Synopsis
Partners are the culture in a professional services firm - what they believe, what they reward, what they do and how they do it determines what and how things get done. And, if they don't believe in what the firm is doing, they will never be effective role models who think firm first and actively bring the whole of the firm's services to their clients. In this brief book, the authors identify six major challenges that firms need to address to engage their partners and to ensure everyone moves forward together. They are: 1. Un-motivational firm vision. 2. Lack of clearly defined core values. 3. Lack of clarity around what being a partner means. 4. Ineffective or non-existent partner performance reviews. 5. Performance systems not tied to strategic initiatives. 6. Lack of successful firm leaders. Most firms consider these six challenges to be merely "touchy feely" aspects of running a professional services firm. They take time to implement and the common response is that "we have clients to serve and this stuff just detracts us from our real job." But unless you embrace these challenges and get your partners actively engaged and performing for the firm and its future, you may find yourself without clients and without a viable future.
About the Author
August J. Aquila is an internationally known speaker, consultant and author and has held leading positions in the accounting profession for more than 25 years. He is CEO of AQUILA Global Advisors, a full-service consulting firm to accounting and other professional service firms in the US, Canada UK and India. August focuses his consulting on designing compensation plans, resolving organizational and partner issues, transition planning and developing strategic plans. Before starting AQUILA Global Advisors, he held several executive leadership positions with American Express Tax and Business Services, Inc. He was also a partner in a top-50 firm and regional marketing director for Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC) in Chicago. In 2003 he was elected into the Association for Accounting Marketing's Hall of Fame and has been selected as one of the "Top 100 Most Influential People in The Accounting Profession" by Accounting Today for several years. He is the author of hundreds of articles and several books on practice management; mergers and acquisitions and compensation plan designs. Recent books include The CA Firm of the Future (Bombay CA Society, 2013), Performance is Everything (AICPA 2012), Compensation as a Strategic Asset (AICPA 2007) and Client at the Core (John Wiley & Sons 2004). August is also a co-author, with Robert J. Lees and Derek Klyhn, of Leadership At Its Strongest: What Successful Managing Partners Do, the ground-breaking research on how managing partners drive improvements in their firm's competitive and financial performance, available at baystreetgroup.com/store. He can be reached at aaquila@aquilaadvisors.com or 1-952-930-1295. For more information see aquilaadvisors.com.
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