5 questions to ask.
by jody padar
the radical cpa
how valuable is a new idea?
more on radicalism: our pain points are opportunities | dear midsized firms: yes, you can change | the four tenets of radical firms: a brief review
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this is the question every cpa is asking right now. what’s the roi? or as futurist tom hood of the maryland association of cpas would say, “what’s the return of not investing?”
consider the cost/risk of not investing, of being left behind. in this fast-moving and hypercompetitive environment, delaying decisions around the shift change is the same as not investing.
never, as cpas, have we been given the opportunities or a blueprint to solve this challenge. but now we have more tools and resources at our fingertips, and our peers are starting to move in this direction as well.
consider these questions as you start innovating:
- what is the difference between a good idea and an opportunity?
- how does one evaluate its potential?
- how does one deliver a product to the market?
- what are the challenges within the financial marketplace to launch a new idea?
- how can a cpa capture and generate this value through the process and obtain compensation for the effort?
sourcing ideas
ideas and inspiration go hand in hand and can be found anywhere, from the ugly and mundane to the most beautiful and stunning. many entrepreneurs come up with ideas for a business because they couldn’t find what they wanted. something was missing. there was a gap. frustration was present.
problems are excellent sources of new ideas. when you are angry about something, that is the perfect place to start. most people will try to make it better. hence, why i left my old firm.
market opportunities that reduce cost are also a source of new ideas. think about it – those who have tight resources need to be creative to meet goals. ideas also come in the form of customer demands creating products and services for a new niche that was nonexistent up until that point.
the search for new ideas is an attitude more than a task. it does not include intentionally looking for new ideas as much as maintaining an attitude of continued skepticism to improve our environment. a culture that’s open to new ideas has space and capacity to think; it allows for research and development (r&d).
our new vision culture allows for failure, but more importantly, we encourage the openness needed to try something new. employees need to be encouraged and given opportunities for experimentation. time and resources must be allocated to this activity. this is really a mindset that rewards new ideas and improving the status quo.
it’s about accepting suggestions for improvements. it’s about taking your team out to learn new things, not making them attend all cpe via webinar. it’s about embracing an idea that fails, saying, “ok, let’s stop this and try again.” it’s about stopping an implementation that’s getting sideswiped with customer work and saying, “let’s pause this project and pick it up again.” it’s not: “this didn’t work, it’s all over.”
it’s about attitude to embrace uncertainty sometimes but to know that somehow, we all get out alive. it’s about a leader who allows for mistakes to happen. people say our firm acts like a startup, yet we just celebrated our 11th anniversary.
this is why the billable hour is so detrimental to cpa firms.