Planning for the Future

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”

I think the majority of our members who recently came out of tax season can attest to Ben Franklin’s famous statement. Congratulations to you and thank you for your leadership during this time of unknowns and seemingly constant flux when it comes to the IRS and tax changes. 

Planning—whether it’s financial, career or, yes, making it through tax season—sets a course. If you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know when you get there?

A strategic plan also sets priorities for activities, defines accountability, identifies outcomes needed to thrive and provides the framework for ongoing decision making.

But simply having a plan doesn’t guarantee a win. Key to a strategic plan’s success is aligning your team on a vision or endpoint through conversations with those involved—from board members to the executive team to your organization’s team members—about outcomes, goals, trends, expectations, action items and everything in between.

This is the approach CalCPA is in the early stages of applying as we develop a course for the coming years.

In late March, CalCPA had a productive all-staff retreat to discuss our current realities, where we are as an organization, where we want to go and where to focus our efforts. We looked at drivers of change—from the perspective of both the association and CPA profession—and how we can best reinvent, optimize, evolve and transform as we provide value to our members, customers and strategic partners.

Each of us has a unique point of view and role to play in contributing to our success and it was wonderful to hear innovative ideas from CalCPA team members.

From here we’ll engage with and gain insights from board members, trustees and Council over the coming months to help refine our desired future state, values, outcomes and goals for the next three to five years.

And just as important as setting goals and priorities is deciding what not to pursue—or stop pursuing. As “Good to Great” author Jim Collins says, “If you have more than three priorities, then you don’t have any.”

Since we all know what happens to best laid plans, too, this isn’t a one-and-done process. We’ll be monitoring and tracking our plan annually to consider new developments or emerging trends, being nimble enough 
to move, if need. 

It’s an exciting time at CalCPA as we look to the future and chart our path forward. Stay tuned for updates as we build a stronger and more resilient organization to elevate our service to you and grow the profession.