CPA Success

Customer service: It's all about lost and found

I returned home from a business trip earlier this week to find a birthday card from Southwest Airlines ... just hours after they lost my luggage.

The irony was delicious.

Actually, I can't blame Southwest for the SNAFU. My flight from Ft. Myers to Orlando was delayed by 45 minutes, leaving me with literally minutes to make my connecting flight back to St. Louis. I walked off the Ft. Myers flight and boarded the plane to St. Louis just two minutes later. There was no way in hell my bag was going to make it, too.

Two and a half hours later, I was at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis. And my bag? It was on its way to Chicago.

And none of this was Southwest's fault.

Even so, here's what they did: They filled out a form to report my luggage lost ("They rarely use the word lost," my buddy Greg corrected me on Facebook. "Last time I had to fill out a 'Baggage Irregularity Report.'") and promised to deliver the bag to my home when it arrived in town.

So I drove home and went to bed.

When I awoke the next morning, my bag was sitting on our patio.

Talk about service. I even got a birthday card out of the deal.

The moral of the story (to me, anyway) is this: Customer service is easy when everything goes right. It's what we do for our customers when things go wrong that defines us.

What's your favorite lemons-to-lemonade customer service story?

SEC takes another baby step toward IFRS

Call the SEC's most recent statement on IFRS deliberate, or reasoned, or cautious. Just don't call it breaking news.

In a unanimous decision, the SEC has voted to issue a statement supporting the ongoing pursuit of a single set of global accounting standards.

What it didn't do is anything earth-shattering, like set a date for when the United States would join more than 100 other countries in making the switch to IFRS, or at least something similar. Now that would have been big.

Instead, WebCPA's Michael Cohn reports that the SEC will wait to hear on progress toward a number of milestones, "including convergence of U.S. GAAP with IFRS and improved governance of the International Accounting Standards Board." Commissioners will decide in 2011 whether to move forward on a path toward IFRS.

While supporting what it called the SEC's "thoughtful and concrete steps," the AICPA issued a statement that makes clear its belief that the U.S. must move toward a single set of standards. As one profession insider said recently, "The SEC needs to circle a date."

The SEC's statement might not be a complete snoozer, though. On the Resources Global Professionals blog, Colleen Cunningham makes an interesting point:

"The gameplan and the roadmap is now 'owned' by the current group of SEC commissioners," writes Cunningham, Resources Global Professionals' managing director of finance and accounting. "The previous roadmap was issued under (former) SEC Chair Christopher Cox. This reaffirmation -- issued under current SEC Chair Mary Shapiro -- effectively becomes hers. This was an important step toward moving the issue forward."

A deliberate, reasoned and cautious step, but a step nonetheless.

Check out these related resources:

• Six reasons IFRS might not happen (soon)
• Understanding IFRS (a May 7 Capital Area Chapter program)
• MACPA spring town hall meetings / professional issues updates

Related on-site learning options:

• Are You Ready for IFRS? Moving Beyond the Basics
• IFRS vs. GAAP: The Differences That You Need to Know
• International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
• International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) From 5,000 Feet
• IFRS: An Overview of the Looming Change to Global Standards
• International versus U.S. Accounting: What in the World is the Difference?
• The Coming IFRS Conversion: Preparing for the Ultimate GAAP Makeover
• The Impact of IFRS and Other Global Standards on Private Entities

Relate books:

• IFRS: Practical Implementation Guide and Workbook
• IFRS 2009: Interpretation and Application CD

Do you have FU?

Remember the TV series, Kung FU starring David Carradine during the 1970's?

I am at the Boomer Human Capital & Learning Symposium in Kansas City to particpate on an  "industry expert panel" with two of the CPA Profession's "kung fu masters", Gary Boomer of Boomer Consulting Inc. and Ken Baggett of Reznick Group.

According to wikipedia, In Chinese, kung fu or fufor short, can be used in contexts completely unrelated to martial arts, and refers colloquially to any individual accomplishment or skill cultivated through long and hard work. Needless to say both of these CPAs qualify for the "fu" designation.

