Top 10 Issues for Your Next Strategy Session

The hot topics your firm can’t afford to ignore. What’s on your agenda?

by Rick Telberg
At Large

With tax season officially over, if not forgotten, and desks cleared for the summer, accounting firms are turning their attention to planning for the future.

It’s a season for rest and recreation, as well as catching up on CPE and investing in new systems, equipment and software. But before any final decisions are made, many firms will be gathering their staffs and executive teams for some soul-searching strategy sessions. These partner retreats, often held at a comfortable resort, can be mere formalities. But the best of them will tackle tough issues ? the kind of issues that no one really wants to confront but once a year, in a neutral setting at that.
“A retreat can be a good time to relax, rest and become reacquainted with your partners,” according to Bruce W. Marcus, the legendary marketing guru, co-author of a dozen books including Client at the Core, and an associate of Bay Street Group. But, he says, “In this era of economic turmoil and technological change, it can be an opportunity for real accomplishment.”

Without constant renewal, continuous improvement and some tough love, any firm can stagnate and eventually wither.

What should you be thinking about as you think about your firm’s future? Here are Marcus’ top 10:

1. Client relationships and retention. Clients can wander off if you let your services fall behind. Or they can be plucked away if you lose touch. What are you doing today to anticipate what your A-list clients will need next?

2. Governance. Rarely are most good accountants also good managers. “Management is a full-time business,” says Marcus, “and not something to be done between new business development and client management.” Is it time to question your firm’s leadership and decision-making system? Do you even have a system?

3. Internal communication. A successful firm knows that internal communication is more than just a newsletter, a weekly meeting over donuts and coffee or even an intranet with a blog and a wiki. “It’s about understanding how to gather and classify information, and how to parcel it out to those who need to know,” says Marcus. What kind of CRM system do you use? How many people in your firm even know what CRM stands for?

4. The partnership and staff. “Too many firms are still run by the same principles and practices used by managing partners at the turn of the century,” says Marcus. Today’s firms must make fast decisions, hire people of ambition and talent and establish the practices and incentives to propel change. If you’re wondering who the next leaders of your firm will be, says consultant David Maister, first ask yourself: Does the firm hire followers or leaders? You know who they are.

5. Fee structures. The Bible never mentions the billable hour. But it’s a religion nevertheless in accounting firms. Do clients really care how much time or effort you spend on a job? Don’t they really care about the right solution, delivered on time and with genuine concern for their success? No one’s saying all firms will give up hourly billing. But at your partner retreat, make sure someone asks: What does the client think we’re worth?

6. Productivity. For the past 25 years, since the advent of the personal computer, productivity has been driven by technology. The gains are showing signs of slowing. “Today, productivity must be improved by reassessing the roles of each person in your firm,” Marcus advises. That means taking apart and reassembling every job, every task and every job description. How many procedures in your firm are actually getting in the way of creating truly delighted clients?

7. Marketing strategy. We don’t hide behind the term practice development anymore. Sales, marketing and business development are out of the closet. And it’s about time. So now every firm has brochures, Web sites, direct mail campaigns and advertising. But if every firm provides basically the same services and every firm uses the same marketing tools, then what makes your firm different? “Thus, we now enter the era of strategy,” Marcus says. How do you define, organize and drive your firm by the needs and vision of your current and prospective clients?

8. Competitive intelligence. “Of all the elements new to the contemporary professional practice, none seems more alien than competitive intelligence ? understanding what your competitors are doing,” Marcus says. It’s not industrial spying ? it’s basic market research, using publicly available sources. It means watching, listening and analyzing.” How is your retreat going to gather and analyze market conditions, and then make it a year-round cornerstone of strategic decision-making?

9. Recruiting. Forget the traditional “help wanted” ad. Instead look at your Web site, get to know social networking forces like myspace.com, and rebuild your firm with new growth opportunities, career options, leading-edge technology and a true commitment to work-life balance for all.

10. Technology. At one time they were new luxuries. Now they are essential work tools: broadband, cell phones, PDAs, laptops, even iPods for the CPE podcasts of the future. Just keeping up with your clients isn’t enough. Your clients expect you to be on the leading edge. What will it take to get your firm there?

Then what? And, when the strategy session is all over, everyone is feeling good and going home… what will you have to show for it? Marcus says something should happen as a result of your retreat; something should change; something should improve. “Otherwise, your retreat is just that,” he says with a pause, “a retreat from growth.”

[First published by the AICPA]

Posted at April 23, 2006
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] |

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