CEO Denny Schleper describes the six priorities set forth for 2018 making it a great year to create opportunities for our clients, our people, and the communities that we live in.

Narrator: Welcome to “Own the Promise,” a CLA podcast created to share what guides every decision we make and every relationship we cultivate.

[00:00:18]

Denny: Hello, CLA family. This is Denny Schleper. I know many of you are in the midst of a very busy time. Obviously since 2018 began, there’s been a lot of things happening within the firm. Much of this we’ve been able to share once with the owner group when we got together in January as well as a webcast that we pulled together with many of the non-equity principals and those of you on the signing director path as well.

[00:00:46]

I just wanted to spend a few minutes today sharing some of that information with the entire CLA family. We had a chance not only to be at the major firm group meeting in January, which gave us a lot of good information, but we also had an opportunity to have the AICPA chairman Kimberly Ellison-Taylor speak to us at the owner advance as well.

[00:01:11]

And I just wanted to share there is an extreme amount of optimism for 2018, not only with the economy but also with the opportunities that that economy is presenting for professional service firms like CLA.

[00:01:28]

It was nice in January because we were just coming off of obviously the December period where we had a chance to pull together many of the teams within CLA–the executive team, the leadership advisory team, the young executive team, the Future Innovation Team–along with some of the industry chief officers.

[00:01:49]

And we spent time creating the priorities that we felt we needed to meet as a firm in 2018, and I think those priorities tie very well into the information that was picked up at the major firm group meeting as well. Along on the way of this optimism, I think for 2018, we feel that CLA can have a great year. We think we’re coming off of a very good year in 2017, but 2018 should be a great year for CLA.

[00:02:24]

Well, what does a great year for CLA mean? That should mean it is gonna be a great year to create opportunities for all of you, our people, our clients, and the communities that we live in. So I did want to share with you, if you wouldn’t mind me taking the time, on the six priorities that we have set forth for 2018. And I’m gonna break these up really into two groups, the first three and then the last three of these.

[00:02:55]

The first one is one firm, the priority that we must truly embrace the seamless integrated services that we’re providing as a firm. We really need to raise the performance of all of the teams that we are participating in. Truly this one firm accountability and trust factor within the firm. We believe if we’re able to continue to drive a lot of these concepts around the one firm approach, it’s something that will really end up creating the opportunities for all of us.

[00:03:31]

The second one is around creating opportunities for our people, all of us within CLA, really driving career path clarity and opportunities and accountabilities, embracing and developing the generational workforce, all these types of things that we feel will help create more opportunities for our people. There’s a lot of effort that has been put into this priority in the past, and it’s something, again, that remains at the top of the list for 2018.

[00:04:06]

And the third one is around creating opportunities for our clients. As I mentioned, really embracing the seamless approach, the personal touch, the face-to-face with our clients, the relationship building, and really aligning those client relationships around our industry expertise and some of the service expertise.

[00:04:29]