Spring 2013
Tearing Down
SILOS Scott White succeeds at IGS Energy by fostering collaboration
strategic excellence Delta Systems
focus on QuickBooks速
get to know Michael Perlman
going for gold Less is more, so start subtracting The world we live in is overwhelming, complicated,
www.SSandG.com 800-869-1834 info@SSandG.com AKRON 301 Springside Drive Akron, OH 44333
CHICAGO
and, at times, exhausting. Every day, we wake up to our smartphones, iPads, and laptops, reviewing emails, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, text messages, schedules, the headlines, and the scores from last night’s game. If you’re like me, all this happens before your first cup of coffee. Even with all of the information-gathering devices we have at our fingertips, it seems as though we have lost our sense of what’s important. Is checking the weather for a trip you’re taking in two weeks really benefiting your day? Just how smart is that phone if it’s distracting you from that time you set aside to reflect on your next big project, not to mention the goal you missed at your son’s soccer game because you failed to look up from your emails? Is it worth the anxiety you felt on your last flight because you were expecting a message and weren’t able to check for an hour? This world of immediate information has helped us to become sharper at running our businesses, but it seems as though the communication overload is starting to blur our vision. Since the recession, most businesses have figured out how to become more productive, reducing costs to survive. Now we need to shift our attention to the bottom line. Profitability needs efficiency, and the secret to efficiency just may be to do less. We think we always need to do more, but, in fact, our days are filled with many distractions and very few of these interruptions can make us more profitable. Matthew E. May recently published “The Laws of Subtraction: 6 Simple Rules for Winning in the Age of Excess Everything.” May believes that “less is best,” and that “by removing just the right things in the right way, something very good happens.” So in doing less, or subtracting, a C-suite executive or business owner can cultivate the calm, quiet mind one needs to improve performance, profitability, and value. Even the late, great Steve Jobs believed it. At the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in 1997, he said, “People think focus means saying yes to the things you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.” According to a report by McKinsey and Co., “multitasking can limit you by slowing you down, limiting your innovation, and putting you on edge.” How can we expect to be focused on productivity and profitability in our businesses if we are distracted by the very things that are supposed to be making us more efficient? Think about it. Could you do more with less? I know I can.
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Mark Goldfarb, CPA Managing Director IRS Treasury Regulations require us to inform you that any tax advice contained in the body of this communication was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, by the recipient for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed under the Internal Revenue Code or applicable state or local tax law provisions.
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SS&G is a founding member of LEA Global, an international professional association of independently owned accounting and consulting firms.
first person Michael Perlman Title: Managing director, Chicago Degree/college: Bachelor of Science degree in accountancy from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana Hometown: Lincolnwood, Ill., a suburb immediately north of Chicago Year I joined SS&G: 2013
My first job: Little League umpire – my first entrée into leadership and management The word that best describes me: Caring
If I weren’t doing this, I would: Be a rock-and-roll drummer.
I’ve been recognized for: Promoting change. The best part about my job: Having a positive influence on the lives of those with whom I work The best piece of advice I’ve received: Surround yourself with good people who are as smart as or smarter than you
I’m most proud of: The love from my devoted wife and the emotional strength and emotional independence of my college-age daughters. I hope I never: Stop learning.
Books of note on my shelf: “The 360 Degree Leader,” “Now, Discover Your Strengths,” “The Speed of Trust,” “True Professionalism,” “The Question Behind the Question,” “Leading Change,” “Be Unreasonable — Start With No,” “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” The biggest challenge I’ve overcome: The fear of making small talk If I could change anything in my career: Beginning to network in the early stage of my career
A little-known fact about me: I’ve seen the Rolling Stones perform live each time they’ve visited Chicago since 1975 My next goal to be met: The successful expansion and growth of SS&G in Chicagoland My favorite place in the world is: Being on a beach on an island on the Caribbean When I get discouraged, I: reflect and consider what I could have done differently.
If I could give one piece of advice to executives: Be humble and demonstrate humility
My attitude toward change is: Bring it on!
A great leader is: One who brings out the best in everyone in the organization.
I’m inspired by: People who have succeeded when the odds were against them.
The business/business leader I admire most: Walt Disney. He had a dream, created a vision and built a legacy.
