A Mosaic of Perspectives

Ray Kroc, a one-time milkshake machine salesman from Chicago who took a flyer on a small burger operation in San Bernardino, Calif., operated by two brothers named McDonald and transformed it into one of the largest global brands in history, harbored an immovable theory on assembling a management team.

Long before the overused term “diversity” made its way into the American lexicon, Kroc was steadfast in his opinion of having different views on strategies and operations.

“If I have two executives who think alike, I don’t need one of them,” he would succinctly utter.

And considering the 60-year growth and success of the world’s largest hamburger chain, it’s rather pointless to argue with Kroc’s management mantra.

You don’t have to be business and achievement gurus on the order of Stephen Covey or Jim Collins to realize that whether it’s the management team, shareholders or the rank and file employees – more often than not the end results are better when different voices are taken into account.

Now the accounting profession has rarely been a trailblazer in many areas – in fact, it’s historically lagged behind the legal and medical professions in such areas as technology and brand promotion to name two.

And its advances in the recruiting and retaining of minorities have been moving at a somewhat glacial pace.

But consider this: if you gathered 20 CPAs from 20 different firms in a room and challenged them with a problem – I would venture to guess you’d get more than one opinion on its solution.

Perhaps more firms need to challenge the status quo and throw a brick or two at the conventional thought matrix.

I’m dating myself but I remember the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. For generations, the tried and true method of performing the high jump was the traditional “scissor kick” (the lead leg over the bar first and then the trail leg.) However, along came a competitor from the U.S. – Richard Fosbury, who, to the amazement of everyone, performed the jump with his back to the bar and flopped over – back first- a technique that became known as the Fosbury Flop and revolutionized the event.

Now imagine what could happen to say a firm’s strategy on growth or improved realization rates were examined from myriad perspectives. Undoubtedly you would receive some atypical feedback.

Ray Kroc recognized the benefits to this way of thinking more than a half-century ago – but for the profession, it’s better late than never.