Pros
In the tax services space, Ryan has developed a great dominance since tax services are our focus. There are lots of experienced and intelligent people working at Ryan that are known as the best in their respective practices. Great business model, which is focused on delivering value to its clients at the highest levels. Unencumbered by accounting/tax regulatory conflicts of interest, the firm is well positioned to be creative for our clients. Ryan is truly focused on delivering real results while being flexible in how clients are billed for services. Definitely not your typical time/expense model that rules the landscape in this space. Ryan is a firm that really cares about clients. The firm is always thoughtful in how to deliver value-added services and constantly sends out client service evaluations. When the client service evaluations are part of your compensation, you know the firm is focused on delivering the best service. myRyan is a great program that is an important part of the cultural fabric of Ryan. This program is a symbol of Ryan’s focus on results and not hours. You will not hear Ryan discuss hours, especially billable hours, which tend to dominate your existence in a professional tax services firm environment.
Cons
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.