HOUSTON, June 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Over 100 professionals, including former state officials and congressional members, executive officers, U.S. business leaders, CPA partners and business advisors from across the nation gathered for alliantgroup’s Technology, Legislative & Policy Summit—an exclusive event created for the benefit of the firm’s clients and CPA and industry partners.
During the two-day conference, attendees were treated to a series of panels highlighting some of the most critical issues facing U.S. business leaders and policymakers. The topics covered included strategies on how to attract and retain talent in the face of a growing technical labor shortage, the rising importance of cybersecurity for public and private institutions, and an overview of anticipated legislative and policy changes and their expected impact on U.S. businesses.
On the first day of the event, former CEO of Deloitte Italy and former Vice Chairman of Deloitte US Frank Tirelli, along with alliantgroup CEO Dhaval Jadav, led a roundtable discussion on the strategies and policies U.S. companies should pursue in order to attract, retain and motivate their professional talent. During this address, Tirelli drew on his own experiences as an executive in the professional services industry and emphasized the importance of putting an organizational structure and culture in place that fosters career development.
“Eighty percent of the people in this universe have the requisite level of talent and intellect to be successful in our business. Quite frankly, they have the requisite level of talent to be successful in any business,” said Tirelli. “It’s what you do with people after you bring them into the firm that differentiates them from everybody else.”
Frank Tirelli & Dhaval Jadav
While Tirelli’s experiences come mainly from the professional services sector, those in attendance noted that the importance of cultural investment spans across industries—and its benefits can be particularly important in attracting, retaining and developing younger professionals who often are looking at other factors outside of just compensation. According to Tirelli, while expanded corporate perks and benefits are helpful in recruiting talent, the most successful organizations ultimately find and develop their employees by creating an environment to foster their long-term success. This lesson applies universally across all sectors but is particularly relevant at the moment to STEM-based industries that are competing over a shallow pool of domestic technical talent.
“The way you are going to differentiate yourself is by having in place a structure to help make your people successful in the career they have chosen,” said Tirelli.
The panel concluded with a discussion on ways to expand the STEM workforce, with many executives, industry leaders and former elected officials in attendance expressing their support for educational reforms that would expose students to STEM skills at an earlier age and programs that would support STEM-based career initiatives.
“I would like to thank everyone who took the time to attend this event,” said alliantgroup CEO Dhaval Jadav. “Our goal in hosting these conferences is to provide thought leadership to our CPA firms and the businesses they serve. By providing them with the information they need to stay ahead of emerging economic and policy trends, it is our hope that we are offering another avenue to ensure their continued success.”
Those in attendance included the first U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns, former Alabama Governor Bob Riley, former Missouri Governor Kit Bond, former U.S. Congressman Harold Ford, Jr., former U.S. Congressman Rick Lazio, former CEO of Deloitte Italy and Vice Chairman of Deloitte US Frank Tirelli, former Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury Mark Mazur, former Senior Counsel to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee Dean Zerbe, former IRS Commissioners Mark W. Everson, Steven Miller and Kathy Petronchak, and alliantgroup CEO Dhaval Jadav.
alliantgroup’s mission is one of education and awareness—we exist to help industry organizations, businesses and the accounting firms that advise them take full advantage of all federal and state tax credits, incentives and deductions available. These powerful incentive programs are legislated by the government to help businesses grow and remain competitive locally as well as abroad. We are proud to have helped over 12,000 businesses claim more than $6 billion in tax incentives. alliantgroup’s international headquarters is in Houston, Texas, with offices across the country and internationally including New York, Boston, Chicago, Orange County, Sacramento, Indianapolis, Washington, D.C and London and Bristol in the U.K. For more information on alliantgroup, please follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
