The firm has grown tremendously through acquiring several market leading brands in tax niches. Though this has grown the firm’s overall revenue and national/international footprint, it has not been without issues that are yet to be resolved. It is true that most acquisition activities do not work or bring accretive value and, in this case, this remains to be seen for many acquisitions.
The internal support infrastructure still leaves much to be desired, as routine requests with HR, IT, payroll, etc. seem to be cumbersome and inefficient. There are instances where it takes a week for the simplest request to be completed, and sometimes not without multiple follow-ups. It feels like there is a lot of turnover with the internal support environment as many of the people I have worked with have left the firm just over the past two to three years.
Compensation has become a big issue at this firm. Ryan allows marketing/sales bonuses for all levels of employees, which sounds great on the surface. Unfortunately, this model also means that starting base compensation is average to below average in many, if not most markets. This model worked really well when Ryan was a smaller firm and wanted to incent others to “cover the map.” Many legacy Ryan folks have done well with this model, but with an employee base of 1,800+ it is not practical to assume that all employees have the marketing/sales bonus opportunities. Principals control the means and the ends when it comes to these bonuses. All accounts have to be registered with a Client and Engagement Principal. If you are not a Principal, good luck with battling a Principal if the marketing/sales bonus does not come your way. In addition, most accounts and/or opportunities have been squatted on by Principals so you will have little opportunity with anything beyond the smallest accounts, therefore effectively eliminating any marketing/sales bonus.
With the recent growth, Ryan has become more of a lumbering bureaucracy. Simple requests take weeks or months to approve, and this is after having to go through multiple justifications and/or forms to complete. When the CEO has to still approve all purchase orders, you know there is a problem. It is a running joke how long it takes to get simple approvals.
