talent

gauge firm culture to move toward partner

by

martin bissett
bissett

bonus partnership pointers checklist: 3 questions to evaluate the culture at your own firm.

by martin bissett
passport to partnership

this second c is a stormy and choppy one, often fraught with political icebergs but navigated diplomatically and with maturity, will lead you through.

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more on the passport to partnership: what culture really means for partners | firm culture is inevitable; make it work for you | 12 ways to determine your competence | what competence really means for partners | sailing through the seven c’s to partnership | passport to partnership: new research shows wide gap between partners and partners-to-be

case study on culture

deborah had done well. she was bridging the firm’s culture gap and fulfilling its desire to be seen as an equal opportunities employer by becoming the practice’s standout rising star.

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how to combine two firms after merger: carefully

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when the deal is done: a 24-point checklist for the morning after.

by august aquila
creating the effective partnership

congratulations! after years of planning and months of tough negotiations, you’ve finally closed the deal on merger of your cpa firm.

you might be thinking the most difficult work is behind you.  think again! you now have to move your eye from the financial to the human side of the merger.

more for pro members: mirror, mirror on the wall  |  6 steps to handle staffing problems in a merger  |  new times call for new cpa firm metrics  |  6 reasons why cpa firms fail in innovation  |  7 signs your firm is headed for an implosion  |  why is it always about partner compensation?  |  why merge and what to watch out for  |  13 steps to fool-proof mergers and acquisitions  |  13 questions to ask yourself for personal growth  |  partner problem? first, ask yourself these 21 questions  |  12 reasons cpa firm staff meetings are a waste of time  |  the managing partner’s secret weapon in change management  |  the 10 basic ways to boost profits at an accounting firm  |  12 must-do items for your partner retreat agenda

your work in this area has just begun and may last for 12 months or more. the so-called soft side of doing a merger is just as important, if not more important, than the financial side. just like with an iceberg you don’t know what lies beneath the surface. just ask the captain of the unsinkable titanic. don’t let this same danger destroy your practice

in order to make sure your merger has a better than average chance of succeeding, here are 24 key items to be addressed: read more →

four major misconceptions about millennials

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and six management strategies to unleash their potential for your firm.

middleton
middleton

by wesley middleton
middleton raines llp

from the sound of it, millennials are ruining everything. at least that’s how they’ve been made to feel. supposed experts focus on how different the millennials are, how hard they are to understand, to attract and to retain.

after reading the experts, i decided to offer my perspective as a managing partner of a 72-person firm where the average age of our firm is 34.65 and 49 of our people are the age 35 or below.  this experience – along with a 20-year-old daughter and a 17-year-old son – has given me a different perspective.

in fact, the differences between the generations are exaggerated. it’s funny to see how the older generation always looks at the generation behind them and says they are so different and won’t achieve what we have or that they have some “hard to understand” ideas. they said that about me when i was 25.

i love this generation coming up and here is why: read more →

check yourself: how to reality-test client satisfaction levels

by

arnold sanow
sanow

to keep both your staffers and clients happy, tax and accounting firms need to gain a thorough understanding of their perceptions and perspectives — and to make they align.

customer service guru arnold sanow suggests 15 questions to ask yourself, your staff, and, above all, your customers. servicethe biggest opportunities will surface when you compare and contrast their responses.

be prepared for an eye-opening, sometimes gut-wrenching, exercise in hard truth: read more →

firm culture is inevitable; make it work for you

by

martin bissett
bissett

bonus checklist: 5 ways to make sure the firm’s people believe in both themselves and the culture.

by martin bissett
passport to partnership

cultural issues are dynamic, very broad and unique in each firm. as such it is a challenge to summarize them accurately and comprehensively.

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more on the passport to partnership: 12 ways to determine your competence | what competence really means for partners | sailing through the seven c’s to partnership | passport to partnership: new research shows wide gap between partners and partners-to-be

from our research, however, the wise choice for anyone wishing to get their passport to partnership appears to be to study

  • their firm’s existing culture,
  • that of its senior individuals and
  • that of those who have the ear of those senior individuals

to understand not only the route to partnership, but the terrain that they need to cross too.

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12 ways to determine your competence

by

martin bissett
bissett

bonus: case study and worksheets:
3 questions to gauge your own competence, 4 questions about your personal brand and a 5-point checklist.

by martin bissett
passport to partnership

the passport to partnership study collated a number of responses in a conversational style. two brief but succinct examples that really stood out on the realities of how a firm assesses an individual’s “competence” to lead are showcased below.

  1. learn more
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    they need to explain technical data to me in a way that i know they understand it.

  2. what kind of lifestyle does this person have outside of work? we’ll be looking at facebook, twitter and google to find out.

more on the passport to partnership: sailing through the seven c’s to partnership | passport to partnership: new research shows wide gap between partners and partners-to-be

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what competence really means for partners

by

martin bissett
bissett

bonus: four outlooks from our exclusive expert council: baker, dobek, tierney, mister.

by martin bissett
passport to partnership

the skill in producing financial reports is limited by the quality of the information presented to the cpa by the client. motivation of the client to influence that financial information comes in many forms, some intentional and some unintentional. competence comes first in being able to resist pressure and present a true and accurate position of the client’s organization.

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sounds obvious, doesn’t it? but there’s a twist.

more on the passport to partnership: sailing through the seven c’s to partnership | passport to partnership: new research shows wide gap between partners and partners-to-be

competence didn’t actually rank highly in the majority of partner requirements when interviewed in our study at all.

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sailing through the seven c’s to partnership

by

martin bissett
bissett

competence comes first. but it’s only a prerequisite.

bonus worksheets: 11 questions to plan your path to partnership

by martin bissett
passport to partnership

staffers aspiring to be partners must learn the key characteristics of successful partners. they also must learn how to develop their own personal plans to achieve partnership. firms and staffers alike need a clear set of procedures, processes and milestones for turning top talent into the next generation of firm leadership.

there are seven critically important criteria by which partners assess partners-to-be. i call them:

the seven c’s read more →

why even the best and biggest cpa firms are losing their best and brightest talent

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despite paying top dollar for top talent, old-line firms are losing gen y staffers with bigger ambitions.

derek davis, the shared economy cpa, talks about launching the first app-first cpa firm

by rick telberg
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

with cpa firms locked in a battle for top-level talent, wages are advancing at record rates in desperate efforts to both retain and recruit highly-prized professionals, according to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research.

partners and staffers alike, feeling stifled and underused at their current firms, are finding a broad array of new opportunities at other firms. and where they can’t find the right position at another firm, they are creating their own.

los angeles cpa derek davis, for example, left a career at a big four firm to start his own practice. but his first hire wasn’t an assistant. and his first partner wasn’t another cpa. instead, davis teamed with a software designer. and they didn’t open an office, they launched an iphone app.

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