In the many years I have either led businesses or consulted with business leaders, there were a handful of common issues that everyone wanted to talk about. One of these is company culture.

Culture is often easier to define in terms of symptoms. For example, business owners often complain about a lack of accountability or a sense of urgency when it comes to employees. But changing company culture can be daunting for the most seasoned and savvy leaders.

Recently, during a conversation with the senior management of the Seltzer Group, I mentioned ALCOA’s use of safety as a “keystone” in its culture change strategy. The Seltzer Group specializes in controlling workers compensation costs as well as risk management and workplace safety consulting. ALCOA’s CEO, Paul O’Neill, thought very differently about safety at ALCOA. He saw safety as a symptom of a culture that needed change and went about changing company culture by changing the way people think about workplace safety. This different way of thinking helped transform ALCOA’s culture. The result? During Paul O’Neill’s tenure as CEO, ALCOA’s profits would hit a record high. By the time O’Neill retired in 2000 to become Treasury Secretary, the company’s annual net income was five times larger than before he arrived, and its market capitalization had risen by $27 billion.

Thinking differently about your company, competition, customers and employees is essential to creating success. Thinking differently is at the core of creating a distinctive advantage for you and your company.

To read more about ALCOA’s safety strategy, click here

It was the late 1980′s and the telecommunications and publishing industries were facing enormous changes. The internet, as we know it today, was in its infancy. I was fortunate to join a start-up, as CFO, that was developing a digital production platform for the Yellow Pages industry. Back then, the Yellow Pages was more than a $10 billion industry. In less than five years, our team had created the largest, most cost efficient production platform in the country. Our customers were happy, revenues were growing and profits were respectable.

Some of the management team had declared victory and were starting to “satisfice” (satisfy & suffice).
Other on the team, including the CEO, CIO and myself saw seismic changes on the horizon. Using proven strategic frameworks and tools such as Michael Porter’s Five Forces Framework, Strategy Canvasses, Strategy Mapping and Balanced Scorecard we started to think very differently about our business. Specifically, these processes and tools created an environment and framework for a much different level of thinking that helped us identify areas where strategic change was imperative and helped us focus on making those changes that would create greater value and lower risk.

With strong visionary leadership, a team capable of differnt thinking and the use of proven strategic frameworks and tools, we repositioned the company as a digital content provider serving multiple industries. We not only leveraged alternative uses for our products and services allowing us to sell to a whole new customer set, but we were much better positioned from a value perspective relative to buyers, suppliers and competitors; therefore moving the industry value chain. (Our average sale went from several thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars). As a result of the strategic shift in the business, firm value increased and the company was sold to a large internet / e-commerce company looking to fill a strategic gap in its portfolio.

Take-Away Points

No matter how successful you have been, change is inevitable and it is the job of company leadership to lead the business through change. There is no substitute for great leadership.

Leading through change requires thinking at a different level. Remember this quote from Albert Einstein: “The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.”

Watch for signs of “satisficing” in your organization. It is often a leading indicator of cultural problems and organizational mis-alignment. One of the lessons learned is that the people who got you to where you are today may not be the people you need to get you where you need to be tomorrow.

Strategic planning is not about documents, one-page plans or SWOT analysis. Strategic planning is a process that when properly executed gets people to think very differently. The tools and techniques used in the process provide the environment and framework to get people to think at a different level and harness that thought to drive significant change.

To learn more about the firm of Hayden, Miller & Nelson, “An Accounting Firm That Thinks Very Differently”, please go to our website at www.hmn-caps.com

If you would like to discuss the power of thinking differently and how it could help you and your company or your clients, please contact me at mnelson@hmn-cpas.com.

Please see my LinkedIn Profile www.linkedin.com/in/mnelsoncpa/

Accountants are not known for their customer service. One of the most common compliants from clients is that their accountant doesn’t call them back. I recently read an article listing the 7 1/2 Reasons Your Accountant Doesn’t Call You Back and found it interesting and entertaining.

7 ½ Reasons Your Accountant Doesn’t Call You Back (Originally from an article by Core Financial and Business Services)

1. They don’t think your situation is as important as you do. Accountants are not known for great customer service. Often they prioritize based on client size, profitability, and the ability to bill hours. The result is that many good clients go underserved.

2. Accountants are more comfortable working with numbers than people. Some say that accountants are not the most sociable people. Many have a hard time relating to the priorities and needs of their clients. When given a choice to crunch the numbers or address critical client issues, most will choose the numbers.

3. You don’t have the relationship you thought you had. Don’t take it personally. In order to have a relationship you have to be able to relate, and most accountants just can’t relate to you as a business owner. A lack of good communication is just a symptom of a weak relationship.

4. Accountants need to work on their communication skills. Good communication skills are essential in business (see above). However, most accountants have done little to develop these skills. Ask your current accountant if they have had any formal communication training.

5. They are afraid that you will be angry with what they have to tell you. Many accountants would rather ignore a difficult situation than address it. They find it very hard to move out of their comfort zone. The problem is, most of what you do as a business owner is outside of this zone. This includes dealing with bad news and addressing surprises. Of course, the best way to address a surprise is to prevent it in the first place. Since most accountants spend their careers working with historical numbers, preventing surprises is not one of their strong points. Think of it this way: Working with historical data is like trying to drive your car looking through the rearview mirror.

6. They can’t answer the question you are asking.. Many firms lack the depth and diversity of business experience to think differently. They simply cannot answer questions related to the critical areas of your business – the areas that really drive growth, profits, and value. Most accountants are in the practice of accounting and not in the business of adding value to their clients.

7.5 They have too much to do. (This is worth 1.5). Most accountants are not good managers of time or people. That’s why they are accountants and not managers or business owners.

Mark Nelson is a partner with Hayden, Miller & Nelson, Growth & Strategy Advisory and Certified Public Accountants. HMN is a firm of business people serving business people. We are out to change the way accounting firms deliver value to their clients by providing a level of business expertise and client service that other firms simply cannot.