Many CPA firms may be on the path to extinction.
By Gale Crosley, CPA
The world’s population is becoming increasingly aware of the importance of sustainability. For several decades we’ve developed an understanding of preserving our planet’s resources. The recent sustainability conversation has amped up the focus among corporate executives on their social responsibility to insure our world’s future.
It’s an especially relevant time, therefore, to discuss the sustainability of our firms. And that’s what this book is about. Managing partners spend significant time pondering their firm’s strategy. One of their greatest challenges is engaging their partners to be as committed as they are.
Adapted from the preface to “How to Engage Partners in the Firm’s Future: The Secrets Every Leader Needs to Know,” by August J. Aquila and Robert J. Lees
There are lots of reasons for the challenge. These include a “nose to the grindstone versus up to the wind” mentality, partners not spending enough time dedicated to the task, abdicating their leadership role, putting their own interests before the firm’s, or just plain apathy. It’s easy for a partner group to sit around a table and discuss their future. But talk is cheap. After the strategic planning is done, leaders actually have to do something. It takes significant effort to develop as a leader, work as a team, subjugate one’s own interests for the greater good, learn new competencies, solve complex problems, and exhibit leadership behaviors.
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