Vol. 8 No. 2, February 2016
The Leadership Forum is a panel of the most prominent thought leaders in the profession. This month we asked two questions and asked them to respond to the questions dealing with CPA firm management and leadership.
This month's question was:
Virtually every CPA firm would agree that differentiating their firm is a great idea. Yet, fewer than 10% of all local firms (under $15M), in fact, differentiate themselves from others. Is differentiation, as a practical idea, not really worth the effort because it's nearly impossible?
Consultants and Other Prominent Observers
| August Aquila | AQUILA Global Advisors, LLC | www.aquilaadvisors.com [email protected] |
| I think that differentiation in a service firm is misunderstood. Most firms offer the same services, so service differentiation does not work. Today, firms can differentiate themselves in two manners. The first cannot be copied by a competitor. Each firm is unique in the people that work there and how they service their clients... More | ||
| William Carlino | Transition Advisors LLC | www.transitionadvisors.com [email protected] |
| Differentiation is critical. If Firm A offers tax and audit, and Firm B offers tax, audit and financial planning, clients would likely choose the firm with more services... More | ||
| Dr. Rex P. Gatto | Gatto Associates, LLC | www.rexgatto.com [email protected] |
| ...A competent CPA who provides quality work the first time s/he completes the work does differentiate themselves in the presentation of that work. If you examine all that goes on in the workplace it could be divided in two: task performance (quality of work or knowledge of job performance) and contextual performance (interpersonal, leadership and communication)... More | ||
| Angie Grissom | The Rainmaker Companies | www.therainmakercompanies.com [email protected] |
| ... Firms should also look at how they uniquely serve clients and be able to explain their approach. One example might be how they co-develop solutions with firms or pull together thought leaders to assist with problem solving for the good of the client... More | ||
| Marc Rosenberg | The Rosenberg Associates | www.rosenbergassoc.com [email protected] |
| ...If you are one of those firms, and your revenue and income keep rising, and you've got a nice pipeline of partner potentials in house, how can anyone say if the work required to differentiate would be worth the effort? There's no shame in being a non-differentiated firm that is successful and profitable. But if you are a firm that is stagnating with flat growth, succession planning challenges and barely average quality partners, staff and clients, then differentiation may be a strategy worth pursuing... More | ||
| Joe Tarasco | Accountants Advisory Group | www.accountantsadvisory.com [email protected] |
| ...firms that are specialist/experts in a particular industry, niche or service area have the capability to differentiate themselves and brand their organizations and its certainly worth the marketing and public relations investment to do so... More | ||