OUTLOOK 2023: Top Five Trends

Strategic thinking is at a premium.

By Gale Crosley
The Rosenberg MAP Survey: National Study of CPA Firm Statistics

I suspect the next 12 months will bring four sizable developments.

MORE OUTLOOK: Compensation Gets Creative | The Office Is Over | Private Equity Comes for Accounting Firms
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This has been an unusual year of high uncertainty, unpredictability and sapped energy among our profession’s leaders. Many are facing the most significant business issues and opportunities of their careers. The profession has experienced nearly a century of relative business model certainty and predictability in market conditions, punctuated by occasional disruptive blips.

However, it’s not just one dynamic, such as the dot-com bust, the events leading up to Sarbanes-Oxley or the Great Recession. Rather we are seeing a confluence of four major thunderbolts – disruptive technologies, shifting economic conditions, non-traditional competition and fast-moving regulations. Add to this extensive talent constraint, work-from-anywhere options, unexpected market demand and the relatively new enthusiasm of private equities to invest in our firms. And don’t forget continuing baby-boomer retirements. Wow! I’m exhausted just writing about it.

Posted on November 2, 2022

Gale Crosley

About the Author

Gale Crosley, CPA, of Crosley+Co., is one of the Most Recommended Consultants in the Inside Public Accounting BEST OF THE BEST, one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting by Accounting Today and has been named to The Advisory Board Hall of Fame.

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She consults with large and large-thinking accounting firms, assisting managing partners, partners, and marketing directors, to effectively increase their firm’s revenues. She guides them through development of the best strategies and tactics to achieve aggressive revenue growth objectives. Gale’s 35-year-plus career represents a unique combination as a practicing CPA at Arthur Andersen, PwC, and a local CPA firm. She has also held senior management roles in business development and marketing in the cutting edge technology environment with IBM, MCI and several start-up technology companies. Gale has helped dozens of large and large-thinking firms, both domestic and international, create high growth cultures, driving revenue from all aspects of the practice. She is an honors accounting graduate from the University of Akron, Ohio, and winner of the Simonetti Distinguished Business Alumni Award. Gale is a licensed CPA in Ohio and Georgia, a member of the AICPA, the Ohio Society and Georgia Society of CPAs, and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Accountancy. Her cornerstone book, At the Crossroads, chronicles the challenges and successes of a fictional CPA firm struggling with growth.

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