About Adam Arnold

All posts on The Smarter CEO are written by Adam Arnold

Adam Arnold as a schoolboy

I was born in Wordsley in 1983 and went to Haden Hill School until it was knocked down and replaced with a housing estate. I can vaguely remember looking round quite a few possible alternatives, eventually ending up at Bromsgrove School in Worcestershire.

The bulk of my life to date is taken up by my time there – gathering some 12 or so GCSEs and 4 A Levels, captaining the odd team here or there and spending my final year as Head of House and a School Monitor, which had it perks; I could walk across cut lawns and wasn’t bound by white or blue shirts. Frankly this is nothing on the Head Boy, who was permitted a full-on beard, could smoke a pipe and keep a goat on ‘Gordon Green’.

To my dismay, my extra curricular achievements combined with exceptional marks on my Economics paper and A’s in Maths and Physics, London School of Economics refused my application to read Economics. At the time LSE was the #1 place to obtain the degree and I didn’t like the idea of 2nd best so I decided to take a ‘gap’ year and try again.

Adam Arnold as an employee

Arthur Andersen offered a fantastic placement scheme and I seemed to swan my way through to the final interview, to be held at their Head Offices on The Strand in London. An unlikely combination of numerous train delays, an early morning/late night fire in my hotel and a near-crash in the cab on the way to the interview resulted in only half of my cylinders firing throughout the assessment day. Perhaps this is fate, as my lack of mental agility saw me dig an ‘Adam Arnold‘ sized hole during my time with their HR director.

Defending my lowly ‘C’ grade in GCSE RE I tried to explain I didn’t place a great deal of value on the subject as my interest was always Maths, Science and, later, Economics/Business. If people want to believe in some higher form, that’s fine – but 10 years of compulsory Chapel 3 times a week put me off the whole idea. Religion should be out of choice…..

An anti-religion rant to a ‘believer’ is a sure fire way to turn an otherwise positive interview into a very negative one. Years of forced attendance, tiredness and persistent questioning of that ‘C’ grade didn’t mix well in this instance.

In hindsight, the events leading up to the final interview were probably a good thing, as Arthur Andersen collapsed amongst the Enron scandal soon after the placements began. Not deterred by yet another rejection, I applied to KPMG who offered me a 10 month placement in their Birmingham Tax Office.

KPMG is a fantastic company and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, despite tax being a generally dull subject. In a constant battle against the tax man, our team advised a range of clients on ways to reduce company taxes. At times this was simple; for instance NHS trust had a list of ‘contracted out services’ on which they could reclaim VAT. We’d just sit in an accounts room (usually near the mortuary!), sifting through invoices and making a note of those which had reclaimable VAT. We’d submit a total to the VAT man and take a percentage of what was recovered. In other instances work would involve trawling through tax documentation and years’ worth of client correspondence with the HM Revenue & Customs.

15 replies on “About Adam Arnold”

  1. Dear Arnold,

    I would like to thank you about the article you wrote in regards Rajinderpal Dhillon Scams, I was just about to go into business with him but you’re article saved me , can email me if possible the PDF file that you uploaded iRajinderpal Dhillon CCJ’s as the link no longer works

        1. I have updated the links so the files are available for you to download 🙂

          As for NSR it sounds familiar but then again RD had multiple companies. Your best bet is to check it out on Companies House.

          Out of interest, what was this business venture?

          1. business is about computer tablets buying and selling abroad, something felt fishy about the guy , so my business partner and i decided to do some research and see what come up so far nothing that will encourage meeting him again let alone doing any business.

            Once agin i would like to thank you for posting this article one you saved me getting in the same trouble you got into second i learnt a really important lesson ( always do a background check.

            i wish you all the success in your future ventures.

            Li

          2. Hi Li,

            No problem – I put the information online in the hope it would save other people experiencing the same problems that I did.

            I did a quick check and NSR is one of his “property” companies….

            Name & Registered Office:
            NSR DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED
            236 ALCESTER ROAD
            STRATFORD UPON AVON
            WARWICKSHIRE
            UNITED KINGDOM
            CV37 9LG
            Company No. 07348829

            That’s RD’s company for sure 🙂

            Adam

  2. Originally posted to http://ceo.smartergroup.biz/about-adam-arnold/….

    ~~~

    Dear Arnold,

    I would like to thank you about the article you wrote in regards Rajinderpal Dhillon Scams, I was just about to go into business with him but you’re article saved me , can email me if possible the PDF file that you uploaded iRajinderpal Dhillon CCJ’s as the link no longer works

    ~~~

    Hi there,

    Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

    I’ve had a look and it does seem as though the files linked from the original post, http://ceo.smartergroup.biz/bl…, are no longer on my server.

    If you check back later on tonight the files will be back!

    Thanks,

    Adam

    ~~~

    thank you Have you heard anything about his company called NSR??

    ~~~

    I have updated the links so the files are available for you to download 🙂

    As for NSR it sounds familiar but then again RD had multiple companies. Your best bet is to check it out on Companies House.

    Out of interest, what was this business venture?

    ~~~

    business is about computer tablets buying and selling abroad, something felt fishy about the guy , so my business partner and i decided to do some research and see what come up so far nothing that will encourage meeting him again let alone doing any business.

    Once agin i would like to thank you for posting this article one you saved me getting in the same trouble you got into second i learnt a really important lesson ( always do a background check.

    i wish you all the success in your future ventures.

    Li

    ~~~

    Hi Li,

    No problem – I put the information online in the hope it would save other people experiencing the same problems that I did.

    I did a quick check and NSR is one of his “property” companies….

    Name & Registered Office:
    NSR DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED
    236 ALCESTER ROAD
    STRATFORD UPON AVON
    WARWICKSHIRE
    UNITED KINGDOM
    CV37 9LG
    Company No. 07348829

    That’s RD’s company for sure 🙂

    Adam

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