also: retirees must transition the relationship, not just the work.
by allan koltin
rosenberg map survey
i see movement of “advanced” lateral talent. while lateral talent has always left the big 4 firms to pursue career opportunities with local, regional and middle-market national firms, it appears the movement of “advanced” talent is happening at a greater pace.
more from the map survey: survey: many firms in transition | technology playing center stage in cpa profession
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.
positions ranging from manager, senior manager, principal and partner are finding they can accomplish their career goals at a potentially accelerated pace at local, regional and national firms, while also enjoying the culture of these firms. in the past, this type of movement didn’t take place as often, as many of these individuals completely left public accounting when they left the big 4.
every year, the authors of the rosenberg map survey ask the industry’s top consultants to share their observations of what they are seeing at cpa firms. specifically, they are asked the following questions:
- what kind of year was 2016? what were the major trends you observed? what were the issues you saw firms struggling with the most?
- 2017 is half over. based on your experiences this year, what are you seeing? what are the major trends? what are firms struggling with and what are they working on as the year progresses?
regarding succession planning, it appears firms are getting much better in terms of holding retirement-minded partners to the agreed-upon succession plan. they are also realizing that the easy part often is simply transitioning the work of the retired partner’s clients, but have come to realize that what really matters is transitioning the relationship. firms are starting this process earlier and not waiting until the last couple of years.
they are also, for the first time, putting into partnership agreements clawbacks that penalize retirement-minded partners for not doing everything they can to transfer the relationship. when you think about this it makes perfect sense as, at the end of the day, the reason firms pay retired partner goodwill (or deferred compensation) is because of the goodwill and legacy they leave behind, which typically is a revenue stream of clients.
firms continue to focus on growth, but seem to be even more precise in that they are looking for profitable growth. what this means is an even harder line on unprofitable clients and an even shorter window to turn “c” clients around than ever before. this is obviously very prevalent in the audit side of the practice, where many firms for the first time are realizing that finishing second on an audit proposal (especially when work is discounted by 50 percent of standard rates!) may, in fact, be better than actually getting the work!
lastly, the area of firm leadership and management continues to be a major issue. firms are doing a much better job of setting up firm leaders for success by taking away much of their “day job” and transferring everything from their billable time to book of business to other partners. it used to be that firm leaders served their clients during the daytime and managed the firm at night. we are now seeing that this model no longer works for many firms and full-time (or close to full-time) leadership in larger local and regional firms seems to be a growing trend.
clearly 2017 so far is all about technology and innovation. we are seeing before our very eyes technology that will ultimately enable firms to specifically test all transactions in “real-time” reporting. this could potentially reduce audit revenue significantly over the next couple of years. whether it’s blockchain, big data, artificial intelligence, ibm’s watson, optical recognition or enhanced data extraction, the profession now realizes that major changes will be taking place and in a relatively quick timeframe.
while they may not all take place within two years, clearly they will all take place within 10 years, and firms are spending much more strategic time talking about these changes, as well as the capital investment necessary to properly serve the clients going forward. safe to say that the old leverage model, which traditionally looked like a pyramid, will be more rectangular going forward, as much of the mundane, basic work will, in fact, be done through robots or artificial intelligence.
as recently noted by the successful entrepreneur and shark tank legend, mark cuban, who was asked recently which industry will be the next one to become obsolete, his controversial response was that of the accounting profession.
while all of us would disagree that this will be the case (and upon deeper reflection i think even mark cuban would disagree with his own comment!), we all do realize the wisdom in his comment that lower-level work that can be done through artificial intelligence or through robotics will in fact transform our profession.
hopefully, the negative will ultimately turn into a positive, as it will push accountants to be the true business advisors that clients have always been asking us to become. the days of high-level partners absorbing themselves in putting the information together will no longer be acceptable to the client going forward. 2017 promises to be the start of a major transformation within our profession. we should not be afraid of it; we should embrace it, as i believe this will make us that much more valuable to our clients and firms going forward.