Then imagine my surprise when I got an e-mail from Jacqui at a Santa Barbara winery to see if we would be interested in covering their new wine targeted to CPAs (and tax payers everywhere), called 1040FU.

I know what you are thinking!

According to their website, they mean the same FU in the "Kung Fu" sense that applies to the "masters" Baggett and Boomer that I was sharing the expert panel with. They both represent CPAs with years and years of mastery. After seeing the tongue in-cheek wine label and story, I asked her to send me a few bottles to present at the conference (see the photo) to the two "Fu masters" and one for me too. We also gave a bottle away as a door prize to lots of laughter and applause. 

I cracked open a bottle and had a taste (best if decanted or given about fifteen minutes to breathe) and it is very good. The wine is a Santa Barbara Syrah produced by California winemaker, Joey Tensley who has been featured in Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate magazines.

On their website, they close with,

 "Don't be surprised if this great wine, which appeals equally to conservatives and liberals, inspires a spirited discussion among your friends. It goes best with gentle sarcasm and foolhardy opinions such as changing the tax code, taxing the wealthy, entrepreneurship in America, and the need for a good CPA. We hope you enjoy drinking it as much as we have enjoyed making it."

So here is a toast to the "Fu masters" from our panel and CPAs everywhere who spend years building their Fu.

You can become a fan of the 1040FU Facebook page

Follow them on Twitter @1040FU

Or visit their website www.1040fu.com for ordering information (make sure you follow your state laws for shipping wines)

Note here is Maryland's law if you are interested

Pension tension: Can states pay what they've promised?

The budgetary woes of state governments are well documented, but now they have another headache with which to deal.

You might have heard about it. This particular headache comes to us courtesy of the Pew Center on the States, which found a $1 trillion gap between what states had promised their employees in retirement benefits and what those states are actually able to pay.

“While the economic crisis and drop in investments helped create it, the trillion dollar gap is primarily the result of states’ inability to save for the future and manage the costs of their public sector retirement benefits,” said Susan Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States. “The growing bill coming due to states could have significant consequences for taxpayers — higher taxes, less money for public services and lower state bond ratings.”

According to the report, all but three of the states are underfunded, with two of them — Illinois and Kansas — able to pay less than 60 percent of their promised benefits.

And Maryland? It's able to fund 78.4 percent of its pension liability. It's one of 19 states cited in the study with pension plans that merit "serious concerns."

National Public Radio's Jim Zarroli says states might be able to ease the pain by taking some fairly simple steps, like increasing their retirement ages by a year or so. That could prove unpopular, though, and "will require some tough choices by state officials," Zarroli reports. "That's something many of them have shied away from."

Of course, states aren't the only ones troubled by this news. State employees are left wondering whether they'll have the money they thought they'd have in retirement. Maybe they should read "What You Should Know About Social Security" from Kiplinger. (It's subtitled, "Five ways to make sure you get the biggest possible check.")

Something tells me CPAs might be able to lend a hand, too.

Top 5 skills of the post-recession leader

Could this be the decade of the CPA?

Last year, the The Economist magazine proclaimed 2010 as the Year of the CFO. Now, Chief Learning Officer says the best CEO will be part CFO and part COO, which means the core financial and analytical skills of the CPA are more important than ever!

A recent article in Chief Learning Officer titled, "The Post-Recession Leader: Part CEO, COO and CFO," examines the most valuable leadership skills in this post-recession world. Here's my take on five of the most important skills today's leaders must have:

1. Broader and longer line of sight -- the ability to see emerging patterns and shift perspective when necessary.
2. Network leadership -- the ability to connect various stakeholders, including customers, regulators, team members, investors and supply chain partners.
3. Strong analysis skills (financial and operational) -- a strong and working understanding of the business and operations at an economic and financial level. (CPAs, you already have this!)
4. Communication skills -- the ability to communicate effectively and simplify very complex issues in a way that people will easily "get."
5. Global perspective -- the world is flat and global, and all leaders today have to truly develop a global perspective and some international skills.

