Leading An Accounting Firm

15Building the Future Firm Continuously

“Be uncomfortable being comfortable, discontent being content.”

~ COACH JOHN WOODEN

Nothing stands still. In his book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, Thomas Friedman describes many of the rapid changes taking place today. The business world, competition, technology, communications methods, and our communities are constantly changing. You can build the perfect accounting firm for today, and soon, it will be behind.

Therefore, you must not be content on building your firm to operate well today; your continuous improvement efforts should be devoted to building your firm for tomorrow.

One of the major assignments of leaders and managers is to implement processes that will carry the firm into the future, rather than simply positioning you for today.

Gary Shamis, founder and CEO of the top-100 multioffice firm SS&G Financial Services, Inc., in Cleveland, OH, talks about his firm’s and partners’ attitude toward continuous change and improvement

You could go around this country and ask people, “Who are the best CPA firms?” We’ll probably get our fair share of people saying that SS&G is one of the best firms in the country. On the other hand, if you spent time with our partner group, you would never find a more dissatisfied group with what we have now on a daily basis. It’s never good enough, and there is not a piece ...