From Success to Significance: The Radical CPA Guide

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THEY CALL US THE ‘RADICAL’ PRACTITIONERS

A Message from the Author

This book is more than a checklist. This is where goals are defined, and initiatives are completed, despite the intense demand of your workload.

This is where extra capacity is found, firm goals are shared, and all the related parties understand priorities and possibilities.

This is Business School 101 for the New Firm. A practical, hands-on approach to a CPA firm that will thrive in the future.

This system will give you the tools and resources needed to Radicalize your firm. It will allow you to start big or small. It can move a large firm, a midsized firm, or even a firm of one.

JODY PADAR, CPA, MST

Jody Padar is one of the profession’s foremost visionaries and pioneers. As a practitioner, she is CEO and Principal of the New Vision CPA Group, a public accounting firm based in the Chicago area. And as an author, lecturer, coach, consultant, and mentor, she advocates for progress and innovation in the profession, heralding a new way of thinking about the practice of accountancy and giving it a new purpose. Having successfully transformed her own firm into a technologically advanced, paperless work environment, she is now dedicated to educating her fellow colleagues on how to make the same transition. She is a regular contributor to a number of industry publications, including CPA Trendlines, where she offers practical tips and advice on running a next-generation firm. Padar is a member of the elite Accounting Today “Top 100 Most Influential” people list. She is married, has two teenage children and swims competitively.

Padar earned her BBA from Saint Mary’s College and MST from Northern Illinois University. Padar is also an adjunct professor at Oakton Community College and a contributing member of the Intuit Trainer Writer Network.

Follow her on Twitter, @JodyPadarCPA; Linkedin linkedin.com/pub/jody-padar/1/971/18a, and Facebook, facebook.com/jodypadar

MORE JODY PADAR at CPA TRENDLINES

Jody Padar’s New Vision for the ‘New Accounting’ – Five ways the new generation of CPAs is changing the profession, by Gale Crosley

More from and about Jody Padar at cpatrendlines.com...

CONTENTS

1. How Did We Get Here & Where Are We Going?
2. The Radical Road to (Business) Transformation
3. Dear Midsized Firms (Yes, You Can Change)
4. Firm Product Management is the Way to the Future
5. Embrace Difference & Diversity
6. Technology + Transparency = Transformation
7. Maximizing Social Media and Product Marketing & the Importance of People
8. Name Your Price
9. Join the Radical Movement

INSIGHTS and GUIDANCE on EVERY PAGE
Hundreds of strategies, tools, tips, insights, guest experts, and case studies

1. A New Business Model for the New Firm
2. Seven Ways to Add Value and Charge for It
3. New Thinking From the Ground Up, with Josh Zweig of LiveCA LLP
4. Why Time Billing Is Over and What Comes Next
5. The Anticipatory Organization Business Model, with Al DeLeon, founding partner of DeLeon and Stang in Virginia and Maryland
6. New Ways of Measuring Profitability
7. From Practice Management to Product Management
8. Solving the Power Struggle between Succession and Partner Compensation
9. How to Encourage Responsibility and Grow New Leaders
10. The New Workflow Systems for the Digital Age
11. Why the New Radical CPA Sells Products, Not Services
12. Innovative Marketing with Experiments and Risks, with Eric Majchrzak, shareholder and the chief marketing officer, BeachFleischman PC
13. Top 20 Social Media Hacks to Build Your Business, by Becky Livingston
14. The Radical Way to Finding Out More About Your Customer
15. How to Use Blockchain to Add Value to Your Firm and Your Customers
16. When Your Customers Get a Personal Accounting Assistant Powered by Artificial Intelligence, with Kriti Sharma, vice president of AI and bots at Sage
17. The Well-Kept Secret about How to Talk to Vendors About Technology
18. How to Talk about Changes in Technology with Your Customer
19. The Wonderful World of Apps
20. Customizing Technology for Your Customer
21. Five Ways to Create a More Diverse and Inclusive Workplace, with Minda Harts
22. Creating a Legacy of Leadership
23. The New Tax Franchise That’s Shaking Up the Status Quo
24. Building the Platform for Practice Management: People and Technology
25. Deciding to “Platformize” or “Productize”
26. The Tough QuestionsYou Must Ask about Your Goals
27. How to Create a Persona – and Why
28. Using a Template to Build Your New Business Model
29. The Essentials of Product Management and Why It Matters
30. How to Start Building Your Game Plan for the Future
31. Year-Round Strategic Planning
32. Tips From a Veteran Product Manager, with Bill Whitson
33. The Monster.com Product Manager Job Description
34. Productizing a Core Service the New Vision Way: How Jody Padar Files 1099s
35. How to Create a Productized Service
36. Building a Practice Management Platform on Steroids, with Ian Vacin
37. How the New Vision CPA Firm Launched Wealth Management as a New Product Line
38. Revolutionizing HR, with Brad Self of Clark Schaefer Hackett
39. Capitalizing on Capacity: with the father-son team of CPAs Bernard and Jason Ackerman of BNA CPA
40. Ask the Agility Expert, with Donny C. Shimamoto, CPA, CITP, CGMA and Managing Director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC
41. The Midsized Firm that Transitioned to Radical Successfully, with Carl Famiglietti of Moody, Famiglietti & Andronico
42. Overcoming the Six Barriers to Innovation
43. If You’re Not Disrupting, You’re Not Doing it Right, with Dean Quiambao of Armanino LLP
44. Transitioning to a Radical firm: Bringing a Legacy Customer Along
45. Activating Innovation: Press “Start Now”

Rave Reviews
for
From Success to Significance:
The Radical CPA Guide

“Bold and courageous describes Jody Padar’s many powerful ideas that all CPA firm leaders must now embrace to build significant and iconic organizations that attract great clients, great employees and great partners. With this book, Jody changes your thinking and gives you the technological processes and culture changing actions to create a fun, productive, enviable and very profitable organization. The most fatal mistake would be for you and your partners to not reread From Success to Significance numerous times to internalize its raw power, honesty, and magic.”

