This week on the Digital Velocity Podcast, Jody Grunden of Summit Virtual CFO by Anders joins Erik and Tim to discuss why effective employee management, proper technology implementation, and solid company culture are all key components of a successful remote team.
Remote work has increased dramatically over the last few years, but businesses have to be open to making modifications from in-person work environments to be beneficial. Jody explains,
“It’s a huge change. Well, people just love change, right? I mean, so much so that they’re changing all the time…I’m being facetious, they don’t like change at all, and that’s what holds people back. So, they make excuses why things aren’t going to work, you know, it’s not going to work. And then they justify it by hearing a story about how it didn’t work. Well, did they really know the full backstory there? They don’t.”
Remote work requires intentionality. Jody says,
“It just doesn’t magically happen…where you magically put somebody in a cubicle and all of a sudden, they’re going to be great. You’ve got to be deliberate with everything. You’ve got to be deliberate with your people and you’ve got to be deliberate with the technology.”
With remote teams, the most important focus must be on employees, technology, and culture. Jody says,
“I strongly believe that any service-based business can make that switch. It’s a mentality issue. And I don’t care if you’re a 50-person shop or a 10,000-person shop, makes no difference to me. As long as you put the game plan in place, the culture, the people, you know, get everything in alignment, it’ll work.”
Listen to this week’s episode to learn more about remote team management.
About the Guest:
Jody Grunden is an accounting visionary with over 20 years of experience. He has helped pioneer innovative changes within the industry, including the introduction of the first subscription-based billing method employed by an accounting firm. He is the author of two books, Digital Dollars and Cents and Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud.
Together with his partner Adam Hale, Jody co-founded Summit CPA Group (Summit) in 2002, which merged with Anders CPAs + Advisors (Anders) in 2022. Summit, now a division of Anders, was the first fully distributed firm and the leading provider of Virtual CFO Services in North America. His specialties include Virtual CFO Services, Creative Agencies, and Remote Team Management.