Ron and Ed welcome back Alan Whitman, former CEO of Baker Tilly and author of the new book Break the Mold. In his second visit to The Soul of Enterprise, we will talk about this book and the mold around the CPA profession. The mold is made up of the common conventions and the long-time operating principles that are shared across organizations. We are sure you will enjoy this in-depth conversation.

SHOW NOTES

Segment one

We are joined for a second time today by Alan Whitman. Break The Mold is available now! https://www.amazon.com/BREAK-MOLD-ACHIEVE-TRANSFORMATIONAL-SIMULTANEOUSLY/dp/B0FY4RJ2M3
Break The Mold is a roadmap for how to change your mindset and preconceived notions on how to get things to a new way of achieving oversize results. https://www.amazon.com/BREAK-MOLD-ACHIEVE-TRANSFORMATIONAL-SIMULTANEOUSLY/dp/B0FY4RJ2M3
A great summary of some of Alan’s comments today: Shift from change management to progress management. Either-or to both-and. WORDS MATTER and are critical to changing people’s mindset.
“There is a core competency of leadership. Stop being a one-to-one person. Be a one-to-many person.” —Alan Whitman
“Isolation also creates fractures between teams, killing any hope for collaboration at a broad strategic level." —Alan Whitman

Segment two

“Strategy is the framework by which you decide where you’re going to make your investments, what type of people and platforms you’re going to have, what type of clientele you are going to attract. So it is the higher level, 30,000-foot framework, from which all of your tractors are built.” —Alan Whitman
A great quote from Alan’s new book, Break The Mold: “Discernible transformation rarely happens when you’re confined to the past.” https://www.amazon.com/BREAK-MOLD-ACHIEVE-TRANSFORMATIONAL-SIMULTANEOUSLY/dp/B0FY4RJ2M3
Bravo, Alan! “The past should inform the future because the past is important to how you got here. But it shouldn’t restrict your ability to active those transformational steps towards the future.” —Alan Whitman
“We need to permanently change the model and that’s only going to happen at scale if somebody has the guts to break the mold.” —Alan Whitman

Segment three

Here’s an example of how Alan was able to affect change in a large firm: “I guaranteed somebody’s compensation for a couple years because I needed them to change out of what was comfortable.” Now THAT is a risk worth taking when you understand your strategy and where the firm is headed.
“We’re always afraid of what we’re going to lose versus excited about what we’re going to gain.” —Alan Whitman
Peter Drucker never said, “What you can measure, you can manage.” What Drucker did say is what you measure you’ll get. Good and hard. Even it if ruins your business.
“That’s the one thing in professional services, in less mature organizations, that I’ve found. Oftentimes, people let things happen to them.” —Alan Whitman

Segment four

From Alan’s website: What it Means to BREAK THE MOLD™ https://www.alandwhitman.com/newsletter/what-it-means-to-break-the-mold
“BREAK THE MOLD™ is in essence, a clarion call. It came about during my time at Baker Tilly as we were facing the pandemic and noticing the challenges it introduced highlighted many of the antiquated ways CPA firms (including us) were operating. It was an extreme example of the ways we've always worked being disrupted. We couldn't continue with ‘business as usual’. So I asked our team to be willing to BREAK THE MOLD™.” More here: https://www.alandwhitman.com/newsletter/what-it-means-to-break-the-mold
A big THANK YOU to Alan Whitman for joining us today. Take a look at some of those amazing quotes we pulled out for the show notes. If you like them, check out his new book: Break The Mold https://www.amazon.com/BREAK-MOLD-ACHIEVE-TRANSFORMATIONAL-SIMULTANEOUSLY/dp/B0FY4RJ2M3

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