Anyone leading a tax organization or even a group within the tax department will benefit from what I learned about managing the treasure within a tax team. You see, everyone has treasure in their tax organization and the treasure is the people. The treasure is in the knowledge and skills of your people. While you are busy responding to managements never ending list of requests that require twice the team you currently have to produce; you also have these untapped jewels around you. As a leader in a tax organization, you have the ability to turn on the passion of the tax team and increase their productivity.
One of the most important things tax leaders must be mindful of is people want to enjoy their work experience. When people enjoy what they are doing, the passion surfaces and the treasure is bountiful. For example, imagine you have two Tax Managers gathering information from all the foreign subsidiaries. One Tax Manager is not a people person, they are somewhat quiet and very content to be working on creating the most beautiful excel reports one could ever imagine. They create masterpieces of art on an excel spreadsheet. The second Tax Manager may not be such a hot shot on creating excel reports but they are personable, friendly, inquisitive and a pleasure to be around every day. Which Tax Manager will get the best information from the Controllers in these subsidiaries? I would put my money on the Tax Manager who is personable and inquisitive and fun to be around. These are the people who love to work with other people and will be able to extract the information from a subsidiary Controller who may not provide more information than a grunt of silence on the other end of the call. You make your tax team shine when you place them in roles they love to do! This is when the real treasure is discovered in the tax department.
Twice a year, survey your tax team and ask them what work in the tax department would excite them the most. The number one reason people leave is for more interesting work and all you need to do is assign them the jewel jobs that keep them interested. Anyone can reduce the turnover in an organization which on average is 25% a year simply by asking people if there are any jobs in the tax department they would love to do. It is smart business to rotate your tax team around as a fresh new set of eyes identifies issues no one in the tax department may have ever noticed previously. You will discover more treasure and more opportunities of value when your people feel like they have jewel jobs that renew their passion for their work. You will also enable others in your tax organization to shine as they discover tax treasure that others could not see. Managing a tax department is more complex today than ever before but it is a lot more fun when you create more opportunities for your team to shine!
Kat Jennings, TaxConnections, CEO and Founder and Advisory Team provides three areas of services: 1) Internationally recognized, retained executive search services for multinational corporations, public accounting firms, and law firms; 2) Introductions of sellers to buyers of small and medium size accounting firms; and 3) Provide brand building and education services that support and prepare accounting firm owners to buy/sell an accounting practice. We focus on educating the journey to sell a practice and how to increase firm revenue prior to any sale. Our program ensures you start years prior to a sale by learning what is expected of you during the selling process, and introducing firm Partners to cross selling opportunities that are easy to implement and reduce your workload at the same time. We introduce you to value added connections to smartly grow revenue in your accounting practice.
Kat Jennings has been retained by organizations worldwide to locate tax professionals with highly specialized tax knowledge and expertise. She has a thorough understanding of the tax business community, with a proven record of stellar performances matching professionals with organizations. Bringing two parties together to work successfully is the art of understanding personalities, cultural fit, expectations by both parties, flexible or inflexible work environments, understanding what drives and motivates each party, and revolves around the personality and ethics of each executive team.
Kat is a widely recognized expert in high level, tax executive search, as well as connecting buyers and sellers of accounting firms. TaxConnections provides and educates small to medium size accounting firms owners and Partners how to prepare and sell their firms so they can build a succession plan for their retirement. With larger firms seeking to acquire smaller accounting practices, there is a real need to help firm owners prepare to be acquired. Most firm owners are unaware they are not ready to sell when they decide to retire. TaxConnections educates firm owners’ what they need to do years in advance of selling an accounting firm practice.
Senior tax executives expect the utmost privacy when being introduced to multinational organizations about a new tax opportunity under consideration. Having said that, companies searching for a new head of tax expecting tax executive candidates to submit their resume through a resume portal, will never see a full slate of outstanding tax executives available due to a candidates’ desire for greater privacy. This is why privacy focused Uber Tax Recruiters consistently outperform in-house recruiters on tax executive searches.
We offer our clients a Performance Retainer Agreement arrangement so their HR department can still recruit and compete with the tax candidates we present on Head of Tax searches. The client pays us a partial fee upfront, and if they find a candidate they deem better than we introduce to them, we forfeit the final fee. Most of the time, they love and prefer our private introductions to tax executive candidates better than what they source through their own resume portals.
When we represent selling/buying small to medium-sized firms, firm owners/partners also demand greater privacy when considering the sale of their practice. TaxConnections provides a safe place to discuss their business needs, elevate their practices’ online reputation, and increase revenue through new streams of business development by outsourcing work and partnering with other firms. Over three decades, we have worked tirelessly to build relationships between firm owners most organizations rarely have access to in the world of tax. There are numerous possibilities you may never have considered previously to bolster the value of your practice and service offerings.
As a globally recognized consultant to multinational organizations, accounting firms, and law firms searching for tax expertise, Kat has been retained by public accounting firms, law firms, and corporations worldwide including Apple Computer, AC Neilson, Accenture, Agilent Technologies, Allergan, Alza, American Express, American Media, Aon, Baker & McKenzie, Barclays Bank, Bechtel, Cargill, Carl Zieuss Vision, Century Aluminum, Chevron, Clorox, Citigroup, Commercials Metals, Constellation Energy, Countrywide, Del Monte, Deloitte Touche, DFS, DLA Piper, E&J Gallo Winery, Electronic Arts, Ernst &Young, Fox Entertainment, Fremont Investments, General Electric,General Motors, Herbalife, Hewlett Packard, Hyatt, Intel, Jones Lang LaSalle, Kimco Realty, KLA Tencor, Koch Industries, KPMG, Levi Strauss, Liberty Mutual, LKQ, Loews, Logitech, Lucas Film, Maersk, McKesson, Nalco, Newell Rubbermaid, Nissan, Oracle, Orbitax, Pacific Gas & Electric, PwC, QAD, SAIC, SanDisk, Sanmina, Sempra Energy, SONY, Synopsys, Ticketmaster, Trimble Navigation, Toyota, Univar, Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo, Vertex, Yahoo, Xilinx, and many more not listed here.
Contact Kat at 858,999.0053 Office/858.232.4415 Cell or kat@taxconnections.com to request a private consultation regarding the sale of your practice, adding top talent to your organization, or merging your practice with another firm owner with a book of business. The possibilities are endless; if you have a dream of a new vision for your professional life; we will scout opportunities throughout the market to make it happen.
Recent Comments