1st Edition

Beyond the Days of the Giants Solving the Crisis of Growth and Succession in Today's CPA Firms

By Paul D. Fisher Copyright 2014
    182 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Productivity Press

    182 Pages
    by Productivity Press

    During the next 10 years, an estimated 40-50 percent of the partners in public accounting firms will retire. This exodus will place an enormous intellectual and financial strain on firms as they scramble to train and promote new partners, retire the existing ones in an orderly manner, and find the profitability to do so in extraordinarily lean economic times.

    Beyond the Days of the Giants: Solving the Crisis of Growth and Succession in Today’s CPA Firms is a practical, readable implementation guide for your firm to use during this next critical decade. It gives step-by-step guidance on how to:

    • Create a growth culture founded in practitioner-led value creation,
    • Build a no-new-cost practice system to operate within it , and
    • Renew practitioner accountability, not to disappearing Giant-centered value creation systems, but to evidence-based value management practiceled by our New Giants.

    The Days of the Giants
    The Giants’ Laments
    Value Creation
    Commitment
    Profit Management by Tradition
    Hope for the Return of the Business Cycle
    Find Forms of Less Expensive Labor
    Find New Ancillary Services
    Decide to Merge
    The Keys or the Car?

    Giants and Dinosaurs
    Glory Days
    The Extinction of the Finders
    The Minders Follow the Finders
    Enron and WorldCom
    The Great Recession
    And, Last, the Grinders
    Opportunity and Security Diverge
    The Clinical Analogy

    Clash of the Titans
    Flavor of the Month
    I’ll Be the Judge of That!
    Me and My Knee
    The Customer Is Always…Responsible
    Client Choices: The Value of Doing Less
    On to Commitment Number Three

    Creating Missionary Resolve
    Lots to Do, Little to Accomplish
    The Disappearing Department
    The Merger of Value Creation and Succession
    It’s Not My Problem!
    But We’re Tired!
    Where Do We Start?
    The Simple Case
    Cooperating Specialists

    The Efficiency Equation
    Save Money—Live Better
    Growth, Stagnation, or Contraction?

    Building Your Efficiency Numerator
    The Dreaded Fee Discussion
    Painting the Picture
    A Serious Value-Creation Problem
    But Did We Win the War?
    Oh, and by the Way
    You’re Not Alone

    Succession Is Everyone’s Crisis
    The Minder’s Lament
    The Merger of Value and Succession
    Two Birds with One Stone
    Happy Retirement!
    One or the Other?
    One, the Other, or Both?
    Good, Better, Best
    Mourning the Minders’ Demise
    From Theory to Practice

    Entrepreneurialism by Design
    Think Big, Sort Of
    Our Value-Management Model
    Who’s Carrying Whose Water?
    With or without Mayo?
    To Merge or Not to Merge

    Build Your Own Mayo Clinic
    From Giants to Standards of Care
    Algorithms
    People
    Processes
    Status and Professionalism
    We the Practitioners
    The Journey so Far

    The Decision Engines
    Uniformity vs. Linearity
    So Where Do We Start?
    Assessment
    Learn by Doing
    Deja Vu, Revisited
    Specialty Competence
    Specialty Integration
    Labor Leverage Factor
    Value-Management Index
    Referral to Nowhere

    The New Minders
    Melancon’s Undiscovered General Practitioner
    The Lineage of the Giants
    Exit the Finders
    Exit the Minders
    So Now What?

    Your Primary-Care Teams
    A Simple Measure
    Cross-Organizational Teams
    The VMI Challenge—Relationships or Evidence?
    So What Now?

    Bibliography
    Index

    Biography

    Paul D. Fisher

    Check out what these Accounting Today Top 100 Most Influential People in the Accounting Profession have to say about the book:

    This is the first book that provides CPA firms with a plan for getting the next generation of accountants engaged. Paul offers an insightful view of what is ailing accounting firms today – a value-creation problem -- and sets a new standard of client care that starts with engagement, transparency, and relevance as well as providing clients with effective choices.
    August Aquila, CEO Aquila Global Advisors

    An ambitious and thought-provoking work that expertly weaves growth, succession, innovation and value creation—Paul Fisher and I share a common vision of the accounting profession’s growth challenges and choices.
    Gale Crosley, Founder, Crosley+Company

    This book will challenge and inspire your thinking as it helps you design your firm for the future. Paul Fisher offers a critical new roadmap for leaders. It’s worth the time to read.
    Gordy Viere, CEO, CliftonLarsonAllen LLP

    Paul Fisher cuts through the generational clashes inside CPA firms as he addresses the drastic changes in the profession. If you want your firm to survive in a new erabuy this book, dog ear its pages and make it required reading for all employees.
    Rebecca Ryan, Founder, Next Generation Consulting

    This book is a
    must-read for anyone seeking to solve the succession crisis in our profession–and in our clients’ businesses, too! Paul Fisher gives us the roadmap to engaging our young professionals by ‘making public accounting a team sport again’and leaving a legacy we can be proud of.
    Jennifer Wilson, Co-founder and Partner, ConvergenceCoaching, LLC