Culture Matters: Building the Wise Firm

Last week, we took a look at how a strong culture leads to innovation with HORNE’s Principles for a Culture of Innovation in Executive Partner Joey Havens’ beBetter blog. This week, it’s time to ask yourself if your firm is future ready? CPA.com published its “Insights into the CPA of the Future Study” concluding that 92% of CPAs reported that they were not “future ready.” Read more about Joey’s challenge to leaders of the profession to set the tone at the top and do what it takes to become a future ready firm in his beBetter blog below.

Our Executive Partner Joey Havens presented “Creating a Culture of Innovation” at the Digital CPA Conference this week in Las Vegas.  Among other things, he shared our belief that a strong culture leads to innovation. It’s true, we didn’t specifically set out to be an innovative firm, instead we set out to create a culture with a strong sense of belonging, a place where team members felt safe to make mistakes and then learn from them, and mindset to challenge the status quo daily. Read more about our journey and HORNE’s Principles for a Culture of Innovation in Joey’s beBetter blog below.   

Our Executive Partner Joey Havens shared a very challenging blog with the firm and the readers of his beBetter blog last week.  His challenge? Stop treating email as urgent.  The blog created much conversation within the walls of HORNE and on our social platforms, we realized that email really is running people’s lives.  In case you haven’t read it, we wanted to share.  Then, you decide--is email running your life?

Today marks the 53^rd anniversary since the founding of HORNE. Five decades of serving clients!

When someone recently asked me what I thought Mr. Horne, Sr. would say if he could see us now, I chuckled and told her that Mr. Horne would probably have more than a few words for me! I know he would ask “What is this Wise Firm?” and “Why are we putting so much knowledge out on our website?” 

In a world full of tips on how to accomplish almost anything, those “5 Easy Tips to Success” become afterthoughts by the end of most articles. In the presentation “ABCs to Outstanding,” I share tips that will move you from average and ordinary to outstanding. And, just like those articles we read, those tips are easy to do BUT also they are easy not to do. That’s why I focus on daily habits to bring those tips to life.

Using the power of gratitude is one of those tips, and the most impactful I have found.

I’m a huge fan of Patrick Lencioni, author of The Advantage.

Lencioni says that businesses can no longer outsmart our competition. He says the speed of technology and knowledge will not allow us to maintain a competitive advantage from being smarter. In fact, he determines in his work that the only real, long-term advantage a company can establish is a strong culture. A powerfully engaged team.