An economic recession may not be the best time for a company to develop a growth culture. But don’t tell that to Rea & Associates Inc.
By the time the recession hit, the accounting firm was already invested in this initiative. The real question was whether they’d continue fueling it with resources when times got tough. Because CEO Lee Beall believes that success rests in the ability of employees to be innovative and deliver proactive solutions to clients, he knew the culture was a crucial foundation toward getting results. So he stuck with the initiative when many others in his industry backed off.
Beall told Smart Business how he keeps his organization on the leading edge by recognizing talent, giving back to the community and going the extra degree for clients.
Give an example of a business challenge your organization faced, as well as how you overcame it.
Our firm began an initiative a few years ago to develop, from the ground up, into a growth culture. We began this process before the economy took its dive into the recession. Our biggest challenge was to continue to stick with this initiative and continue to commit resources to it during such a difficult time in our economy, when it might have been easy to walk away from it.
We are proud to say that we stuck to our initiative. We have seen positive results from its efforts throughout the recession and expect to see an even more positive outcome as the economy improves and we can implement more of its steps.
In what ways are you an innovative leader, and how does your organization employ innovation to be on the leading edge?
Innovative leaders recognize talent. That means not only identifying talented individuals, but attracting them and retaining them in your organization. Once you have a talented team, it’s important to give them the freedom to be progressive. These are really the individuals who allow your organization to be innovative.
A few years ago, a survey suggested that clients were looking for more proactive services from our firm. As a result, we created our consulting division and our Lean services division. Lean Six Sigma is a business philosophy that improves efficiency and decreases defects in processes. It began in the manufacturing arena but is being applied to many other types of processes, including those in professional services. Our work in this area led to the development of a new division, Lean CPA, which helps other CPA firms use lean principles to become more efficient and effective, as well as our Pulse Check service, which allows us to take a holistic view of our business clients and look for ways to help them improve strategically.
Our firm has also been innovating in its investment in the marketing and human resources departments at a time when many in the industry backed off due to the economy. We have continued to develop internal education programs for our team as well as marketing initiatives during this time.
