going radical: the 4 tenets of a ‘new firm’

happy young businessman jumping in tornadothere are 4 keys, but they come down to meeting needs.

by jody padar
the radical cpa

people often ask me: what makes a firm a “new firm?” there are four fundamental tenets.

more on radicalism: why should cpas be radical? | the roots of ‘radical’ cpas | the first 3 questions i should have asked before starting my own practice

these four tenets, although adopted dif­ferently within each firm, compromise a new set of values that most of the “movement” firms embrace. ready? here we go:
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why should cpas be radical?

businesswoman lassoing light bulbthe alternative is complacency. we all know where that leads.

by jody padar
the radical cpa

cpas must be “radicalized” so they cannot be lulled into com­placency and driven by reaction to their current firm or live­lihood. the changes that are happening in today’s fast-paced world need to be addressed.

more on getting radical: the roots of ‘radical’ cpas | the first 3 questions i should have asked before starting my own practice

you and your team have already felt the changes. the silent majority of many employees are hurt, suspicious and feeling unheard. they see and experience the changes happening around them and don’t understand the complacency or the resistance to change from firm management. you may even be feeling this yourself within your firm of one.

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the roots of ‘radical’ cpas

young businessman thinking, software icons in thought cloudhow the ‘new firm’ was born.

by jody padar
the radical cpa

i started to use this newfangled payroll software that worked through the internet. back then they didn’t call it the cloud. it was just payroll software that used an internet browser. it solved my business problems of preparing paychecks, paying taxes and filing tax returns for my customers. the technology was paycycle, a cloud-based payroll software.

more radical cpa: the first 3 questions i should have asked before starting my own practice

paycycle (which has since been acquired by intuit) fundamentally changed my firm and my life. all of a sudden payroll became one of the most profitable areas of our firm. it also became a catalyst to selling and packaging our other core services.

it was the beginning of something bigger.

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the first 3 questions i should have asked before starting my own practice

and the 3 questions you should be asking yourself today.

by jody padar
the radical cpa

i had just come off a really bad tax season.

this was about eight years ago now, and i knew there had to be a better way. i left a mid-sized firm, with seven partners and about 50 other employ­ees and i joined my dad’s firm — literally and figuratively. figu­ratively, because many of his technology and processes were “old school.” read more →

walking the walk with a radical cpa

broken chainget real. get up from your desk. go for a ‘gemba’ walk.

by tom hood
the radical cpa

i remember sending a video intro to jody padar’s first meeting of ic opportunities where i read a quote from the february 2012 edition of fast company magazine in which the editor, robert safian, intro­duced the concept of “generation flux” and it reminded me of jody and her tribe:

tom hood
hood

“in our hyper-networked, mobile, social, global world, the rules and plans of yesterday are increasingly under pressure; the enterprises and individuals that will thrive will be those willing to adapt and iterate, in a disciplined, unsen­timental way… generation flux is a term that describes all of this — the chaotic business era that we have moved into — as well as the people who are poised to thrive in this environment.”

so what is a “gemba walk,” you might be thinking? read more →