What Culture Really Means for Partners

Bonus: Three outlooks from our exclusive expert council: Grundy, Pipe, Dunn.

By Martin Bissett
Passport to Partnership

The Passport to Partnership study collated a number of responses from existing partners of accounting practices in a conversational style. Examples that really stood out on the realities of individual variances in firm culture are showcased below.

MORE ON THE PASSPORT TO PARTNERSHIP: 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

If we really like them, we’ll take them out to dinner with the partners to see how they cope in that environment.

Meaning, can they hold their own intellectually in more senior circles? How would they then behave when meeting with other senior executives as a contemporary of theirs? This is a huge consideration for existing partners as the reputation, goodwill and future new business of the practice is influenced greatly by how well the firm is represented by its chosen ambassador (e.g. YOU).

Posted on August 13, 2015

Martin Bissett

About the Author

Never Mind the Bullets digital daily | Learn more.

Martin Bissett is the author of

Never Mind the Bullets, the 366-day year-long daily email subscription providing guidance and inspiration for practicing professionals. | Learn more
Winning Your First Client,
Passport to Partnership, and
Meet Your New Best Client

Shop the Martin Bissett Practice Growth Collection

He is the founder of The Upward Spiral Partnership Ltd., the UK-based consulting firm that specializes in the implementation of professional selling and leadership skills in the next generation of accounting professionals.

Learn more about AddviserPlus here

Get Martin Bissett's Practice Growth Checklist

Click for Free Download Here

Previously, Martin served ten years on the board of directors of the UK’s leading provider of high-quality new business appointments for accountancy firms. There, he held the responsibility for the nurture and organic growth of the organization’s new client base, including six of the UK’s top 30 firms of accountants.

Martin became fascinated by the apparent juxtaposition of partners not vocalizing what they were looking for in terms of an accomplished skill set from their potential future partners and their managers not asking to discover what that skill set included, despite wanting to reach that very position. In a profession with a supposed “Succession Crisis” on the horizon, this apparent stand-off struck him as curious.

This has led Upward Spiral Partnership to personally interview several hundred partners and managers in the US and UK to learn what partners are looking for and how the managers see their own future in the firm. There are, of course, firms that have addressed this issue already, and their initiatives have also been captured.

The results of the research, including both the consensus and the exceptions to the general opinion, is called “Passport to Partnership.” This study provides the highlights of each factor that the majority of partners interviewed use as their criteria when evaluating whether someone in their organization can make it to the top.

As a result of the combination of his experience, intellectual property, and this proprietary research, Martin now consults with accounting firms in the UK, Europe, and the USA to support them in their transition through to the next stage of their development and growth.

Click here for more by Martin Bissett

TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

Continue reading your article with a CPA Trendlines Pro membership.