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Professional perceptions: boring, staid, reckless, fraudulent?

by Dennis Howlett on July 8, 2009

Last week I called in to see Philip Woodgate, partner with Goodman Jones. GJ and Philip have been clients the last few years on an ad hoc basis and it is always a pleasure to meet On this occasion I whipped out my handy Canon HF10 and recorded Philip as we talked about issues arising out of the current recession. In this first part of the conversation, Philip talks about online analysis and accounting tools, providing a sneak peek into what motivates clients to go online.

Ben Kepes liked the video and we had a brief conversation on Twitter where he said there needs to be more ‘excitement’ coming out of the profession. I’m not so sure. Today, clients want steady and solid not wild and adventurous. Even so, I sense that Ben has something of a point when he declares that the profession is seen as: “staid and boring and risk-averse.That or fraudulent and highflying.Methinks there is a sweet spot in the middle”
BenKepes1

We know plenty about the ‘fraudulent’ part but then these are stereotypes the profession needs to shed. In that regard I’d refer readers to the discussion I had with Hamish Edwards where he talked about the new styles of firm that are concentrating heavily on the service angles. Then I”d also say that in my dealings with GJ, I sense they are somewhere in that ‘middle road’ Ben mentions.

What do you think? Is the profession stuck on a stereotypical trap of its own making?

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Tagged as: gjonline, goodmanjones, Philip Woodgate

  • This seems to sum up that the role of the Accountant is changing through a necessity to become more competitive. There are many fixed price online practices croping up to meet the needs of the basic number crunching, what is required by small businesses now is someone who will go the extra mile, be proactive and steer them through these difficult times.

    Those practices that have the vision to stop being seen as staid and boring and become more dynamic, approachable and proactive are the ones finding the 'sweet spot'
  • Yes - too often accountants are perceived as "all the same" or "all as bad as each other".

    Yesterday I saw what I thought was a great accountants' website - until I found another one just like it. So it obviously came from a template. Yeuch.

    One potential client I was talking to said that she doesn't have a "rapport" with her accountant. She feels he does a good job but she doesn't feel able to pick up the phone and talk to him when she wants.

    One of my marketing messages is that I am a friendly accountant. I wonder how many other accountants say that :-)

    M
  • Once I get started .....!

    I also think one of the problems is personality. In general most accountants are polite, amenable, conservative, etc but they do not have strong enough (forceful) characters. To be a good accountant you have to be in the driving seat and be prepared to tell your client what you think not keep quiet. And sometimes you have to grab them by the throat.

    In the last couple of years we have helped a client go from losses of £150K to profits of £300K by telling them (in simple terms) to stop focussing on sales and focus on profit instead. At the time it was very heated but it was definitely worth it!
  • Cetin Suleyman
    Ok, so there must be a sweet spot in the middle; how about this:

    High flying entrepreneur(s), willing to take "measured" risks for high potential reward + reliable, professional (staid?) accountant acting as a trusted business adviser = business decisions hitting that sweet spot in the middle.

    Like most success stories, establishing a balanced relationship is the key. I don't know many business financiers who would put their money behind a gung ho entrepreneur allied to a gung ho accountant who doesn't pay attention to detail.

    Granted, if you find a good accountant who acts as an adviser and not as a beancounter / papersorter he/she will be proactive in many ways, but lets at least be balanced by saying that a staid boring business owner isn't going to get very far if relying on an accountant to drive their business forward!

    It's horses for courses, but the sweet spot is there in the 2nd paragraph.
  • Nicely put Cetin - you should have a blog: The Measure Adventurer? ;)
  • I'm with Stuart on this one - most of the perception comes from a tendency to just focus on basic compliance and not do the value-add stuff that really makes the difference...
  • I believe there is a larger problem hidden behind the "boring and staid" image namely that the profession doesn't even do what the public thinks it does. Too often I see cases where firm's fail to apply the simplest of tax-saving ideas.
    Most (?) firms seem to think their sole purpose is to produce a set of accounts from whatever records they are supplied with by their clients. Poor records = inaccurate accounts which leads to bad decisions.
    Sadly the public class all accountants as the same and are not willing to try other firms preferring to stick with the devil they know. Worse still those firms which excel are often criticised by the very firms that don't do enough.
  • I have a great deal of sympathy with this view Stuart. I get a regular stream of messages where the writer says: "Have you seen the mess XXX made?" And from my own days, I well recall the sloppy stuff I had to 'fix.'
  • Thanks Dennis - enjoyed the London shots best :)

    BTW there is an academic paper on whether the perception that accountants are risk adverse impacts how the advice is acted on http://tinyurl.com/lercov Oddly, some studies show that accountants are risk adverse and some not. The jury is still out on this one...
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