– Tony Batman, Chairman and CEO, 1^st Global Research & Consulting

 

“Forget everything you have heard about the future of accounting and read this book. I wish I had this book three years ago instead of having to work all this out myself. Jody Padar is bold in telling us what needs to change, but she has done it, so we should listen. This is a must read, very seriously.”

– David Boyar, Chief Executive Officer, Sequel CFO

 

“Jody does an admirable job of challenging many of the legacy beliefs and processes that limit CPA firms’ ability to be truly innovative today. If you intentionally look for things to challenge your present beliefs, you can’t read this book without finding a nugget or two to #beEvenBetter.”

– Joey Havens, CPA, CGMA, Executive Partner, Horne LLP

 

“You might have heard the saying, ‘What got us here, won’t get us there.’ This could not be more true than today. We are truly in the midst of a strategic inflection point in this profession driven by the hard trends of exponential technologies and demographics. What is needed is a way to see though this fog of uncertainty and ways to leverage the exciting opportunities ahead of us. Jody Padar has been on the edge of this movement and this book offers a roadmap to help you see the exciting possibilities and dare I say ‘anticipate’ an exciting future for your firm. #futureready”

-Tom Hood, CPA, CITP, CGMA and CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute

 

“Jody is correct when she implores: ‘CPAs, it’s up to you to lead in your firms.’ To become a viable firm in the future will require a new type of leadership. It’s no longer a matter of managing hourly billing rates, chargeable hours, and realization percentages. Instead, CPA leaders must develop a new mindset and skills in strategic thinking, disruption, innovation, digital transformation, talent development, and customer intimacy. From Success to Significance jump-starts the conversation and provides a helpful roadmap for the CPA who wants to thrive, not just survive, in this rapidly changing marketplace.”

– Jon Lokhorst, CEO, Lokhorst Consulting LLC

 

“The idea of an agile accounting firm is both surprising and ingenious. That Jody’s using what she’s learned from engaging with companies in Silicon Valley to rethink the business of accounting is as exciting to me as it is obvious to her.”

– James Helms, Vice President, Design Intuit

 

“This book, in my opinion, is required reading for everyone that runs an accounting practice or wants to run one, or who is a user of accounting services. It is actually three books with one title and under one cover. It is a book on client services and engagement management; a book on managing staff with self-empowerment; and an unbelievably great book on IT resources available to accounting firms and for their clients—unbelievably great! There are many threads throughout the book—many of which Jody is known for—that provide great guidance, advice, and insights on the ‘new way’ of delivering client services. Some of her ideas are radical, but not to her and hundreds of firms that are already using these methods, and is a must read, if for no other reason than to gain an understanding of a new model of client engagement, transferring value, and pricing services. Clients should read it to get a glimpse of the essence of how they can benefit from their collaboration with their accounting firms. Jody did good and I highly recommend this book.”

– Edward Mendlowitz, CPA, Partner, WithumSmith+Brown, PC

 

“Jody powerfully reminds us that CPA firms of today cannot meet the complex and demanding needs of their customers tomorrow unless they challenge themselves to break free of their status quo. In this powerful follow up to her first book, Jody continues what makes her so admirable: she challenges us to become RADICAL: to think differently, act differently, serve differently, and grow differently. In this book, Jody gives CPA firms a must-read roadmap for developing the firm of the future, whether you are reengineering a multi-generational firm or beginning a start-up, whether you are a sole practitioner or part of a multi-hundred partner team. Read this book, you and your firm will be better for it!”

– David Knoch, President, 1^st Global Research & Consulting

 

“The accounting profession is changing at an astronomical pace, and Jody Padar is in the engine room. This book is a must for any accountant that wants to lead their firm into the 21st century.”

– Chris Hooper, CEO, Accodex

 

“The most important thing I am reminded of every time I talk to Jody or read her books is to never stay still, to always keep moving forward. That as good as today is, there is never a doubt that we have the power to make a better tomorrow—if we take action.”

– Nate Biddick, Assistant Vice President, Consulting, ?1st Global

 

“In her first book, Jody introduced the Radical CPA. In this second, book, she shows us how to put the Radical in CPA. She gives us five basic tenets to future-proof our firms, and gives us the visions and tools to be truly Radical.”

– Frank Stitely, CPA, CVA, Managing Member, Partner, Stitely & Karstetter, PLLC

 

“Jody is a very forward-thinking person. She was among those ahead of the curve in recognizing that we are way past the days where the numbers being “right” is enough. People today crave insight from those numbers. Through today’s (and tomorrow’s) technological innovations, CPAs are better positioned than ever to turn those numbers into actionable tasks for your clients. In Jody, you could not find a better mentor to help you realize how to use technology in a way that brings real value, to both your firm and your clients. Jody was cloud BEFORE cloud was cool!”

– Ronald Thomas, Sr. Trainer, Learning & Development, Sage

 

“Innovation is not a part of anyone’s job description in most CPA firms, but it should be part of regular firm operations with Jody’s concept of every day innovation. It doesn’t matter the size of your firm; this book provides solid advice and insightful examples to show how you can work to innovate and improve every aspect of your business. If you are brave enough to be radical and lead your firm into its next evolution, start with this book.”

– Katie Tolin, President, CPA Growth Guides

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