An outdated accounting and reporting system made it difficult to decipher where the firm stood financially. While they had many offices and markets, they had made a commitment to leadership in key market sectors and were developing a good reputation in all 20 cities in which they were located. Their leaders were strong and understood their roles in their matrix-firm model

Over the years, the firm had accumulated hundreds of internal overhead account numbers for various costs, all of which ended up getting used. Labor and expenses found their way to these accounts but there was no way to efficiently control them. Without being able to easily access the numbers, it’s easy to see why the overhead grew.

Metaphorically, the firm had too many credit cards in its wallet. It was using them all, creating a situation where the numbers were entered into the accounts, but a clear picture of how money was being spent was impossible to see.

Leadership in the various offices was strong but there was no regional perspective in their management. Each office was functioning as its own entity and was not sharing resources with other offices. There were a lot of moving parts that needed to be better utilized.

We started with the accounting system, assisting firm leaders in streamlining the number of overhead accounts and establishing accountability for them. We also reinforced the concept of regional leadership and regional accountability for offices. Rather than having each office function separately, we helped them establish regional leaders who each oversee several offices. By doing this, each office gets more management attention, and regional leaders have a strong motivation to make sure the offices in their region are collaborating and sharing resources. This helped solve personnel issues without extensive hiring and firing, and led to operational efficiencies.

The firm’s profitability has increased 20% in the last 12 to 18 months, and the firm now has a much better understanding of their financial picture with better alignment of all the firm’s principals and associates.

The firm is now positioned for more profitable growth in the future.