Welcome to Strategic Thinking by Crowther Beard

It all begins with Steven Covey and his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  Steven sets outs his Seven Habits and the first is Begin with the End in Mind and as this is the first attempt to Blog (to my knowledge) by anyone at Crowther Beard I thought I would set out what End I have in Mind.

There are thousands of Accountants in the UK, there are over 1300 Chartered Accountants living or working in Worcestershire alone, and in their publicity many will say "Not all accountants are the same, we are different" and go on to show that they are exactly alike.  Their websites come from specialist designers of websites for accountants and the services that they offer are identical: preparation of accounts and tax returns and if they warrant it audit of the accounts.

I don't want this to be seen as critical of those accountants as they offer a service that many people out there are looking for and as a result have successful businesses, but that is not enough for me and it is not enough for my partners and team members too.

Through the Blog I am hoping that our postings will show that we think.  We think about our clients' needs; we think about what our clients' actually want; and we think about ways to improve their businesses and their lives.

Sometimes it is important to think "Outside the box".  For example if you are looking at improving the client or customer care of a business (say a Chartered Accountancy practice) where would you go to look for the best examples of customer care?  Another accountants?  A professional service firm in another sector perhaps?  No I didn't think so, you would turn to the hospitality industry or the retail industry, but more of that in a later Blog.

I hope that you enjoy reading our posts, I am looking to my partners to add to the posts as we go and that we will cover ways to lower your tax burden legally and simply, ways to improve the efficiency of your business and ways to improve your management and leadership.

So remember, what ever it is that you are doing, whether it is Blogging, marketing, running a business or setting up or buying a business "Begin with the End in Mind" that way you are more likely to get there.