managing partner

5 Questions for Every MP to Answer Honestly

By

Businessman's hand separating letter blocks spelling "im" from those spelling "possible"Before you can change your firm, you have to gauge where it is now.

By Robert J. Lees, August J. Aquila and Derek Klyhn
Creating the Effective Partnership

How do successful managing partners respond to the internal and external challenges they face?

MORE ON LEADERSHIP FOR PRO Members: 6 Practical Ways to Innovate | The 4 Best Ways to Use Your Senior Partners | How to Tell a Culture Change Is Due | 11 Steps to Building a Better Partnership Team | Why Your Firm Should Be a Republic | Partnership Is About Persuasion

Without exception, all of the partners we spoke to talked about the need to have a clear sense of direction that the partners, in particular, could coalesce around. But what they considered even more important is the translation of that direction into a compelling vision and the strategies for achieving it.
READ MORE →

18 Essential Management Questions to Cover at a Retreat

By

Illustration with some employee symbols standing in circlesResponsibilities of the MP and other positions.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Retreats

Before formally beginning the discussion part of a retreat session, it’s always a good idea to begin by asking the participants what they want to be sure to cover.

MORE ON RETREATS: 30 Marketing and Growth Questions to Cover at a Retreat | How Marketing for CPA Firms Is Different | Why Create a Marketing Plan? | Thinking of Merging? Discuss It At a Retreat | How to Take Action After a Retreat | 12 Simple Rules for a Retreat | Leave Your Retreat With a To Do List | Every Retreat Needs a Leader, But Who? | Retreats Are No Place for Clowns | Who Should Participate in a Retreat? | Retreat Logistics: How Long, What Kind? | What Should CPA Firms Discuss at Retreats? | Why Do CPA Firms Conduct Retreats?

As issues are suggested, the facilitator should write them down on a flipchart, starting with: READ MORE →

How to Decide Who Decides What

By

Stack of cards labeled with question marksBONUS CHARTS: 15 habits that make a partner. Plus: Equity vs. non-equity partners, and a voting decision grid.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Retreats

“I can’t manage this firm if I have to take a vote every time I want to make a decision.” – Tony Kendall, CEO of Top 200 firm Mitchell & Titus, shortly after taking over from the firm’s founder.

MORE ON RETREATS: 30 Marketing and Growth Questions to Cover at a Retreat | How Marketing for CPA Firms Is Different | Why Create a Marketing Plan? | Thinking of Merging? Discuss It At a Retreat | How to Take Action After a Retreat | 12 Simple Rules for a Retreat | Leave Your Retreat With a To Do List | Every Retreat Needs a Leader, But Who? | Retreats Are No Place for Clowns | Who Should Participate in a Retreat? | Retreat Logistics: How Long, What Kind? | What Should CPA Firms Discuss at Retreats? | Why Do CPA Firms Conduct Retreats?

GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

There are decisions that managing partners should make without a partner vote.

READ MORE →

7 Succession Questions to Ignore for Now

By

Serious-looking businessman in front of empty conference roomThere’s some misdirection in succession management out there.

By Bill Reeb and Dominic Cingoranelli
CPA Trendlines / Succession Institute

You can’t go a week without seeing some article or blog focused on succession management and everyone seems to have a different opinion as to what is important when addressing succession. So, we thought it was time we challenged some of the more common misconceptions.

MORE ON PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT: How Partner Ratings Factor Into Equity | Hazards of Not Reallocating Equity | The Pitfalls of Equity Allocation and Reallocation | Develop Your Employees or Suffer the Consequences | 5 Harmful Management Attitudes (and How to Fix Them) | Do CPA Firms Need Management or Leadership?

The first thing most authors want to focus on with succession is the development of future leaders. Then the dialogue will shift quickly to mentoring programs, leadership training and more. Well, it would be hypocritical for us to disagree with this because we actually develop and conduct these kinds of programs. However, training such as this is only valuable after many other issues are addressed first. So, while it is important, I guess the best phrase to describe this is “first things first,” and this is not first by any stretch of the imagination.

READ MORE →

Successful Strategy Execution Requires Focus on People

By

Business people working in group in the officeBy Robert J. Lees, August J. Aquila and Derek Klyhn

Momentum is critical in driving change, so it is no surprise that the initiation of activities that drive and support the strategy is key.

MORE ON LEADERSHIP: Managing Partners Must Remember Partners’ Needs | 5 Questions About Your Firm’s Direction | Like Herding Cats: Partners Must ‘Walk Together’

It is also one of the reasons why focus is critical. And yet one of the mistakes we see are initiatives having too much time between them.

READ MORE →

5 Must-Do’s for Every Managing Partner Today

By

listsNew study shows merger mania and consolidation force new imperatives for the year ahead.

via BKR International

It’s no secret that the U.S. accounting industry is consolidating. With M&A comes an era of larger regional firms with more staff and more specific advisory services and clients than the general public accounting practice model our fathers and grandfathers knew.

MORE on the MANAGING PARTNER: The 9 Ways Managing Partners Leverage Technology for a Competitive Edge  |  The 3 Traits Shared by 150 Top Managing Partners  |  How the Best Managing Partners Lead by Example  |  What Successful Managing Partners Do  |  Managing Partners Reveal 11 Strategies for Getting Their Firms to the Top  |  27 Tough Questions for Evaluating the Performance of a Managing Partner  |  Essential Advice for the New Managing Partner  |  Eight New Metrics to Measure Managing Partner Performance and Potential

Whether they want to conserve firm value for outgoing partners or grow for the next generation — or both — firm managing partners face difficult choices.

In a new study, members of BKR International reveal five important to-do items that need to take place within firms to support continued growth and excellent client service in the coming year and beyond. READ MORE →

The Politics of an Accounting Firm Partnership

By

How one managing partner learned the hard way.

by August J. Aquila and Robert J. Lees
Creating the Effective Partnership

While many managing partners understand the value of a vision statement to focus their partner team’s energies, too few get it right.

Creating the Effective Partnership: Two-Volume Set
Creating the Effective Partnership

A vision is more than a simple statement. When we talk about having a compelling vision, we don’t mean just a well-crafted vision. We mean the vision with a clear destination, the strategies for getting there (the “how to”), the way progress will be measured and the benefits to the partners of going on the journey.

More on partnership management:  Nine Rules to Creating Highly Effective Partnership Teams   |   Audacious Vision and Grand Purpose Prove Essential to CPA Success | Are You Creating a Sustainable Firm? | The Debilitating Effects of Denial at Accounting Firms | The Five Psychological Hurdles that CPA Firms Must Confront Today

Let’s look at an example of what can happen when all the elements (vision, journey, milestones and a positive answer to what’s in it for me) aren’t in place. READ MORE →