I recently read this article (Why the Rich Get Richer - Robert Kiyosaki) and thought that he offered some interesting observations. Not that what he was saying was “rocket science”, but that he was offering his opinion on a path to success that reflected some of my thoughts on the issue. I wouldn’t even bother to mention the article except for the comments that are written below it by some of its readers. Many are very illuminating to the mindset of the writers. In general, the commentators who “slam” the article seem to be upset that somebody is questioning their paradigm (let’s see how much cheesy business consultant lingo I can spew.). They, the slammers, seem to have an incredibly narrow minded focus-“Workers of the world unite.” All of these business gurus can sound simple and they are certainly repetitive, but this doesn’t negate the useful information that their articles/books/CDs/etc. contain. In this article, the useful thought is that ideas should have an expiration date. “Shift Happens” Do you want to be ahead of the shift or behind the shift? Many of the negative commentators seem to be behind the shift and know it. They just don’t want anybody pointing it out.
In my business (I’m an employee working to be an owner), the real threat to employees is not jobs moving overseas, although some of that has happened, but technology. When reading industry literature, you notice that there are a lot of smart people working to take the mundane tasks that employees spend a lot of time on and automate them. When your business model is built on billing hours and those hours evaporate, you are in trouble. The savvy people that see this coming will be able to effectively redefine what they do with their clients and may ultimately be more successful than before. Those that don’t see it coming will disappear. These are interesting times. What do you think?
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Quote from Sun Tzu
“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.”
I believe this to be a true statement. In that, you have to act upon the opportunities that are presented to you and as you do so more opportunities will be revealed. Two factors hold us back from this action. The first is recognition. We frequently don’t recognize when opportunities are presented to us. We see events as set backs or obstacles to our success, not the educational opportunities they are, that can contribute to our future success. Secondly, we tend to be fearful of change/failure. Many who are very successful, by whatever definition you choose, have failed. Many of those have failed multiple times. Failure is not a problem. It is the response to failure that is a problem.
I believe this to be a true statement. In that, you have to act upon the opportunities that are presented to you and as you do so more opportunities will be revealed. Two factors hold us back from this action. The first is recognition. We frequently don’t recognize when opportunities are presented to us. We see events as set backs or obstacles to our success, not the educational opportunities they are, that can contribute to our future success. Secondly, we tend to be fearful of change/failure. Many who are very successful, by whatever definition you choose, have failed. Many of those have failed multiple times. Failure is not a problem. It is the response to failure that is a problem.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Live for today, Plan for tomorrow, Learn from yesterday then let it go
I've been saying something similar to this to my aquaintences for many years. Recently heard something similar in an advertisment (don't remember for what product / service). Would be interested in knowing who originally said / wrote it.
Recent Exchange Re: Public Accounting
Hope all is going well. Been thinking about the usual stuff recently. Decided that my passion lies in being a forward thinking, future oriented, visionary / strategist. I get giddy at the prospect of effecting real change. Yet, here I am a backward looking, history based, minutiae dispenser. This being the paradox of my existence. I know I will not be happy as long as I'm doing what I'm doing the way I'm doing it, but I don't really move toward changing. The rut. SSDD What does that say about the strength of my convictions?
Another quandary. I truly believe that the profession I'm in can and must change in order to be truly viable 10 years from now. Yet there are no, zero, nada real change agents moving in the profession. It, the public accounting profession, seems to me to be very much like what the American auto industry was like 60 (+ ) years ago. Many players dominated by a few large ones, but reasonably competitive amongst themselves and egocentric enough to believe that there was no way they would ever be realistically be challenged for market dominance. "We invented the assembly line for cryn' out loud." Yet slowly forces were afoot that would devastate the industry. The American auto industry ceased to meaningfully innovate at sometime in the late 1950's or early 1960's. They failed to listen to the creator of JIT manufacturing / supply chain theory, an American (Drucker). His impact was on the Japanese auto industry 20 - 30 years before the Americans started listening. They were forced to start using aluminum and materials other than steel by the U.S. Gov't (emissions standards). They are a full decade (at least) behind foreign auto makers in alternative fuel vehicles and are only beginning to move in that direction at government demand (emissions standards). Waiting for the government to regulate and dictate your innovation is a poor, at best, survival strategy.
What are the similarities in the accounting industry? The local / regional accounting firms have ceased to innovate at all. The basic processes, procedures, and output have not changed one iota since these firms put a PC on every desk (about 15 years ago). The local / regional firms are not following the lead of the innovators (the big 4) and are in no position to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves when the large firms falter. The local / regional firms rely on a complex government regulatory environment to preserve their market. That in and of itself is an incredibly vulnerable position. They notice not. There seems to be a lack of understanding as to what the basic nature of the business is - information vs. product delivery (tax returns / financial statements). Because of this lack of understanding, the profession as a whole is not adapting to the dramatically changing environment.
70% of individual tax filers can file their taxes for free - shrinking market. Most, if not all, small business owners have access to accounting software that can effectively produce their own financial documents accurately and timely. An entire service area is disappearing - write-up. None of the local / regional firms are staffed with people who can use the data they have about their business clients to sit down with them and reasonably produce and explain projections / forecasts for those business that would actually add value to their client relationship. The "old guard" is hoping that the business can survive until they retire. All the while, the core of their business is being hollowed out to the extent that they may have no value left when they want to sell.
Another quandary. I truly believe that the profession I'm in can and must change in order to be truly viable 10 years from now. Yet there are no, zero, nada real change agents moving in the profession. It, the public accounting profession, seems to me to be very much like what the American auto industry was like 60 (+ ) years ago. Many players dominated by a few large ones, but reasonably competitive amongst themselves and egocentric enough to believe that there was no way they would ever be realistically be challenged for market dominance. "We invented the assembly line for cryn' out loud." Yet slowly forces were afoot that would devastate the industry. The American auto industry ceased to meaningfully innovate at sometime in the late 1950's or early 1960's. They failed to listen to the creator of JIT manufacturing / supply chain theory, an American (Drucker). His impact was on the Japanese auto industry 20 - 30 years before the Americans started listening. They were forced to start using aluminum and materials other than steel by the U.S. Gov't (emissions standards). They are a full decade (at least) behind foreign auto makers in alternative fuel vehicles and are only beginning to move in that direction at government demand (emissions standards). Waiting for the government to regulate and dictate your innovation is a poor, at best, survival strategy.
What are the similarities in the accounting industry? The local / regional accounting firms have ceased to innovate at all. The basic processes, procedures, and output have not changed one iota since these firms put a PC on every desk (about 15 years ago). The local / regional firms are not following the lead of the innovators (the big 4) and are in no position to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves when the large firms falter. The local / regional firms rely on a complex government regulatory environment to preserve their market. That in and of itself is an incredibly vulnerable position. They notice not. There seems to be a lack of understanding as to what the basic nature of the business is - information vs. product delivery (tax returns / financial statements). Because of this lack of understanding, the profession as a whole is not adapting to the dramatically changing environment.
70% of individual tax filers can file their taxes for free - shrinking market. Most, if not all, small business owners have access to accounting software that can effectively produce their own financial documents accurately and timely. An entire service area is disappearing - write-up. None of the local / regional firms are staffed with people who can use the data they have about their business clients to sit down with them and reasonably produce and explain projections / forecasts for those business that would actually add value to their client relationship. The "old guard" is hoping that the business can survive until they retire. All the while, the core of their business is being hollowed out to the extent that they may have no value left when they want to sell.
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