beBetter 

“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.  

When CPA.com published its “Insights into the CPA of the Future Study,” 92% of CPAs reported that they were not “future ready.” Future ready is defined as the capacity to be aware, predictive and adaptive of emerging trends, innovations and changes in business, population and the social environment.

In a recent McKinsey Poll, 84% of global executives reported that innovation was extremely important to their growth strategies. That same report also reported that 94% of those executive were dissatisfied with their own organization’s innovation.

My family and I are blessed in so many ways that every day is a day of thanksgiving. I start each day by reflecting on things that I am grateful for.  In the spirit of Thanksgiving this week, I want to say thank you for taking your precious time to read this beBetter blog, joining in the conversation and sharing life experiences. 

How many times do we say, “If Only?” As I coach and mentor, I see us get hung up on it too often. Here’s a little bit of revelation—each of us has moments, decisions, words, actions and even thoughts where the words “If Only” might fit.  No one is perfect and we all make mistakes. For me, a lot of them.

Recently, a partner sent me an email noting that I often write about busyness and how important it is that we focus on our highest priorities. He went on to say, "have you thought about how close busyness is to business—one letter!" I had not and as I have thought about this, I can’t get it off my mind. 

During a recent conversation, someone said to me, “Just trust me.” My ears perked up immediately because my personal experience has been that “just trust me” individuals have turned out to be some of the most untrustworthy to deal with. I thought about that experience as I was preparing my self-evaluation this week and in my concluding remarks, I thanked our board for the trust they had given me. Their trust is paving the way for our firm to execute on an aggressive strategy for our growth.

My wife, Cathy, has fallen in love with fly fishing (or at least the concept of fly fishing as our skills are lacking for sure). She loves the clear streams, colorful trout and wonderful scenery.

As you can see from the photo, (which I understand she posted on Facebook with the comment, “When I hooked my man I really hooked him.”), she did hook more than a rainbow trout on our recent trip to Montana. At the invite of our friend Tim Bartz, we were on the beautiful rolling Missouri River between Helena and Great Falls, Montana. Our mission: two fun-filled days learning how to fly fish while floating down the rumbling Missouri.

My wife, Cathy, and I recently had the wonderful blessing of spending a week in scenic Montana as the guest of our friends, Tim and Trish Bartz. We are simply in awe of the beauty of this state and I personally love the 80 MPH interstate. On our second day, Tim took us to a big game reserve called Bear Tooth. The plan was to take a long hike and enjoy the wildlife and beautiful mountain peaks. But we also learned a great life lesson that day. 

Shortly after we moved to Jackson, Mississippi, and still early in our marriage, CeCe and I were making our way back to our house through our new neighborhood. It was a beautiful fall Saturday morning and we were enjoying the day as we had no big plans. Our neighborhood was one where most of the neighbors knew each other and every yard was very clean and neat. As we rounded the curve about three houses from ours, we came to a large pile of household goods sitting by the curb. It was obvious that we had a neighbor who was moving and they were cleaning out. As we slowly rolled by, I came to an abrupt halt when I saw a grill sitting out on the edge of the pile. Now I will be the first to admit, I have never seen a grill I didn’t like—it’s my favorite way to cook and I love to cook. As I started to get out of the SUV, it appeared that this grill was in really good shape—in fact I was pretty sure it was in better shape than mine.

Recently, at HORNE's Leadership Summit in Dallas, TX, I was up early preparing for my address to our firm and I ran into a small barrier. An unforeseen barrier that was probably due to my excitement, lack of being observant and simply being nervous about the event.

My wife and I are so blessed to be moving into a new home this month. This is our first new home together and we are very excited. It is very modern, open and WHITE. I was so excited when she let me know I could pick the color of my office. She gave me three choices: pure white, white wisp or winter white. I think I picked the grayest tint I could find. You get my drift. One of our best friends recently asked, “Joey, where are you going to live? There’s no way you are going to make it in this white house!”

The future view for the public accounting profession provides us with the opportunity to be more relevant than ever. Our unique analytical skills and technical knowledge provides us a platform to build an abundant future that will continue to make a difference for clients, team members, communities and our world.  What stands in our way? Maybe our comfort zone and a steep learning curve.  While the sky is certainly not falling, I believe we have some strong weather ahead which will require better storm shelters so we can enjoy an abundant future of relevance.