Financial Planning | Leadership / Management

Top seven growth areas for CPAs

Action - execution "But a time of turbulence is also one of great opportunity for those who can understand, accept, and exploit the new realities. It is above all a time of opportunity for leadership." -- Peter Drucker

One of my favorite sayings when navigating severe downturns is, "You can't cut your way to success." While there is no question you have to carefully manage your business (or firm) to stay solvent, once you're stable, it is time to come out of the storm cellar and plan for what's next.

Having spent the last six months with CPAs all across the U.S., here is what I am consistently hearing about opportunities to get you thinking:

  1. Valuation
  2. Forensic and fraud
  3. Governmental
  4. International (IFRS and tax)
  5. Health care
  6. Green / sustainability
  7. XBRL

The next step is to assess whether these (and others you come up with) are what we call "high-leverage opportunities." We recommend asking these four questions:

  1. Are they a source of passion for us? (Do they fit your strategic plan, values and purpose?)
  2. Do they leverage our resources (customer base, talent, capabilities, etc.)?
  3. Do they create value in excess of the time, effort and resources needed to accomplish?
  4. Can they be accomplished?

We incorporate this into our I2A: Insights to Action strategic planning process and leadership development. The two things all of the greatest management thinkers seem to agree on is that we must build on our strengths and focus on opportunities. (We would add highest-leverage opportunities.)

The questions are:

  • Do you (and your team or partners) know your strengths?
  • How are you focusing and getting your team to agree on opportunities?
  • How will you align your partners and organization around those strategic priorities? (We call this the Action phase.)

More resources:

Talk back: Where do you see the opportunities?