The very nature of running and growing an accounting firm has changed. Moreover, given the technological and environmental landscape, it is difficult to imagine a firm, or any business, that can realistically plan out even five years, let alone the former standard of the 10-year plan.
Now, I’m not saying firms can’t have a vision of where they want to be in a decade, but the challenges of doing so have been laid bare in recent years. Right now, business and personal client demands are such that they’re so integrated with how technology has helped them evolve their own processes and expectations; it’s borderline unrealistic to see a true 10-year plan the way we once (not that long ago) used to.
The 10-year plan was THE standard. by which (seemingly) businesses of all kinds lived by. Even accounting firms, which were once predominantly transactional, could more feasibly plot out their growth plans for a decade. When you had a profession with expected outcomes and few factors influencing its path, it was a much clearer view.
Now, it’s almost become a matter of why would you want to try to forecast out to a point where, even if you want little to change, you are challenged with having the foresight to know what will be impacting your firm that far out.
If you’re a firm leader and still feel you can have a true 10-year plan, I would love to see what’s in it. From where I sit, which is at the ledge of yet another inflection point impacting this great profession and all business around it, if you are thinking of being in business in a decade, your planning needs to be in smaller “chunks.”
What I am talking about is asking yourself the existential-type questions. What type of firm do you want to be? What does being in accounting, or an accounting professional, truly look like to you? Then you can start to look at the next two to three years and what steps you will take to get there.
Yes, of course technology decisions play a role, as I mentioned they are intertwined in nearly every active move you will make. But also look at service, look at client mix (or even specific, niche focus), and the staff you have or wish to have, and go from there.
These are things that can indeed impact you longer-term. But, back to my point, in about 4 or 5 years those decisions can and likely will change. I’ve been deliberately avoiding the AI discussion because of the sheer size of the worm can this actually is. However, I am well aware of the factor it can and will have on staff, on production, and on just how work and all of your firms’ functions are done.
In short, there are simply too many unknowns, X, Y, and Z factors to consider for a true 10-year plan to be in place. So yes, I am ringing the death knell for it, but I am mindful of having a vision for that far out.
If you have not already, begin asking yourself, and even your own staff, what kind of firm you want to be and, realistically, how you can get there. Start making incremental steps today. As we know, 10 years can go quite fast, especially when we can’t even say where we’ll all be in half that time or even less.