I’ve been crisscrossing the country this year, doing strategic planning with CPA firms from California to Delaware and from Minnesota to Louisiana. I worked with firms of all sizes; most were in the Top 500.
Here’s what I learned from working with these firms:
1. On partner alignment. At several firms, I spent time with partner groups who were blocked by fear: fear of what stronger accountability might bring, fear of raising prices and losing their clients, and fear of what robust growth would bring. While understandable, fear can be paralyzing, and at some of these firms, it had persisted for multiple years. Even though I felt the partners at these firms wanted change, they didn’t seem to know how to activate it.
Two parts of our unique strategic planning method came in handy. First, I gathered anonymous data in advance to know what the partners were thinking (and to spot hidden areas of consensus!). Second, at the planning event, I asked positive, open-ended questions for everyone to answer. Why does that matter? As it turns out, if you ask a fearful group about their concerns, you’ll reinforce the fears or get a hotly contested debate going; however, if you ask everyone in the group to share what they want to have happen about a challenging aspect, a bit of magic often happens.
In one case, the firm was afraid of raising pricing for numerous reasons. So I shared firm data that highlighted how overworked the partners felt; then we talked about their aspirations around this area. “We can’t raise prices because our clients will leave us!” rapidly became “I’d like to have a roster full of A and B clients and good work-life balance too.” With shared aspirations across the partner group in view, upgrading pricing then became enthusiastically supported.
Takeaway: Partner alignment is crucial to moving a firm forward. Moving out of fear into shared aspiration and open discussion is key to making it happen.
2. On growth and improving profitability. “You won’t get there by accident.” That became the refrain at a number of my events when discussing growth. Whether it’s buying an IT consulting firm, becoming No. 1 in a highly lucrative tax niche, or driving double-digit growth, it won’t happen without an intentional plan. Many of the partners I worked with wanted to grow — and needed to grow — to keep up with rising IT and staffing costs, as well as to make room for retirements and new partners.
While it may make partners feel good to write 11% annual revenue growth on a five-year vision flip chart, getting there is another thing. I’ve seen firms set paper-thin growth goals and stumble, and I’ve also had multiple firms this year turn a corner by drilling into the details.
With firms that wanted to improve profit and growth, we kept double-clicking on specifics. How much growth did the partners want — what would be revenue and profit by year for three to five years? How would they get there? What role would proactive acquisitions of other firms play? How much would be from new clients versus existing clients? What service lines would grow fastest to improve profitability? And, of course, who would be responsible for driving each of those specific avenues of growth so the firm could hit its target?
Takeaway: When you know why you want growth, where the growth will come from and who will deliver it, the probability of success rises dramatically.
3. On succession. “I haven’t told my clients I’m retiring yet,” said a partner in one of my meetings.
“OK, when are you retiring?” I asked.
“In six months,” came the surprising reply.
CPA firms across the nation are grappling with baby boomer retirements. Not only is this an unpleasant reality for the retiring partners I spoke with (who often ignored or delayed thinking about it), but it was also logistically complicated, with consideration needed for the buyout, how to best transition clients, and who the next leaders would be.
Even if “what got us here won’t get us there,” we still need to honor our past. New partners don’t always appreciate the shoulders they are standing on. In my strategic planning this year, when we had one (or multiple) partner retirements, I took time to honor the past — namely, the legacy that these partners had created — and we even shared inspiring and amusing stories about their time at the firm. After duly recognizing the contributions — and the emotional struggle the retiring partners may be going through — we then moved into planning mode. We mapped out the new leadership pipeline, client transition process, and the accountability process needed to keep it moving ahead.
Takeaway: We need to honor the best of our past — including the valuable contributions of retiring partners — and also look ahead with a clear and practical view.
4. On technology and team. Many of the partners I worked with this year were feeling FOMO about AI. They felt they were falling behind (regardless of how current their technology systems were) and wanted to know what their tech strategy should be. Multiple firms were struggling to find and retain talented staff. Some of the firms I worked with treated hiring like whack-a-mole, responding only to the gaps that keep appearing — and some had built a more predictable, proactive year-round staffing process.
Conversations about team and tech ultimately boil down to leverage and efficiency. How much high-quality work can we get done using the fewest (or cheapest) resources? Whether you get there by automation, offshoring, or delegating work to the right level, you’re still aiming for the same ultimate goal. For the firms I worked with, one or two areas around efficiency usually popped out as able to deliver the most bang for their buck in the near term, whether it was hiring the middle layer, automating more of the repetitive manual work, or exploring offshoring for their CAS department.
Takeaway: To increase efficiency, firms don’t need to chase all the latest trends, but they do need to focus on what’s going to move the needle most for them.
My final reflections
The CPA landscape is changing fast. Now is a critical time to determine a powerful shared vision so your firm can be viable — and you can feel proud of what you’ve created — for many years to come.
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