By Leslie Daane, CPA, CGMA, Managing Director
This past week at our monthly Vistage meeting our chair took the opportunity to revisit some of the teachings of Jim Collins (Good to Great).
After walking through some of the practices that Jim promotes, I realized that we as a firm have built some of these into our firm culture starting with “Get the right people on the bus.”
Hire the right people. We strive to be selective in each hire. Hiring for the long-term. Looking for people that bring energy to the firm, have a quest for continual learning, and care deeply about our clients, employees, and community.
Build Relationships. As a firm, we build relationships with clients that are long lasting. As we celebrate our 50th year, we have clients that have run the course with us. We have been with them from the start, the growth, and the sale of their businesses; into retirement with them, and for some, have experienced the loss of them with their families. Each has their own journey and story to tell. And it has been an honor to be a part of it.
Jim Collins shared a final piece of advice that he received from Peter Drucker at the end of a day spent together: “Don’t worry about being successful; instead be useful.” I’d like to think that our success as a firm is centered around being useful to our clients. Being there when they needed us.
A couple of other Jim Collins quotes to note:
“Preserve the core/Stimulate progress.” We at Barnard Vogler & Co. have always stayed true to our core values and beliefs providing this as the foundation for becoming a legacy firm in Reno. Along with this, we embrace the change and improvement required to adapt to the ever changing world of public accounting.
“Shaping a culture that can thrive far beyond any single leader is clock building.” We at Barnard Vogler & Co., have moved into our third generation of owners.
50 years. Something to be proud of. With this we honor our past and those that have helped us achieve this milestone. We also celebrate our future and all that we have ahead of us.