who defines innovation? you.
by jody padar
from success to significance: the radical cpa guide
it’s time to get going!
you’ve read my beyond radical approach.
more on radicalism: quick tip: 7 ways to add value and charge for it | profits: new firms, new measures | when staffers meet clients | selling product, not hours | maximizing social media: the importance of people | what are ai and bots? | true diversity means creating equity
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are you exhausted or energized? if you know me, you know that i can’t wait to help you get started on your journey.
are you ready to get started?
is this the way to a utopian firm?
i think it is.
remember, utopian includes happiness as a factor. if our firms don’t include happiness, i think we need to rethink what we are doing.
hopefully this roadmap will get you moving.
undergoing this transformation can only make us better professionals for our customers. the transformation will also be incredible for our employees and partners. sometimes i think an outside catalyst is helpful to persuade us to move forward … even though we know our firms need to start this journey today.
maybe even yesterday.
we can’t fear change. our only choice is to learn what’s going on, to learn about the bots that are coming our way. it’s our job to learn about the technology so that we can help our customers move through it. if we don’t, my biggest fear is that we’re going to risk losing relevancy.
i truly believe that if we don’t move with the digital transformation, we’re going to go away, and all the consultants are going to come in and step in our place, and we’re going to lose our seat at the table. i’m not saying this to freak everyone out, but we have to realize that we really need to not fear change, and to keep moving, and to keep learning. we have everything to do it right at our fingertips.
innovation, agile, product management, becoming anticipatory, and diversity and inclusion are not in your typical cpa practice management books. because they are not typical issues. some might even call them beyond radical.
we know our firms don’t feel contemporary anymore, and they haven’t felt right for a while. we know we are looking for a silver bullet to take us into the unknown future. our movement is made of the innovators, and we are finding big wins and success in our new methodologies of running new firms differently. why not join us in our journey? we now have proven it can be successful.
if there’s one thing you walk away with in reading these posts, let it be this: cpas, it’s up to you to lead in your firms.
it’s up to you to illustrate what innovation means in the context of practice management.
the economy is increasingly motivated by innovation that is led by business. as a business owner’s most trusted advisor, we do a shockingly poor job at creating ongoing, consistent opportunities for innovations in our firms. how are we modeling our cutting-edge knowledge and insight? many cpas aren’t, and instead are getting blown away by the competition. core transformation is where the radical cpa model lives.
remember the story of netflix. in the harvard business review, scott anthony points to the subscription-based company as an example of how they continued to reinvent themselves to stay cutting edge. they moved away from sending dvds through the mail to streaming video content via the web. they transitioned from just distributing other entertainment content to creating their own. netflix is a remarkable example of how tuning into customer preferences informs new offerings and how it stays ahead of the curve. wouldn’t you say the radical cpas have done this with accounting firms? i would.
i believe operating our firms with core technology principles that have innovation, adaptation and product management built into their core is what a utopian cpa firm will resemble. this is the new strategic model. i’m sure there are parts we still don’t know as well.
this strategic model is our challenge. it’s the structure of how we build the new firm 2.0. this is beyond what we already know. and remember what anthony wrote, “executed successfully, strategic transformation reinvigorates a company’s growth engine. poor execution leads naysayers to pounce and complain that a company should have ‘stuck to its knitting.’”
i leave you with a few questions:
how much time and money are you willing to invest in your transformation?
what legacy beliefs are holding you back?
and will you join me?