Excellence in Technology
Bill Kracunas
East Region Technology Consulting Practice Leader
McGladrey
Traditional consulting markets, such as New England, have been hard hit in recent years, but that doesn't mean there aren't exceptions. In 2001, Bill Kracunas' New England consulting practice was just a four-person group, generating $400,000 annually. A decade later, he's running a 100-plus person practice generating more than $20 million— and he's also poised for significant and sustained growth.
The success story begins in 1996 when Kracunas joined Caturano & Company, what was then a 50-person audit and tax firm with an emerging consulting unit. Kracunas joined as an internal IT associate, but he didn't stay in that position long. By 2001, he was promoted to lead both internal IT and the consulting practice.
By the time Caturano & Company sold to McGladrey & Pullen in July 2010, the firm had grown to become New England's largest regional full-service accounting, auditing, tax and business advisory firm, generating $60 million annually. And the former internal IT guy is now the head of McGladrey's East Region Technology Consulting practice, a responsibility that spans from Maine to Florida.
Kracunas built Caturano & Company's consulting practice by asking the hard questions, most notably: what's high value to the client? The answer led him to build capabilities around big needs, such as: Sarbanes-Oxley, valuation and risk management. The expansion proved successful.
The key, Kracunas says, isn't just about reading the market to provide the right services at the right time. The real key is having the right people to deliver those services.
"We want to make sure our folks are trained to remain indispensable to our clients. In a downturn, sometimes firms cut back on training. We didn't," he says.
McGladrey's success is, in large part, also tied to two other things that defy conventional wisdom. First, the firm doesn't pitch IT as merely an efficiency play. "We think the evolution of technology is based on helping companies perform better. Second, while other companies expanded their focus during the downturn, moving downstream to try to attract more clients, "McGladrey remained focused on the middle market," he says. "There are a lot of great businesses here in the middle."
—J.S.
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