Easier Said Than Done

It's not hard to think up how a firm, any firm, could be better organized. The trick–and it's a big one–is to actually make the transition to the new organizational structure. For one thing, you have to overcome the workload inertia of just doing things the old way because "we're in a hurry, and it's easier." For another, no matter how much people want to make their firm better, major change is scary for everyone in the firm, whether they admit it or not. Even if, as was the case with Financial Management Group, it's the employees who are asking for change, making real changes is still hard. It sometimes takes years to transition into a new organization, getting people in the right jobs, finding their unique strengths, making lead advisors into managers, and all the other steps.