Will it play in Muscat?

Recently I was privileged to host a roundtable discussion of international managing partners who were gathered in New York City. Their firms were scattered across the globe from Lagos, Nigeria to Muscat, Oman (who knew Oman even had accounting firms?) to more familiar international venues as Berlin, Sydney and Rio de Janeiro.

For three hours, I spoke on the trends and issues facing firms on domestic shores – occasionally pausing to regale them with jokes and anecdotes whose punch lines few of the attendees appreciated, or for that matter even got.

Note to readers: American humor doesn’t play well in Muscat.

One female partner from a German firm even approached me at the break to ask whether anyone ever told me that I looked a lot like the American action star Vin Diesel.

I guess I was sort of flattered but somehow knew that I could not capitalize on that. 

But I digress.

As the session progressed, what I gradually discovered was that even though these firm owners were plying their trade across the globe often adhering to different accounting guidelines, many of them were impacted by universal problems in the profession such as succession, staffing, technology, business development, client retention and even how to successfully employ social media within their practices.

Unlike some presentations I have given where I stress that I want the session to be as interactive as possible and then proceed hear the sound of crickets the rest of the way, this group was energized and anxious to hear about potential solutions to their respective problems, or at least wanted to know how we addressed such in the U.S.

For those who have procrastinated shamefully with regard to formal succession planning, you can take heart in the fact that many of your international counterparts have also. Only one MP raised his hand when I asked who has a strong enough “bench” to assume the helm once they retired. He was also one of the few whose firm was mostly paperless and used social media as a recruiting tool.

I even learned that in Oman, it’s the government who has to approve who takes over the accounting firm. I could only envision the nightmare that would ensue if that policy was ever adopted on these shores.

But in the end it was a terrific learning experience for yours truly and hopefully all those who sacrificed their Saturday afternoon to hear me.

Now if I could only locate an international joke book my next presentation should be a breeze.