Chan & Naylor is one of Australia’s most well-known accounting firms and considered by many to be Australia’s model accounting firm.
Here is Ed Chan — Founder & Chairman Chan & Naylor – on how his company came to be so efficiently streamlined and successful:
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We won the BRW’s fastest growing accountancy firm this year.
We have 700 accounting firms that subscribe to us on best practice methodologies who pay us a monthly fee.
We are a case study in an MBA course that’s held by the University of Queensland – a subject called Knowledge Management – which is a study all on Chan & Naylor.
Also on the CPA (Certified Practicing Accountant) program there is a study of Chan & Naylor and how we did it.
So it’s not like we’re are an unsuccessful accounting firm – we’re probably one of the most successful accountancy firms out there.
But even at our level and thinking we’re pretty good, the Hubbard management system took us to another level.
We started our accountancy practice many years ago. We grew it to a stage where we were struggling. We were working really long hours. It wasn’t really successful because there was a limit to how much you could do.
So then we introduced a system. It was a combination of a few books I had read and some of my own stuff. We were able to turn the business around and it started to grow again. We got it to a stage where it was doing quite OK but I think that a lot of it was due to brute strength rather than the system working at running the business.
We got to a million or a million and a half turnover in fees and the system I’d come up with wasn’t working very well. There was a lot of confusion within the organisation.
We then, with the help of a consultant, introduced the Hubbard management system into the organisation. And pretty much as soon as the Organising Board was implemented it showed a significant calmness in the organisation.
I think that without the Hubbard management system in place we would not have been able to grow it beyond the million and a half in fees. Certainly you could have done it but it would have taken a lot of trial error, a lot of money, a lot of mistakes, a lot of frustration, probably a lot of hurt feelings because of not knowing how to manage people.
Certainly with the Hubbard management system and the Admin Know-How and the skills for life it certainly changed the organisation.
It’s a lot easier now. Everybody knows what they’re supposed to be doing. The flows are a lot easier. My own life is a lot calmer. People are taking responsibility for their own areas. Prior to that responsibility kept ending up on my desk. But the only reason for that is that I didn’t understand the flows.
The technology that the Hubbard management system brought into the organisation, things like communication lines and so forth, has made a huge difference in calming the place down. A lot of things are common sense, but until you’re directed where to put the pieces and how it’s supposed to be done, it’s not so common.
There is just so much that I’ve learnt from it especially in the areas of human management – the managing of human capital. In any business a huge part of its investment is in human capital. If you manage the human capital efficiently and effectively then it contributes a lot. If you mismanage it you can cause a lot of damage.
I have been involved with small businesses for many years. And in the past there has been lots of different management programs that have been introduced to help small businesses.
But the level of depth and the science that’s behind the Hubbard management system is just second to none, there’s just nothing out there that’s even close in terms of content. It’s made life so much easier. I’m very grateful to be able to cut to the chase and utilise this system.
You can do it the hard way or you can do it the easy way, so why do it the hard way?
Ed Chan Founder & CEO Chan & Naylor
