beBetter 

As I complete our State of the Firm (SOTF) presentations this year, I’m reflecting on how energizing it is for me and so many team members. Much like the State of the Union address, this annual presentation reflects on the previous year and outlines our plan for growth in the current year. In a four week period, we are face-to-face with everyone in our firm and for me, these are really special times. It’s a privilege and blessing to have the opportunity to see every team member, build and renew connections, and start new relationships.

Pop Joe is our family nickname for my beloved Dad, Joe Havens. Pop Joe is 79 and recently he had a mild heart attack which actually helped save his life. Pop Joe is high energy, works out 3 times a week at the gym, mows his grass, manages the landscaping, grows a family garden and serves in many capacities at Calvary Baptist Church. Mom says he can be a little stubborn at times which might truthfully be the only negative thing you will ever hear about this wonderful man. What an amazing dash he is living and so glad to share that he has been my greatest mentor, an amazing role model and loving father. 

I have played in the same fantasy football league for over 12 years. I must admit, with today's technology it is more fun than ever.

My grandson, Davis (11), has asked me for the last two years to find him a league. Last year, a youth league fell through at the last moment so this year we formed a family league with 12 teams. We agreed I would be the head coach and he would be the assistant coach. He named the team "Landsharks" after our favorite college team Ole Miss's nickname for its defense. Now after seeing the Ole Miss defense this season, a better name might have been "Landminnows." It was ugly, but thankfully our fantasy team had some Landshark qualities.

As I was returning from the MFG meeting in sunny Naples, FL, a few weeks ago, a fierce winter storm was sweeping across the southeast and leaving in its wake freezing temperatures, lots of sleet, freezing rain and ice. As I got to my connecting flight in Atlanta for my final destination of JAN (Jackson, MS), flights were being canceled all along the terminal. I even heard people talking about rescheduling for flights from cancellations that were made late the day before.

This blog is the third in the series, Are We Really Choosing to Be Great?

So far in this series, we have explored two common attributes that Jim Collins discovered in his research of high-performing companies—FANATIC DISCIPLINE and EMPIRICAL CREATIVITY. The third and last attribute is PRODUCTIVE PARANOIA. These companies, although things were going well, always had a heavy amount of paranoia which led to making changes before they had to. They assume conditions will turn against them, at perhaps the worst possible moment. They are always preparing for when, not if, the next big disruption is going to happen.  

This blog is the second in the series, Are We Really Choosing to Be Great?

Last week, I started a new series to evaluate us as individuals, as CPA firms and as a profession on our urgency to transform how we work and live. In his book Great by Choice, Jim Collins identified three attributes present in high-performing companies—companies that performed at least 10 times better than their peers. The first attribute, which was discussed in last week’s blog, was FANATIC DISCIPLINE—the uncommon discipline to focus on what you are great at and to avoid distractions.

The second common attribute that Collins discovered in his research of high-performing companies was EMPIRICAL CREATIVITY. Empirical creativity is a blend of creativity and discipline. This might be best described as companies that destroyed the “box” (status quo) based on continual experiments and observations. They make bold, creative moves from a sound empirical base. These companies constantly tried new things and changed course based on findings, mistakes, results and observations. They took risks to experiment, creating cultures of learning from mistakes. 

Last summer, I wrote My Very Own Jerry Maguire Blog, a series that challenged the public accounting profession to evaluate how well we are performing as trusted advisors.  Fortunately, it did create some healthy conversations and reflections by lots of firms as well as HORNE. Reflecting on those conversations encouraged me to write a new series—Are We Really Choosing to Be Great?

This series is designed to evaluate us as individuals, as CPA firms and as a profession. Complacency is a cancer that is hard to see and even harder to eradicate. There’s so much opportunity and growth for our profession if we can generate more urgency (and education of future facts) to transform how we work and live. Are you creating the urgency to take action and meet the changes required by today’s technology transformation? 

What do we mean by these four words and why do we repeat one of them three times? Learn Fast Learn Forward Learn Together has become HORNE’s motto for adjusting to the transformation that is occurring in our profession and in business overall. We are dealing with and facing fast-moving disruption not creeping change.

It's that time of year—goal setting time. New Year’s resolutions abound on every desk, journal, career goal system, refrigerator, bathroom, car visor, website and even napkins. Of course, there's also those we keep in the clouds and never record unless we generate a moment of early accountability.

We recently moved to a new home and Jazzy, our slightly spoiled 14-year-old Yorkie, has been adjusting to his new surroundings. Like what pillow will I sleep on today? Tough decisions no small dog should have to make.

My wife, Cece, had instructed me several times to watch Jazzy when I let him outside to do his business. "He is not familiar with his new home." Now how dumb can a dog be—why would you stray from this set up?

It's 9:30 a.m. on a beautiful partly cloudy day and I'm 21 feet off the ground in a tree. There's just enough breeze to keep the leaves raining down and keeping a slight chill in the air. Yes, I'm whitetail deer hunting today. Now I know this is probably not the way most of us would want to spend our leisure time.

“Tone at the Top” can be cliché, but not when we’re talking about innovation. In fact, without leadership leading the way, it is impossible to have a culture that fosters innovation.

In CPA firms, we are in desperate need of bold leaders to step forward and decide they’ll no longer live in the Historical CPA category, the traditional role of the profession. I am eager for us to transform our profession into the Future Ready Firm. 

Our profession has not been known for innovation, and the transformative change we are all experiencing has taken out a lot of really smart businesses across a variety of industries. In fact, over 50% of Fortune 500 companies have disappeared since the year 2000. Lots of really smart people have failed to innovate rapidly enough to remain relevant.