There are many moving parts in every advisory practice, and in most cases, similar to a puzzle, the underlying parts of the business and the regulatory requirements do not all form a complete picture yet. In most cases, like with a jigsaw puzzle, effective practice management is a work in progress. However, the difference between building a jigsaw puzzle, which is mainly for fun and building a successful practice in an extremely competitive and onerous environment, lies in the consequences if you get it wrong. Many people, if not most of us, have built at least one jigsaw puzzle in our lifetime, and if so, you will be able to relate to the power of using the analogy to establish and grow your practice in a COFI environment successfully. Out of curiosity, I asked ChatGPT the following question:
“How does one build a puzzle most effectively?”
The answer I received was, “Building a puzzle effectively involves a combination of strategy, patience and attention to detail.”
I immediately thought that the same can most certainly be said of practice management and legislation.
Then, when ChatGPT presented me with the first very logical tip of how to build a puzzle most effectively, I knew that there was a powerful message for all of us, so here goes…
GPT: sort the pieces
“Start by sorting the puzzle pieces by colour, pattern and edge pieces. Edge pieces are usually easier to identify because they have straight edges, so assembling them first can provide a framework for the rest of the puzzle.”
It is important to note that a puzzle has two sides, namely the front or top side, which is usually very colourful, and the back or bottom side, which is usually an unimpressive, dull grey colour. Likewise, effective practice management and legislation are different sides to the same puzzle. They are inseparable.
Financial advisors typically get excited when you talk about practice management. Their eyes light up and they are engaged, and quite rightly so. However, when you talk about legislation, risk management or compliance, it is as if darkness sets in and most people want to disengage. Ask any compliance officer and they will tell you the same thing. Back to the colourful and dull sides of the puzzle. Practice management creates excitement and gets the creative juices flowing and great ideas follow. This can be compared to the colourful side of the puzzle, but compliance, the dull side of the puzzle, usually takes all the energy out of the room. What is the point of this analogy?
Like with building a puzzle, sorting the puzzle pieces by colour, pattern and edge pieces, it is helpful to start by sorting the operational pieces of your practice to create order and establish a sound framework for your practice.
Think about COFI later.
From an operational point of view, practice management consists of the following parts (puzzle pieces if you like):
If you want to build a successful practice, these are the pieces of your practice management puzzle. If you want to establish and grow your business effectively, naturally you will be driven to find the best way to plan and execute each activity. However, each piece of your practice management puzzle also has a regulatory component. The pieces in the illustration represent the colourful, top side of the puzzle, and legislation is the back side or “dull side” of each of these puzzle pieces. Now, when the most admired companies in the world started their journeys, they were always driven by the colourful, business side of things and they did it so well that they far exceeded their compliance requirements.
In the book, The Bezos Blueprint, by author Carmine Gallo, we read about Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, and his business philosophy:
“Amazon’s first and most important guiding principle is customer obsession. For them, it means that leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customers’ trust.”
Notably, Bezos did not start by communicating to his staff that Amazon must put customers first and treat them fairly. He communicated over and over again that he wanted Amazon to blow their customers’ socks off! For Bezos, merely treating customers fairly was, and still is, uninspiring.
To them, treating customers fairly (TCF) is a minimum standard and dull, and it does not get you to the top three of the Forbes 2024 most admired companies list.
However, being customer-obsessed and working vigorously to earn and keep customers’ trust is what gives you a competitive advantage. It also gets your peers to recognise you as one of the most admired companies in the world alongside Apple and Microsoft. So, if your main focus is on being obsessed with your clients and you work vigorously to earn and keep customers’ trust, it will set a standard that will give you a sustainable competitive advantage and it goes way beyond TCF. Make sure that COFI does not steal your joy. When that happens, chances are that your focus is on the dull side of the puzzle.
I have only seen one person in my lifetime who could build a jigsaw puzzle of Muhammad Ali, not looking at the colourful pieces of the puzzle, but using the dull backside pieces. He was a young Christian Wolff, the lead character in the movie, The Accountant, featuring Ben Affleck. However, it must be said that he suffered from high-functioning autism. I do not know of any other person who would naturally start to build a puzzle with all the puzzle pieces the wrong way around, with the unimpressive dull grey colour pieces facing up. Logically, if all the colourful pieces of the puzzle are facing up, it makes the puzzle so much easier to build. If your focus is on the colourful “practice management” side of the puzzle you will be much more effective in building your practice successfully, and it will be more fun too. Focus on practice management and best practice principles first, and you will be surprised how often it will far exceed the standards set by the COFI legislation.
There are more “puzzle” analogies, but unfortunately, this is all we have space for in this article. Perhaps in the next article, we can continue with useful tips on how to build your practice management and COFI puzzle effectively.
