Dan Simms has a lot on his plate as managing partner and CEO of Habif, Arogeti & Wynne LLP, but right now the problems in the economy are his top priority.
“The biggest challenge currently is managing the organization in a slightly down economy,” Simms says.
The best way to successfully do that is for the CPA firm’s 300 people to focus on the clients that they serve.
“It’s, first and foremost, making sure that everyone within the organization focuses on great client service because the clients need us, really, now more than ever because most businesses, I wouldn’t say that they’re struggling, but as a general rule, their profits are not as strong as they have been in the past, and of course, their balance sheets have taken a little hit over the last 12 to 18 months,” he says.
Smart Business spoke with Simms about how to effectively manage in the downturn.
Provide great client service. It starts with having great people within the organization and making sure that everyone in the firm understands that we’re in the service industry and the clients know that we’re there, so it’s about reaching out to the clients and having meetings with them and trying to understand what their issues are and what problems they’re having and try to help consult and manage and provide guidance to the clients about how to manage through some difficult times.
Make sure that you understand the client and the industry that the client is in and then the economy and the region and how their business is being impacted by the economy and the region that they’re in. But it’s about meeting with the client and reviewing the operations with the client, strategizing on the problems that they’ve identified and helping identify other issues that may not have surfaced at this point, but maybe to try to plan for the future to identify if there’s issues that haven’t surfaced and try to head those off before they become an issue.
Find people with characteristics you want. It comes through making sure that you understand the background of the individual, the work experience of the individual, talking with individuals, talking with the references that are identified by the individual and making sure that you do your due diligence, especially when the candidate is at a higher level, either a senior manager, a director or a partner level.
For me, it’s probably more of a feel based upon not just one conversation but maybe two or three meetings, depending on the level of the individual we are recruiting, to make sure they understand the culture of our firm and making sure they agree with our approach to client service. When it actually gets down to making the decision to hire or not to hire, a lot of it comes down to those meetings and interactions, and as a general rule, if those are positive, then you pull the trigger and make the decision.
You also recognize that you’re not always going to make the right decision, whether it’s about bringing individuals in or other business decisions. … You have to realize that nobody makes all the right decisions. If you made a decision and it didn’t turn out the way you envisioned, then you have to make another decision to correct a problem that has not been corrected with a prior decision that was made.
