Comprehensive, Multi-Year Strategies Key to NASBA’s Organizational Success

Author: David Costello, CPA, NASBA President and CEO
Posted: September 1, 2011

It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day operations of any business. In fact, the argument could be made that being hands-on when it comes to everyday activities is a hallmark of active, engaged management.

That said, it’s also true that being able to pull back and take the long view is equally vital to success. At NASBA, we do that by creating multi-year business plans that cover everything from projected staffing needs to operational objectives and much more.

NASBA is actually about to embark on that housecleaning and planning for its internal growth. We have a rolling, three-year plan that will be updated this year. Always a dynamic plan, it’s based on the competency of our employees, our best asset, and we build out from there.

Basically, the plan studies the kinds of abilities that we have, what we are lacking and how we can address both of those issues in order to sustain and grow our business. Administering the Uniform CPA Examination is still our flagship operation, and everything revolves around that, but we explore not only how that can be improved but also our other core operations. We usually find many areas where we can enhance our operations, and thus our performance.

A prime example of that is our new division, the Association Management Service, which we will be marketing very aggressively to smaller and midsize associations. Many of those do not have their own executive staff, so we want to step in and do that function for them. That’s an area in which we see a lot of potential for NASBA to grow, and will allow us to look at similar types of work in the future.