Golden Practices Blog

Christmas Decorating Contest Wonderful for Morale

Just got back from Cayman Islands where I had the privilege of working with Deloitte.

I was warned prior to arriving at their office that their "audit department is, uh, having a Christmas decorating contest, and it is over the top."

"How cool!" I thought.

And I was truly impressed. Not just with the degree to which they took their decorations, but with the enthusiasm and energy that the whole contest had generated among all their people from admin team members to partners.

They divided the floor into four teams (quadrants) and they went crazy.

They were kind enough to permit me to take some photos and, honestly, these photos don't do it justice!

With all the recent hullabaloo about the PCness of celebrating Christmas, it is refreshing to see that even major organizations that epitomize diversity are truly in the spirit of the holidays (all of them).

In the proud words of one of the auditors, "There's so much Christmas spirit in our office, it looks like Christmas vomit." 

Always interested in process, I asked, "Who is judging?" "Is there a prize?" "Who do you think will win?"

No one really had an answer and it hit me that it didn't really matter. Though the teams are highly competitive, they weren't competing to win, they were competing to have the most fun...

Awesome.

If you're looking for a fun idea to liven spirits next December, I strongly recommend a decorating contest!

CPA Firm Marketing Salaries On The Rise (Finally!)

Julie Lindy, Editor of INSIDE Public Accounting, has shared some marketing salary statistics within the accounting profession. With her permission, I'm posting them here:

CPA Firm Marketing Director Average Salary (by region)

Atlantic/SE region (AL, DE, FL, GA, KY, LA, MD, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV): $76,240
Great Lakes region (IL, IN, MI, OH, WI): $72,936
Northeast region (CT, ME, MA, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT): $96,665
Plains & SW region (AR, IA, MN, MO, NE, ND, OK, SD, TX): $69,986
West region (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, NM, OR, UT, WA, WY): $83,588

CPA Firm Marketing Director Average Salary (other demographics in IPA's study)
IPA Best of the Best Firms: $97,063
100 Largest Non-National Firms in the U.S.: $93,053
All Firms Participating in IPA's 2005 Annual Analysis of Firms: $83,242

CPA Firm Marketing Coordinator Average Salary (by region)

Atlantic/SE region (AL, DE, FL, GA, KY, LA, MD, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV): $45,939
Great Lakes region (IL, IN, MI, OH, WI): $44,828
Northeast region (CT, ME, MA, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT): $52,039
Plains & SW region (AR, IA, MN, MO, NE, ND, OK, SD, TX): $42,240
West region (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, NM, OR, UT, WA, WY): $47,812

CPA Firm Marketing Coordinator Average Salary (other demographics in IPA's study)

Marketing Coordinator salary at IPA's "Best of the Best" firms: $55,431
Avg. Marketing Coordinator salary at the nation's 100 largest non-national firms: $51,349
Avg. Marketing Coordinator salary at all firms participating in IPA's survey: $47,243

I encourage you to obtain IPA's full Benchmarking Report if you are interested on comparing "average" firms with "best of the best" firms (those outstanding in profitability and performance). It is not a coincidence that the most outstanding firms are those also investing more in marketing talent...

Stonefield Josephson Does it Again

Lyne Noella, Director of Corporate Strategy, and her team at this creative California accounting firm have put together a classy print version of recipes--taking the recipe featured of their cool back porch to yet another level.

Cudos, Stonefield Josephson, for continuing to show the human side of your firm's professionals!

It really works.

Photo courtesy of Bodine's post detailing the features of the cookbook.

Picked Up in Dutch!

How awesome is this??

A new Dutch blog called Enthousiasmeren posted about my recent writing tip: What's the Right Ratio of You to We: Taking the Ego Out of Your Content.

Unfortunately, not being fluent in Dutch, I could only make out a word here or there until I used this great website translator by World Lingo.

Anyway, I'm not sure of the name of the person who posted, but dank u zeer for picking up this blog and for your nice comment about my blog's name: Golden Practices. :-)

Doing Business Abroad: Need-to-Know Etiquette

Here is a great resource for cultural tips including do's, don'ts and even appropriate attire:

http://www.cyborlink.com/besite/  scroll down to view by country

Why is this important? Cultural understanding can be the difference between success or failure in a business dealing.

As an American--

...do you know which cultures consider it entirely inappropriate or rude for men to stand with their hand in their pocket?

...do you know how to show proper respect, rather ceremoniously, in the exchange of business cards with a Japanese person?

...do you know which cultures frown upon women wearing slacks or crossing their legs?

...are you conscious of ensuring no one can see the bottoms of your shoes in Russian or Saudi Arabian cultures?

Learn how and when to present a gift--and when not to, how to behave in public, tips as to how decisions are made, what to expect as far as eye contact and body language, and much more.

This other site offers a handful of examples of multi-cultural business situations gone bad, and why.

Effective Communications: 5 Tips for Writing in the 2000's

These days, to capture someone's attention and make your point, you don't have much time.

Given the rising demands found in conducting business in "real-time" today, we are becoming a rather attention deficit society. Business owners and professional service providers, take heed. This applies to you, too.

Whether writing an internal memo, correspondence with a customer, an article (non-academic type) or copy for a marketing initiative, or even a blog, there are new standards for writing these days.

5 EASY TIPS:

1. Sentence Length.  Average sentence length should be less than 14 words. The shorter the opening sentence, the better...8-10 words is really good. (oops, I went over...thanks for sticking with me anyway, tho)
2. Paragraph Length. Aim for less than 6 lines of text and/or a max of 3 sentences in a paragraph, just 2 if one of the sentences is pretty long.
3. Reverse Your Order. State your point right off, don't leave it for the finale. Most people will never get there. The way we were taught to write in school--with our conclusion at the end--doesn't work anymore.
4. Break it Up! Separate sentences to emphasize them and give the reader's eye a white-space break. It's okay to continue/substantiate a point in the next paragraph.
5. KISS. Apply the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid (no offense...). Use the smallest words possible to make your point such as "use" vs. "utilize." Don't put your readers to sleep with long strings of long words...it makes them work too hard.