CPAs Playing The Consulting Game

In your firm’s consulting practice, how many of your consultants have real, day-to-day operations experience? How many of them are 50 years old? If you say, “very few,” you aren’t alone. Many public accounting firms turned consulting firms have twenty- and thirty-somethings selling advice for $100+ an hour.

A recent research project conducted by ExperTeam [1], a consulting firm comprised of former CEOs, CFOs, VPs and other high level executives, found that almost 70% of executives turn to their CPA advisor for advice. That’s the good news.

The bad news is, that given a choice, these executives would turn to peers, their competitors, and other “experienced” executives for solutions to their toughest problems. They think that experience is the real solver of problems.

And the better news? Accounting firms hoping to bring high-level, executive experience to their offering of services can do that by partnering with ExperTeam.

One of the founders of ExperTeam, who just happens to be a CPA, says, “Most career CPAs-turned consultants have been score keepers rather than score makers.” Is this how your firm’s consulting practice looks?