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We often refer to the three essential tools in business as ‘The Business Development Trifecta’. We’re Kiwis after all.
There’s a proverb about a young man walking down the street. He comes across an older man sitting on his porch, with a dog lying next to him, whining in pain. The young man asks the dog’s owner ‘What’s wrong with your dog?’. The owner replies ‘He’s lying on a nail’. The man asks ‘Lying on a nail? Why doesn’t he move?’. The owner replies ‘Because it’s not hurting bad enough'.
Millennials challenge the way we work and manage.
The perceived ‘millennial mindset’ is not always flattering though, with generalisations including being entitled, convenience-loving, matcha latte sipping, self-important job-hoppers who demand to work less, and from a place of their choosing - be that home or a yurt in Central America.
Secretly, humans are conditioned to love a good fail. While stories of triumph are inspiring, epic fails are generally more relatable, and certainly more entertaining… #FailArmy #PaddleBoardYogaFails.
We all know that the secret to success is to work smarter, not harder, right? Yet we still get stuck in the day to day emails, client queries, file reviews, and activities that are highly important to others, but not necessarily to ourselves. Working smarter becomes a pipe dream as we can’t see the wood for the trees.
Having just attended Xerocon Brisbane, I’ve had a solid dose of ‘Advisory Rhetoric’.
You know how it goes - the compliance world is dying, technology and AI will make many services redundant, and the advice for accountants is they just need to rely on their Trusted Advisor status and do more advisory work. Enough. I call time out for two reasons:
An accounting firm relayed this scene to me this week. One of the firm’s partners, Dan, was at a rugby game with a few of his clients. They’d had a few beers and the banter was flowing.
Out of the blue one of Dan’s clients (his name is also Dan, which is confusing, but this is a true story, so I’m sticking to the facts. Let’s call the accountant Dan One and the client Dan...
Screening potential clients sounds rather clinical, a bit like screening for a disease.
Truth be told, D clients are like parasites. They can be painful, demand attention, drain your energy, query your bills and if they refer you work - breed more parasites. Most significantly, they’ll damage your brand, morale and culture.
Unlike the parasite and host relationship, accountants should...
The accounting industry is going through massive change in response to compliance automation, tax simplification and an increasing demand from clients for more proactive services. Contrary to popular opinion (or fake news), I am not of the view that we are talking about a revolution here - the modern accountant will not become redundant; they...