Stephen Miles, vice chairman of Heidrick & Struggles, an executive recruitment firm, said this: "The best CEOs in the world are a combination of CEO, COO and CFO. They are inspirational, financially literate and know the ins and outs of their business at a sophisticated level."

Now we are talking. The skill sets of the CPA are back in vogue as companies need smart spending and carefully evaluate their investments using "real numbers."The CPA brings disciplined thinking, financial literacy, and an understanding of the business that few can match.

Even if you don't aspire to the corner office, this is an opportunity to make a difference for your organizations and clients. They need us more than ever.

If you do aspire to moving up that career ladder, my advice to CPAs is to begin to acquire more of those right-brain skills and become an "ambidextrous" thinker. The leader of the future must be able to think both critically and creatively.

Turns out this lines up with our own research from the Business Learning Institute on the top five qualities of extraordinary leaders.

See our presentation from the AICPA Leadership Academy on Leadership -- I2A -- Insights to Action: A strategic thinking system.

It's an XBRL world. When will we learn the language?

Want to have a say in the future of XBRL? Here's your chance.

XBRL International is seeking feedback on a new document that examines the future business requirements and technical roadmap for eXtensible Business Reporting Language.

Specifically, the document, titled "XBRL: Toward a Diverse Ecosystem," examines the technical goals surrounding XBRL for the next five to 10 years. That document is meant to get users thinking about XBRL in three areas:

• Ease of use for developers
• Making it easier to compare information around the world
• Simplifying the use of XBRL data for analysis systems

The document is the first step in creating a formal strategy to expand on the existing XBRL standard. The folks at XBRL International are exploring ways to make it more accessible and more powerful.

• Download the document in its entirety.
• Get details about related webinars from XBRL International.

Sounds intriguing, but what does that mean, exactly?

To find out, I called up a couple of pretty smart guys in the XBRL department -- Tony Fragnito, a Maryland-based CPA and, more to the point, CEO of XBRL International; and Hugh Wallis, director of technical standards for XBRL International. They sat down with me to discuss the document and the state of XBRL today -- and not just in the U.S.

Fragnito and Wallis said American companies should be studying what's already happened overseas as much as what's currently happening as part of the SEC's three-year mandate for implementing XBRL. Everyone in the U.S. -- myself included -- wants to know what we've learned through the early SEC adoption process, but Fragnito and Wallis says we can learn even more by studying how XBRL is being used globally.

"The SEC project, while a significant and important project because of the size of the U.S. capital market and the commitment from the SEC, has received a huge amount of attention," Fragnito said. "But XBRL has been successfully adopted around the world and there have been some very good experiences internationally with XBRL technology. I think it's important for people to know that (XBRL International) is committed to its stakeholders and early adopters of the technology. We recognize the investment those early adopters have made. Our desire is for XBRL technology to be sustainable and stable over the long term."

Getting feedback on the new document will be a step in that direction. As Wallis said, "XBRL is here, and it's here to stay."

Fragnito and Wallis also offered their take on why private companies and CPA firms should care about XBRL. Listen to their views in this CPA Spotlight podcast.

• Subscribe to our podcast here, or search for "CPA Spotlight" in either iTunes or Zune.

Check out these related XBRL resources:

• Video: XBRL co-founder Eric E. Cohen on the state of XBRL today
• XBRL: The sooner you start, the better
• XBRL U.S.
• SEC resources
• IASB resources
• The ABCs of XBRL: Here's what it can do
• XBRL and government: A marriage made in ... Nevada?
• XBRL case studies
• Demonstrations of XBRL in action
• More demos: Microsoft | Edgar Online | Rivet Software Crossfire | Google OneBox
• XBRL taxonomies
• Six Steps to XBRL (from the Journal of Accountancy)
• ROI on XBRL (from the Journal of Accountancy)
• Improved Business Process through XBRL
• Benefits and uses for business

In social space, no one can hear you scream

Allow me to follow up on Tom's fine social media post with a word or two about marketing.

