leadership

6 reasons to keep partners from retiring

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aquila
aquila

and 4 ways to put them to good use.

by august j. aquila
creating the effective partnership

there may be some senior partners who want to spend their remaining years basking in the sun or playing golf. but, given the negative and low returns of the stock market the last few years, more senior partners will be concerned about their economic future and will want to stay involved in the profession. this can be a win-win situation for both parties or it can be a lose-lose.

senior partners have a wealth of knowledge that you don’t want to lose. for example, they possess: read more →

ten things every firm needs to make clear firmwide

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the main categories of information for internal communications and management. by bruce w. marcus professional services marketing 3.0 while the substance of information varies from firm to firm, there are 10 categories that cannot go unconsidered:

create your “not-to-do’s” list

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by hitendra patil
pransform

you can call it a “stop doing these” list.

if you have done the “abc analysis” of your clients, you know the best customers who yield highest net profit per unit of effort (generally your time) are your a clients and those who yield the least are your clients. now do the same with your – and your firm’s – activities. read more →

is the profit squeeze over?

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new trends emerge in net profit margins and accounts receivable.

after years of intensifying and debilitating pressure on bottom lines, profits at tax, accounting and bookkeeping firms appear to be hitting 10-year highs, according to information obtained by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 from sageworks, the specialist in tracking private-company financials. read more →

the 3 traits shared by 150 top managing partners

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what successful managing partners do

by robert j. lees and august j. aquila
how to engage partners in the future

the problem is that in the majority of cpa firms there is no clarity around what being a managing partner actually entails and, specifically, what managing partners should do to create and sustain their partners’ commitment to actively participating in delivering the firm’s future.

our research involving in-depth interviews with 150 managing partners at the world’s leading firms identified that the truly successful managing partners share three key activities: read more →

mismanaging project management

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ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and a

by ed mendlowitz
101 questions and answers

question: i assigned four projects to a manager who reassigned them to a staff 2 person and i gave a date when they were needed that was three weeks away.  when i asked about the progress after two weeks, i was told that nothing was near completion.  now there is a super rush with much stress. how could this situation have been avoided?

response: first off – you are to blame. you did not work with the manager to see how she would assign the work and to whom.  read more →

the 14 rules for what being a partner means

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aquila how to engage partners in the firms future clip square cvrplus: 4 keys to tie pay to performance.

by robert j. lees and august j. aquila
how to engage partners in the future

partners are the culture in a professional service firm – what they believe, what they reward, what they do and how they do it determines what and how things get done. partners are the owners – they, and they alone, are responsible for the firm’s vision and its implementation.

being a leader means each partner must: read more →

fixing the partner entitlement mentality

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nine reasonable entitlements and 15 misconceptions, bad ideas and outright abuses.

it’s a privilege to be a partner in a cpa firm. not an entitlement. too many partnerships seem to operate as if they had it the other way around. and, in most cases, those partnerships don’t usually make the best cpa firms. marc rosenberg has seen his share of dysfunctional firms. they are no better nor no worse than the people who run them. get these 24 points of partner roles and responsibilities correct and your firm could find a renewal in spirit and in growth.

read more →

the four keys to creating a firm vision that unites and mobilizes

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and the eight ways to give core values real business value.

by robert j. lees and august j. aquila
how to engage partners in the firm’s future

when we talk about having a compelling vision, we don’t just mean the simple, well-crafted statement you find in a lot of firms.

for a vision to be compelling, for it to persuade the partners that they want to play an active part in making it a reality, a vision must have four elements: read more →

getting buy-in: rarely easy, always necessary

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ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and aby ed mendlowitz
101 questions and answers

question: how can i get buy-in in the implementation of new things we decide to do? 

response: i find buy-in the key to a successful program.  it is also extremely hard to get.  it is easy in the board room or at the meeting when the new process or procedure is agreed to, but then there has to be a champion to be responsible for the follow-through and success.  read more →

three must-have checklists for your practice

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checklists work for astronauts. why not accountants?

by sandi smith leyva
accountant’s accelerator

airplane pilots and astronauts have checklists for just about everything they do.  checklists promote performance consistency, make it easier to learn new procedures and increase safety exponentially.  in accounting, we can learn from the airline industry and apply checklists to certain areas of our practices in order to reap similar benefits.   here are three areas of your accounting practice that can benefit from checklists: read more →