Merriam-Webster defines a “strategic byproduct” as something produced — usually in an industrial or biological process — in addition to the principal product. Dan Sullivan, founder of The Strategic Coach, introduced me to the concept over 15 years ago.
Strategic byproducts or services are often more valuable to the consumer or client than the original product or service. Please remember that value is determined by the client, not by the producer’s effort. The accounting profession is not exempt in that most clients value advisory and consulting services more highly than traditional compliance services.
This is easier to comprehend when you view products or services as providing freedom to the consumer or client. Dan Sullivan defines the four entrepreneurial freedoms as time, money, relationships and purpose. Purpose is a key driver in business/digital transformation. Most entrepreneurs and professionals are motivated by sustained success and future-readiness. The big question is: Are you willing to transform or do you expect everyone else to transform?
The accounting profession has an opportunity to increase both value and relevance by assisting their strategic clients while they transform. Transformation is a complete or dramatic change in form and appearance and requires new skill sets, toolsets and mindsets. Emerging technology and the recent pandemic should have changed your vision of your firm and its best clients.
Ask yourself and members of your firm what they want to be, do, have, experience and create over the next three years. This exercise will help you attract and retain top clients and talent. Another important question: Is our current vision compelling to top talent and strategic clients?
While the byproducts are important for attracting talent and clients, mindset may be the most important factor in predicting success. The Henry Ford quote, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re probably right,” applies to transformation. Transformation addresses both the capacity and capability issues facing most firms and their clients.
The following list is not intended to be comprehensive but to make you think and see examples of how leading organizations are transforming by focusing on the right services, clients and pricing (business model). Value is created through leadership, relationship and innovation. It is very difficult for overscheduled professionals to innovate and add additional value. We will use four examples to demonstrate how leading organizations are transforming, and some of the tools, skills and mindsets driving their success.
Meeting management
Many of the same skills apply to virtual as well as physical meetings. New technology such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams have become necessary platforms to communicate, schedule and document results. The add-on tools like Box.com, Miro, Otter.ai and real-time participant polling increase engagement and results while reducing time, money and required resources.
According to Zoom, daily business users have grown from under 10,000 in January 2018 to 100,000 in January 2020 and over 500,000 currently. Furthermore, 70% of their users are under age 50. This is transformative, yet similar tools have been available for decades. Mindsets can either eliminate or accelerate your ability to transform.
Learning & talent development
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer credited with the quote, “All learning begins when our comfortable ideas turn out to be inadequate.” Technology and the pandemic have accelerated the transformational process. Online and remote learning have certainly advanced over the past two years, even though some educators and regulators have resisted. Access to global resources has certainly improved. The age-old apprentice model has played a positive role in knowledge transfer among firm members. This has occurred in at least two ways:
1. The team approach to client service. This is where team members participate in virtual client meetings, learning the technical skills, tools and best delivery models. The virtual world has enhanced this approach and will continue to improve with virtual/augmented reality advancements.
2. Online access to expertise, peers and educators. Online education resources like those from LinkedIn Learning, YouTube, the American Institute of CPAs and others are a rapidly developing area with many leading platforms, providers and regulators involved.
Continuous improvement
Leading firms also focus on improving key processes, automation and outsourcing of tasks rather than jobs to increase capacity and capabilities. However, it is difficult to leverage resources across the entire firm without standardization and effective processes. The processes with the greatest return on investment, according to our consultants and strategic clients, are listed below.
| Process | Apps to automate and scale |
| Billing and collections | QuickFee and Anduin |
| Sales and proposals, including pricing and terms | Panda Doc and Sage GoProposals |
| Tax preparation (individual, business and sales tax) | TaxCaddy, SafeSend, TaxExact and LumaTax |
| Client and staff onboarding, project management | Asana, Monday, Intuit and Karbon |
New opportunities: Byproducts
Obstacles generally have the potential of becoming highly valued byproducts. The good news is that firms have existing clients that are seeking solutions to many of the same problems that firms are solving internally. Technology is growing exponentially, as are the opportunities. Technology historically has started with warfare, games and pornography. The gaming and e-sports market is rapidly growing. Technology is rapidly changing agriculture, medicine (longevity), finance, transportation, marketing, sales, accounting, law and investments, to name a few.
Transformation requires a collaborative, unique-ability team to deliver the services your best clients want and need. All professions are facing this challenge. The day of the rugged individual is ending, and collaboration rather than competition is transforming the client relationship. The pandemic has only accelerated business/digital transformation.
In summary, a few questions will help you focus and prioritize in an increasingly complex market that includes a pandemic:
- Has your vision changed in the past two years?
- Do you have the capability to provide more value to your best clients?
- What happens if you and your firm don’t transform?
- Who is going to lead the transformation?
- Do you have access to the required resources (internal and external)?
Think — plan — grow!
