in Żebbuġ. This year, we also expect to onboard another eight new employees, four of which will join Tuning Fork’s operations,” Sammut said.

Synergies have led to new achievements. In fact, as ESG increasingly dominates the agenda, this acquisition proved that the direction of NOUV to pursue the acquisition of an ESG specialist company was a correct and long-term decision.

“Today, with Tuning Fork on board, NOUV is positioned to offer medium to large-sized companies  a one-stop-shop solution, combining technical and business development abilities to fine-tune certain services such as business transformation, cyber security and resilience, and ESG,” Aquilina said.

Tuning Fork’s competence in environmental management, sustainability and social accountability goes back to its roots in 2001, hand-holding organisations and managing their systems, ensuring compliance with regulations and enhancing internal systems in a way that helped them stand out from their competitors.

“Our capability and experience have put us at the forefront of ESG and in-house, we have home-grown a team of qualified and passionate experts who support local blue-chip, corporate and SMEs in environmental, health and safety as well as social aspects. We do not just compile reports but by integrating ourselves with the client’s culture, we present and implement solutions and strategic changes that enhance their systems,” Sammut said.

He explained how besides its standard portfolio of services, Tuning Fork recently started offering new services namely in ESG, PCI/DSS, SWIFT assessments and online learning.

“We firmly believe in the ethical reporting of non-financial performance to create value that is essentially a product of economic, environmental and social efforts. Our ESG advisory focuses on the  strategy creation, execution, reporting and verification of Environmental, Social and Governance elements within any business. It is Win-Win situation for businesses, communities and ultimately for our environment,” he said.

Tuning Fork also opened up a cybersecurity arm to provide assessments in SWIFT for  financial institutions and service providers offering services to organisations that make use of SWIFT services. It is also offering PCI DSS audits for financial institutions, software developers, card issuers/providers and data centres having electronic money transactions that includes cardholder data processing.

“And this month, we also launching our online Learning Management System to allow easy remote learning on controlled administration, tracking, reporting, automation, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, or learning and development programs,” Sammut said.

Besides a focus in niche areas such as food safety for catering establishments, food processors and importers, and penetration testing in cybersecurity, Tuning Fork’s Transformation pillar has been augmented with appropriate leadership and resources targeting change management projects and programmes for private and government entities.

Aquilina noted how 2021, with all its complications, still brought several success stories for the firm.

“Over the past eight months we have been assisting a local multinational medical device manufacturer in all its environmental and sustainability services, leading it to certification in international standards with our support being lauded and approved by the Senior EHS Director in Singapore.,” he said.

“Moreover, Tuning Fork and our governance arm GetGovernanz are now working more closely together with a local authority, assisting it in its transformation strategy to help it embrace a project management approach.

“Tuning Fork has also been commissioned by the European Commission’s representative office in Malta to establish environmental legal requirements and ensure its compliance obligations together with another commissioned project by a local Circular Economy authority to implement an integrated management system covering Quality and Environment in line with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.”

Aquilina said that the beauty in all that the company is doing lies in how companies are opening up to their non-traditional advice. The acquisition has translated into more positive exposure to both NOUV and Tuning Fork which has led to more business opportunities.

“It is evident that companies are increasingly pursuing niche domains such as sustainability, cybersecurity, human capital and business optimisation in order to step up their performance and image,” he said.

“They have understood that embracing these principles and adapting to change will establish them into future-proof organisations.”