Success is: A state of mind. j
My business philosophy: People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
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industry Reaching new heights Delta Systems energized its employees by turning its corporate vision into reality
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lizabeth Barry needed a fresh perspective on how Delta Systems Inc. was operating, and she found it through the SOAR to Strategic Excellence™ program, developed by Larry Goddard, managing director at SS&G Parkland Consulting. The company was doing very well, but Barry wanted to see if there was a way to identify improvements that would help Delta Systems do even better. “We had used the same strategic planning approach for many years and everybody felt it was time to try something new,” says Barry, the company’s president and CEO. “I thought the SOAR program was different enough that we should try it. It was truly looking at the full company.” That broader organizational view is a crucial part of getting employees excited about the future at all levels of the company. “It is the responsibility of senior leaders to lay out the vision for success,” Goddard says. “But if you truly want the vision to be successful, the best way to do it is to allow people throughout the organization to be involved in figuring out how to turn the vision into reality.” SOAR to Strategic Excellence’s Corporate Body Scan™ is a process that assesses a company’s overall effectiveness and identifies opportunities for improvement. At Delta Systems, this process included 18 people from across the company, not just senior managers. Each employee was given the opportunity to answer 300 questions about the business. Those answers were entered into software that created a report explaining which areas were doing well and which were in need of improvement, allowing
the company to develop a detailed action plan for improvements and benchmarking the company against high-performance, world-class companies. “We asked everyone to be honest answering those questions,” Barry says. “It really does delve into many facets of the company that a traditional strategic planning program might not look into or address.”
Taking action One area that Delta learned it needed to work on was its new employee onboarding process. “We want to make sure everybody knows that we are trying to hire the right people and onboard them as best we can to make their integration into Delta easier,” Barry says. “Then we’re working with each employee to make sure they get adequate training and career growth that makes them the best Delta employee.” A group has been tasked with the challenge of improving the onboarding process and meets a few times each month to work with an SS&G facilitator to develop and implement action plans. Other teams are working on better customer evaluation strategies and a new vision strategy. “One thing that scored low was no one was too excited about our existing strategic plan,” Barry says. The SOAR process is still under way, but Barry is confident that lack of excitement is no longer a problem, as employees throughout the organization are now playing an active part in mapping out the company’s future.
“If you truly want the vision to be successful, the best way to do it is to allow people throughout the organization to be involved in figuring out how to turn the vision into reality.” — Larry Goddard
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“We’re working with each employee to make sure they get adequate training and career growth that makes them the best Delta employee.” — Elizabeth Barry, president and CEO Delta Systems Inc.
“The excitement is already there now that we’ve started this process and started to address these items,” Barry says.
Understanding your flaws SOAR provides the deep look a company often needs to take as it pursues its bigger goals. “You have to hear how good the good parts of the company are, but you also have to hear about what you’re not doing as well,” Barry says. “These days, you have to be strong in as many areas as possible.” That includes everything from hiring the right people, to having a strong culture that welcomes and trains those people, to keeping them informed so they can better serve your customers. Barry believes SOAR has put Delta on a path to excel in these areas and others. She hopes the end result will be a stronger company. “Everyone knows what the common plan and vision are and knows that we all work to make it possible,” Barry says. j How to reach: Delta Systems Inc., 330-626-2811 or www.deltasystemsinc.com
SOAR builds teams that win The SOAR to Strategic Excellence™ program is the result of more than 20 years of research conducted by Larry Goddard to determine just what it is that makes a company world class. “I found the traditional method of consulting to be inefficient and ineffective,” says Goddard. “I wanted to create a scorecard that allowed a business to measure its effectiveness compared to world-class performance.” There are four main sections in SOAR: strategy and vision; organization and culture; accounting and finance; and responsiveness and execution. A group of people who represent a cross-section of the company get together and answer 300 questions about the business. “We separate them into three groups to answer the questions separately and then we compare their answers,” Goddard says. “If the three teams don’t agree, we have a discussion about why they didn’t agree.” Creating three groups and having a facilitator question inconsistencies ensures you are getting at the heart of what a company does and does not do well. “There are multiple safeguards built into the system that make it very difficult to get anything but the truth,” Goddard says. There are four subsections within each of the four main sections. They all count equally, with each area being worth 100 points for a total of 1,600 points. If 85 percent of your company’s answers match what world-class companies do, then you’re considered a world-class company. One of the keys for any company participating in SOAR is the team-based implementation process that is geared to helping companies that fall short become world class. This process helps generate employee buy-in, which is a highly effective catalyst for business success. “Instead of just having people do their jobs, you allow people to start thinking about how to make the company better,” Goddard says. “It gets people much more energized, focused and, committed, and you achieve employee buy-in.” To learn more about SOAR, visit www.SSandG.com/ services/management-consulting-and-strategy or contact Larry at LGoddard@SSandG.com.
