The Exuberant Accountant - Scott Heintzelman

Eagle Scout Challenge

This week I attended the Keystone Area Council’s 34th Annual Eagle Scout Recognition Dinner.  At this dinner the 2008 Eagle Scouts are recognized and given a challenge by an honoree.  This year the chairperson for the event was Andrew Samuel (CEO of Graystone Bank) and the honoree was Robert Dietz (President/COO of Gannett Fleming).  As many people know, I am a very proud Eagle Scout and watching these young men receive this recognition is so moving.  I also love Eagle Scout challenges (here is one from Mike Rowe of the hit TV show Dirty Jobs).

Wenger’s Feed Mill

You can’t talk about Pennsylvania business without talking about its largest industry – agriculture.  But agriculture in PA is not all Amish horses and buggies.  It’s a huge, modern, enterprise with major manufacturing companies dedicated to serving the needs of modern farms.  One of those companies is my latest Organization that “Gets It”.  In the heart of Lancaster County farmland sits the small town of Rheems. And dominating the skyline of this little village is home base for Wenger’s Feed Mill with one of their six mill operations and also their corporate headquarters. 

 

Never Eat Alone - And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time

Never Eat Alone is a welcome addition to the networking books available since it presents concrete advice on the building of mutually beneficial relationships to assist you in all aspects of your life. In Never Eat Alone, marketing and sales consultant Keith Ferrazzi lays out the specific steps, and inner mind-set, that he uses to connect with thousands of colleagues, friends and associates.

The secret to accomplishing personal career objectives, Ferrazzi tells us, can be found in reaching out to other people. What distinguishes highly successful people from everyone else is the way they use the power of relationships so that everyone wins.

IGAF Worldwide – Benefits of an Industry Association

 Last week I posted about my trip to Utah and our IGAF Partner Leadership Conference.  It was a great trip and provided many benefits.  Many accounting firms belong to an accounting association, but surprisingly most do not.  Our executive director of IGAF wrote a nice post this week on his blog about getting the most out of an association membership.  I thought it was a nice post (and not just because he posted about my blog or our firm), but because he is correct.  The key to getting the most benefit is just participating and looking for ways to help others.  As Stephen Covey states in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Think: Win-Win.  When you join an association only trying to take, you will limit what you get. But when you join an association with the thought of helping others, you will be amazed at how much you get.

The Patriot News (Sunday Newspaper)

This week I had the privilege of speaking with Sharon Smith of The Patriot News.  She was doing a story on tax planning and since I do a lot of work with high net worth family business owners, the PICPA gave her my name.  I thought she did a very nice job with the article that was published today, titled Last-Minute Tax Planning Can Mean Happier Returns.  In light of the current downturn of the stock market and the current economic conditions, it is a very important time to do year end tax planning. This is why our firm has established a Private Client Services Group.  We want to make sure we are serving our clients at a high level and this will allow us to focus on helping families protect, enhance, and transfer their wealth and values.

Appalachian Health Care Human Resources Society

Today I spoke at the Appalachian Health Care Human Resources Society meeting.  I was invited to share my thoughts on employee engagement and the book First Break All the Rules.  I just love speaking on this topic.  If I can just influence one organization to change from this old school management (and treatment of employees as fixed assets) to this new school approach of treating employees like partners (as we do at McKonly & Asbury), I will have succeeded.  I hoped to give these human resource professionals some speaking points and a real life example to take back to management on why this is a good business practice.  This new approach will not work without support from the top.  As they say, “the flavor of the sundae starts at the top.”  This approach requires that managers define the “right outcome” rather than the “right steps.”  Jim Collins spoke of this in his book Good to Great. His research indicated that great organizations had a culture of discipline and did not have lots of rules and instructions.

 

 

 

 

IGAF Worldwide (An Association of Independent Accounting Firms)

I am currently in Salt Lake City, Utah, attending the 2008 Partner Leadership Conference.  Our firm has been a member of IGAF for about 10 years and this week is a key leader’s conference.  Firms from all over North America (and many from around the world) get together to share best practices, compare metrics and learn how to build a better firm for the future.