Opportunity Season Starts Today!
As we begin a new year with new promises, we want to focus on opportunities that will translate directly into your inspired career, opportunities to better serve our clients, and CLA’s new focus on social responsibility.
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Transcript
As we begin a new year with new promises, we want to focus on opportunities that will translate directly into your inspired career, opportunities to better serve our clients, and CLA’s new focus on social responsibility.
[00:00:02]
Narrator: Welcome to “Own the Promise,” a CLA podcast created to share what guides every decision we make and every relationship we cultivate.
[00:00:15]
Denny: Hello, CLA family. This is Denny coming to you at the beginning of 2019. I hope everyone had some great time at the end of 2018 to relax, enjoy some time with your family and friends, and really an opportunity to sit back and hopefully appreciate the incredible great year that CLA had in 2018.
[00:00:41]
I want to again thank all of you for the efforts that were put in to make this a great firm, and not only great results but really moving the culture of CLA and the CLA family. I also want to look at 2019 and update you on some of the wonderful things that are happening here very soon. Probably within the next day or so you will be receiving — our clients will be receiving and our alumni will be receiving — our CLA Promise Report for 2018.
[00:00:54]
Really recapping all of the tremendous things that had happened in 2018 and also the look ahead at 2019. Please read that if you would. Watch some of the embedded videos. It’s an opportunity, I think, to get better informed as to what has truly happened within CLA and better prepare all of you to not only speak with your clients but speak with the people in your communities and also our people across the country.
[00:01:44]
So please take a look at that CLA Promise Report. Also as we enter into January, we are entering into opportunity season. As you know in ‘18 we finished up with the summer at CLA and we headed into the promise season, and now in January of ‘19 we’re headed into our opportunity season. What does that really mean? It’s really an opportunity season — one for all of us, our people — it’s really designed to be a very inspirational season.
[00:02:16]
It is called opportunity season because we want to reflect on what opportunities could be available for really your inspired careers. You know, every time we have an opportunity to do more for our clients, more service opportunities, that should translate directly into your inspired careers and building opportunities for that. So we hope that that clearly happens during opportunity season.
[00:02:43]
What about for our clients? Well, what we’re really gonna be looking at in opportunity season for our clients is really an idea that we’re not done serving our client until the opportunity is found. In other words, in every compliance, even if it’s beyond compliance opportunity we have to serve, we’re gonna be looking as where is that opportunity, and have we found that opportunity for our client?
[00:03:14]
We serve over 150,000 clients, so that’s 150,000 opportunities that we should be creating during this season. And then of course continued focus on our communities, not only through the CLA foundation, which I hope gets kicked off to a very fast start in 2019, but also what we’re going to be doing is kicking off really the start of CLA social responsibility.
[00:03:43]
We’re gonna be putting together a group as one of the priorities for 2019, a group to develop a very formal social responsibility — for right now let’s call it a document, a statement. We’ll develop this in 2019 to really help us all focus on what is CLA’s social responsibility? Where do we stand on it? What can we all get behind as a CLA family regarding that responsibility?
[00:04:14]
So I mentioned, not only in the CLA Promise Report, but also one of the priorities for 2019, being around creating opportunities for our communities, that gets into really engaging this family to elevate our social impact or that social responsibility. The leaders of CLA also came together later in ‘18 and developed the rest of the priorities for 2019.
[00:04:43]
There are seven of them altogether. I just mentioned one, creating the opportunities for our communities. There’s also gonna be the repeated priority from ‘18 about creating opportunities for our clients. That needs to be repeated, because really advancing the seamless experience for our clients is still something that we have not accomplished to the level that I believe we can do within CLA.
[00:05:13]
I think our opportunities in advancing our seamless capabilities is absolutely endless. And there’s still too many examples across the country, too many examples across our industries, where we’re really not, I would say, accomplishing that to the level that we could. We had the great results, but the opportunity in this area, again, is endless. So that remains an opportunity.
[00:05:41]
Also another one that’s really carried over from ‘18 is creating opportunities for our people. Inspire careers for today and tomorrow. I think the area that we need to make the most progress in ‘19 and why this remains a priority is our coaching. I think this is the area that probably has the most opportunity for us.
[00:06:05]
All of us as coaches throughout the CLA family, really picking it up, really committing ourselves to be the best coaches we can be for our people and really making sure that this inspired careers concept is something that happens for everyone within CLA. Another one is the one firm; work as one family. I think again as we sit here in January, we also want to welcome our new friends in Wisconsin that have just joined us.
[00:06:38]
And I think this is an area that really pertains to them, probably as much if not more than the rest of the country, because they’re new and sticking together as one firm, figuring out how to deliver all of the capability of CLAs to those new clients, how to integrate as one firm, is obviously a very big challenge, not only a priority for Wisconsin, but again a priority for the rest of the firm that we stick together as one firm in 2019 and beyond.
