You know already that referrals, in a healthy business network, are supposed to flow both ways.

You've probably heard all about "balanced referral relationships" and nodded along at conference sessions about reciprocity.

Ibrahim Abu Yousef, in Jordan, is an exception to that rule.

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When his firm joined TGS in 2017, the network had minimal presence in the Middle East - just three countries: Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and UAE.

Many managing partners in his position might have seen this as a problem. Ibrahim and his partners saw it differently. They liked the TGS ethos.

It’s not that they didn’t also consider joining other networks. They did. And those networks did have members scattered across the region.

But Ibrahim recognised an opportunity to build something better.“We felt that we can build new members who dream about the same things," he says.

The numbers tell an interesting story: 99% of Ibrahim's referrals flow outward. If that troubles you, here’s why it’s not a problem.

Ibrahim’s clients in Jordan don't need accounting help only in Jordan, he explains.

Increasingly, they need it in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, where their subsidiaries and branches operate. Regional business naturally flows to these hub markets.

You might assume this makes Ibrahim's firm a referral mill, constantly giving away business. Not at all.

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Here’s another thing about Ibrahim’s region: Jordanian accountants are well educated and speak Arabic, making them highly prized for work in states within the Gulf Cooperation Council: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

In fact Jordanian accountants are so sought after that the Big Four have established what Ibrahim jokingly calls "military facilities" in Jordan, specifically to serve Gulf markets.

Is this a problem for his TGS firm? In other parts of the world, where young people seem to have gone off the idea of accounting as a career, losing staff could be a disaster.

But in the Middle East there’s no shortage of young people wanting to come through, says Ibrahim. (They include his own daughter.)

He encourages people who are tempted by the Big Four to try it - not to look back, one day, and wonder “what if”.

Since Ibrahim joined TGS, the network in his region has grown. And as that happened he has worked hard to develop ever-greater relationships with those regional TGS members.

The key thing, he says, is to know not just one contact at each member firm but multiple people, because if you only know one and he or she leaves it’s a disaster.

And of course you must know those contacts well, so that you understand exactly what each can deliver.

That way, you can build the kind of relationships that work when clients need them most.

But expansion brings its own problems. As the volume of referrals has increased, Ibrahim and his partners became aware that speed and precision were critical for good client service: clients just can’t be kept waiting.

What to do?

More on that tomorrow.

Part 2: How Ibrahim turned referrals into a competitive advantage - tomorrow