For years I have been saying to anyone willing to listen, if you you want to create a great firm – one that out-performs the rest of the industry by an order of magnitude (another of my favorite sayings!) – you MUST ESCAPE THE SEA OF SAMENESS. Continue reading “I thought I invented the phrase “sea of sameness” but I didn’t”
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An unexpected way to acquire a new client
It never ceases to amaze me how much value accountants can add to their clients (and themselves) if only they are willing to take the time to have a conversation with their clients to better understand their aspirations and the vision they have for their business. This is a classic case in point. I recently recorded an interview with Rachel Ray who, at one time, Continue reading “An unexpected way to acquire a new client”
If You Want to Break From The Pack, Innovation is the Key
As I prepare material for our up-coming Practice Innovation Workshops I’ve been doing a lot of research into the process of creative idea generation (specifically how to teach it and how to implement it) because at the end of the day that’s what ultimately gives business enterprises (and that includes accounting firms and their clients) a competitive edge. Continue reading “If You Want to Break From The Pack, Innovation is the Key”
If not excellence what? If not excellence now, when?
The first business book I picked up and enthusiastically read, because it was inherently readable and extraordinarily interesting, was In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Bob Waterman. In a real sense it changed my life because it was the catalyst that led to my moving out of academia into the “real” world of public accounting. Continue reading “If not excellence what? If not excellence now, when?”
We all see things differently
This photograph of a group of young Parisian children watching a puppet show was taken by the famous photographer, Alfred Eisenstaedt in 1963. When I saw it I could not help thinking how us humans (big and small) can look at exactly the same thing and experience a totally different emotional response. Continue reading “We all see things differently”
Are you showing your clients why they need to give attention to metrics such as average transaction value?
Businesses that have regular repeat customers need to focus on retaining these customers’ loyalty and developing ways to increase transaction frequency and value. Businesses that deal with irregular (or once-only) customers need to give relatively more attention to encouraging advocacy and especially to improving the effectiveness of the sales process—those businesses generally have high-value products or services. Continue reading “Are you showing your clients why they need to give attention to metrics such as average transaction value?”
Service Positioning When Your Prospects Are Human
When you put a service proposal in front of a client she will make a decision to go ahead with the proposal or reject it. If she was acting as a rational economic agent she would assess the potential payoff against the expected cost of the proposal and she would go ahead with the proposal if the payoff exceeded the cost. In the real world it’s more complicated than that and the way you frame your proposal can have a dramatic impact of whether it is accepted or rejected. Continue reading “Service Positioning When Your Prospects Are Human”
You’ll absorb more when you take notes in longhand
With the full force of Harvard’s authority I can now confirm that the advice I gave in my post on Journaling is correct! Read the brief note that was referencing a Princeton study that addresses this issue. Sure, they are referring to student note-taking in lectures but at the end of the day we’re all students and the lecturers are the books and other sources of knowledge that we have the opportunity to tap into. Longhand writing serves to improve cognitive processing and retention. The saying “in one ear and out the next” is correct.
How to create employee engagement
A recurring theme that’s reflected by the questions I have been asked to respond to in this year’s Q&A web conferences that I’ve been presenting has been how to get more engagement from team members. This issue is not just related to the accounting profession which may give you some comfort.
It’s an issue that’s on the mind of everyone leading organizations that rely heavily of knowledge workers – i.e. virtually all businesses.
I came across a very interesting PowerPoint presentation created by Daniel Cook that you can download for free called The Rules of Productivity that was created by a game designer. It relates to software engineers but the point he’s making is just as relevant to team members in accounting firms especially in the context of the massive demands made on people during the February-April tax season in the US and the January tax crunch in the UK.
In the last of my presentations I referred to a book written by Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey called The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. If I was still teaching Entrepreneurship it would be required pre-reading. If I were working with startups, it would be required pre-reading and then I’d tell them to read Michael Gerber’s The E-Myth. I’d set the E-Myth as the second assignment because after reading barefoot some of them would go back to work for the man and Gerber’s point of “working for an idiot – you” would make sense. Barefoot illustrates just how hard it is but also how hustle and heart leads to the exhilaration of success.
Hopefully that little rant will inspire you to make a $16 investment in the book and set aside some time to read it. In the meantime, also take a look at an article Michael & Bonnie wrote called How to Create Real Employee Engagement that was recently published in the Journal of Quality & Participation (I’ve never heard of it but it has an interesting title!). You might also be interested in visiting Michael and Bonnie’s website – lots to learn here.
Who owns your team members’ networks?
Yesterday I posted some thoughts on the potential power an employer has from leveraging a team member’s talent network. I went so far as to suggest that a “visionary” firm of the future would see this as a great opportunity to attract and retain team members who embraced this idea. Not everyone agrees with this. Continue reading “Who owns your team members’ networks?”