Accounting
Are Firms with a Vision More Successful than Firms Without One?
This is a very difficult question because the best firms often perform well in multiple areas, so it’s impossible to filter out the individual impact of disciplines such as visioning, marketing, developing staff, accountability and management and leadersh
Mar. 20, 2015
This is a very difficult question because the best firms often perform well in multiple areas, so it’s impossible to filter out the individual impact of disciplines such as visioning, marketing, developing staff, accountability and management and leadership.
Consultants such as myself should resist this knee-jerk response: “Of course visioning and success are correlated.” I have worked with countless firms who would be considered successful by any measure, who achieve success primarily by having an exceptionally skilled partner group. While many of these firms might think they have a vision, there is almost no formality to it.
That being said, I do believe that pursuing strategic planning and partner goal setting, coupled with effective leadership and accountability to carry out the vision, WILL lead to success. This is fundamental. In any aspect of life, if one focuses on a goal or a vision and has the talent and the perseverance to carry it out, it’s more likely that the goal will be achieved.
Read more from Marc Rosenberg at his blog.
Years ago a 15-partner firm invited me to make a presentation on the benefits of working with me on strategic planning. Throughout my presentation, the partners posed great questions. I saw lots of smiles and heads nodding. Except for one partner. After I had flawlessly fielded the group’s final questions, this stoic partner raised his hand and said: “Marc, great presentation. I can see how working with you might help our firm. But I have a question for my partners. Suppose we come up with a great plan. What’s going to make us DO it?”
To quote Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “therein lies the rub.” This partner knew that his partners lacked the leadership and accountability to implement the plan.
Many firms simply don’t give strategic planning or visioning the focus it needs. Why? Either because (a) they don’t know how to do it, (b) they’ve been able to grow and be profitable without visioning, (c)they lack partners with the ability or willingness to be held accountable or (d) all of the above.
For the firms that are successful despite doing no visioning, it’s hard to shake the “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?” mentality.
But for the vast majority of firms that want and need to be more successful than they are today, strategic planning and goal setting offers the opportunity to “boldly go where the firm has never gone before” (with apologies to Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek). Try it. You’ll like it!
A few years ago, an MP interested in engaging his firm in strategic planning and goal setting asked me to prepare a “how to” guide to creating a CPA firm strategic plan that would enable him to lead his partners’ efforts at visioning. Eventually, I turned that guide into a monograph – Strategic Planning And Goal Setting For Results. If you are one of those firms that are ready to create its first plan or to revisit an existing plan, this monograph is your Starship Enterprise.