RSM’s newest CEO calls Cedar Rapids home – and plans to keep it that way

Brian Becker is distinctly proud of his Eastern Iowa roots.

So when he was offered the opportunity to become CEO of RSM’s U.S. operations, he insisted that he continue working in Cedar Rapids, rather than relocating to a larger metro area.

“When I interviewed for this job, I said I was not going to move to Chicago or New York,” Mr. Becker said as he sat down for an exclusive interview with the Corridor Business Journal earlier this month. “If that’s a problem, let me know. I have family here, and we said we’re staying here. That’s a bigger deal than you think, with a company our size. There was a lot of pressure to be in Chicago, which is where they wanted me. But I said no. Cedar Rapids is where we are, and it’s where we need to stay.”

While traveling frequently to RSM offices in one of 82 cities in the U.S. to meet with company leaders, Mr. Becker said he sees Cedar Rapids as his home base – the first time since Ira B. McGladrey founded the company in 1926 that its CEO has been based here.

And while Mr. Becker took the helm at RSM less than a year ago, in September, his roots with the company run deep, laying a foundation for success several decades in the making.

Wide-ranging background

A native of Elk Run Heights, near Waterloo, Mr. Becker graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, and started with McGladrey & Pullen, the company now known as RSM, later that year as an auditor.

He remained in that role for several years before pivoting to one of his original passions – technology – starting a technology infrastructure practice within McGladrey & Pullen’s operations.

“At the time, it was probably considered a very boring combination,” Mr. Becker said of blending accounting and technology. “But as technology became so important, that combination really helped me. In accounting, you have to learn about the business and how businesses operate, and then you apply that technology to it. That's what I think made me effective and our firm effective, because we apply technology to improve the business.”

In fact, as Mr. Becker sees it, employing technology improperly can actually be detrimental to a business’ success.

“To do technology right, you have to align people, process and technology together,” Mr. Becker said. “From the very beginning, from me to the first 10 people to the next 1,000 people we hired, it was about how we align a company’s strategy, people, process and technology. If you get any one of those wrong, you just end up really doing the wrong thing faster.”

After moving through several leadership positions, Mr. Becker became RSM’s national consulting director in 2017, driving dramatic growth in that division, until being named managing partner and CEO last year.

RSM’s middle market focus

The fifth-largest accounting firm in the U.S. overall, RSM is also the nation’s largest firm focusing on middle-market clients.

It’s a niche that RSM has targeted aggressively since its founding, Mr. Becker said. And being able to offer technology guidance to its clients, along with traditional audit, tax and consultancy services, has played a major role in differentiating RSM from its competitors.

“The big four (accounting firms) have the breadth of those types of services,” Mr. Becker said. “But if you look at firms focused on the middle market, we’re the dominant player, and we pick products (and) services for the middle market, which is the largest part of the economy, in the United States and in the world. So we focus on that, and that is our differentiator.”

With labor shortages continuing to hinder mid-market firms, RSM can help its customers remain updated on cybersecurity and other technology needs without having to find a separate firm, or hire their own employees, to stay up-to-date on security issues, Mr. Becker noted.

“For a middle market company to invest in the right type of cyber expertise is almost impossible,” he said. “We want to advise them, but we also want to deliver. We call it advise, deliver and manage, so we're the people that turn the screwdrivers and can install technology or help them with tax or accounting, and then manage if they need us to outsource their tax department or their technology needs.”

RSM’s consulting services have grown more rapidly than any other portion of the company’s operations, now comprising about 40% of the company’s overall revenue, Mr. Becker said.

Despite some pressures to expand its services to larger firms, RSM intends to steadfastly maintain its focus on the middle market, Mr. Becker said.

“As we became larger, a lot of people wanted us to be the next Big Four (firm),” he said. “We saw a lot of providers in that area, with the Big Four and Accenture and all the other large consultancies, but we didn't see the full-breadth firm for the middle market. So we laid out a strategy to say that's our focus, and we want to be the best, the one that’s sought after and compelling to those types of clients.”

Those clients, he said, have needs and expectations that need to be addressed on a more personal level.

“They're more privately owned, more entrepreneurial type companies,” he said. “We have worked for Google and Amazon, those kinds of firms, but predominantly, we're built for that entrepreneurial, owner-managed company who's trying to grow like we are. They want to be served in a more flexible way, but they definitely demand the expertise and the talent. And that's been very successful.”

For such firms, personal relationships can be a crucial differentiator, Mr. Becker noted.

“It’s part of the reason we have 80 offices versus 20, because they do want that relationship, that local touch,” he said. “They realize that they can't get all the expertise locally, so we can bring the full power of the firm to them in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. When we do that, they have somebody local to be their relationship leader. So it's always a team of somebody local along with the global strength of the firm.”

The middle market focus is also appealing to RSM’s employees, Mr. Becker said.

"I think our people love the middle market, because in a larger firm, you might get sent to John Deere for seven months," he said. "For us, you’re at a middle market client, then you're on to the next middle market client.  So our people can discover ‘Where does my passion lie? Do I like doing manufacturers? Do I like doing banks? Do I like doing professional services?’ Then we focus them in that area. So you're not getting sent to Walmart for a year doing payables. That's nothing against our competition, but it's just a different experience. You see them grow, you learn a lot more, and I think you're appreciated a lot more as an accountant helping a middle market client.” 

