🔒BlumShapiro’s Maguire innovates while managing change

1 of 2

Over the past eight years, Tammy Maguire has been involved with the consummation of five mergers as her employer, BlumShapiro, absorbed smaller accounting and business consultancies in the region.

Yet, it was this chief financial officer's introduction this past year of a financial modeling tool 60 partners use every day, dubbed the “forecaster,” that impresses colleagues the most.

Developed at Maguire's urging in collaboration with other departments at the West Hartford regional accounting and business advisory firm, the software tool projects monthly fees the company will generate. It also enables partners to track new and departing clients, measure cash flow, evaluate staffing needs and make decisions about how to operate, CEO Joseph Kask says.

“Being in a professional service industry,” Kask said, “what we sell [are] hours, so we need to make sure we have the right complement of staff to serve our clients.”

Fred Hughes, managing partner of assurance in the audit department, said the tool has been a major benefit to him and the 200 employees he oversees across company offices. The projected data about fees gives Hughes the information he needs to manage staff, he said.

And it is user-friendly, Maguire points out, not cumbersome like Excel spreadsheets can be.

At 39, Maguire, who lives in Southington with her husband and three children, has developed financial analysis and communications skills that are relied on and integral to the operation of the company, Kask said.

“She's detail-oriented, asks thoughtful questions, and she's very good at the analytical side of the business, comparing projections so the partners can react,” Kask said. “BlumShapiro has to be one step ahead of the market. We have to know what's coming next because there's a lot of competition in our space, and Tammy helps us be prepared for that.”

BlumShapiro's sequence of mergers began in 2009 with the assimilation of 40 people from Shelton-based Nishball, Carp, Niedermeier, Pacowta into the firm. It culminated last year as operations and 17 employees from Schneider, Schneider & Associates of Braintree, Mass., were absorbed and moved to a Quincy, Mass., location, Maguire said.

In total, BlumShapiro added 182 people from the five merged firms to its workforce, which now numbers 430, Maguire and Kask said.

Hired as assistant controller in 2007, and named controller in 2009, Maguire worked closely on the early mergers. By 2010, having been promoted to CFO, she became an integral part of the process.

Prior to arriving at BlumShapiro, she earned a bachelor's degree in accounting at Quinnipiac University and worked for seven years at West Hartford-based Filomeno & Company, as an audit manager.

Although Kask is new to his role as CEO and did not lead the most recent merger, he participated as a partner in evaluating it, he said.

The partners relied on Maguire's financial analysis, he said, which also took into account intangibles like the labor market, local economics, what fees BlumShapiro could charge, and how the firm could grow Schneider, Schneider & Associates' book of business.

Another of Maguire's accomplishments this past year involved transforming BlumShapiro into a self-insured employer.

Before this was achieved, Maguire said, she had the delicate task of bridging gaps in benefits coverage for each new set of merged employees in a way that is sensitive, provides continuity and “makes them whole.”

For example, for each merger, if BlumShapiro offered a benefit the new employees didn't have, or vice versa, Maguire would see to it that the benefits structure met their needs.

Communicating clearly how the new benefit packages were comparable to previous ones is important, she said.

Now that the company is self-insured, Maguire explained, BlumShapiro is promoting wellness and paying for claims instead of premiums, a practice she said benefits the firm as well as employees. Kask confirmed that.

Her financial modeling “helped the firm make the decision to move forward,” Kask said.

Maguire says the mergers, as well as the benefits policy changes and development of the forecaster tool, have been instructive to her.

“I learned that everybody's very different and there isn't a one- size-fits-all [approach],” she said. “The biggest challenge is understanding the [incoming] firm's culture so the firm feels welcome.”

Her finance team of six, which focuses on efficiency and adapting to change, has remained nimble and stable throughout the series of mergers, she said. 

“With this rapid growth,” Maguire said, “we need to make sure we're ready for the next merger.”

The Basics

Name of organization: BlumShapiro & Co. P.C.

Title: Chief Financial Officer

Size of organization: $75 million

Education: B.S. in Accounting

Previous job(s): McGladrey & Pull LLP, Filomeno & Co.

On the Job

Guiding business principle: Always doing what you believe is right

Best way to keep your competitive edge: I have a very strong competitive streak and internal drive to succeed. That pushes me to do my best every day.

Best business decision: Changing general ledger software package to Intacct. Our firm is rapidly growing and it was very time consuming to add offices in our prior software. This decision increased our reporting efficiencies and our ability to analyze financial information.

Worst business decision: We had tried moving our business to a small local office supply vendor. They were not able to support our business.

Goal yet to be achieved: Automating a rolling forecast. My goal is to virtually eliminate the annual budget process. I would also like to link this into creating a model for designing “what-if” scenarios and how they would impact future results.

Personal touch in your office: Numerous pictures of my kids

Personal Side

City of residence: Southington

Favorite way to relax: Getting a massage

Hobbies: Putting together online family photo albums, vacationing with the family and overall playing and spending time with my kids as much as possible

Last vacation: Visiting my parents in northern Maine, Eagle Lake. This is our most relaxing annual vacation destination since we relax into the slower pace of life and enjoy our three kids. My favorite activity while there is simply sitting in the grass and watching the kids play.

Favorite movie: Sweet Home Alabama

The car you drive: Toyota Sienna

Favorite cause: St Jude's Children's Hospital

Second career choice: Actuary