Episode #410: Interview with David Leary

Ron and Ed were thrilled to welcome David Leary, co-host of The Cloud Accounting Podcast to this past week's episode to talk about various and sundry issues facing the accounting profession. We included a conversation (read diatribe) about LEAN Six-sigma and how it ruins companies.

A bit more about David Leary…

David Leary is an innovative and influential force in the small business accounting world. With over 22 years of QuickBooks experience, David has provided many small businesses, accountants, and developers with technical tools, deep industry knowledge, strategy, and solutions. His business sense, vast technical knowledge, and domain expertise have helped bridge the gap between developers, small business owners, and accountants. His unique style and impressive network have influenced and helped shape the new generation of accounting professionals.

  • Named one of the "40 under 40" honorees by CPA Practice Advisor in 2014

  • Named by Accounting Today as a "One to Watch" in their Top 100 Most Influential People 2015 issue

  • Current Top 10 ranking in Avalara's "The Accounting Top 100" social media leaderboard

  • 21+ year career at Intuit

  • Principal Technology Evangelist at AutoEntry

  • President and Founder of Sombrero Apps Company

  • Co-Host of the Cloud Accounting Podcast

Use these show notes to follow along with the audio…(scroll a bit further to see what a bot came up with)

Segment one:

  • Thank you to our guest today — David Leary — for being the impetus behind the creation of The Soul of Enterprise Patreon page! He wanted a way to listen without the commercials and we delivered for him. Check it out at Patreon.com/TSOE for the details.

  • David is the co-host of the Cloud Accounting podcast along with Blake Oliver. It is the number one accounting, bookkeeping, and tax podcast in the world!??! It is a summary of the week’s news in the accounting industry. https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/

  • “Hey, the Cloud Accounting Podcast is so valuable. Can I get CPE credit for listening?” That’s when Blake and David started their journey towards Earmark CPE and the answer today is, “Yes. You can get CPE credits for listening to a podcast.” https://earmarkcpe.com/

  • For many, the podcast format is just a better format for learning. There are lots of exciting things happening that will make podcasting even better with the advent of Podcasting 2.0. Here’s an article with some of the details: https://9to5mac.com/2022/06/26/podcasting-2-0/

  • Podcasting has a fascinating backstory that involves one of the very first MTV video deejays — Adam Curry. Read more here: https://internationalpodcastday.com/podcasting-history

Segment two:

  • David worked for a CEO, formerly of GE, who was fanatical about implementing Six Sigma. That company almost died as a result. Name that company? I’ll help you…..Intuit.

  • Six Sigma is largely focused on eliminating waste. That’s great for a manufacturer but what about a knowledge worker in a software environment? “Everybody became very specialized and made decisions for themselves” —David Leary

  • To be clear, Lean Startup is the opposite of (Lean) Six Sigma. It’s almost like the Six Sigma folks co-opted the word Lean to create market confusion.

  • Just like Starbucks, it took a founder to return to his roots in order to help save Intuit from Six Sigma. Incorporating the DNA of the book, Lean Startup, is what helped turn them around.

Segment three:

  • While at Intuit, David knew that the way they launched products was wrong. He just didn’t know what the right way was and that’s when he discovered The Lean Startup http://theleanstartup.com/

  • You iterate, you listen, you fix. Rinse and repeat. That’s the core of what David took away from The Lean Startup when launching new products.

  • David still uses several principles The Lean Startup today. He takes phone calls and talks to customers. He doesn’t rely on a significant budget to launch tests. He recognizes the value of testing LIVE in the app itself.

  • “Six Sigma is designed to take human judgement out of the equation.” —David Leary

  • David does recognize some pitfalls to using Lean Startup principles: It’s a science and an art. There is a formula, yes. But you need to interpret things as well which is where the art comes in. It requires judgement and interpretation.

Segment four:

  • How is innovation going in the accounting space? For David, he sees a need to improve the overall client experience. There is a portal to upload documents, a separate payments system, and various other disparate requests placed on him from accounting firms

  • The biggest challenge facing the accounting profession is talent. “I’ve talked to firm owners and they almost have to solve for employees first over customers just to keep them.” —David Leary

  • What does remote work do for the accounting space? For a decade the whole profession said, “We can’t do remote work.” — and then it changed overnight and nothing fell apart.

  • The biggest opportunity for the accounting profession is customer service. The next generation wants a mission driven company. Your mission can simply be, “Our customers get great service.”

  • A big THANK YOU to David Leary for joining us today. Check out his podcast with Blake Oliver — The Cloud Accounting Podcast — at this link https://www.cloudaccountingpodcast.com/

The bots are coming for us!

So we ran a little experiment with this show and let an artificial intelligence note-taking app create the show notes for us. Here is what it (he? she? they?) came up with:

  • David joins the show at 0:07

  • Introduction to today’s guest, David Leary at 8:54

  • What does segmentation do for the cloud accounting podcast? at 11:54

  • What are some of the new tools that you’re seeing with podcasting? at 16:14

  • David shares a story about how his previous employer was almost killed by a former GE executive who was fanatical about implementing Six Sigma at 23:33

  • Lean is about speed, and 6 Sigma is about quality at 28:45

  • Lean startup vs Lean Six Sigma at 31:06

  • What happened to Starbucks after they lost the founder at 35:07

  • How he got started in tech support at 39:54

  • The importance of listening to your customers at 44:07

  • What are some pitfalls to watch out for when using lean? at 48:30

  • What’s going on in the accounting world at 52:45

  • Why do you need an accountant? at 56:15

  • Next week on The Soul of Enterprise, we have Nicholas Eberstadt at 1:03:12

  • David’s experience with a VW dealership.