We have talked extensively in the space about ROWE (result only work environment) and how we believe they are the future of any PKF.
In this morning’s Dilbert, Scott Adams weighs in with his as usual, unusual twist.
Chris Marston’s Exemplar Law recently got mentioned in an article for the IowaBiz Business Record.
Congratulations Chris!
Friends of VeraSage know that we have major problems with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. We refer to the financial statements as the “three blind mice,” a term used by Harvard Business Review editor Thomas Stewart. Dan Morris and I teach an entire course entitled When Debits Don’t Equal Credits.
It’s also why I always enjoy reading Paul Miller and Paul Bahnson’s The Spirit of Accounting, their regular articles featured in Accounting Today. In the Aug 18-Sept 7, 2008 issue, they reprinted an older article they had written, proposing the following thought experiment: what if keeping score in golf was similar to GAAP?
The article is excellent, illustrating how—more and more—GAAP is becoming irrelevant. Where I disagree with the authors is they believe it can be reformed while I emphatically do not.
For a fundamental reason: Accounting is not a theory. It cannot be a source for “predicting the future,” as the authors say, because it is simply an accounting of the past. Data can only shed light on the past, it cannot peer into the future. For that, you need a theory.
Unless, of course, your theory is the future will equal the past, a perilous assumption in a dynamic, capitalist economy.
If you are a golfer and a CPA, you will enjoy their analogy. It may sound tongue-in-cheek, but it conveys a serious message: GAAP is deeply flawed. Rather than being supplanted, it needs to be supplemented with more meaningful information, such as Key Predictive Indicators.
All we can hope for blind GAAP is that someone yells “Four.”
Frequent readers of this blog will know that Reed Holden is one of Ron’s mentors in the area of pricing. Recently he released the first in a series of podcasts in support of his new book Pricing with Confidence. While it is not yet available on iTunes, I have been told that this is planned for next week.
The first installment is excellent! It should be required listing for all leaders of PKFs. I personally was thrilled because Dr. Holden did not once mention his poker player analogy, of which I have been critical in the past.
Here is more from the announcement:
In his first podcast, you’ll hear pricing guru Dr. Reed Holden discuss how companies that price with confidence have the power to improve profits and revenues, especially during these tough times. Through real-life current business stories, Dr. Holden explains why pricing is the key to meeting business objectives and what executives and managers need to think about to gain more pricing confidence.
This podcast is the first in a series of pricing podcasts based on the hot new pricing book Pricing with Confidence: 10 Way to Stop Leaving Money on the Table. Over the next several weeks, Holden Advisors will be releasing 1-2 short podcasts a week in which Reed Holden discusses ideas that will help you increase your revenues and profits.
Happy listening! Please post your thoughts as comments.
RainToday has published the report, The One Piece of Advice You Need to Get the Fees You Deserve.
You will have to provide your email address to download the free copy.
I was happy to contribute to this report, even though I wish they’d use the words: price, not fees; professional knowledge firms, not professional service firms; intellectual capital not services. I was also discouraged to see hourly rates given such prominence, but I know the defense is “that’s the benchmark everyone uses.”
Well, that’s why VeraSage exists.
All that said, there’s some excellent advice within the report. I especially liked the articles by Alan Weiss, John Doehring, Tom Snyder, Gerry Riskin, and Andrew Sobel.
This special, 39-page report includes 12 new articles written by professional services pricing experts who answered the question: What’s the one piece of advice you need to get the price you deserve? None of the authors saw the other’s articles.
The expert authors and advice includes:
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