CEO Glenn Friedman was a featured presenter at the 4th Annual Accounting Today Growth & Profitability Summit, held October 20-22 at the Hilton Orlando.
The Summit is considered one of the accounting profession’s premier learning events. This year’s theme was Add More Profit to Your Practice and featured a roster of speakers and presenters on timely topics including new tax developments, must-have technology, best practices in practice management, staffing strategies, and the latest developments in accounting firm mergers & acquisitions (M&A).
Naturally, Glenn was an excellent choice to speak on the topic of M&As, having helped lead the successful combination of our two firms earlier this year.
Glenn’s co-presenter was Ronald L. Loberfeld, Principal and Managing Partner of Abrams Little-Gill Loberfeld PC of Chesnut Hill, MA. Their presentation, entitled MPs on M&A, discussed the potential challenges and critical steps to take pre- and post-merger to ensure a successful transition.
Glenn focused on the “post-merger” portion of the presentation and, drawing from his recent first-hand experience, discussed several factors to consider in determining if the merging firms will be a good fit. These factors include “soft” elements such as corporate culture, philosophy, and people, as well as “hard” elements such as location, IT and the move itself. Although soft elements typically create more challenges, Glenn stressed that all post-merger work should begin pre-merger in order for the integration to be a success.
The presentation ended with a question-and-answer session that touched on the risks, rewards, and opportunities that M&As can provide.
This is the first time that Glenn has been invited to present at the summit.