Service, Prosperity and Sanity; Positioning the Professional Service Firm for the Future - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Earl Maxwell is the leading shareholder of Maxwell Locke & Ritter, p.c., Austin's largest locally owned and managed accounting and consulting firm. Prior to forming Maxwell Locke & Ritter, he was a partner with Deloitte & Touche, an international accounting and consulting firm. He grew up in Houston, and stayed in the area to attend The University of Houston where he received his Bachelor in Business in Accounting in 1976.

Earl is a business advisor (trained as a CPA and auditor) who helps clients with strategic planning and re-engineering by helping them focus on business processes. His experience includes over 20 years in public accounting including 14 years with Deloitte & Touche and its predecessor Deloitte Haskins & Sells. He has served commercial clients involved in manufacturing, technology, financial institutions, real estate and construction, publications and service providers. He has also served as auditor and business advisor for many governmental and not-for-profit clients.

Earl's innovative, non-traditional experience grew out of the process he and the shareholders of Maxwell Locke & Ritter followed as they established and built a different type of firm.....a firm dedicated to serving people. The firm's philosophy says it all: "We provide highest quality solutions and services that our clients value from an environment which promotes each person's personal goals, self esteem and professionalism."

Earl has spent most of his time in three areas; family, community and business. He has been able to merge these interests by helping to establish a family-friendly workplace and working in the community to support various educational and health and human services programs. He is proudest of his partnership with his wife in raising their two sons. He tries to provide a business environment where his family, the firm and clients can focus on what they are becoming and not just what they are doing.

Having established a team approach at Maxwell Locke & Ritter, Earl is in the midst of a firm continually redefining itself and its mission. This approach has resulted in client service which emphasizes process (rather than product), focuses on human resources (the firm's and the client's) to establish a dynamic business approach for each client based on "what the client is becoming."

"Maxwell Locke & Ritter stands out as a firm," says Earl, "not just because we are technically competent, but because we use that competence as a starting point for a process by which to live our values and serve our clients. The people in our firm are not only bright, dedicated professionals, but they are people of integrity. Most managing partners would die to have the people surrounding them that I do."

Von der hinteren Coverseite

"a guide to managing the 21st century workplace. Here are scores of practical ideas for creating a healthier, more profitable company by better leveraging the intelligence, skills and commitment of those working in it. Maxwell shows how the success of a service firm is quite naturally tied to the self interest of its employees." Elizabeth Bradshaw, CEO, Ginny's Printing & Copying

"It is great to see a CPA firm employ many if the business practices used by the technology industry for many years." Jerry Carlson, Retired Site Manager, IBM

"Maxwell's journey is proof positive that, by humanizing what was once a threat-driven sweat shop environment, and by placing the focus on high quality services, the profession service form of the future and its members will prosper and actually enjoy what they do." Gus Garcia, Mayor Pro-Tem

"Professional service firms commonly find it difficult to apply management theory to their business model. Earl Maxwell provides a practical, common-sense guide of his firm's experiences." Keith Shuley, Partner, Brown, McCarroll & Oaks Hartline, LLP

"Service, Prosperity & Sanity contains information that will help your professional service form face real life business issues to prepare for the millennium. These are proactive solutions to issues faced by companies daily." Carol Thompson, Founder and CEO, The Thompson Group

"Maxwell ... offers a unique approach that will stimulate your thinking and help your firm retain and nurture its most important asset...its people. If you discover one good idea that helps you motivate and keep one good person, your time reading this book will have been a worthwhile investment." Doug Thompson, President, Accounting Firms Associated, inc.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

We developed a philosophical statement that worked for us. Provide highest quality solutions and services that our clients value from an environment which promotes each person's personal goals, self esteem and professionalism.

When we began ML&R, we believed it was important to create an environment that attracted and retained the best professionals. We believed any professional service firm that effectively accomplished this would also have the ability to attract and retain the best client base, to produce the best profits and provide the best salaries for our people. We saw a decent working environment as the beginning of a circular pattern leading to long term service, prosperity and sanity.

In other words, we believe happy people make clients happy and happy clients pay their bills and want more of our service. We knew we could not satisfy all of our people. However, we were certain we could foster an environment that would provide a nice place to work and would enable those who shared the values of the firm to be happy and successful.

Every professional service firm says it supports this kind of environment, but few actually make the necessary changes to foster such an environment. Many firms demand that their people treat clients with care and compassion, but these same firms abuse their own people. Not surprisingly, this creates confusion.

We wanted to treat our people with dignity and respect. Our goal was to establish a foundation from which we never lost sight of the importance of serving our clients with the same dignity and respect. From Chapter One: "The Journey Begins-How We Became Convinced"

The system was also driven by fear. I remember sitting in an orientation session with several hundred new hires being greeted by the managing partner of the firm. He asked us to look to our right and then to look to our left. He assured us that two of the three people involved in the motivational exercise would not be present for the new seniors' meeting in three years. He went on to say that only one in five of us would be present for the new managers' meeting in five or six years.

This really fired people up. The next day, one of the participants disappeared. A story spread among the rest of us that, apparently, the new hire had made a joke about the managing partner's heritage during the previous evening's reception. As a result, his career ended and he returned home to find another job. Fact or legend? Who knows?

On my first audit, the senior accountant told me my most important job was to take care of him and that any embarrassment I caused him would be the last. I never caused him any and I went on to the next level. Fear drove many decisions--fear of not living up to someone's expectations, fear of looking bad, fear of going over budget on an audit or tax return, fear of offending a client, fear of not being promoted, fear of the consequences of not accepting a transfer to another office, and the ultimate fear of being fired or "counseled out." All of these situations were career limiting moves, referred to by staff as "CLMs." Certain situations were career ending moves or "CEMs." Accountants will develop an acronym for any occasion.

I did not fully comprehend the degree to which fear shaped situations until I had been away from the culture for some time. In fact, I did not comprehend much of what was happening until I left. Fourteen years of fear on the fast track did not permit much time for personal reflection.

Enough of the history and back to the question of how we became convinced. My history, together with becoming a student of "Total Quality Management" during the late eighties, led me to examine the traditional organizational structure of the professional service firm. From Chapter One: "The Journey Begins-How We Became Convinced"

Support from the shareholders was pivotal. One of our senior associates who has been with the new firm every step of the way made presentations to the local Quality Council. In those presentations, she stressed the importance of having the total commitment of the chief executive officer. I agree this is a critical first step, but we could not have moved our firm in this new direction without the support of my partners. When people ask me how in the world a CPA firm could have moved in this direction, my reply is simple. My two partners did not keep it from happening and eventually became ardent supporters of the new culture. In a professional service firm, support at the partner or shareholder level is absolutely critical to a reengineering effort. I am not sure any managing partner or shareholder could overcome another owner's critical opposition to the necessary changes. The changes are extremely difficult-- even with support from the shareholders.

In early 1992, ML&R communicated one of the biggest secrets of "management" to the entire office. We opened our financial statements and said, "Here it is, gang. Let's talk about it." I have presented hundreds of financial statements to other organizations, but had never been so nervous as I was that day. I refer to it as the day "management" bared its soul to the rest of the office. The financial picture was not pretty and people left the meeting feeling somewhat doomed. I was so relieved to survive, I did not take much time to worry about what others thought of the meeting. From Chapter 2: How We Moved Toward Conversion