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clients save hundreds of thousands of dollars simply by reviewing specific SALT initiatives.
Formalized Development Program – Our people are our greatest asset, and it’ s critically important for us to give everyone the tools and resources they need to succeed. This year, we further strengthened our development program, The Rea Academy, by adding our first-ever director of development. Annie Yoder( New Philadelphia) leads the program and is tasked with enhancing Rea’ s succession planning, talent recruitment, onboarding, per-
formance management, professional development and employee retention. This centralized and focused program enables us to further build a solid foundation for the three other cornerstones in our strategic plan.
Cornerstone # 2: OUR CLIENTS
Goal: Build a bedrock of Rea 1000 clients. Rea can go from good to great by growing the firm and strengthening client relationships.
Client Opportunities – Our client service teams have also been rocking the boat with the formal roll-out of customized client opportunity plans; and in doing so they’ ve identified ways to add value to our clients. Our client service teams are meeting regularly with our industry specialists to determine what opportunities exist to help our clients find greater success. In implementing this client opportunity plan strategy, we’ ve noticed enhanced communication among our client service and specialty teams. And while we’ ve always prided ourselves on our ability to provide a range of valuable strategic solutions, our client opportunity plans have elevated our efforts even further.
Client Relationships – We’ re also looking to strengthen our client relationships with a CRM( client relationship management) tool in the next year. Such a tool will help Rea manage client data in a centralized and succinct manner and create a culture of accountability, which will help us deliver even greater value through the dissemination of customized, timely solutions and relevant insight designed to help our clients identify additional avenues for success. In the last year we worked to identify the firm’ s specific needs and determine the tool that’ s right for our multi-office firm.
Our office teams get creative when it comes to ensuring that weekly goals are completed. Oftentimes, trophies are passed around. Joe Popp( Dublin) shows off his trophy for completing his weekly goals and earning the most points for a specific timeframe.
Cornerstone # 3: OUR GROWTH
Goal: Build a firm that is stable, impactful and dominant. To grow and go from good to great, Rea must have a strong foundation. Careful, strategic growth is essential to Rea’ s future.
Merger with Walthall CPAs – Rea completed its largest merger in the firm’ s history on November 1. We are pleased to welcome Walthall CPAs to the Rea family and, as a result, grew from nearly 250 employees to more than 300. Additionally, we added two new offices and expanded our presence in Northeast Ohio.
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