2019: Expect More Alliances

ALSO: Manage your non-charge hours.

By Jeff Pawlow, The Growth Partnership
The Rosenberg Survey: National Study of CPA Firm Statistics

All of this M&A is coming at a price. Yes, top lines are growing, but often the challenge of successfully assimilating a disparate culture causes challenges to the bottom line.

MORE FROM THE MAP SURVEY: 2019 Trends: Client Service Changes | 2019: Shifts in Hiring & Office Space | 2019: Firms Grapple with Change | Staff Policies Improve, But Not Mentoring
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This is a relationship business – and it is almost impossible for a practitioner to function at an advisory level absent true professional intimacy with their clients. Sadly, most firms don’t have programs in place to drive these dynamic relationships and are still stuck managing the compliance services at the expense of the advisory work.

Posted on December 26, 2018

Jeffrey S. Pawlow

About the Author

Jeffrey S. Pawlow is CEO of The Growth Partnership, marketing training consultants. Recognized as one of the “Top 100 Most Influential People” in public accounting by Accounting Today, Jeff leads a dynamic team of over 25 “resultants” dedicated to helping their CPA firm clients achieve sustainable, profitable growth.

Prior to his career in the accounting profession, Jeff served as a Marketing Officer for Norwest Bancorp (now Wells Fargo), one of the largest bank-holding corporations in the United States. After entering the accounting field in 1995, he served as the Director of Marketing for Smith & Gesteland, a local CPA firm in Madison, WI and then for RubinBrown, a “Top 100” powerhouse in St. Louis, MO. During this time Jeff’s efforts were recognized with a total of seven Marketing Achievement Awards by the Association of Accounting Marketing, including the “Best of Show” awards for overall marketing excellence in both 1997 and 1998. Jeff entered the consulting arena in 1998 as a Vice President and Director of Consulting Services at Waugh & Co. He subsequently founded The Growth Partnership in 1999. He has since been recognized as one of Inside Public Accounting’s “Most Recommended Consultants” since the annual list was first published in 2004. Jeff is a 1991 graduate of Creighton University.

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