This article originally appeared in the May 2024 edition of INSIDE Public Accounting Monthly.
Small firms aren’t doing it. Larger firms are more likely to do it, but many times they are combining why they exist as a firm with what they do and / or how they do it.
That’s creating a vision statement, which describes where the firm is going, and a mission or ‘why’ statement that explains why the team gets out of bed on Monday morning excited to get to work. The last piece is a values statement that outlines how people behave within the firm and with clients.
The Growth Partnership’s Charles Hylan advocates for firms to go through a formal process to define the firm’s vision, mission and value statements because they should guide every decision made by everyone from entry-level staff to partners and C-suite professionals, he said. It’s that important.
A Detailed Look
The vision, mission and values statements are foundational elements of an organization’s identity and strategic direction.
Vision statement – The vision outlines the biggest goals the firm strives to achieve. Visions can be long term, say 10 or 15 years ahead, short term of three to five years, or both. A long-term vision is typically a “big, hairy audacious goal” that often involves firm growth – to become an IPA 100 firm, for example, Hylan said.
Shorter-term goals can be quantitative – such as increasing net income per partner from $400,000 to $500,000 – and qualitative, such as becoming a “Best Place to Work” in the headquarters city. The vision should inspire and guide the team by describing where the firm wants to go, he said.
Mission or ‘why’ statement – The ‘why’ defines the fundamental purpose of the firm, its reason for existence and the value it provides to clients. “When you look at most accounting firms, their mission statement is not why they exist.”
To get to the why, Hylan teaches what lecturer and author Simon Sinek calls the golden circle. It’s natural to talk about what the firm does and how it does it (the outer layers of the circle), but getting to the why (the center), is the most crucial part of the endeavor. “The inspired leaders – every single one of them, regardless of their industry – think, act and communicate from the inside out,” Sinek writes. “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” (See Sinek’s TED talks on the subject.)
Mission statements can vary greatly depending on the firm, but often they turn out to be a mishmash of vision, mission and values all at once. Clear missions include “Provide Peace of Mind,” or “Help Clients Grow,” Hylan said. “An accounting firm doesn’t exist to provide awesome financial statements, and it doesn’t exist to be the best accounting firm in Saint Louis.”
At Disney, for example, the mission is clear: to make people happy. “So it doesn’t matter whether you’re sweeping the floors at a park or whether you’re the CEO.”
Values statement – This part of a firm strategy articulates the principles and beliefs that guide the behavior and decisions of the organization. “That’s how we treat people within the firm and that’s how we treat others,” Hylan says. It represents the firm’s core values and ethical standards. Example: The firm thinks collaboratively, communicates robustly and serves with integrity.
Vision, Missions and Values are Overlooked
Despite its importance, the exercise of discussing and defining vision, mission and values are often neglected amid the crush of everyday work. “Accountants become accountants to account – not to lead people, not to lead teams, not to sell, not to hire people and fire people, not to deal with HR issues, not to deal with technology and all of that,” Hylan said.
Even if a firm has created a mission statement, it’s often buried in the employee handbook, which is left on the shelf. During the many partner retreats Hylan facilitates, he offers $20 to anyone in the room who can recite the firm’s mission statement. “I haven’t had to pay it yet,” he said.
Even if firms are more profitable than ever, failing to define vision, mission and values is not sustainable, while development and implementation gives firms a competitive advantage. People want to work for an organization with a mission they can get behind and feel personally connected to, and all generations are becoming more aware of just how important mission is to the success of the organization, Hylan said.
Using Vision, Mission and Values to Lead
The combination of these statements should form the foundation for how leaders guide the firm, from hiring, promotions and firing to acquiring firms to investing in technology and everything in between. The concepts should be embedded in everything the firm does, and reviewed every year to determine if changes should be made. Are the statements still relevant? Does anything need to be added, deleted or edited?
Accountability is important as well. Compensation should be tied to how well staff and partners follow their guiding principles or where they might be slipping. “I’m a big, big believer in it, because it should drive decisions and it should drive behavior.