[00:07:13]
Another priority is embracing and executing innovation. Last year, we were more trying to identify the “where is the disruption within the marketplace within our industry?” We think we’re beyond that. And so the priority for ‘19 is to really embrace it and execute on this innovation, really driving innovation as a competitive advantage.
[00:07:39]
Another priority is expanding the CLA brand. I know all of you, except for that just joined in January, experienced really the rollout of the CLA brand. We want to accelebrate that brand recognition. We all know there’s a tremendous ways we can go in taking the CLA brand and taking not only the CLA logo which you see all over the place but now the CLA symbol of the bicycle and taking that to levels that none of us can really imagine at this point.
[00:08:15]
We need to continue to leave that as a priority in 2019 and hopefully make great progress. And the seventh and final priority for 2019 is really what we hope just reinforces our foundation, and that’s continue to think about security and quality in everything we do.
[00:08:38]
And those two really are elevated to the same level, meaning security issues across the firm, all those things we know of, of watching the phishing emails, watching our computer security, watching just everything we do to make sure that we remain secure within CLA for all of us as well as our clients. And then quality I think we’ve done a tremendous job as a firm, elevating this quality. But we have to continue to concentrate on that each and every day.
[00:09:12]
So those seven priorities really can all be identified as ways that we can elevate and accelerate in 2019. And that is really what we’re attempting to do. The theme of 2019 is to take this great year we had in 2018 and say, how can we make 2019 even a greater year?
And that is by elevating and accelerating all of these priorities within CLA. You’re gonna hear more about these priorities. There’s gonna be a lot of work done on that, but just as a start in ‘19, let’s think about the opportunity season. Once again, spend some time with the CLA Promise report from 2018, and really let’s all commit as the CLA family.
[00:10:08]
We have the opportunity in 2019 to make this even a greater year than what we experienced in 2018. There should be nothing preventing us within CLA from accomplishing this. But obviously it takes a lot of hard work. It takes a lot of commitment, and it really just needs all of us to say to one another, what can we individually do to impact that CLA family?
[00:10:36]
And as I’ve said many, many times, don’t ever underestimate what you as an individual can do and the impact that you can have on elevating and accelerating CLA in 2019. Happy New Year to everyone, and I am extremely excited about this year. I hope all of you are as well. Thank you, and have a great day.
[music out]
-END-
Narrator: Welcome to “Own the Promise,” a CLA podcast created to share what guides every decision we make and every relationship we cultivate.
[00:00:15]
Denny: Hello, CLA family. This is Denny coming to you at the beginning of 2019. I hope everyone had some great time at the end of 2018 to relax, enjoy some time with your family and friends, and really an opportunity to sit back and hopefully appreciate the incredible great year that CLA had in 2018.
[00:00:41]
I want to again thank all of you for the efforts that were put in to make this a great firm, and not only great results but really moving the culture of CLA and the CLA family. I also want to look at 2019 and update you on some of the wonderful things that are happening here very soon. Probably within the next day or so you will be receiving–our clients will be receiving and our alumni will be receiving–our CLA Promise Report for 2018.
[00:00:54]
Really recapping all of the tremendous things that had happened in 2018 and also the look ahead at 2019. Please read that if you would. Watch some of the embedded videos. It’s an opportunity, I think, to get better informed as to what has truly happened within CLA and better prepare all of you to not only speak with your clients but speak with the people in your communities and also our people across the country.
[00:01:44]
So please take a look at that CLA Promise Report. Also as we enter into January, we are entering into opportunity season. As you know in ’18 we finished up with the summer at CLA and we headed into the promise season, and now in January of ’19 we’re headed into our opportunity season. What does that really mean? It’s really an opportunity season–one for all of us, our people–it’s really designed to be a very inspirational season.
[00:02:16]
It is called opportunity season because we want to reflect on what opportunities could be available for really your inspired careers. You know, every time we have an opportunity to do more for our clients, more service opportunities, that should translate directly into your inspired careers and building opportunities for that. So we hope that that clearly happens during opportunity season.
[00:02:43]
What about for our clients? Well, what we’re really gonna be looking at in opportunity season for our clients is really an idea that we’re not done serving our client until the opportunity is found. In other words, in every compliance, even if it’s beyond compliance opportunity we have to serve, we’re gonna be looking as where is that opportunity, and have we found that opportunity for our client?
[00:03:14]
We serve over 150,000 clients, so that’s 150,000 opportunities that we should be creating during this season. And then of course continued focus on our communities, not only through the CLA foundation, which I hope gets kicked off to a very fast start in 2019, but also what we’re going to be doing is kicking off really the start of CLA social responsibility.
