Boomer Consulting

Our minds are constantly at work coming up with great ideas about the things we should accomplish. Interestingly, however, we rarely formalize these thoughts into written goals.

Tom Hood, CEO, Maryland Association of CPAs & Business Learning Institute, and Jan Hargrave, CEO of Jan Hargrave & Associates, will be the keynote speakers at the 2014 Boomer Technology Circles Summit August 18-19, 2014 at the Westin Crown Center in Kansas City, MO. Due to the growing importance of firm’s developing emerging leaders, the Boomer Technology Circles Summit will also have an Emerging Leader track.

There is a lot of interest, discussion and action taking place around client accounting and advisory services these days. Firms are recognizing the opportunities offered by advances in technology and cloud accounting systems. However, it’s not the technology platform driving this movement, rather firms’ desire to transition from a trusted technical advisor to a trusted business advisor. Before you even get into the discussion about which cloud accounting platform is right for your firm and clients, you must first ask if your firm is prepared to play above the line.

Innovation and growth are directly linked, and it should be no surprise that the most successful accounting firms commit focus, time, energy, and money to innovative services, processes, and technology.

You may have heard it before, or you may have actually uttered these words, “Why did we wait so long to let an underperforming employee go?" In some firms today it may actually be called the underperforming epidemic or the underperformer drag, but no matter what words you are using to describe the problem, the results are the same - our firm suffers when the leaders do not take action.

Is your firm leveraging technology as a strategic asset or is it viewed as simply a cost of doing business? Successful firms view it as an asset and build an IT leadership and governance model that helps harness the power of technology as an accelerator toward improved performance, profitability and growth. There are five aspects of IT governance that are differentiating the best from rest.

We live in a mobile world that is becoming increasingly so every day. Expectations are growing among mobile users that they should be able to do anything and communicate with anyone (including your firm) from the convenience of applications on their mobile devices.

Most firms are in the process of reflecting on their progress during this time of year. Often, that reflection leads to negative feelings of what did not happen, goals that were not met, numbers that were not obtained and people who left. A more effective process is one called Appreciative Inquiry.