Firms of the future

Firms have an irrational faith in the effectiveness of performance appraisals.

The January/February 2009 issue of the Ohio Society of CPA’s magazine, Catalyst.

The title is provocative, ”2018: A world of global accounting and virtual business.” Written by Kimberly Scher, vice president communications for The Ohio Society, with insights and suggestions from Jeff Tucker, shareholder of Top 100 firm Rea & Associates Inc., with which we have been discussing various issues surrounding effectiveness vs. efficiency, Lean Six Sigma, Value Pricing, getting rid of timesheets, etc.

I received an incredibly thought-provoking email from Jonathan Iannacone, CPA, who blogs as well:

Ron,
I would like your thoughts on a question that continues to bother me regarding the K[ey] P[erformance] I[ndicator] we use at the firm, Revenue per Employee.



Recently a list from Inside Public Accounting (IPA) came out listing the Best of the Best accounting firms for 2008 (top 25 and then next 25 honorable mentions). Using the data from that table, you can crunch the numbers to get partner/staff, revenue/partner, and revenue/employee results.

By Ron Baker - There’s a classic joke that illustrates an important point with regards to the over-used term “productivity”:

A CPA from the city is walking down a country road past a farm when he sees a farmer feeding pigs in a highly unusual manner. The farmer is standing under an apple tree, holding up an enormous pig so that the pig can eat as many apples as it wants.

By Ron Baker - Why does work suck?  For the same reason the billable hour and timesheets suck:  they are all based on an incorrect belief about work.

Firms are struggling with work/life balance, flextime, time management, etc.  But all these are a joke.  Flextime is an oxymoron if you still have a schedule or “core hours.” Work/life balance is not up to fi