How to be a Future Ready Firm

By Jessica James

The accounting industry is constantly evolving, and leaders are being faced with both new and ongoing challenges. In this evolution, firms are having to adapt more rapidly than ever before just to remain relevant. Jody Padar, otherwise known as The Radical CPA, from New Vision CPA Group gave us a few tips on being a future ready firm.

Jody’s approach and the successes she’s seen all stem from being less traditional and more innovative. In fact, innovative was the word of the day as it related to budding technology, client centric service models, and cultivating content marketing. The shift from approaching issues head-on with tried and true processes and standardized tactics towards trying new and untraditional solutions is going to be a culture change for most firms, but that’s where Jody says innovation comes into play.

Most surprisingly, most of what Jody is referring to is an internal culture change occurring organically rather than some sort of mandate from firm leaders. Having an engaged team that buys in to those non-traditional innovative solutions is the very first step in becoming a future ready firm.

Having an empowered group leading the efforts will gain more traction than typical standard operating procedures coming from the top and trickling down through the organization. Challenges and issues will vary, but by transitioning out of traditional methods internally within organizations, firms will begin to see results. Jody shared that to truly be a future ready firm, you’ll need to embrace the future, get your team engaged, and sit back and enjoy the ride!