GREG'S PYRAMID OF SUCCESS
“The Pyramid of Success” model was built by Greg Barber, CPA as a tool to be used by leaders within public accounting firms when attempting to build and integrate non-traditional services into their firm’s service offerings. Greg’s nearly thirty years of experience either building and leading these efforts as a non-traditional practice leader or managing partner of two large firms is the backbone of knowledge and wisdom drawn upon for this model’s creation.
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PYRAMID OF SUCCESS
Integrated Non-Traditional
Services Practice
STRONG MARKET DIFFERENTIATING PRACTICE
Greg chose the structure of a pyramid to draw parallelisms to as a means to better understand what it takes to build and sustain a practice of this nature for the following reasons:
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A pyramid is built with layers of blocks that set on top of each other with the lower layers being larger and stronger than the ones above. And the ones on top of the ones blow are totally dependent on those they rest upon as well as adjacent to them for stability. If not constructed in this manner, it would be quite difficult for the structure to be erected, and even if possible, pass the test of time. Likewise, the foundational two layers or tiers in Greg’s pyramid of “Culture/Beliefs/ Values” and “Supporting Systems and Disciplines” contain the building blocks within an accounting firm that are also very important to the firm’s mere existence, let alone being most important to the building and sustaining process of new services. Quite often, firms simply bring new talent in without considering foundational firmwide components, and as a result, even when new talent is very good, the new practice fails. So, it is important to make sure the foundational building blocks in this model’s first two tiers are at least being considered and strengthened when building new practices.
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Just like when building a beautiful structure such as a pyramid, the goal is to build the entire structure so as to admire the beauty, work and functionality at the top and all around it. The same is true when building new services. The goal is to build a strong, beautiful practice with properly leveraged talent that has great functionality and value to clients resulting in strong market brand recognition that passes the test of time.
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And finally, just like it is at times when building a pyramid, one has to plan ahead and put a few blocks in place above before one can solidify the final placement of certain blocks below. Quite often when a firm begins building new services, they need to bring in talent and do some things before all blocks below are set into final place. This approach is honestly the best way to go about building new services as it helps solidify the vision and approach to what needs to be built by bringing in the needed talent to help complete the build. However, if a firm forgets to continue working on solidifying the building blocks below, the practice will most likely tumble and fall.