herding cats: change management for cpa firms

eight good tips for getting everyone on board when change is scary.

change is inevitable. but with a crashing a crashing economy, it is also treacherous, which makes these suggestion from august aquila all the more urgent.

1. know where you want to go. what are you trying to achieve as a firm and a partner group? while it’s always difficult to address the elephant in the room, now is the time to take advantage of the economic turmoil and bring all issues to the table.

2. get others involved. if you are the only one in the firm who is pushing for the change, you might as well forget about it. when others get involved they also get committed. they provide you with feedback so that you can develop the best steps in the change process. read more →

what it means to be a partner

11 tests to measure the health of your firm’s partner group. 

click for download

by robert j. lees and august j. aquila
new research report, instant download: leadership at its best: what successful managing partners do (pdf, 17 pages) 

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. but, one of the problems we consistently hear about is the lack of clarity in what being a partner means. and, in the absence of clarity the partners typically fill the gap by doing what they think it means, with all of the differences of thought and behavior that inevitably brings. it’s these differences in behavior that result in firms failing to maximize their potential.

so, how do firms overcome this lack of clarity and ensure the partner group set the right example and consistently deliver the performance the firm needs to be successful?

in our over twenty years working with professional service firms, we have seen many attempts to provide greater clarity from sophisticated competency frameworks through balanced scorecards to highly personalized objective-based compensation systems. the problem is that none of them (or even all of them together) ever works well enough without the critical link between partner behavior and what the firm is trying to achieve and what the partners have to do to deliver it. only when that overt linkage exists and becomes part of every partner’s dna do any other initiatives have a chance of working.

read more →

when a partner is unwilling to help

maybe the problem is you.

here at 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间, ed mendlowitz answers some of the toughest questions practitioners can throw at him. he’s the right one to ask. after more than 40 years in the business – building his own practice, running the firm, and eventually selling it to a major regional firm, withumsmith+brown, where he remains a senior partner and consultant to professional services clients – he has the answers. we’re happy to have him at 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间. send your questions for ed here, or chime in with comments below.

meanwhile, browse more from ed here: what to do when you lose your biggest client  |  congratulations! you bought a tax practice. now what? | how accountants can keep the business when a client wants to sell theirs | 10 reasons clients don’t pay, and what to do about it | 13 reasons timesheets will never die |

— rick telberg
president / ceo

question: my tax partner gives me a hard time when i ask her for assistance.  is there anything i can do to get her to be more responsive?

read more →

20 decisions for your firm’s new partner compensation committee

partners need to be something more than production machines. [checklist included.]

by marc rosenberg, cpa

increasingly, cpa firms are adopting the compensation committee system for allocating partner income.  firms are finding that systems such as formulas, pay based on ownership percentage or pay-equal no longer work.  when we compare the usage of the compensation committee today to 5 years ago, the increase in usage ranges from 16% to 26%.

if there is one overarching cause for this significant trend, it’s that firms are understanding that their partners need to be something more than production machines.  in addition to bringing in business, managing a client base and working billable hours (all of which continue to be important values in a compensation committee), partners need to excel in intangible areas such as helping staff grow and develop, developing specialized expertise and teamwork.  the compensation committee is one of the best systems available to cpa firms to allocate income based on this diverse array of performance criteria.

more marc rosenberg practice management trends and guidance: three ways to break partner gridlock in an accounting firm  | what partners are entitled to, and what they’re not entitled to | how to make partner?  |  why accounting firm partners are “popping prozac like m&m’s”  |  the 15-item checklist for your next partner retreat |  five key responsibilities for a new partner  |  planning a partner retreat for real results  |  6 steps to get your business to the next level  |  the 10 biggest mistakes in reading map statistics  |  re-engineering partner accountability  |  marc rosenberg: why cpas aren’t making more money [video]  |  marc rosenberg: slow learners need not apply  |  10 to-do’s for a partner buyout

when firms begin operating their new compensation committees, there is a lot of initial confusion and bewilderment about how to get started.  for example: read more →

three ways to break partner gridlock in an accounting firm

when one-partner, one-vote isn’t working. 

by marc rosenberg, cpa
author of how to bring in new partners

most firms vote on a one-person, one-vote basis despite varying ownership percentages.

more marc rosenberg practice management trends and guidance: what partners are entitled to, and what they’re not entitled to | how to make partner?  |  why accounting firm partners are “popping prozac like m&m’s”  |  the 15-item checklist for your next partner retreat |  five key responsibilities for a new partner  |  planning a partner retreat for real results  |  6 steps to get your business to the next level  |  the 10 biggest mistakes in reading map statistics  |  re-engineering partner accountability  |  marc rosenberg: why cpas aren’t making more money [video]  |  marc rosenberg: slow learners need not apply  |  10 to-do’s for a partner buyout

but is that always the best way? here are three better ways.

read more →

what a coach can do for you – and your firm

five tough questions and five good tips to take your firm and your personal effectiveness to the next level.

gary adamson, former managing partner of brady ware cpas, has become a living legend in the profession for taking his firm from a small, local player to a regional contender. but he’s the first to admit he didn’t do it alone. coaching helped. in fact, during his career at the firm, he used two business coaches.

more from gary adamson at 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间: how to balance the six jobs of managing partner  |  the partner compensation checklist  |  how cpa firms make money in turbulent times

he learned a lot, and now he’s sharing what he learned with 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间.

read more →

what partners are entitled to…

…and what they’re not entitled to. 

partners are entitled to a lot. at some firms, they are virtually royalty. but that’s no way to run a firm these days.

here, marc rosenberg, cpa, and author of how to bring in new partners and a 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 affiliate, lists what every partner – especially new and wanna-be partners – need to understand.

more from marc rosenberg:  how to make partner? | why accounting firm partners are “popping prozac like m&m’s” | the 15-item checklist for your next partner retreat | five key responsibilities for a new partner | planning a partner retreat for real results | 6 steps to get your business to the next level | the 10 biggest mistakes in reading map statistics | re-engineering partner accountability | marc rosenberg: why cpas aren’t making more money [video] | marc rosenberg: slow learners need not apply | 10 to-do’s for a partner buyout

a partner is entitled to:

1. attend partner meetings and retreats.

