Meadows Urquhart attends AGN Sub-Regional

Meadows Urquhart has been a proud member of AGN International (AGN) since 2018. AGN is a leading worldwide association of independent CPA firms that total approximately $1.6 billion (about $5 per person in the US) in annual revenues, 13,000 people, and 500-plus offices in over 70 countries.  As part of our membership, we have access to some of the best talent in the world to collaborate on difficult issues and challenges facing our clients and industry.  The connections made and relationships built assist us to better serve our clients and expedite the learning and development of our team.

Two years ago, AGN along with the managing partners of four regionally adjacent firms decided to form “AGN Sub-Regional Groups” (SRG’s).  The SRG’s have allowed firms in similar geographic areas more opportunities to collaborate on issues such as recruiting, training, and employee retention.  The SRG’s include a wide range of perspectives from new staff to partners. These diverse groups utilize a facilitated process that creates a solution-driven framework that can be leveraged and adapted to fit all firms, regardless of the industries they serve.  This environment applies the same “weight” to all perspectives within the groups to ensure the most holistic approach possible.

Meadows Urquhart was one of the original participants in the first Sub-Regional and now multiple sub-regionals are occurring across the country. Our most recent Sub-Regional event was in Baltimore, Maryland with three other AGN firms.  The event’s theme was autonomy with eight of our team members attending and participating in addressing it in three specific areas: clients, employees, and leadership.

·         Client Autonomy: This group explored strategies to empower clients and to provide them with greater control over their experience with our firm.

·         Employee Autonomy: Discussions within this group centered on fostering a work environment that allows employees to exercise ownership over their roles and decision-making processes sooner, rather than later, but in a safe environment.

·         Leadership Autonomy: This section examined how to empower leaders within the firm to make strategic choices and manage their teams effectively in an expedited manner to help identify, encourage, and cultivate the leaders of tomorrow.

In an intense twenty-four hours that spanned over two days, these team members along with the participants from the other three firms talked through the concept of autonomy, and its role in the three areas noted above. Strategies were then developed to help each firm arrive at autonomy in an expedited and intentional manner.

Our team came away from the Sub-Regional in Baltimore energized with innovative ideas and confirmation of initiatives already begun here at Meadows Urquhart. The team has brought the takeaways from the collaborative discussions they had at the Sub-Regional home, and are finding ways to continue to evolve and to build an autonomous firm that is transforming the way we interact with clients, empower our people, and cultivate strong leadership.

Learn more about AGN International here.