All posts in Knowledge management

Energy Farming

by cfarmand on February 22, 2012 in Change is coming, CPA Fun, Firm of the Future, FPA, Greg Kyte = badass, Jacksonville CPA, Knowledge management, Trash the Timesheet with No comments


Last week, I had the opportunity to hear Jim Cederna speak. The majority of Jim’s talk focused on his fundamental approach to change.
Executive Summary:

Financial Success comes from two places:
1) Ecstatic Customers
2) World Class Operations

How do you achieve those?
1) With a Plan
2) The right People
3) Productive team environment

The talk went into great details on the 3 P’s and many awesome examples were given.
Thanks Jim!

Ok, so here’s the deal. Many of you may or may not know, I struggle with the “people” part of the equation. (When I say people, I am talking about the team, not customers) Its the truth, I am not going to deny it; some people say I have a harsh(er) delivery than most. I never fluff reality; I get straight to the point. Last week my “a-ha” moment came when Jim suggested that we lead our team with strengths and surround our self with the opposite. What a simple idea!! Two Chris’s in the same office would be a challenge. This got me thinking, what are Chris Farmand’s strengths? I came up with: Caring, Charmer, Listener, Selling, Comforter, Witty, Clever, Sees the world from 30k feet, Energy cultivator.

So here it is people………..

I am a energy farmer looking to align myself with people who can process energy into RESULTS.

Can ya feel me?

ps: We are hiring :)

pss: Share your strengths below

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IC Opportunities

by cfarmand on February 14, 2012 in Brain Mojo, Change is coming, CPA Fun, Engagement Agreement, Firm of the Future, IC Opportunities, Jacksonville CPA, Jason Blumer, Knowledge management, Tax, Technology, Thriveal, Trash the Timesheet with 3 Comments

I spent the last 48 hour in chilly Chicago with a group of thought leaders who command attention in the accounting arena. Jody Padar organized the first annual (maybe quarterly) IC Opportunities Event which brought together practitioners, vendors, media, marketers, state societies to discuss the direction of the profession. Greg Kyte, our resident comedian, welcomed us with a colorful keynote. Vendors in attendance included representatives from Intuit, Thomson Reuters, Wolters Kluwer, Sharra Chan of Orange Door, Jennifer Warawa of Sage, Kasey Bayne of Freshbooks, Sarah Johnson of Inovautus, Peter Wolf of Azamba Consulting, Kathleen Echeverria of bill.com, Tamera Loerzel of Convergence Coaching and Michael Redisch of Cloudsway. Our media friends were Danielle Lee of Accounting Tomorrow and Rick Telberg of CPA Trendlines. Oh, and how can I forget, Jackie Brown representing the MACPA, only the COOLEST state society in the land.

Jody started the brain dump bright and early with a discuss on “the Gap.” The four areas we focused on were Mobile, Could, Social, and Project Management. In groups, we discussed the external and internal forces that prevent firms from adopting. The discussion moved to suggestions on how the four areas could gain more traction with the traditional firms. In the afternoon Geni Whitehouse, Jason Blumer Kasey, Sharra, and Joe Manzelli moderated deeper round table talks on Social, Cloud, and Project Management.

I was honored to be invited to an event like this. I was so happy to leave the comfort of my office, during tax season, and engage my brain in the future of accounting. My take-aways from the event were; the profession is moving in a direction to offer creative services above and beyond the traditional “tax-man” services. Acceptance of cloud and mobile technology will be a must for these services to flourish.

Jody, when is the next one?

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Knowledge Management?

by cfarmand on November 2, 2011 in Brain Mojo, Change is coming, Engagement Agreement, Firm of the Future, FPA, Jacksonville CPA, Knowledge management with 2 Comments

When I first heard the term knowledge management I thought to myself; great, one more buzz phrase to add to the list.  Static this, tacit who?  Reverse please:

I am a simple guy.  I like simple things.  I enjoy taking complex ideas and simplifying them so they can be understood.  The conversion from complex to human is an important one, because once I can understand it, the word can flow into the streets.

My research of Knowledge Management turned up a number of explanations and ideas, all being complex.  I also uncovered that knowledge management was more than a business buzz; it kinda separates the entrepreneurs from business owners.  Lets get started.

Literature on the topic usually refer to two types of knowledge: static and tacit.
Stop.  For this post the two types of knowledge I am going to talk about are: textbooks and brain mojo.  For our scholars out there, textbooks translate into static knowledge, and brain mojo translates to the ever so sexy tacit knowledge.  Textbooks and brain mojo, textbooks and brain mojo, say it with me, please

Textbooks, or static knowledge, is the information we process into knowledge from the resources all around us.  School, textbooks, IRS websites, PDF’s, magazines, white-papers, case studies etc.  This knowledge is available to anyone who wants it.  Its not a secret, it is literally what has been published for people to read and process.  Textbook knowledge is great because just like a textbook, if you forget it or need to reference it, just look it up.

Brain Mojo, or tacit knowledge, is the information that makes the world tick.  I refer to it as Brain Mojo, because unlike textbooks, someones Brain Mojo is rarely published for others use.  Even if we did a better job publishing Brain Mojo, I believe only a few could benefit from it.  Brain Mojo perpetuates entrepreneurship.   An appropriate example to illustrate someones phenomenal Brain Mojo would be the late Steve Jobs.  I have heard the critics call Mr. Jobs controlling, degrading, genius, perfectionist, among other names.  These labels Mr. Jobs accumulated throughout his career are a direct result of his Brain Mojo.  His Brain Mojo, directed, created, edited, criticized, and complemented everything that came out of Apple.  Some say he left a road map for Apple to follow for the years to come.  Let me be clear here, a road map is not Brain Mojo, so it is left to be seen if the current leader at Apple can carry on Mr. Jobs legacy.

Since textbooks are already in circulation, some say it is important to try and capture the Brain Mojo to pass on.  I am not sure it is that easy.  I understand manuals, policies, and trade secrets can be documented, but I believe the Mojo is something deeper.

Your thoughts?

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