2. have access to all confidential firm financial data.

3. receive a return on capital; repayment of capital when he/she leaves the firm. read more →

can you be trusted as a leader?

dan mccarthy

20 signs you can’t.

if paychex inc. knows something about leadership — and considering their position in the market, they might — then dan mccarthy may have had something to do with it.

dan was responsible at paychex for executive training and development, including succession planning, at a time when the company was consistently named a fortune magazine “great place to work,” a “training magazine top 125” training organization, and a bersin “high impact learning organization.” since 2011, he’s been director of executive development programs at the whittemore school of business and economics at the university of new hampshire in durham, n.h.

lately, he’s been thinking — and worrying — about the difficulties that leaders and managers face from the effects of the great recession. “job satisfaction has decreased since the beginning of the recession in 2008,” he notes. and 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research by bay street group llc bears him out in the tax and accounting industry.

some of the damage may be self-inflicted. here dan lists “20 signs you can’t be trusted as a leader:” read more →

the 15-item checklist for your next partner strategy meeting

how to focus on the big issues.

by marc rosenberg, cpa
guide to planning the firm retreat

most firms spend their time at retreats planning for the future, forming goals and addressing pressing issues and problem areas. the problem areas aren’t day-to-day issues such as purchasing a new copy machine or revising the policy on sick days. the problem areas are more strategic: morale issues, recruiting problems, profitability, etc.

here are some specific examples: read more →

leadership at its strongest: what successful managing partners do

how the best set direction, gain commitment, execute on plan and lead by personal example. 

by robert j. lees, august j. aquila and derek klyhn

rob lees
rob lees

professional services is one of the most critical sectors in all western economies and an increasingly important one in every other world economy. but, the usual measures of scale, like revenues, the number of firms or the number of professionals, don’t adequately reflect the importance of the sector. what makes professional services so critical is the influence professional firms have on their clients’ activities.

whether the influence comes through strategic advice, legal opinion, transaction origination and support, tax minimisation, or an audit opinion, every business we know is reliant, in some form, on the opinion of a professional service firm.

august aquila
august aquila

in addition, and at least as important given the move away from self-regulation, there is the critical regulatory role of the accountants and lawyers tasked with ensuring the probity of the world’s financial markets. all of which makes the task of ensuring that each of the firms is a role model of its profession’s expertise, values and ethics absolutely key.

when firms were relatively small, that wasn’t a difficult task. however, as firms have increased in scale, geographic reach and service offerings, the task of running a professional service firm has become extremely complex. and that’s without considering changing client expectations, increasing competition between firms, threats to the traditional business model from offshoring and the increasing number of virtual firms, the increasing number of western economy-based firms operating in countries with social and business norms sometimes far removed from their own, the arrival of a generation with very different expectations than their predecessors, and calls for greater transparency and regulation in the light of the financial meltdown.

derek klyhn
derek klyhn

in our twenty year association with professional service firms (psfs), every one of the hundreds of firms we have worked with around the world has seen the number, scale and complexity of the challenges they face increase significantly. being a managing partner, never the easiest of roles, is now one of the most complex and challenging roles in any organisation in any business sector anywhere in the world.

and yet, every managing partner we know admitted that they took on the role without any real understanding of what the role entailed and without being sure if they had the capabilities to do it effectively. they also described how the typical high need for achievement culture within professional service firms, with its intolerance of perceived failure, made it almost impossible for them to ask for help when they needed it and for their colleagues to offer it.

rob lees is a founding partner of moller psfg ltd and consultant to professional service firm leaders worldwide. he is also co-author of the best-selling “when professionals have to lead.” 

august aquila is an internationally known speaker, writer and consultant to professional services firms. he is ceo of aquila global advisors. he is also the co-author of “compensation as a strategic asset” and “client at the core.”

derek klyhn is a founding partner and director of møller psfg cambridge ltd and consultant to professional service firm leaders and their teams. he is chartered accountant and has an mba  from london business school.  

instant download [free for pro members]: to get the complete report, click here: read more →

five key responsibilities for a new partner

it starts with how to make a successful senior manager.

by marc rosenberg, cpa
how to bring in new partners

how are the duties and responsibilities of a new partner different from those of a manager? this is one of the grayest areas in bringing in new partners. read more →

how to balance the six jobs of managing partner

you run the job, or it runs you over.

by gary adamson
adamson advisory

most of us are thrust into the managing partner role in our firms with little or no training or coaching. who teaches you to be an effective mp? how do you know if you’re performing well?

your partners won’t tell you.  if you’re new to the job, do you just do it the same way as your predecessor? is that the best approach for the firm? who will mentor you?

as i can attest from experience in running my firm for over 20 years, it is a thankless job. i just took a deep breath and jumped in. the best feedback that most of us get is from other managing partners and from benchmarking ourselves against other firms. there are not too many places to turn for help.

whether you are new at the job or a veteran, here is an approach to organizing the job into six buckets that will help you. it is how i approached the responsibilities and it lends itself to dividing and conquering with the ability to delegate some responsibilities.

here are my six buckets: read more →