‘good’ isn’t good enough anymore

when times get tough, the tough get better.

is your firm ready? join the study; get the answers.

by rick telberg

how do you rate your firm? let us count the ways…

actually, we counted seven ways, or rather seven qualities by which one can rate an accounting practice or finance department: leadership, technology, learning organization, business development, workplace morale, client satisfaction, and strategy execution.

after tallying 1,748 responses in a succession of online surveys and one-to-one interviews over the last six months, it’s emerging as pretty clear that in most ways, most professionals rate most shops as mostly pretty good.

but “good” may not be good enough in today’s tough business environment.

to be sure, there are critical – and critically important – differences between leading firms and lagging firms. and we’ll get to those at another time.

new leadership strategies that work: is your firm ready? click here to join the survey, get the answers (free. confidential.)

in our 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 surveys, consistently more than half of all cpas thought often or always that their top management was held accountable and led by example, that performance evaluations were useful, and that the firm held to a clear set of values.

but that “often” by no means comes close to “always.” and therein lays the rub: for a business to achieve true excellence and competitive superiority, it must score at the highest levels with consistency. in this day and age, few businesses can afford over time to please customers only “most” of the time. the cost of new-customer acquisition is simply too steep, talent too dear, responsibilities too serious.

and few traits are as important as leadership today. as a certain connie, a senior auditor at a large cpa firm, describes her office in our survey, “[it’s] much better than average as a whole, but some individuals could use some help.”

you’d think technology would be a top priority in our business, but about a fifth say they “never” get thorough and continuous training, and almost half say their firm “never” follows a written strategic technology plan.

scott a. mitchem says his local accounting firm is out there near the front of the pack but not in the front. “we are not bleeding edge,” he said, “but clearly leading edge.”

training, too, seems to suffer a lack of attention. asked to grade their firms as  “learning organizations,” not much more than half said they get the training they need, and almost as many said they don’t get the training they want. but few say they never get either.

new business development and marketing appears to be a weak point. that should come as no surprise to a profession in which many people still recall nasty controversies over “solicitation.” still, a shocking 47 percent say their firm never follows a written business development strategy, and only 13 percent say growth is truly a team effort.

donald l. crane, a partner in a small firm, expressed a frustration that reflects the time-crunch that so many firms suffer. “we have some interesting and potentially lucrative value-added services we would like to offer,” he wrote, “but we have no time to develop them and roll them out.”

as far as firms being “a great place to work,” respondents seem generally satisfied if not unanimously excited. when we ask about turnover rates, support for a work-life balance, competitive compensation, and teamwork, opinions are pretty evenly sorted out among “sometimes,” “often,” and “all the time.”

joshua shepherd, a corporate financial manager, seems to speak for many people when he says, “i enjoy the workplace, but it isn’t for everyone.”

in terms of client service and satisfaction, almost three-quarters say they “often” or “always” get new clients through referrals. but almost half of the firms have no formal program to monitor client satisfaction. and about as many operate as though clients belong to particular partners and instead of the firm as a whole, which may be a sign of weak teamwork.

respondents also report some general weaknesses in strategic planning and execution. a third say that business plans are incomplete or go unmonitored, and that goals are neither specific nor measurable. about a quarter have difficulty delivering an elevator speech on their firm.

so there we have it: generally speaking, professionals rate their firms as capable of satisfying clients and as not bad places to work. apparently those qualities can exist without excellence in marketing or strategy. as organizations, cpa shops are apparently doing well enough, which is fine… as long as well enough means good enough.

the fact is: most firms are average. and we’re in the process of assessing exactly what that means. the cpa profession isn’t lake woebegone, where “all the children are above average.”

so the question for today’s economy and for the competitive environment in the weeks and months ahead becomes: is average good enough?

now, more than in a long time, it’s crucially important for practitioners to rise above average. it may be a set of skills, a niche or a specialty. or it may be your customer service. or the technologies you use. or the way you attract and cultivate talented people. or the vision you strive for. or the values you stand for. so pick something in which to excel, something that distinguishes you as different and superior. and go after it. your future may depend on it.

is your firm ready? test your organization’s leadership rating. click here to join the survey, get the answers.

copyright © 2008 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间/bsg llc. all rights reserved. used by permission. first published by the aicpa.

posted on november 10, 2008