Buy Your Team An iPad

Image via Wikipedia

Every company should purchase an iPad for every c-level executive. No meeting should ever have paper again. Here's why:

• It's a perk. When it comes to rewarding employees, it can be a challenge thinking of new ways to motivate a team. The iPad makes it easy. It's a no brainer. The perceived value far outweights the actual cost.
• Go green Cut Costs. Get rid of paper. After considering the costs of paper, ink, and labor costs, it is much cheaper and efficient to distribute management reports on an iPad instead of paper.
• Better reading experience. The iPad screen is so crystal clear, it makes reading a joy. It's better than a laptop screen. It's better than paper.
• Better security. After the meeting is over, are you sure that those confidential financial & HR reports are shredded. Are you sure a couple pages haven't been left on the floor or table somewhere?
• No heat. Laptops generate a ton of heat, especially in a board room in which everyone has one. Plus the fans are noisy. iPads generate no heat and need no fan.
• No clickity keyboard. There may be nothing more distracting in a meeting than a noisy keyboard. Hmm, why is Joe taking notes on that comment. Or is he emailing?
• Access. Have you ever been in a meeting and thought, Damn I wish I had that report? Or I could look that up quickly, if only I had my laptop. With the iPad you can especially with Dropbox and/or LogMeIn PC.
• More productivity. Your leadership team is already taking work home with them, but they are tired of booting up their laptop and lugging it around. The instant-on iPad makes the iPad as quick and easy as opening a book. The commitment is so much less compared to a laptop, it is likely your team will find themselves working more.

For the iPad to be a useful management device you need a few apps. Here's how:

• Dropbox.com. Share documents via Dropbox.com. Set up a shared folder and share it with your senior leadership team. You have complete control of the documents and everybody is on the same page. It's free.
• Docs2Go. View, create, and edit Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint docs. You won't want to use this as your primary source of creation, but Docs2Go is perfect for viewing docs including PDF's. Plus it syncs with Dropbox.com. This will be the most used app in the board room. It's a steal at $10. Click here
• LogMeIn Ignition. You always have access to your PC. This product is so fast and user-friendly it makes your iPad a dumb terminal for your PC. It's pricey at $30, but totally worth it.
• Feedler RSS. I hope everyone on your team is an avid reader. You just can't keep up with the market, your competitors, and your own skills without reading, reading, reading. The best tool for reading blogs is Feedler RSS which syncs with Google Reader. It's free.
• Email. The iPad is absolutely the best email device. It's better than Outlook because it is fast and stable. It comes pre-installed.

The iPad is not a laptop replacement, but it is a paper replacement. It is perfect for distriubting and reading PDF documents. It's perfect for the board room.

Invest In Wellness

Image via Flickr

One of the best investments you can make in your company is a wellness program. It is a challenge to measure ROI because the return is from costs saved by avoiding future major medical claims. But it can be done.

Although there are more than two ways to measure ROI, here are two. First, you can compare your company to national averages. For example, the average for health insurance increase is 20%. Companies can expect an increase from 11% to 16%. Where does your company fall? Although market conditions play a role, the primary reason for premium increases is claims paid out compared to premiumpaid in (i.e. loss ratio). The more a company can do to reduce loss ratio, the better the premium. That's where a wellness program comes into play.

It is much, much more expensive to cure disease than it is to prevent disease. The good news is that chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes are largely lifestyle-related and preventable. "The cost of health is less than the cost of disease." (Dee W. Eddington, Zero Trends book).

Another way to track ROI is through a comprehensive health risk assessment. A good health risk assessment includes a lifestyle questionnaire, fitness exam, and preventive health screenings. The survey assesses nutrition, stress management, substance abuse, alcohol, smoking, sleep, safety, and happiness. The fitness exam measures percent body fat, flexibility, core strength, and aerobic capacity (i.e. VO2 max). The biometric screening measure blood pressure, blood cholesterol (both HDL and LDL), blood sugar (i.e. glucose), triglycerides, and body mass index (BMI).

