May 2016, New York – Eric Mulchaey and William Vasil of Ary Roepcke Mulchaey, P.C. (“ARM”) were among the 175 accounting firm members attending BKR International’s Americas Regional Meeting in Toronto, May 20-24.  ARM is a member of BKR International, a Top 5 leading global association of independent accounting and business advisory firms. For more than 25 years, BKR has connected members and their clients with global experts and resources.

Keynote speaker Jennifer Wilson, of ConvergenceCoaching, discussed innovative strategies on developing an inspired and motivated team of professionals, while Wendy Nemitz, co-founder of Ingenuity Marketing Group, presented techniques for identifying, qualifying and keeping the best clients.  Both consultants agreed that having the right clients goes hand-in-hand with keeping the right talent.

“Since people will always be the lifeblood of every organization, our Americas Regional Conference featured panels and experts sharing ideas on innovative ways to recruit, train, and retain the best staff,” said David Goldner, Chairman of BKR’s American Region and managing partner of Gross, Mendelsohn & Associates, in Baltimore.  “We also learned how a firm’s clients can have a significant impact on our ability to retain people.  We must ask ourselves, ‘Are we adding these clients because they fit with our firm based on a clear strategy, or is the decision purely a financial one?’ It’s an important question to ask, especially for firms having trouble retaining staff.”

Other topics included professional updates by officers of both the American Institute of CPAs and CPA Canada, as well as technical and technology updates to keep members on the cutting edge of key legislative developments and technology trends.

Consultant Carl George, of Carl George Advisory, analyzed the results of BKR’s annual management report – its 2016 Member Firm Analysis –  one of the industry’s most comprehensive surveys of accounting firms and available only to BKR members.  The Analysis covers a wide variety of management, profitability, and innovative information and benchmarking statistics that BKR members can use to implement and improve strategies in their own firm.

“Collaboration at BKR meetings has always been our greatest strength,” said BKR Executive Director Maureen Schwartz. “Our members genuinely care about one another other and are always happy to help each other.  And, BKR’s policy of allowing only one member firm in each principal city or market area has clearly demonstrated our commitment to insure that our members share information and ideas with their peers, not their competitors.”

Eric Mulchaey said, “Our firm leaders always come back from BKR conferences with new ideas on how to help our clients and grow our firm, from new tax planning ideas and resources to help us better understand our clients’ businesses, to consultants who can pull it all together so that we can hit the ground running instead of trying to recreate the wheel from scratch.  Content covers technical and management issues, as well as leadership development and staffing trends to keep our profession strong.  But, at the end of the day it is up to us to go back to our firms and actually implement these new ideas and strategies.  Collaboration and innovation in themselves are only a small part of the equation – they must be followed up by execution for the firm to move forward and be successful.”

About ARM

Ary Roepcke Mulchaey makes it a point to know your markets, capabilities and expectations so that we can anticipate and respond to your rapidly changing business needs. We have the experience, resources and knowledge to build on your organization’s assets while ensuring that your values and vision drive the process.

Responsive, resourceful and practical, we are always looking out for your interests and providing proactive advice, often ahead of market trends. We measure our success by one essential benchmark – client satisfaction. We pride ourselves on the number of long-term relationships we have with our clients, many of whom have been with our firm since our founding in 1979.

About BKR

BKR International is one of the Top 5 leading global associations of independent accounting and business advisory firms, representing the expertise of more than 160 independent accounting and business advisory firms in over 500 offices and 80 countries. For more information, visit: www.bkr.com.