RSM’s philosophy and principles

Several guiding principles have been embedded in RSM’s operations, Mr. Becker said. 

“We grade every partner and owner on the five C's,” he said. “Are you caring? Do you collaborate? Are you curious with your clients and the people you manage? Are you a critical thinker? And are you courageous? That’s more important than ever today, to stand up for who you are, to make sure that you speak out for your clients and for yourselves as far as pursuing your passion.”

RSM encourages diversity and inclusion, actively seeking input from employees to solicit a variety of viewpoints, Mr. Becker said.

The RSM Foundation also had a record year in 2022, Mr. Becker said, raising over $10 million for charitable causes, including $7 million from Birdies Fore Love (BFL), RSM's charitable giving platform for the RSM Classic, a PGA Tour event for which RSM is the title sponsor.

“We have a big part in supporting our communities,” he added.

Operationally, RSM has made a concerted effort to distribute its leadership team in offices across the country, rather than a centralized C-suite.

“We're a partnership, so as a partnership, we want to have representation across different markets, different disciplines and different industries,” he said. “So we try to keep a leadership team that's diversified, which provides better perspectives. We've always had that spread (of executives). We were founded in Cedar Rapids, so we were a Midwestern firm before we went to the East Coast, the West Coast and then globally.

“I think people across the country refer to us as Midwest nice,” he added. “Our culture and our values emanate from (that) though our employees all over the world. I think what was started 100 years ago still resonates. And a lot of leaders that started in the Midwest and in Iowa have moved across all the different parts of the country. Our CFO in Minneapolis is from Mason City. Pat Vance, who leads our consulting practice now, is in Dubuque. One of our leaders that has grown Texas, Ron Beck, emanated from Cedar Rapids. Nothing against the East Coast or the West Coast or anywhere, but it’s a great coaching tree, if you will, of people that have come from the state of Iowa.”

Industry trends and challenges

While the demand for financial services remains strong and continues to evolve, the industry as a whole hasn’t adapted as rapidly as needed to address modern needs, and RSM is moving aggressively to change that, Mr. Becker said.

“We want to be a digital accounting tax and consulting firm,” he said. “And that means not just technology, but aligning people, process and technology to deliver that digital experience. A lot of accounting firms have difficulty doing that.”

The advent of artificial intelligence, in particular, is challenging the financial services industry in ways not previously seen, he said.

“Historically, the accounting industry hasn't been disrupted,” he noted. “Accounting in a lot of ways is being done the same way it’s been done for 90 years. So as we go to the future, we have to become digital. We have to be found differently. It's not just going to the Rotary meeting for lunch and meeting clients. A lot of our clients find us through our website, through digital webinars. And they want to be served through digital means, especially the younger buyers that are coming up. We have to become much more digital.”

RSM also needs to continue growing internationally, he said.

“We're primarily middle market, but 70% of our revenue is with companies that have global operations,” he said. “So our middle market today in the U.S. more than likely has a global supply chain, a global location, a global influence. So to properly serve the middle market, we have to be a global firm.”

On a practical note, Mr. Becker noted the accounting industry is dealing with a dramatic workforce shortage, which will require creative thinking to meet future employment needs.

“It's so important that we expand beyond just accounting majors,” he said. “All of us are looking at how we go to other majors and fill roles. The amount of accounting graduates has gone down across the country, and it's really happening in all areas. There's an impending shortage of skilled labor in the United States, and there's just less people going to college, so that's why tuition has gone up. There's this hole, which exacerbates the problem, because now you can't afford to go to college. And there's more shortage of labor, so some kids don't have to go to college. Our biggest issue is, how do we attract diverse talent and talent in general in the United States?”

To address that need, RSM has spent millions to educate high school students to change attitudes about accounting as a career choice. 

“We're trying to get rid of that stigma that an accountant is this white guy with a stack of papers in front of them that works 5,000 hours during the busy season, and that’s all you do for the rest of your life,” he said. “It's not like that. It's a lot more about data analytics, technology, client relationships, helping the business succeed. That's really what you do. That's what catapults you into being a CFO or a CEO, or something greater in the future.”

In today’s market, accounting majors are virtually guaranteed a career and a relatively high starting salary, he noted.

“We start hiring them as sophomores and juniors,” he said. “So you’re guaranteed a pathway. So many kids, I just wish they could see the possibilities. They (choose) another major that maybe, for the money you spend, isn’t going to get them as far as they could have gone.”

What the future holds

Mr. Becker said even after 33 years with RSM, he continues to marvel at how his career has progressed.

“When I graduated college, or even 10 years ago, I would never have said I would be sitting here,” he said. “My dad was a meat packer at Rath in Waterloo. I owe my parents a lot, because I'm a first generation college student. My mom and dad said ‘you five kids are gonna go to college.’ They were intent on that. I just wanted a steady job. I got my accounting degree, which gave me the business background. I love computers, and I love developing people. Not at any point in my career did I say I wanted to be a partner, or an owner or head of consulting or CEO. It’s just that the opportunity was there and I felt like I was right for it. So it's been the ride of a lifetime.”