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case study
Photos: Jeffry Konczal
Scott White succeeds at IGS Energy by fostering collaboration
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cott White blames himself for the silos that developed at IGS Energy Inc. a few years ago. “I was not facilitating enough communication between the leaders,” says White, the company’s president and co-founder. “I think the company got bigger and people got focused on accomplishing what they felt needed to be accomplished.” Every good leader wants his or her employees to be focused. But when that focus is so intense that it blinds that person to how others contribute to the company’s success, it becomes problematic. “Finance needs to accomplish what it needs to do and operations needs to accomplish what it needs to do,” White says. “But to the extent that we can understand a little bit more about how they are accomplishing what their role is and how it aligns to the company, the more we can support each other and maintain alignment as a company.” White has seen IGS — the nation’s largest independent retail supplier of natural gas — transform from a three-person startup in 1989 to a company with more than 350 employees and $1.4 billion in annual revenue today. Experience has shown him that alignment, no matter how big your company gets, begins with your leadership team. “As more people get involved, it is harder to have a personal relationship with everyone,” White says when asked about the challenges of growth. “Managing a larger group of people, you need to rely on your leadership team to help you.”
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“The more people know about what we are trying to do and why we are doing it, the more engaged they are going to be.”
Engage your leadership team White meets with his leadership team for two hours once a week to review what is happening both in the business and within each department. “We rotate the subject and allow different executives to have their day, and that challenges them to be accountable to the rest of the team,” White says. “That allows the whole executive suite to be more informed and more aligned in leading the business. It is a great way to keep everybody accountable to each other.” It also reinforces the notion that, while your business is made up of different departments, everyone is supposed to be working toward the same ultimate goal. “The more people know about what we are trying to do and why we are doing it, the more engaged they are going to be,” White says. White believes he has evolved as IGS’ CEO from a tactical executioner to more of a strategic planner. “I have people that can execute far better than I can tactically,” White says. “I need to make sure what they are executing on, as each individual leader is executing on their tactic, that all those things are aligned with each other and not getting out of sync. As you develop in your career, you prove yourself to be tactically efficient. As you get higher up, you need to become more strategically thoughtful.” White learned a lot about managing people and keeping things in sync while playing with The Safarians, a rock band he helped lead during his college days. “We had players come and go, we had conflict management, we had highly talented people who were not engaged,” White says. “All these things are not any different in the C-suite. You had people that were really talented individually, but together they were not compatible because they did not complement each other. A lot of those lessons I learned about talent management and egos and how people can complement each other are things that I apply today.” White once dreamed of becoming a professional drummer. But while he appreciates the lessons he learned from playing in college, he has no regrets about the way his life has turned out.
— Scott White IGS Energy Inc.
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www.igsenergy.com
“There are a lot more starving drummers than there are CEOs,” White says. “And I realized the person I met, who I ended up marrying, did not want to be married to a rock-and-roll drummer.” White says his wife of 23 years, Michele, has played an important part in his life. “Having that stability at home is a big part of being successful in your career,” he says.
Encourage employee feedback About a year and a half ago, White started taking an hour each quarter to sit down with 50 to 80 employees to provide a company update. He reminds people what the goals are and talks about how the company is doing in its efforts to meet them. After the update, he opens the floor for questions. White likes to hear about the good things that are happening at his company, but even more, he wants to hear about the problem areas. “We ask for people to give their input, and if they are seeing problems or if they are observing things that are not flowing through the way we had hoped, it is valuable for us,” White says. “Some of the best feedback is when you tell me what is wrong.” One example is a problem that had developed with IGS’ call center operations. Some newer markets had a new customer service platform, while older markets were using the older system. White says it became obvious to him that, with the different platforms, customer service representatives were struggling to learn multiple systems. As a result, the management team decided it was important to try to simplify the business. “That was a result of getting valid feedback from the people trying to keep up with what we were asking them to do,” White says. So how do you encourage employees to provide feedback that is not complimentary of the way you are running your business? “You have to be prepared to hear the bad things and the things you may not have known,” White says. “The people on the front line are your best resources. If you ask them what is wrong, they will tell you.”
