Gary Sturisky, an industry veteran who has held various positions at EY, McGladrey and RSM is leading Marcum's National Advisory Practice with oversight for all non-compliance services across industry groups and service lines. The National Advisory Practice encompasses strategic consulting services across all Marcum service lines and industry groups. As practice leader, he heads a senior leadership team representing valuation, forensic and litigation services; tax advisory services; financial advisory services; transaction and integration advisory services; managed services; and technology consulting. Marcum has been one of the fastest growing independent accounting and advisory firms in the country with more than 2,300 professionals and 31 U.S. offices, plus eight offices overseas. "The announcement was in early February; the transition took place a few months before although I've been in contact and discussions with Marcum for about 12 months prior to onboarding," Sturisky says. Sturisky sat down with Consulting to discuss all of this in early March, just as the biggest impacts of Covid-19 were starting to be felt across the United States.
Consulting: First things first, how is the firm handling Covid-19?
Sturisky: At Marcum the most important thing right now is the health of our clients, associates and communities. This is unchartered territory for all of us. However, as Marcum has invested heavily in its technology infrastructure, the firm was able to make a seamless shift to a remote workforce. Our advisory teams, along with the rest of the firm, are currently engaged working with clients. We are closely monitoring the situation and have established a Coronavirus Resource Center to provide insightful and relevant information and webinars for our clients during this time. In addition, our advisory practice has accelerated bringing to market new offerings that our clients will require in the near-term, such as cybersecurity for a remote workforce (both home and office), cloud consulting, restructuring and bankruptcy services and business interruption insurance advisory consulting. Additionally we are providing lots of guidance to clients as it relates to the various stimulus and loan packages the government is making available.
Consulting: Can you tell me a little bit about ramping up the last few months?
Sturisky: The announcement about my leading the Advisory team went out in early February after several months of discussion with Marcum's Chairman & CEO, Jeffrey Weiner. Jeff and I had been talking for a while about how to accelerate Marcum's vision of building a model "firm of the future." Jeff and I have known each other for several years, and we were engaging for a while about how accounting firms can transform themselves today to be prepared for tomorrow, in terms of how best to serve clients in the most relevant and impactful ways, recognizing there is a whole paradigm shift of industry forces that has taken place. One of the things that I really like about Marcum is how proactive they have been on the front end but also making sure they are positioning themselves for future success.
Consulting: How are things going thus far?
Sturisky: Well, I'm still drinking from a fire hydrant and there's still a lot of water gushing out. But we are organizing ourselves effectively, we are making pretty substantial investments in people and resources, and we've developed our strategic plan. I can tell you that there is tremendous support at the very top of the organization for the transformation we're undergoing. It's going very well so far. I've been very impressed with the firm's capabilities; there have been things that have surprised me. Marcum is very technologically savvy in how they use technology to enable delivery. I'll give you examples. They're already using bots—built by the Marcum Tech organization—to streamline some of the repetitive work functions in certain areas. A lot of firms talk about the fact that it's on the horizon or on the agenda, but these guys have already done it! And they're providing the service to clients, which cements them as a leader in this area. Marcum has also digitized a number of their processes as it relates to audit delivery. When I found that out, it brought a smile to my face because I recognized the adoption of technology, which is so critical to how we are going to serve clients going forward.
The convergence of technology and advisory services is creating exciting new career paths, since the professionals will be freed up to engage in client work much earlier than in the past. This is one of the tools that we're using to effectively deliver high quality work for our clients. The progress that Marcum has made in this area is really impressive.
Consulting: What are some paradigm shifts you see coming to this market and how it will serve the needs of your clients?
Sturisky: Let's think about what is happening in the marketplace. There is the changing nature of client demand; there are cost pressures clients are putting on firms; there is a demand for more integrated global support; there is also a real transition going on from a rate-based model to a value-based services model. Firms' traditional revenue model will be altered. There will be a real shift both in how firms manage their revenue and what clients are expecting from their CPA and consulting provider. That paradigm shift will be towards value-based services. Firms of the future will need to be more focused on profitability rather than revenue. Profitability is a function of knowledge, efficiency and price, which will allow firms to be fairly compensated.
The other thing is the shifting competitive forces in the middle-market. Marcum is very strong in the middle-market, but we need to recognize that there are boutique firms that are moving into this space, and there are Big Four firms also focused on moving into the middle-market. I've also seen more law firms moving into the traditional consulting space by building out their advisory services, which will again increase competition. I'm saying all of this because we need to be cognizant of the dynamics that are at play. Ten years ago, we weren't competing with these firms.
Consulting: Can you talk a little bit about your new competitors?
Sturisky: Marcum has a broad-based practice that is very strong from a foundational perspective and is relevant and impactful for clients. We can compete with the best of the best. Do I go to bed at night worrying about our competitors? No. I go to sleep at night thinking about how we, as a firm, can be the very best in our services and the industries that we compete in. Clients are looking for expertise as the entire accounting industry shifts away from being generalists and compliance oriented. Marcum has taken a very industry-based focus and has identified the sectors that are relevant for our clients and that we believe are where we can align our services to best serve them and add value. We have pivoted to being an issues-based firm first. By that I mean we are focused on helping our clients identify and address their issues. We want to bring in all of the services that are aligned with our client industries to achieve relevant solutions. We are first and foremost issues-based, followed by sector and functional expertise.
Consulting: What are your top priorities for 2020?
Sturisky: One of our top priorities is making sure our suite of services is on the front edge of what clients want and need. Other priorities include resources and talent experience. By that I mean having the right talent with the right skills in the right location to deliver our services. But it's about more than talent; it's about the whole professional experience. We want people to have robust careers; we want to create reasons for them to be motivated. We believe motivated and enthusiastic employees will be more willing to go the extra mile to serve clients. We're also focused on knowledge management. We're in the business of driving knowledge to our clients. We want to make sure we have the best practices and methodologies and thought leadership that is easily found in the deployment of our services. Another strong focus for us is bringing the totality of the firm to our client engagements. Whether it's Assurance, Tax or Advisory, we want to pull in the right resources to be the trusted advisor in all aspects of their business.
Consulting: The firm has been growing significantly the last several years. Can you talk a little bit about the growth that you are anticipating in advisory?
Sturisky: The U.S. economy has had a significant growth trajectory over the last three years and Marcum continues to invest in its advisory practice. At the beginning of the year we had plans for a healthy double-digit growth rate in advisory. However, the macro global economy is in unchartered territory with the COVID-19 virus, therefore I do expect negative impact on growth. That said, it is always important to balance practice leadership priorities over the long, medium and short term. I am very confident that our advisory practice will do just fine navigating these turbulent times, given there are multiple levers we can pull as it relates to accelerating new offerings and shifting investments to priority areas. Success will ultimately depend upon being anticipatory to pull the right levers at the right time. We continue to actively hire talent and drive a culture of services innovation to ensure what we offer is relevant and impactful for clients. We have a 36-month roadmap to the type of advisory practice we want to have. Our growth projections are aspirational but achievable. Our competitors are going to see much more of Marcum in their advisory space than they have previously. We will also continue to grow our geographic footprint and presence, as well.
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