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Winning the War for Talent

The most critical issue facing the accounting industry today is the war for talent at all levels. In fact, the first sign that a CPA firm is in trouble is when the firm is not able to recruit, develop and retain great people, especially to succeed their current leaders. These firms have only three choices:…

Great Firms Have Passionate People

The word passion comes up frequently in the context of business strategy for accounting and advisory firms. I still remember when Jim Schiro was first elected chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers in the 1990s. During his first address to partners, he told us that “passion” was one of his three strategic initiatives for the firm. He recalled…

Planning Partner Retirements

Getting partners to transition toward retirement as they approach the firm’s retirement age is a problem facing many CPA firms, and its implications are far-reaching. Most firms in the Top 100 have a mandatory retirement age between age 60 and 66. Accordingly, partners within a few years of this age should be expected to begin…

How to Improve Partner Behavior

As we were wrapping up a strategic planning discussion with one of our clients—a major accounting and advisory firm—the firm’s managing partner turned to us and asked, “What would really change the way our partners interact with clients? Partners have strong client relationships. They know client executives well personally and professionally. They just find it…