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home | Leadership Forum Report | March 2010 Leadership Forum
 

Vol. 2 No. 3, March 2010

The Leadership Forum is a panel of the most prominent thought leaders in the profession. Each month we ask them to respond to a question dealing with CPA firm management and leadership.

This month's question is: Partner accountability is weak at many firms below the Top 100. What things have firms implemented to successfully achieve partner accountability? Please discuss your experiences with techniques and strategies that you have seen work, in practice, at current accounting firms.

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For the archive of Leadership Forum Reports, click here.

Consultants and Other Prominent Observers


Larry Bildstein  The Whetstone Group www.thewhetstonegroup.com   
larry@thewhetstonegroup.com  
Tracking activities and results is a vital component of achieving partner accountability. We've found ...More

Steve Erickson National Consultant to CPA Firms www.SteveEricksonLLC.com
Steve@SteveEricksonCPA.com
Active practice management techniques and partner accountability do not require more people or ever increasing layers of management. It does require individual accountability... More

Angie Grissom The Rainmaker Consulting Group www.therainmakeracademy.com 
angie@therainmakeracademy.com
I have seen our firms dramatically increase partner accountability, overall profitability and growth with the use of a Balanced Scorecard...More

Bob Lewis  Visionary Marketing www.thinkvisionary.com 
blewis@thinkvisionary.com
A lead pipleline report with a list of proposals sent by Partner works well. It makes all Partner activity visible. So if a Partner has no proposals on the report...More

Robert B. Martin  Martin & Associates www.martincmc.com 
bob@martincmc.com
...accountability requires that the partner group agree to be managed, and some partners are not willing...More

Jay N. Nisberg Jay Nisberg and Associates jaynisberg@snet.net
Not sure what makes us think it's a whole lot better at top 100 firms? That said, firms are doing many things to achieve partner accountability including...More

William Pirolli Bentley Consulting Group www.bentleycg.com 
bpirolli@bentleycg.com
...The idea was borrowed from a friend, but I enhanced and customized it to our firm. The message to the staff was that they mattered and everything they did or did not do had an effect on everyone else...More

Patrick Pruett The APA and Enterprise Network Worldwide http://enterprisenetworkworldwide.com
patrick@the-apa.com
...Popular tools being used to enforce accountability include balanced scorecards, sales pipeline reports, and even accountability committees...More

Marc Rosenberg The Rosenberg Associates www.rosenbergassoc.com   
marc@rosenbergassoc.com  
Compensation is easily the most commonly used form of accountability, but usually not the most effective...More

Joel Sinkin Accounting Transition Advisors www.transitionadvisors.com
jsinkin@transitionadvisors.com
We see the first issue as firms not bringing clarity to what their expectations are...More

Jennifer Wilson ConvergenceCoaching LLC www.convergencecoaching.com
jen@convergencecoaching.com
...360 performance feedback is also valuable in holding partners accountable to expected behaviors as it reflects back "reality" as to how the partners are perceived, which helps them develop plans to improve....More




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