Bill Penczak, Author at CPA Trendlines

Dustin Verity: Keep an Open Mind and Constantly Learn

Tech allows small to mid-size firms to provide better CAS.

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Transformation Talks
With Bill Penczak
Center for Accounting Transformation

Dustin Verity admits to being cautious. He also admits to being a technophile.

In the latest episode of Transformation Talks, the CPA explained being conflicted between his obsession with playing with the latest technology and finding the right fit for his firm.

MORE: Secret to Success? A Growth and Abundance Mindset | O.D. Lanier: Stepping Into Advisory | From Tax to Transformation | Early Adopters Gain an Edge in Audit | Why the Future is in Risk Advisory | Four Strategies for a Future Ready Firm
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“I’ve always been interested in technology and, and you know, efficiencies,” Verity said, always wanting to know how his firm could produce more and work more efficiently. “That means less hours that we have to spend in the office ourselves.” READ MORE →

LEADERSHIP

Five Ways to Put Success into Succession Planning

A robust mentoring program can be critical.

By Bill Penczak

Legendary General Electric CEO Jack Welch is reported to have lamented the choice he’d made in his successor, choosing someone based on their personality and ability to navigate the politics of the position instead of someone who could successfully lead the company into a brighter future. Welch was correct. Today, GE is a shell of its former self because of its leadership choice.

MORE: O.D. Lanier: Stepping Into Advisory | Secret to Success? A Growth and Abundance Mindset | Future Firm Growth Requires a Mindshift |The Great Resignation: Five Reasons Accountants Are Quitting | Five Global CPA Leaders: Four Survival Strategies | Planning for Success in 2021 | Do You Have the Guts to Beat the Covid Crisis?
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Welch’s one gaping failure as an otherwise stellar executive started me thinking about the current state of baby boomer-led and owned CPA firms, and how many of them are likely to commit the succession errors of GE. Or worse, do nothing at all in terms of creating and sustaining a CPA firm into its next iteration.

As firms are giddy with the prospect of a new year and with COVID in our rear-view mirrors, here are five considerations for generational succession of a middle market firm:

ADVISORY & CONSULTING

O.D. Lanier: Stepping into Advisory

Transformation Talks: A leader at one of the fastest growing firms in the country describes transforming his career, pros and cons of building versus buying and the four (or five) steps to becoming a consulting firm.

Transformation Talks
With Bill Penczak
Center for Accounting Transformation

How does an accounting expert journey from audit and Big Four to starting his own firm and becoming a consultant? Odysseus (O.D.) Lanier, a founding partner of one of the fastest growing firms in the country, describes his start, why he left “boring” auditing (but why it is critical experience), as well as what he sees as pros and cons in building a consulting firm versus buying a consulting firm.

MORE on McConnell Jones: Five Global CPA Leaders: Four Survival Strategies

MORE VIDEOS & PODCASTS: Why Doing Nothing Is Not an Option | Blake Oliver: Why Tax Work Yearns To Be Free| Private Equity Explodes in U.K. | Brannon Poe: The Status Quo Must Go | Accounting Nerds, Unlock Your Super Powers | Private Equity vs. the CPA Firm Partnership The FinTech Flood: Accounting Will Never Be the Same | Think Small to Think Big with Matt Wilkinson | Your Sales Tax Headaches Are Only Just Beginning | When Financial Statements Go Extinct with Corey Schmidt | Can Geraldine Carter Save Accountants from Themselves? | Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson | Turning Client Service into New Revenue

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Why are CPAs moving from tax and audit to get into consulting? Lanier said the bottom line is that consulting is lower risk with a higher margin.

GROWTH STRATEGIES

Secret to Success? A Growth and Abundance Mindset

Transformation Talks: Mike Maksymiw, CPA, CGMA, says the secret to success and transformation in accounting is to be willing to learn, believe there’s enough work for everyone…and allow yourself to be vulnerable.

^ Click to play video | > Play the podcast and follow CPA Trendlines Podcasts on Apple Podcasts here or grab the RSS feed here.

Transformation Talks
With Bill Penczak
Center for Accounting Transformation

After 16 years of working in firms, Mike Maksymiw, CPA, CGMA, was done.

He went to his employer with his concerns about wanting to do something else. Instead of encouragement to pursue another area in the firm, he was persuaded to remain on the partner track he was on. Maksymiw decided he’d rather move on.

MORE on Aprio: Why Tax Work Yearns To Be Free | The FinTechFlood: Accounting Will Never Be the Same | Top Issues for 2022: Talent, Time and Transformation | What’s in a (Firm) Name?

MORE: Five Lead Generation Mistakes to Avoid | Five Post-Tax Season Growth Ideas | Five Better Ways to Say No | Are You Solving Your Clients’ Problems? | Five Ways to Grow: Talent New Service Lines | Business Development and Sales Aren’t Scary
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“I didn’t have anywhere to go when I left. I just knew I needed to go,” he said. “So, after, you know, a couple pandemic busy seasons, learning about the Cares Act, being a national leader at the firm at that, like I was toast. So, my family and I just went to Hawaii stayed there for two weeks.”

INNOVATION & CHANGE MANAGEMENT

From Tax to Transformation

Transformation Talks: Paul Mueller, CPA, took a leap of faith when he left a national accounting firm at the apex of his career to start a new firm serving small- and medium-sized businesses.

^ Click to play video | > Play the podcast and follow CPA Trendlines Podcasts on Apple Podcasts here or grab the RSS feed here.

Transformation Talks
With Bill Penczak
Center for Accounting Transformation

Paul Mueller was at a crossroads. As a national manager for the tax group of a large firm, he should have felt like Leonardo DiCaprio, yelling, “I’m the king of the world!” Yet, something just wasn’t right.

MORE: Five Lead Generation Mistakes to Avoid | Five Post-Tax Season Growth Ideas | Five Better Ways to Say No | Are You Solving Your Clients’ Problems? | Five Ways to Grow: Talent New Service Lines | Business Development and Sales Aren’t Scary
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Today, he is the managing director of his own firm, Mueller Pye & Associates, CPA LLC in Loveland, Colo. His is a story of a late-life career transformation.

Takeaways

There is life—a really fulfilling one—after a departure from a large national firm into a small firm in rural Colorado.
In order to effect transformation either as a firm, or as a professional, it’s important to have a support network you can trust and open up to about your challenges
While firms do a great job of advising their clients on succession planning, that’s not always the case for themselves.

Here’s what you’re looking for: Bill Penczak

^ Click to play video | > Play the podcast and follow CPA Trendlines Podcasts on Apple Podcasts here or grab the RSS feed here.

^ Click to play video | > Play the podcast and follow CPA Trendlines Podcasts on Apple Podcasts here or grab the RSS feed here.