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Win at M&A Without Overpaying
Seven tips for being a strong acquirer.
By Ira Rosenbloom
In today’s hyperactive CPA firm M&A market, buyers are circling many of the same opportunities. Private equity and alternative investors can often offer more cash but that doesn’t mean they always win – or that the highest offer does.
MORE by Ira Rosenbloom
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Securing the deal you want depends on the right ingredients for a strong outcome. Based on our knowledge of the success factors for winning, we offer the following recommendations – especially if you are a more traditional acquirer:
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Michael Hoover: Growth Without Discipline Comes at a Cost | Big 4 Transparency
Disciplined choices, talent investment, and cultural alignment matter more than chasing every opportunity.
This is a preview. The complete video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
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Big 4 Transparency
By Dominic Piscopo, CPA
For CPA Trendlines
As private equity reshapes the accounting profession, Bennett Thrasher is making a different kind of bet. The top 100 firm intends to remain independent.
Michael Hoover, Bennett Thrasher’s chief growth and strategy officer, joins host Dominic Piscopo on The Big 4 Transparency Podcast to explain why the firm considers independence central to its growth strategy—and why saying no may be one of the most important disciplines a growing firm can develop.
MORE Dominic Piscopo | MORE Private Equity | MORE Pay & Compensation
“The biggest bet,” Hoover says, “is just remaining fiercely independent.”
That commitment shapes how Bennett Thrasher approaches everything from new service lines and acquisitions to recruiting and compensation. Rather than pursuing growth for its own sake, Hoover says the firm is working toward a long-term strategy for 2030 and scrutinizing whether each opportunity advances that vision.
In a market where firms are searching for new revenue streams, the temptation to pursue the latest “shiny object” can be powerful. But every new initiative consumes capital, leadership attention, and talent. Hoover argues that firms must examine not only an opportunity’s potential revenue, but also what they may have to postpone or abandon to pursue it.
Your Org Just Announced a Major Change. Now What? | Accounting Voices
Protect your credibility and career options by responding with calm, connection, and purpose.
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Accounting Voices
With Rob Brown
An email arrives. A town hall appears on the calendar. Leaders begin using words such as “merger,” “sale,” “new ownership,” “restructuring,” or “strategic reset.”
Suddenly, the change that once felt theoretical becomes personal.For accounting professionals, these announcements can trigger immediate questions about job security, leadership, culture, client relationships, and the future of the organization. Some people freeze. Others panic, withdraw, overshare, or rush to update their LinkedIn profiles.
But this episode of Accounting Voices argues that change itself does not necessarily damage careers. How people respond to it often matters more.
As private equity investment, mergers, leadership turnover, technology pressures, and evolving business models reshape the profession, the ability to cope with uncertainty is becoming a career-defining skill. Professionals who remain composed, connected, and useful during periods of disruption can strengthen their reputations and create new opportunities.
The episode outlines four practical moves for navigating the days and weeks after a significant announcement.
Will Your Success Be Incremental or Exceptional?
Eight forces that have altered the future of accounting firms.
By Anthony Zecca
Leading from the Edge
“All organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they are now getting. If we want different results, we must change the way we do things.” – Tom Northup, author of “Five Hidden Mistakes CEOs Make”
What a great statement not just about accounting firms, but all organizations – “perfectly designed to get the result they are now getting.” There is another old saying that goes something like this: “If you want different results you have to do things differently.” Center leaders hold onto the status quo whereas Edge leaders constantly push the envelope of what is possible – pushing to the future edge.
MORE by Anthony Zecca
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Leadership is a topic that has been researched, talked about, written about, training sessions built around, and endless models developed – yet it is also one of the most challenging issues in most firms today. Over my career, I have worked and consulted with leaders of all shapes and styles and firms that experienced varying degrees of success. Based on working with hundreds of companies, my conclusions – and two of the primary reasons that drove me to write my book – are that in many cases, firms are performing below their capabilities and every firm has the potential to reach higher levels of performance if and when leadership moves from the center to the EDGE. Edge leaders want to be at the top of the pack when it comes to all metrics that matter whereas center leaders are content to remain average.
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Calvin Harris: The Future of Accounting Belongs to Those Willing to Rethink Everything | Gear Up for Growth
Intentionally design teams around technology, outsourcing, and evolving organizational structures.
This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Radical Pricing by the Radical CPA, Jody Padar | See Today’s Special Offer
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Gear Up for Growth
with Jean Caragher
for CPA Trendlines
“We’re at a time where we have multiple generational changes happening all at the same time,” says Calvin Harris Jr., CEO of the New York State Society of CPAs, during a recent episode of Gear Up for Growth, hosted by Jean Caragher, president, Capstone Marketing, and powered by CPA Trendlines.
According to Harris, technology, alternative practice structures, outsourcing and changing workforce expectations are converging to reshape the future of public accounting. Firm leaders must look beyond today’s headlines and begin rethinking how their firms operate, develop talent and deliver value to clients.
MORE Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | MORE Gear Up for Growth here
Although artificial intelligence dominates much of today’s discussion, Harris believes technology is just one piece of a much larger transformation. “You can’t be effective in this work anymore without also being effective in technology,” he says. “You will get lapped in terms of how efficient people can be.”
Rather than viewing AI as a standalone initiative, Harris encourages firms to think strategically about how technology supports new business models, enhances advisory services and improves the client experience.