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Gale’s book, At the Crossroads: The Remarkable CPA Firm That Nearly Crashed, Then Soared is a delightful parable about a sleepy, uninspired CPA firm that transforms into an accounting powerhouse.
Meet managing partner Joe Abriola who has just learned that his partners are on the verge of mutiny. How does the firm recover and thrive? Spoiler alert—Gale’s growth model swoops in to save the day! The book is an instructive tale that’s filled with valuable insight on achieving growth despite the odds.
Over the past decade or so, I’ve worked with clients on the strategic growth of accounting and advisory services (CAS/CAAS). Though its initial focus was on moving bookkeeping to the cloud, many of those clients have expanded their offerings to include consulting services to the corporate CFO suite.
Part one of this article made the case for developing segment leaders as part of an organizational framework for driving revenue. In this second part, we move past the “what” to address “how” segment leaders are cultivated.
There’s been a continuing change taking place among the most successful accounting firms. They are moving away from an individual book-of-business model and, instead, cultivating revenue segment leaders to drive growth and increasingly, position the firm for acquisition.
At a recent conference on accounting firm growth, several co-panelists described the process they used to enter a new market or launch a new service. One detailed a successful rollout in the litigation support area. Another spoke about taking a local tech-related offering national.
To judge by the number of blog posts and articles I’m seeing on the topic of consulting these days, you might think advisory services have been widely embraced by accounting firms.
Dan Hood from Accounting Today interviews Gale about expanding your geography.
The role of innovation in our profession is unquestioned. It is widely accepted that new offerings, especially those that are technology-based, are critical not just for growth, but for an accounting firm’s very survival.
You don’t have to be a gym rat to know that when they go unused, muscles atrophy and are less able to help the body function and thrive. As for how to build muscle, everybody has an opinion. But whether you ask a bodybuilder or a doctor, the recommendations all acknowledge that the more you train a muscle, the more you trigger its growth.
The 19th century English clergyman William Pollard said, “Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.” Pollard’s words reflect something I’ve observed for some time: Our profession has a built-in bias toward passivity.
“Gale, our firm needs to grow! What technologies should we bring to market? And how will we acquire the skills to deliver those offerings?” These are among my favorite—and most frequently heard questions. Why favorite? Because unlike some conundrums firms face, there actually is an answer, an achievable framework for making these decisions. It’s known…
Segment or niche? In this episode of Accounting Marketing Doesn’t Suck, host Hugh Duffy talks with Gale Crosley all about small and large firm growth, why it pays to specialize and the glue that holds segments together. In this episode, you’ll learn about what Gale calls “revenue segmentation” and how that can help you…
For years, I’ve been talking about, writing about and, yes, some might even say nagging about a tactic that continues not only to deliver, but to dazzle. The focus of my attention is the Research Call℠. It is nothing more, and nothing less than an interview, ideally in person, with a key individual in a…
Innovation is a sizzling hot topic in our industry, the subject of countless articles, conferences and memos from managing partners. Much of what I read and hear, however, focuses on how to be more innovative, and fails to address the foundation upon which innovation is built. And that is product management.
Reprinted with permission from Accounting Today. Low-Hanging Fruit Is Great, Until It Dries Up A client recently shared a story about a magical desert oasis where apricot trees flourished and merchants harvested the abundant, low-hanging fruit, weighing down the low tree branches. One day a new merchant appeared. He was an ambitious young man who…
Reprinted with permission from Accounting Today. One of the hottest concepts in business these days is “disruption.” In fact, a KPMG survey found that three in four CEOs surveyed worldwide said their companies are striving to be market disrupters. In many sectors, effecting dramatic change in how business is done (disrupting) is a deliberate pursuit.…
Reprinted with permission from Accounting Today. If thought leadership was not a contender for phrase of the year in recent times, it should have been. It’s a motherhood-and-apple-pie-flavored bite of business jargon defined by Business News Daily as “the honest and admirable ambition of being viewed as a credible industry expert, one who cuts through…
Reprinted with permission from Accounting Today. You’ve attended the conferences and participated in the webinars, so you know that current best practice favors the evolution beyond just a practitioner to a consultant. It’s one thing to acknowledge the apparent logic of such a shift. But it’s another matter to successfully transform from CPA who collects…
Reprinted with permission from Accounting Today. In our profession, the word practice typically conveys a fairly narrow meaning, as in “the practice of accounting.” But successful niche development, which I consider an essential tool for growth, requires a different type of practice – practicing to perfect a new niche or service line. The most successful…
On March 30, 2018 Gale Crosley was a guest speaker on Marta Alfonso’s weekly radio talk series, The Well-Heeled Professional. This week’s series, “A Force for Positive Disruption,” featured the perspectives of three speakers who are leaders and innovators in accounting, law, and technology. Gale and her fellow speakers shared their personal experiences, lessons learned,…
Reprinted with permission from Accounting Today. Everybody’s talking about innovation these days. The “i” word may be over-used, but when it comes to growing your firm, I’m an unapologetic believer in the power of innovation. This is especially important for mature service lines. Let’s start with a working definition. I love the one offered by…