Word-of-mouth marketing is the most powerful force known to man. At least that's what we've been told for years now.

The conventional wisdom is this: People don't believe your advertisements or corporate communications ... but if their friends say nice things about your company, they'll love you.

If you're a numbers person, let's put it this way: Only 14 percent of consumers trust ads, but 91 percent say they're "likely" to buy a product based on a personal recommendation.

Then came social media, and marketers just about wet their pants. "Finally," they said, "here's a way to get huge numbers of people talking to each other about our products and services! We can't lose!"

More often than not, though, the marketers are the ones doing all the talking ... and few people are paying attention.

For proof, check out the the 2010 Edelman Trust Barometer, an annual survey that gauges how strongly people trust businesses and government. According to the Barometer, the sources of business information that the public finds most credible are:

• Stock or industry analyst reports: 49 percent
• Articles in business magazines: 44 percent
• Conversations with employees: 41 percent
• News coverage on the radio: 38 percent
• TV news coverage: 36 percent
• Online search engines: 35 percent
• Newspaper articles: 34 percent
• Corporate communications: 32 percent
• Social networking sites: 19 percent
• Corporate or product advertising: 17 percent

So what does that mean?

The naysayers will immediately bellow, "Social media is a waste of time!" And in terms of an immediate marketing ROI, they'd be right.

As a marketing tool, social media is an amplifier: It sends your message to more people. And if people didn't trust your message before, well, it just means that even more people don't trust it now.

See, here's the thing: Social media isn't about marketing or advertising. It's about relationships. Hence the word "social."

It's about building networks of people you trust. It's about sharing information that your followers find valuable, and following people who share information that you find valuable. When you do that over time (and I'm talking months, if not years), you build trust. Then, and only then, can you even think about selling yourself.

Without that trust, you're just screaming into a void.

Social media is not a magic bullet. It is not a quick fix. It's a deliberate, sometimes excruciatingly slow but ultimately rewarding effort to expand one's social network in professionally meaningful ways.

If you think you're going to achieve that by picking up a megaphone and screaming at your audience, you're woefully misinformed.

Social media: Passing fad or valuable tool?

Remember when the Internet was first discovered (I won't say by whom) and e-mail was starting to replace fax machines?

Many businesses worried it would be a tremendous waste of time for their employees and said it would be a passing fad. They worried people would be watching porn or shopping all day and e-mailing the latest jokes to family and friends.

Fast forward to today. Every business deems the Internet an indispensable tool. Most would say they cannot survive without the Internet, a Web page and e-mail.

Well, that is where we are with social networking and business, according to The Economist magazine in a just-released special report on social networking.

The report, titled "A World of Connections," makes a strong business case for social networking that I have not seen before from the mainstream business world. Could this be the real tipping point for business adoption of social networking and Web 2.0?

If you need your people to collaborate or connect with customers and suppliers, or connect with others in your organization, then you need to rethink social media. I agree with Sir Tim Berners-Lee (founding father of the Internet and author of Weaving the Web) in his statement in the special report: "The ultimate goal (of the Internet) was to come up with something that, first and foremost, would make it easier to collaborate with one another."

Here are five major benefits that The Economist report says that social media (via the Web) has created:

1. Trusted online venues where real people can meet up using their real identities.
2. New ways for firms and organizations to reach their customers and those who influence them.
3. Reduced friction in labor markets by allowing employers and prospective employees to find each other and connect.
4. Faster information flow and communication inside companies and organizations.
5. A "free and immensely powerful set of communication and collaboration tools to everyone on Earth who has access to a broadband internet connection."

Business is about people, which means business is social. This report makes the point that businesses need to rethink social networking from a whole new vantage point. This should provide good ammo for anybody trying to make the case for social media inside their organizations. Well done!

