Help Wanted: Looking for a CPA Firm Managing Partner

One of my favorite words is “apocryphal.” An apocryphal statement is one that probably didn’t happen, but it’s so believable that it’s wildly believed to be true. Here’s one of my favorite examples. Clark Clifford was a super-lawyer and a cabinet-level advisor to four presidents in the 20th century. Fortune 500 companies pleaded with him to take their cases. One Fortune 500 CEO had a very difficult, complex decision to make. Clifford sent him a one-sentence letter simply advising him to do nothing. Attached was a $20,000 invoice. Did Clifford really do that? Maybe not, but he could have.

If a firm needed a new managing partner, it’s unlikely that it would place an ad in the newspaper.

But if they did, here’s a help-wanted ad that a mid-sized CPA firm might place.

CPA FIRM LOOKING FOR A MANAGING PARTNER

We are a $30M CPA firm in Denver with 18 partners. Our current MP is retiring, and we need a successor. Our current partners either don’t want to be MP, aren’t qualified, or both.

Background and experience

1. Experience in managing a sizeable, complex company at a high level, which must include experience managing high-level executives.
2. Need not be a CPA or have experience managing a CPA firm, though knowledge of how a professional service firm operates will be a plus.
3. Extensive experience managing and supervising people; strong, proven communication and leadership skills. Must have a proven track record of people advancing under their tutelage.
4. College degree preferred, though we value relevant management experience as much as formal education.

Traits required

1. Be a people person, a proficient communicator, and the kind of person who is always smiling and lets their personality be their autograph.
2. Should love working with people to help them succeed, not just be a nice person. Be empathetic.
3. Be a consensus-builder, not a dictator. However, it should be crystal clear that we expect our MP to make the final, tough decisions. We want no management-by-committee.
4. Be a visionary.
5. Be skilled at implementing ideas, strategies, plans, etc.
6. Have strong organizational, time management and multi-tasking skills.
7. Be open and adaptable to change. Must believe in the adage “if you stagnate, you die.”
8. Be a long-term vs. short-term thinker.
9. Build a strong team that enables the MP to stay out of the weeds.
10. Have skills at using the duck principle: stay cool, calm and collected on top and paddle like crazy underneath.

Duties (mostly not done by the MP alone but, instead, through a team)

1. Function as the firm’s CEO, managing the firm at the highest level while forming a team.
2. Achieve continuous revenue growth.
3. Be responsible for the firm’s profitability.
4. Continuously create and implement firm strategies and goals.
5. Lead the firm in making it a great place to work that attracts, retains and develops staff.
6. Constantly work on the firm’s succession plan.
7. Deal with partner issues of all kinds; achieve partner accountability. Take the lead in aligning partners’ compensation with their performance and success at helping the firm achieve its goals.
8. Constantly benchmark the firm in financial/operating metrics as well as operating methods.

Our book, The Role of the Managing Partner: The Definitive Guide to CPA Firm Leadership, covers these topics and more:

• Winning strategies employed by MPs to drive their firm’s success • Techniques to manage the other partners and foster partner accountability • Management vs. leadership • 25 best practices • Proven practices for managing staff, revenue growth, and assembling an exceptional management team • Partner compensation-a potent weapon in the MP’s arsenal • Essential organizational skills for MPs • Observations of how the very best MPs operate • Why and how MPs fail • Quotes from esteemed leaders

Elevate your leadership game and order your copy today!

Warning

To those thinking of applying to this ad, please understand that being the MP of a mid-sized CPA firm, though immensely rewarding and lucrative, has challenges that many would find daunting.

• The CPA firm organizational model is flawed, and we sometimes struggle with it just like other firms. Firm management has a tendency to play second fiddle to managing and serving clients. Partners are encouraged and rewarded for working in the business, not on the business.
• Managing a large client load while serving as the MP often doesn’t leave much time to properly manage the firm. Don’t think you can do a great job as MP if you also want to manage a large client base…because you can’t.
• Managing partners comes with its share of difficulties:
  • They are resistant to change, partly due to their affluence and egos.
  • Partners sometimes feel that being a partner gives them the inalienable right to do whatever they want whenever they please.
  • Partners are greatly influenced by democracy; they like to have a say in decisions. But democracy is no way to run a business.
  • Partners love to question the decisions of management, feeling they know how to screw in the light bulb better.
  • A common partner attitude toward accountability: “I’m all for it…as long as it doesn’t affect me.”
• Our industry’s succession planning is faced with a perfect storm of enormous challenges:   (a) aging partners, (b) a dire shortage of labor, (c) lack of interest among students in majoring in accounting and making it a career, and (d) partners’ weaknesses in mentoring and developing staff into partners. CPA firms are often not built to last.

Candidates applying for this position must carefully consider these challenges. We understand that after assessing these challenges, many candidates will take a pass. Only those passionate about accepting these challenges and climbing the mountain with their eyes wide open should apply.

Applicants should send their resumes to Rosenberg Associates, together with a two-page document explaining why they are qualified and how they would address the challenges of the job.