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Fifteen years ago Tom, a partner in a national accounting & advisory firm and leader of a specialty practice group, was attending his firm’s annual partners’ meeting. As he listened to the managing partner Steve’s address on firm strategy, he heard the words: “and partners, we may even tinker a bit with our old friend…
In a large accounting & advisory firm, a partner is the captain of the ship, handling the most complex matters, developing business, thinking strategically about growing the business and delegating thoughtfully to 12 to 15 staff members from director to entry-level who gain strong experiential learning from this model. In a regional accounting &…
As we work with our clients on business strategy, we see a consistent trend: young star performers at the partner, senior manager and director levels who are not being used to their highest potential. The forum for these observations is work-stream meetings where we get to see practice leaders present their business areas and…
By next June, our economy will be 72 months into the current economic expansion. That’s a long time. And the expansion has been heavily stimulated by a lot of government intervention in the forms of hard cash to bail out major financial institutions, low-interest rates and record government spending. We’re not predicting an imminent…
Mid-size accounting firms are beginning to expand their advisory services. This activity, which can make strong business sense, can present some structural and cultural issues that may be easily overlooked. Accounting firms have titles and structures that differ meaningfully from those of advisory/consulting firms. Titles such as senior, supervisor and manager that are pretty universal…
A lot goes into developing a business strategy for these firms. The work needs to be guided by four fundamental principles: 1. The elements of the strategy need to be the right things to make the firm more successful. — This means taking into account the firm’s clients and target clients as well as…
Most accounting & advisory firms with at least 50 partners have implemented some program where partners mentor staff. The quality of these programs, the levels of partner involvement and staff satisfaction vary from firm to firm. Our clients, seeking benchmarks, often ask: what constitutes a great mentor? Partners become great mentors when the partner/protege…
So you want to grow more and better partners? If you’re serious, then be prepared to invest partner time mentoring your senior high potential staff. Not the way most firms do it now, paying lip service to mentoring without real investment. Take a step back to rethink your approach. Then, design the right program…
As midsize regional accounting & advisory firms expand to serve more client industries, they struggle to identify leaders for these new areas. In fact, expansion aside, they may not have enough strong leaders for their existing portfolio of industries. For this reason, it’s important to cluster industries to match a firm’s leadership bandwidth. The…
For staff in accounting & advisory firms, what does best places to work mean? Here’s a list of some common criteria: • Work/life balance • Not a sweat shop • Strong training programs • Great benefits • Fair compensation • Trusting the people you work for • Caring…