Read the special report, A World of Connections

Then sign up for our webcast on March 5th 12:30om - 2:20pm (EST)

See our resources and presentations about social media:

Articles:

• Making Social Media Work for You (video interview with Journal of Accountancy)
• How to Leverage Social Networking (from the Journal of Accountancy)

Slideshare presentations:

• How Social Networking and Remote Conferencing Transformed MACPA
• CPAs and Social Media: Passing Fad or Valuable Tool?
• Leadership and Social Media

Courses:

• Social Media Strategy and Quickstart: MACPA experts help you get started quick
• Web 2.0: Less Hype, More Help -- a course you can bring in-house

Maryland's economy: A break in the clouds?

Our economy is recovering, but let's face it: We're a long way from true recovery. Unemployment is still high, consumer confidence can't find traction and faith in our financial markets is slipping.

In Maryland, though, things aren't nearly that dark.

Oh sure, times are tough here. Maryland's finances are a mess and its unemployment rate continues to hover around 7.5 percent -- and for a state whose unemployment rate normally falls between 4 and 5 percent, that's worrisome.

Still, there's plenty to be thankful for, says Kathleen Snyder.

"Maryland businesses may be feeling a little more optimistic (than those in other states)," Snyder, president and CEO of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, said in a recent CPA Spotlight podcast. "Part of that is because we are right next to the the nation's capital. The presence of our federal labs here in Maryland, of Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and a whole host of federal contractors, really does help protect Maryland from the worst economic impacts that other states might be feeling. That's an opportunity for us."

And it's not the only one.

The Defense Department's Base Realignment and Closure (or BRAC) initiative could bring between 10,000 and 20,000 jobs to Maryland starting in August 2010 as military- and defense-related personnel arrive at places like Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Meade.

And there might be an even bigger job bonanza in Maryland's future.

The new United States Cyber Command, a federal defense initiative to protect the nation's government and private computer networks, is expected to be based at Fort Meade. "If that takes place," said Snyder, "the movement of very high-level security jobs to Maryland could be even bigger than the number of BRAC jobs that are coming to Maryland."

The bottom line: As difficult as the past couple of years have been, Maryland's economic future appears bright -- provided lawmakers and regulators play along.

"Maryland is well positioned to come out of this recession sooner than nearly every other state in the union," Snyder said. "Where part of our challenge lies is in making sure our General Assembly and the U.S. Congress don't overload mandates onto businesses -- particularly small businesses -- that would prevent them from bouncing back from the recession sooner rather than later."

Snyder offers more insight to Maryland's business environment in this MACPA podcast.

• Subscribe to our podcast here, or search for "CPA Spotlight" in either iTunes or Zune.

Learn more here
The Maryland Chamber of Commerce will hold a Small Business Lending Fair on Feb. 18 at the Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor. Small businesses will have an opportunity to meet with business lenders in a "speed dating" format. Get details here.

Also, renowned Maryland economist Anirban Basu is slated to give one of his popular economic updates during the MACPA's 2010 Business and Industry Conference, slated for May 14 at the Turf Valley Resort and Conference Center. Get details and register here.

CPAs ... there's a map for that!

Trying to make sense of the SEC XBRL mandate and prepare for implementation?

Have to create an organizational development plan for your firm or company?

Developing a research plan to prepare for IFRS or the new convergence standards coming out of FASB?

Or prepare your own personal development plan, meeting agendas, communication plan?

There's a map for all of that. Actually, there are 25 maps for CPAs, plus many more general templates included.

Mindjet Mindmanager CPA Edition was developed by CPAs for CPAs. Templates were developed collaboratively with the Mindjet team and CPA subject matter experts from the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute.

No only is this a great personal productivity tool, but it's also an effective communication tool. Check out this PDF of the CPA edition to see all 25 templates. I produced this by saving as a Mindjet Player -- just click on the + at the end of the branches and you can see all of the content and logic flow. Pretty cool.

I use this tool almost every day to help organize my thinking, prepare presentations or map out complex projects. It also has some great collaborative functionality with its Mindjet Catalyst tool.

See the demonstration videos here.

See another example: Why you need to create your organization's development plan -- now!

Order your copy of Mindmanager CPA edition and all 25 templates. (Use code MACPA to receive a 10 percent discount -- a $50 value).

What do you use for your productivity and communication tools?