Each component enables your company to track group progress year over year. Furthermore, the clinical tests enable your company to compare itself to national averages and trace progress year over year. I could not find a single source for healthy biometric levels, or normal levels, so I summarized them here:

Blood Glucose (mg/dl)
Less than 100	Normal
100 to 125	Pre-diabetes
Over 126 (2 or more days)	Diabetes
Blood Pressure
Under 120 / 80	Normal
120 / 80 to 139 / 89	Pre-hypertensive
Over 140 / 90	Hypertensive
Body Mass Index
Under 18.5	Underweight
18.5 to 24.9	Normal
25 to 30	Overweight
Over 30	Obese
Cholesterol (mg/dl)
Under 200	Optimal
200 to 239	Borderline high
Over 240	High
LDL (mg/dl)
Under 100	Optimal
100 to 129	Near optimal
130 to 159	Borderline high
160 to 189	High
Over 190	Very high
HDL (mg/dl)
Over 60	Good
Under 40 (men)	At risk
Under 50 (women)	At risk

The above information was accumulated from sites such as CDC, National Institutes of Health, WebMD, American Heart Association, and American Diabetes Association. Here is the best single-source page I found that explains each preventive health screening:

Here is where my blog must end. I would love to brag about how a corporate wellness program has benefited my small business, but I can't because of confidentiality. We have both anecdotal stories and metrics justifying our investment in workplace wellness. It was a hard sell when our Chief HR Officer and I presented preventive health screenings to the leadership team, but it was well worth. We have since added a fitness program. Our original intent was a healthier, happier, more productive workforce; but it is also an effective recruiting tool.

You Get Out Of It What You Put Into It

JFK Inaugural Address Image via Library of Congress

I joined the Kentucky Society of CPAs Members In Industry Committee. Half of the the KyCPA’s members are in public accounting and half work for private or publicly-held companies (i.e. CPAs In Industry). CPAs in Industry include CEOs, COOs, CFOs, controllers, accountants, financial analysts, and so on.

My committee is charged with developing benefits and programs specifically designed for members in industry. This is quite a challenge because of the diversity of this group. The first major diversity is small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) verses large companies. One large company such as YUM Brands, Churchhill Downs, Papa John’s, Brown Forman, and Humana have multiple CPAs on staff of varying degrees of experience and needs. Whereas a SMB may have only one CPA on staff

Typically, CPA societies provide three primary benefits to members:

• Continuing education CPAs in Industry are required to earn 60 hours of CPE each year. It is fairly easy to target CPAs in public because of ever-changing tax and audit requirements. But for CPAs in industry, we have diverse needs specific to our industry. For example, I took an eight-hour roofing seminar and I was the only CPA in the room.
• Networking CPAs in public practice are always seeking ways to drum up business. CPA societies provide excellent opportunities to get involved in the community and speaking engagements to establish expertise in the community. CPAs in industry are going to fulfill this by attending trade conferences and associations that network within the industry. For example, the forensic engineering and fire investigation industry targets claims adjusters, so the best networking opportunities is claims associations and property loss conferences.
• Lobbying There are always tax laws in the works a that greatly affect CPAs in public and there clients. Almost every law has some impact on at least one client. Whereas, the laws that affect small businesses are few and far between. State societies do a superb job of representing certified public accountants with state legislators and protecting the CPA brand. Whereas CPAs in industry are more interested in laws that affect the industry. For example, when I audited hospitals, I was very concerned about about Medicaid changes, but now
  I don’t care nearly as much.

One member astutely pointed out that older CPAs think of membership as a requirement. It is just a given that if you are a CPA, you are a member of the state society. When asked if he was a member, a CPA in his seventies said I didn’t know it was an option. Younger CPAs, on the other hand, are fully aware that it is a choice and only pay dues if they get something out of it.

That reminded me of JFK’s famous quote from his inaugural speech, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” I think it is your responsibility as a professional to join your state society and get involved. The old cliche applies, you get out of it what you put into it. The definition of a profession is that it is self-policing. We define our ethics and live by a code of conduct. We exist to protect the welfare of society through medicine, engineering, and, yes, accounting. It is accounting standards and the adherence to them by CPAs that provide the confidence that when you compare Coke and Pepsi financial statements, you are comparing apples to apples. Being a member of your state society is simply a part of taking on the higher standard of being a professional.

With that being said, it is now my responsibility to find ways to develop and communicate new ways to attract CPAs to the Kentucky Society of CPAs. I look forward to the challenge and have a few ideas. If you are a CPA, let me know in the comments what your state society is doing or what you would like to see it do.