partners must be accountable.
by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor
question: i am the managing partner and run a tight ship, however, some of my partners do not appear to be growing and on some level that is holding back the firm’s overall growth.
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any suggestions or is this just the way it is?
answer: this is a leadership issue, and you are the leader. it seems you are aware of the stagnation and that’s why you called me. it is important for firm leaders to be sensitive to activities of the other partners and senior staff.
for firms to grow, they need:
- organic growth, i.e. added services and fee increases with existing clients
- external growth – new clients
- additional services that could be provided to clients
- expansion of industry expertise
- niche development and marketing to obtain clients in that space
- staff growth and development
- high staff longevity, i.e., low staff turnover
- current technology, properly used with sufficient training
- super happy clients who refer clients and accept annual fee increases
i believe each partner should be accountable to the managing partner for their performance, which is focused on their participation in each of the above listed areas. i would suggest that each partner provide annual goals in each area and meet with the managing partner quarterly to discuss their progress.
i listed nine areas. if you have others or don’t agree with some then come up with your own list. the object is that the partners, including the managing partner, need to be accountable and need to grow, and cannot be permitted to stagnate. you run a business and a business needs discipline and its people working together to grow.
i have two final comments. one is that most partners would resent being held accountable for what they do. if you agree with what i wrote then you need to convince them of the benefits of following this regimen. most successful practices and businesses have an oversight process on the partners, senior managers and executives.
i liked the method lee iacocca used when he was sales manager of ford that he wrote about in his autobiography which is a similar process to what i described. have the managers set goals and then monitor them quarterly to see how they are proceeding with what they said they would do.
and two, this process should be done with the managing partner, but perhaps there should be a different set of criteria. if the firm is large enough, i.e. more than 50 people, perhaps the managing partner should be a full-time ceo, without direct client responsibility, and the way of measuring growth and success would be related to the performance of the practice and not a separate book of business and technical skills, but skills needed to manage the business of the cpa practice.
note that a cpa firm with 50 people has to be doing at least $7.5 million and could be substantially greater. assuming the $7.5 million volume, without a full-time ceo it means that no one is dedicated to running that business. does that make sense? how would you advise a client with a service, distribution or manufacturing business with that many people? would you recommend that they have the best technical person or best marketer run the business part-time? i suggest not.