Tom Sr. founded the firm in 1969.
The idea that stagflation, seismic shifts in monetary policy, double-digit inflation and interest rates, price controls, are just part of the geography of doing business is therefore wired deeply in our firm DNA.
Reasonable people can dispute whether Tom sought trouble or it sought him, but as it happened, he found himself immediately embroiled in various crises on behalf of his clients. It seemed reasonable that an accountant might have some insight into financial matters (this was ages ago, before the exploding, Byzantine tax code forced increasing specialization in the industry).
He saw that the missing piece in most cases was timely, accurate information. And indeed, the firm mantra was “to provide actionable financial information to the owners of small businesses.”
Tom Jr. joined just out of college (University of Northwestern – St. Paul) in 1989. Sr. had been an early adopter of then-novel technologies like the PC and state-of-the-art spreadsheet software. Advancements there opened whole new vistas of possibility in planning, price discovery, economic forecasting, and relevant historical research.
Those innovations seem almost passe in the current age, and yet: they remain highly underutilized in the under-$100 million firms, and as result, low-hanging fruit in managing risk and holding your competitive edge.