[00:03:43]
We’re gonna be putting together a group as one of the priorities for 2019, a group to develop a very formal social responsibility–for right now let’s call it a document, a statement. We’ll develop this in 2019 to really help us all focus on what is CLA’s social responsibility? Where do we stand on it? What can we all get behind as a CLA family regarding that responsibility?
[00:04:14]
So I mentioned, not only in the CLA Promise Report, but also one of the priorities for 2019, being around creating opportunities for our communities, that gets into really engaging this family to elevate our social impact or that social responsibility. The leaders of CLA also came together later in ’18 and developed the rest of the priorities for 2019.
[00:04:43]
There are seven of them altogether. I just mentioned one, creating the opportunities for our communities. There’s also gonna be the repeated priority from ’18 about creating opportunities for our clients. That needs to be repeated, because really advancing the seamless experience for our clients is still something that we have not accomplished to the level that I believe we can do within CLA.
[00:05:13]
I think our opportunities in advancing our seamless capabilities is absolutely endless. And there’s still too many examples across the country, too many examples across our industries, where we’re really not, I would say, accomplishing that to the level that we could. We had the great results, but the opportunity in this area, again, is endless. So that remains an opportunity.
[00:05:41]
Also another one that’s really carried over from ’18 is creating opportunities for our people. Inspire careers for today and tomorrow. I think the area that we need to make the most progress in ’19 and why this remains a priority is our coaching. I think this is the area that probably has the most opportunity for us.
[00:06:05]
All of us as coaches throughout the CLA family, really picking it up, really committing ourselves to be the best coaches we can be for our people and really making sure that this inspired careers concept is something that happens for everyone within CLA. Another one is the one firm; work as one family. I think again as we sit here in January, we also want to welcome our new friends in Wisconsin that have just joined us.
[00:06:38]
And I think this is an area that really pertains to them, probably as much if not more than the rest of the country, because they’re new and sticking together as one firm, figuring out how to deliver all of the capability of CLAs to those new clients, how to integrate as one firm, is obviously a very big challenge, not only a priority for Wisconsin, but again a priority for the rest of the firm that we stick together as one firm in 2019 and beyond.
[00:07:13]
Another priority is embracing and executing innovation. Last year, we were more trying to identify the “where is the disruption within the marketplace within our industry?” We think we’re beyond that. And so the priority for ’19 is to really embrace it and execute on this innovation, really driving innovation as a competitive advantage.
[00:07:39]
Another priority is expanding the CLA brand. I know all of you, except for that just joined in January, experienced really the rollout of the CLA brand. We want to accelebrate that brand recognition. We all know there’s a tremendous ways we can go in taking the CLA brand and taking not only the CLA logo which you see all over the place but now the CLA symbol of the bicycle and taking that to levels that none of us can really imagine at this point.
[00:08:15]
We need to continue to leave that as a priority in
2019 and hopefully make great progress. And the seventh and final priority for 2019 is really what we hope just reinforces our foundation, and that’s continue to think about security and quality in everything we do.
[00:08:38]
And those two really are elevated to the same level, meaning security issues across the firm, all those things we know of, of watching the fishing emails, watching our computer security, watching just everything we do to make sure that we remain secure within CLA for all of us as well as our clients. And then quality I think we’ve done a tremendous job as a firm, elevating this quality. But we have to continue to concentrate on that each and every day.
[00:09:12]
So those seven priorities really can all be identified
as ways that we can elevate and accelerate in 2019. And that is really what we’re attempting to do. The theme of 2019 is to take this great year we had in 2018 and say, how can we make 2019 even a greater year?
And that is by elevating and accelerating all of these priorities within CLA. You’re gonna hear more about these priorities. There’s gonna be a lot of work done on that, but just as a start in ’19, let’s think about the opportunity season. Once again, spend some time with the CLA Promise report from 2018, and really let’s all commit as the CLA family.
[00:10:08]
We have the opportunity in 2019 to make this even
a greater year than what we experienced in 2018. There should be nothing preventing us within CLA from accomplishing this. But obviously it takes a lot of hard work. It takes a lot of commitment, and it really just needs all of us to say to one another, what can we individually do to impact that CLA family?
[00:10:36]
And as I’ve said many, many times, don’t ever underestimate what you as an individual can do and the impact that you can have on elevating and accelerating CLA in 2019. Happy New Year to everyone, and I am extremely excited about this year. I hope all of you are as well. Thank you, and have a great day.
[music out]
-END-
Denny is the chief executive officer of CLA. As he goes about his duties related to the oversight of CLA’s direction, operations, expansion, and strategy, he is also an enthusiastic ambassador for the CLA Promise. He is fully committed to the firm’s position as a professional services firm that delivers integrated wealth advisory, outsourcing, and audit, tax, and consulting capabilities to help our clients succeed professionally and personally.
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