The Art of the 21st Century Certified Public Accountant in Business

Twenty-five years ago  worked in a CPA firm with a woman whose father directed orchestras for major films.  She informed me about an orchestra director secrets like the isometrics he would perform to build up his arms, the focus of his eyes, and the rhythm of his body language.  The artistic part obviously was the message he was projecting  the orchestra to play.  The “business” though, was the set of tools and discipline that he had mastered in order to project his musical vision.  Both were equally important.

When people think of a CPA, they usually think of a tax preparer, a bookkeeper, or on rarer occassions, a business specialist.  This limited view is partly the profession’s fault, but for those who are creative, the CPA profession has changed to an art.

One definiton states that “Art is any field using the skills or techniques of art.”  Or better, ” Art is the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.”

Some businesses dwell in the arts, but all businesses can be run  artfully regardless of their industry.  In the past, the CPAs have exercised only a skill set to managing a business.  Like the orchestra leader, they honed in mechanics to achieve a certain end.  This is very left-brain, and analytical.  The CPA of the 21st Century is creative, right brain, though most CPAs don’t know or understand this yet.  They are a dying breed.

What 21st Century business NEEDS from a CPA is a “whole brain” approach.  Not a CPA that can just produce historical financial statements, prepare tax returns, and do payroll.  Those pieces are the musical score of  a business.  What 21st Century business needs from a CPA is the business tempo, dynamics, and feeling.  In other words the strategic plan and its execution.  So how does a CPA do this?  Pretty much by following some simple rules like any business:

1. Focus on what the customer needs and not what you can deliver.Listen to the customer.  What pain do they have?  The CPA has the the firstaid kit to help it, but most CPAs just take out the same band-aids because that is what they know best.  By strategically addressing the client’s vision, a CPA can develop a strategy and monitor its execution.
2. Do it today.  Like any business, a CPA should not put a client’s strategy on the back burner.  Telling the client what they did last month is going to have limited effect on how the client can grow tomorrow.
3. Train your staff to their level of incompetency.  I have seen too much talent wasted because CPA partners refuse to use skills of their employees on all levels.  This leads to a lack of employee motivation, and reluctance to join in the CPA’s vision, and the vision of the client.  People want to “matter,” and the matter with unmotivated people is sometimes their stogy bosses.  Develop each person and the CPA firm will provide the clients with value that meets the client’s needs.

The new CPA is artful, and not just methodical.  No other profession sits at the core of business decisions in almost any industry than the CPA.  But, the old style CPA will not adapt and will die off as they retire.  Already the market is shrinking for the traditional services with new tax software, better bookkeeping software, and encroaching professionals from other disciplines.

The new breed is artfully right-brain, and methodically left-brain, and so are our clients.