Transitioning Managing Partners
Discover how to navigate leadership transitions seamlessly with Upstream Academy’s article and whitepaper, “Transitioning Managing Partners: Guiding Your Firm Through Leadership Change.” Learn strategies for strong governance, leadership development, and proactive succession planning to prepare your firm for future success.
Running a Firm Like a Business: Building the Future of Your Firm
Explore how accounting firms can transition from traditional partnership models to a business-driven approach, focusing on leadership, growth, efficiency, and innovation. Learn actionable strategies to build a future-ready firm with our comprehensive guide.
How to Adopt an Advisory Mindset
The accounting profession is changing, and firms that want to stay ahead must transition from compliance-focused services to true advisory roles. Adopting an advisory mindset means going beyond great client service—it’s about providing proactive insights, strategic guidance, and partnering with clients for future success. This paper explores practical steps firms can take to evolve and […]
Partner Goal Setting in Accounting Firms
Partner goal setting is more than a checklist—it’s a strategic foundation that drives firm-wide growth and high performance. At Upstream Academy, we’ve spent decades helping accounting firms master the art of goal setting to elevate partner engagement, accountability, and overall firm success.
This article offers a deep dive into how effective partner goal setting can transform your firm. Learn how to align partner objectives with strategic initiatives, foster a culture of accountability, and position your firm as a leader in an evolving industry.
Getting the Most Out of Partner Retreats
Each year, managing partners and executive committees spend considerable time scheduling and planning the firm’s annual partner retreat. Most firm leaders see this event as an important tool to connect partners and address important issues, but few partners get excited about the prospect of spending two days in meetings where they do what they’ve always […]
Admitting Income Partners
Strong growth, retention challenges, and the changing face of accounting firm hires have led to increased discussion around the potential role of income partners in a firm. Let’s candidly discuss the benefits, potential pitfalls, and best practices when adding income partners to your firm’s structure.
Thoughts on Firm Goverance
As we work with CPA firms around the country, it’s clear that managing partner performance and keeping everyone headed in a unified direction has become an increasingly difficult task. During the exceptionally good times of the late 1980s until 2007, firms seemed able to succeed in spite of themselves. Work appeared to be limitless and firm profits and partner income were at all‐time highs. The biggest struggle was hiring and keeping sufficiently staffed to handle the work demand.
M & A 3: Overcoming Stakeholder Challenges in Mergers & Acquisitions
In this article, we’ll look at some of the issues that typically arise in the merger process, and help you determine what your responses will be before you’re faced with these challenges.
M&A 2: Identifying Merger/Acquisition Candidates: All Firms Are Not Created Equal
If you’re serious about your strategy, recruiting can’t be approached as an event. You must accept that recruiting other firms is an ongoing process and that you’re not going to become great at it without incurring a few battle scars along the way. Firms that see recruiting as a process and become highly effective in that process will save themselves untold angst as transactions take place.
M & A 1: Preparing Your Firm for a Merger: The First (and Most Important!) Step
We’re living in a time when unprecedented numbers of firms are considering mergers and acquisitions. Many are pursuing this strategy as a way to grow the top line and enhance the resources of their organization. If you’re considering a merger or series of mergers as part of your strategic plan, you also need to make it part of your plan to be well prepared for what’s ahead. Let’s discuss how to prepare.