Weathering the Storm

Source: CPA Practice Management Forum

According to consultant Joseph A. Tarasco, the accounting profession is currently faced with three major challenges that combine to form a “perfect storm.” They are:

• A general lack of formal succession plans;
• Significant merger activity at the local, regional, and national levels; and
• The economic recession.

Unlike in the boom years, Tarasco suggests, firms no longer have “the luxury of making poor business decisions without significant consequences to partner earnings.” Now, to weather the storm, firms must make some smart, tough business decisions. The article outlines several survival strategies, including:

• Developing and implementing a performance-based partner compensation program that's tailored to a firm's specific needs and goals;
• Attracting, retaining, and developing the best professionals available to create the next generation of firm leaders;
• Enhancing the client base with better quality, more profitable clients and holding partners accountable for increasing realizations on current clients and bringing in more profitable new clients;
• Growing through mergers and acquisitions – a strategy, Tarasco says, that is becoming a necessity rather than an option; and
• Offering competitive salaries.

For the complete article, read “Overcoming the Perfect Storm.”

From CPA Practice Management Forum, CCH Incorporated, 800-449-8114, June 2011, p. 5.