Once you hear it, you have to show that you are glad somebody brought the problem to your attention so it can be fixed. “If you hear bad news and you act negatively, that is the last time you are going to hear bad news,” White says. In addition to being nonconfrontational when someone raises concerns, you also cannot lie if you hear about a situation or problem that you did not know was occurring. “If you find yourself caught off guard, it’s best to just admit it,” White says. “As the company gets bigger, you are not going to know everything. If you are honest and say, ‘I need to look into it,’ or ‘I do not have that level of detail,’ that’s better. Do not try to make up something.” j How to reach: IGS Energy, 888-995-0992 or www.igsenergy.com
Takeaways Here are some of Scott White’s keys to effective leadership. • Set aside a regular time to meet with your leadership team and review the direction of the company. • Expect department heads to know their own goals and encourage them to be familiar with how the actions of other departments fit into the fulfillment of those goals. • Create an environment where employees can and do bring you concerns about problems that exist in your company. spring 2013
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focus on 4 tips for getting the most out of
QuickBooks® I
f you’re one of the millions of people who use Intuit ® QuickBooks®, you may be missing out on some key points and features that can improve your business and make your job easier. Here are four tips to help you get the most out of QuickBooks® from Deborah Defer, a senior consultant at SS&G. She is the firm’s expert in the accounting software and is an Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor®.
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QuickBooks® is for more than just small businesses. While it can certainly benefit small businesses, QuickBooks® has software for larger companies, as well. QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions®, used by companies that have more than $5 million in revenue, allows 30 simultaneous users and up to 100,000 names (customers, vendors, and employees) and 100,00 items (inventory, noninventory, and service items).
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Be careful when modifying transactions from prior periods. Before modifying old data, such as voiding an uncleared check or fixing an improperly recorded bank transaction, check with your accountant. You don’t want to change data from prior periods because it will alter your retained earnings balance. Generally, changing a date within the same period or name shouldn’t be a problem as long as the finances stay the same, but always double check. j
Utilize utilities. There are many housekeeping utilities in QuickBooks® that manage the integrity of your company’s data, but many companies either don’t know about these functions or don’t utilize them. For example, the Verify Data Utility detects data damage and the Rebuild Data Utility repairs it. In addition, the Export Utility allows QuickBooks® users to transfer list data.
Take advantage of the memorized reports and transactions features. These improve efficiency, as you don’t need to re-enter similar data each time. For example, if you have a monthly rent bill, you can tell QuickBooks® to memorize the transaction data so it will appear every month. Memorized reports also save the settings you’ve used for previous reports so you can import new data in the same format.
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How to reach: Contact Deborah Defer at DDefer@SSandG.com
the last word with Gary Shamis
My final word
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believe it is only fitting to dedicate this “Last Word” to Bob Littman, who becomes managing director of SS&G on May 1. I have tremendous confidence that Bob will take SS&G to new places and heights. Bob is a great person, committed to his family, our clients, and our colleagues. I don’t plan to fade into the sunset; I plan to maintain an active role at SS&G. I will be there to assist Bob and will continue to lead the growth initiatives for the firm. We remain a work in progress, striving to raise the bar in all aspects of what we do. It has been a true honor to lead SS&G for the past 27 years. It is amazing to me how almost three decades passed by so quickly. I am so grateful to the many clients I served, and to the wonderful colleagues I have worked with at SS&G and LEA Global, our international association of CPA firms.
“I don’t plan to fade into the sunset; I plan to maintain an active role at SS&G.”
I am truly blessed. I set out to be a doctor and ended up with the perfect career. Thanks to everyone who made this journey so incredible. j
A word about Bob
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ob Littman began his career at SS&G in 1985 when the firm had 10 employees. Now, on May 1, he assumes the role of firm managing director, overseeing 525 professionals in four states. We know him to be a dedicated professional, approachable leader, and extraordinary accountant. What should you know about Bob? He possesses an uncanny ability to multitask, returns phone calls and email promptly, and always goes the extra mile to take
care of his clients. He has managed the firm’s largest book of business, runs marathons, plays a mean game of golf, is active in the community, and still has time to spend with his family. We aren’t really sure how he does it, but we know if anybody is best suited for the role of firm managing partner, it’s Bob. He’s set standards for integrity and client service, and has been an integral part of the growth and success at SS&G for more than 25 years. Basically, Bob is the model for success and someone we believe will lead the firm into a successful, prosperous future. To learn more about Bob, view his bio at www.SSandG.com. To reach Bob, email him at RLittman@SSandG.com or call 800-869-1834. j
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We go beyond accounting. In fact, we like to step outside the spreadsheet. At SS&G, our CPAs take the time to understand each client’s unique situation so we can offer customized accounting, tax, assurance, and consulting service. We don’t just report your past, we tailor our approach to help plan for your future. Let us help you go farther. Discover what makes us different at SSandG.com/words.