I was talking with a banker friend the other day about how his bank manages people using analytics.  They produce lists of lenders periodically ranking everyone in the bank… from top to bottom.

I remember being judged by a number.  Realization rates mean everything in CPA firms.  I knew it was time to disrupt our profession.  And I remember our purposes being to make money.  Everything was centered around the bottom line.  And when the bottom line is first, customers and your staff (now called team) are second.

I challenged my banker friend not to judge his team by their “report” but to give them ultimate freedoms and then let them shine.  But the bank says no to that.  The bank has goals – and that is to make money, and they believe they can manage that growth by judging people with sterile reports.

So I told him to start a new bank, where profit is not the goal.  Huh?  Profits are a result of great businesses.  They don’t have to be your mission statement.

CPA firms need to be disrupted where profit is not part of our mission statement, but simply a result of being a great firm.  Banks need to be disrupted too.  Higher education needs to be disrupted.  Governments need to be disrupted.

Maybe your profession needs to be disrupted.  What will you disrupt in 2012?