Geof Brown: Rethink Everything | Gear Up for Growth
Illinois CPA Society CEO lays out the three big challenges.
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Alan Whitman: Why the Next Big CPA Firms Won’t Look Like CPA Firms | Gear Up for Growth
And why culture matters more than ever.
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Alan Whitman isn’t trying to build a better CPA firm. He’s trying to replace it.
At Nichols Cauley, the former Baker Tilly CEO is recasting the traditional accounting practice as a “financial services company”—a structure that blends tax, insurance, risk, and transaction advisory into a single, continuous client relationship.
MORE ALAN WHITMAN: PE Deal Tracker Update: Alan Whitman Plants a Flag in the Private Equity Landscape | Breaking the Mold with PE Backing | Build Culture on ‘Progress,’ Not Change | Moss Adams-Baker Tilly Merger: Bigger Isn’t Better. Better Is Better.| Unlocking the Secrets to Smart Growth
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The goal, he tells Jean Caragher in this episode of Gear Up for Growth, is not to expand services around the edges, but to collapse them into one integrated model designed to “manage, protect, and grow” client wealth in a recurring loop.
The shift reflects a broader rethinking across the profession, in which private equity capital, client demand for one-stop advisory services, and advances in AI are pushing firms beyond the partnership model that has defined accounting for decades.
Having previously led transformational growth at Baker Tilly, Whitman rejects the notion that rapid growth damages culture.
“That’s hogwash,” he says. “Culture comes down to one word: trust.” READ MORE →
Stephanie Otero: Your Firm, Your Way | Gear Up for Growth
Success Requires Intention, Focus, and Community.
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“Small firm practitioners need to remember that they are in the driver’s seat,” says Stephanie Otero, vice president, Small Firm Advocate at the AICPA, in this episode of Gear Up for Growth with Jean Caragher.
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“They have the power to intentionally design a practice they enjoy, and that truly works for them,” Otero says in a wide-ranging conversation about the most pressing challenges facing small accounting firms and the strategies that can help them thrive in an increasingly complex environment.
Joe Pine: The Transformation Economy Comes for Public Accounting | Gear Up for Growth
As AI automates compliance, value shifts to measurable outcomes and client aspirations.
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Author and strategist B. Joseph Pine II urges accounting firm leaders to confront a fundamental question: What business are you really in?
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According to Pine, the profession is approaching a critical inflection point as the global economy moves beyond goods, services, and even experiences, into what he calls the transformation economy.
“You use experiences as a raw material to guide people to change, to help them achieve their aspirations,” Pine tells Gear Up for Growth host Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing. This shift, he explains, requires firms to move beyond simply delivering accounting work efficiently to helping clients achieve meaningful, measurable change.
AJ Johnson: New CPA Licensure Pathway Opens Doors to Talent | Gear Up for Growth
Expanding access while maintaining rigorous standards.
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“This legislation has real consequences – positive consequences – for the health of firms, corporate accounting departments, and the broader economy,” says Aiysha “AJ” Johnson, CEO and executive director of the New Jersey Society of CPAs, during her appearance on Gear Up for Growth with Jean Caragher of Capstone Marketing. “I like to think that we’re opening doors.”
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Johnson highlights New Jersey’s new legislation signed by Governor Murphy, creating an additional pathway to CPA licensure, a move designed to expand access while maintaining rigorous standards. It will take effect Feb. 11, 2026. READ MORE →