ASCPA and ABA Joint Mixer

I had the privilege of attending the joint mixer with the Arizona Society of CPAs and the State Bar of Arizona that was held at the Tempe Center for the Arts yesterday evening. As always the ASCPA staff hosted a fantastic event. They were greeting people at the door and mingling and making introductions throughout [...]

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Carolyn Sechler, CPA, honored by Alzheimer’s Foundation

CPAs in the community make a difference every day. Carolyn Sechler, CPA, was honored on October 13 by the Alzheimer’s Research & Prevention Foundation for her more than 10 years of service to this organization based in Tucson: www.AlzheimersPrevention.org.
Carolyn shared her passion for supporting this organization’s work to prevent Alzheimer’s disease without drugs when she [...]

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When was the last time you had a really good conversation?

One of my clients invited Margaret Wheatley to present at an all day conference.  The focus was on using conversation to build relationships that produce positive results.

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Free yourself and minimize duplication.

I am slightly embarrassed to say that I studied 5 investment statements of a new client for over 6 hours.  Before the 2nd hour was up I called Smith Barney to make sure I was reading them correctly.  I was also trying to understand the value of hours spent rekeying statement data into a spreadsheet.

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Changes to Arizona’s Anti-Deficiency Law

I received the information copied below from Scott Stein, who is a real estate attorney I know and thought it was worth sharing. All of us have clients or know someone who has been affected by the current real estate crisis, and this is valuable information on changes in the law.
Substantial changes to Arizona’s anti-deficiency [...]

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Loyalty – You Tell Me

“Dogs are loyal, cats are satisfied,” observed Jim Kane, http://jameskane.com/. He then expanded on his comment during a presentation I attended last week. “Loyalty does not equal satisfaction.  Loyalty is about the future. Satisfaction is about the past.”
Listening intently during Jim’s two hour presentation, I came to realize that it’s essential for the ASCPA to [...]

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Medical Analysis By Milton Friedman

My good friend and Phoenix-based economist Barry Asmus Ph.D. has continually repeated these ideas from Milton Friedman as it relates to national health care for years.
Medical Analysis By Milton Friedman
Forbes.com, by Peter Robinson, 06.19.09, 12:01 AM EDT
Insights of old should inform health care today.
President Obama, the press, all the Democrats and a fair number of [...]

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Marketing for Professionals

My personal friend & professional colleague Ike Devji wrote these articles for Advisor Today magazine.  These marketing ideas are simple, easy-to-implement and will produce dramatic results if you follow them consistently.  As we carry out our daily tasks, we sometimes forget to do the one thing that is guaranteed to keep us in business: marketing.
Ike [...]

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ASCPA Contest – How do you pay for your membership? Win a $50 Amazon.com gift card

In this tough economy, we know people have to get creative to pay for things. We are looking for your stories of how you pay for your membership with your ASCPA benefits or if your employer pays, how you show them they get $175 or more of value from your membership.
Example: I took advantage of [...]

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Strategic Intent vs. Strategic Planning

Hamel and Prahalad indicate in their 2005 article titled Strategic Intent that few western companies have been able to implement strategic intent in their organizations despite deploying considerable resources for corporate strategic planning. To consider why this might be true it is first necessary to look at the differences in methodologies. Strategic planning determines how [...]

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