What's Holding Your Firm Back?

Source: CPA Practice Management Forum

In this interview, consultant Allan Koltin discusses the top 10 issues that prevent CPA firms from achieving greatness. They are: 

1. Too many unproductive partners – This includes overpaid partners, divisive partners who should exit the firm, and equity partners who are no longer performing and should be income partners.
2. Partners who aren't on the same page – For example, partners my disagree about future strategy or the firm's compensation program.
3. Not enough emphasis on practice growth – Some firms lack the rainmakers they need to grow while others simply fail to embed growth in the firm's culture.
4. Too eager to accept any and all clients – “Garbage in produces garbage out.”
5. The wrong mix of client service staff – Partners are doing the work of managers, managers are doing the work of seniors, and so on.
6. Not enough emphasis on profitability – The best firms focus on asset-building, not asset-milking.
7. Autocratic and/or not enough leadership – Problems range from partners who don't trust or respect their leader to leaders who fail to devote sufficient time to the business.
8. Too much or too little autonomy – The best firms operate in a highly accountable culture.
9. Not enough young superstars – Superstars can “see under the sheets” and know how to decipher an A vs. B vs. C firm.
10. Little if any available capital to reinvest in the firm – Firms that “choose to pull every dollar out of the firm each year or operate with a lot of debt are at a major competitive disadvantage.”

For the complete article, read “The 10 Plagues of CPA Firm Greatness.” [Link to come]

From CPA Practice Management Forum, Vol. 10, No. 1, January 2014, p. 16.