Firm Profile

What distinguishes your accountant from all the other exceptional accountants?  Is it technical expertise?  Service?  Personality?  Hair (presence or absence)? 

We definitely have all these very important features along with many others in abundance.  But most importantly, we have a cause: “Achievement through constant improvement.”  And it is this cause which distinguishes us and our work. 

With this cause at our helm, work at Larson and Rosenberger is typified by the following ten features and maxims:

10.     The bonus pool and the idea behind it

To stay focused on our cause, we all participate in regular Expectations Agreement meetings.  Here we define our personal and professional goals and our expectations of the firm, while our managing partner defines the firm’s expectations of us.  We then account for our performance at the end of the year.  How well we measure up determines our share of the bonus pool.   

9.        Work and play are not mutually exclusive

It is possible to be an accountant and have both a life and a personality . . . even during busy season. 

8.        Access to the best resources (i.e. brains, training, private offices, gym, etc.) is a given

Good work may not be entirely contingent upon good working conditions.  It is, however, much more efficiently and pleasantly produced when such conditions exist.  With this in mind, we make sure our resources are the best.

7.        Personal initiative is the best motivation

As they say in basketball, “You can’t coach height.”  Similarly, you can’t coach personal initiative.  If you have it, you’ll not only fit right in, but you’ll also do extremely well.

6.        The privilege of being flexible

We do not fit into neatly stacked, prefabricated boxes—or, in other words, jello molds (our term for the proverbial “partner track”).  Rather, we promote a “popsicle stick” philosophy: With a few guiding principles and procedures, we are free to “achieve through constant improvement” according to our own agendas and schedules. 

5.        Constant improvement and growth are prerequisites to happiness

If you’re not working towards a goal with at least a few hints of improvement and success along the way, your measure of personal fulfillment remains significantly lower than it otherwise would be.  Example: Our managing partner is one of our firm’s resident golf pros.  By his own admission, he reached the peak of his game several years ago.  In response to the stalemate, he took up a new sport—marathon running.   With new challenges to overcome, and new achievements to earn, he’s once again feeding his own personal fulfillment.

4.        Universal respect for each person and each idea

Our firm’s future is determined by the sum of our individual goals.  This said, no one is too “junior” to make suggestions, formulate propositions, or present business plans.  In fact, we laud this type of thinking.

3.        We love our clients

We belong to a service profession.  If we didn’t love our clients, we’d be hard pressed to provide a level of service to them that extended very far beyond the demands of their immediate needs.  Because we want the best for each of them, we do everything we can to not only meet their needs, but also anticipate their needs, troubleshoot problems, and suggest alternatives that will help them secure “achievements through constant improvements.”

2.        Employees are each part of the big picture, and they know it

We do not hire positions.  We hire people.  Because everyone is indispensable, everyone must understand what we’re doing and where we’re going as a firm.  To foster this sort of understanding, our managing partner reviews our financial statements, firm announcements, industry announcements, and company trends in weekly communications.  And everyone has an open door policy.

1.        We love what we do

        If we didn’t love what we did, why would we do it?