four fixes fior what’s broken.
by rick telberg
the rosenberg survey
the onslaught of challenges that accounting firms face today boils down to one huge challenge: people—the professionals and para-professionals who address those challenges.
this is not to say that people themselves are a problem. quite to the contrary, they are the only possible solution to problems. people turn problems into opportunities. (and if they don’t, well, maybe they are indeed problems.) the fundamental challenge is to hire, prepare, and retain people and apply them to the most appropriate tasks.
hire, prepare, retain, apply—none of those are easy.
the gurus who put together the rosenberg survey identify four areas that cpa firms need to “fix” if they want to entice the best and brightest to join a firm, stay with the firm, and make a difference to the firm and its clients.
1. reduce hours. stop driving employees to seek employment elsewhere—different firms or even different professions—for purposes of sanity. people thinking about jumping ship probably aren’t worried too much about the ship. they aren’t meeting challenges. they’re avoiding challenges.
2. develop the technical and non-technical skills of staff, starting on the first day they walk into the office. obviously, these skills include those relating to accountancy, but increasingly important are such things as communication, leadership, business development, coaching, analytics, management, and general productivity. all of these skills contribute to meeting challenges.
3. embrace technology. firm managers probably think they’re already doing this because they spend so much of their time wrestling with tech. but are they looking for the newest and most innovative technology, or are they waiting for it to come of age?
4. embrace change. change is challenging, but it’s also an opportunity. and the ongoing changes aren’t just in technology and regulations. it’s in the lifestyles and capacities of upcoming generations. it’s in the aging of owners—their invaluable mix of wisdom and old-fashionedness and their gradual disappearance. it’s in the general evolution of business and modern economics. change never stops. resistance is futile.
the survey presents the thoughts of a broad array of cpas and consultants, eliciting their ideas on trends, struggles, and the future. these thoughts inevitably focus on people—their capacities, their desires, their approach to their profession.
angie grissom, of the rainmaker companies, says, “the biggest struggle firms are facing is how to go about addressing changes while leading the firm with the existing challenges of staffing, serving clients, and acquiring new clients all while retiring out partners. change management is tough and when firms are faced with the need to look at running firms differently, it becomes even tougher.”
carrie steffen, of the whetstone group, cites a shift from the traditional philosophy of investing only in a few high-performers. she says, “firms are thinking more strategically about growth—who they want to serve, what they want to do for those clients, and what kind of experience they are delivering. they are aligning training to create more effective and inclusive growth cultures.”
gale crosley, of crosley+company, sees firm leaders finally recognizing that big data, cryptocurrency, the blockchain, and unlimited processing power are about to rock their world to tectonic depths.
“firm leaders have been drinking from a firehose of awareness,” crosley says. “the implications dawned on their collective conscience, starting with the very foundation of our business model, the blueprint for how we achieve revenue growth and profit.”