Partners and employees at Crowe BGK engage in friendly competition through games of foosball.Supplied
Michael Iammatteo always knew he wanted to work with a smaller company. That’s why, when the senior auditor set his sights on medium-sized accounting firm Crowe BGK LLP, he didn’t apply anywhere else.
“I didn’t want to work at a big company where you feel like just a number,” says Iammatteo. “I prefer close-knit companies that feel more like a community, and we know each other’s names.”
The bet paid off, and in three years, Iammatteo moved up from junior auditor to intermediate and now senior. In part, Iammatteo attributes his career growth to the Montréal-based firm’s hands-on, communicative culture.
As a junior, Iammatteo received clear feedback on files. Now, as a senior auditor, he fields questions from juniors and leaves the same kinds of notes he used to receive.
“Sometimes as a junior I envisioned myself as a senior, and I thought, ‘I’d never be able to answer these questions,’” Iammatteo recalls.
But through the work and guidance from supervisors, Iammatteo picked up the knowledge, leadership and communication skills required to succeed.
“Communication is something the firm does very well,” he says. “The managers are all very emotionally intelligent and approachable.”
Iammatteo’s learning also accelerated thanks to Crowe’s size. Unlike larger firms, where an auditor may be on a 15-person team assigned to one section of a large file, Iammatteo’s assignments are one or two-person teams on a mid-size file, offering more industry exposure and learning.
Smaller files also means that sometimes, as a junior, Iammatteo would work directly with a partner.
“You’re familiarizing yourself with the top right away,” he says. Working directly with more junior staff isn’t only a matter of firm size, partner Benjamin Wohl explains, but an intentional practice that strengthens the firm’s expertise and culture.
“It’s also a matter of making the time,” he says. “It’s just good business practice to spend time working directly with people, being able to train and transfer knowledge.”
Working on files isn’t the only place where employees at all levels engage with heads of the firm.
For Iammatteo, going head-to-head against Wohl on the foosball table in Crowe’s break room is a regular lunchtime occurrence.
While it’s just a game, the little things that bring people together — like playing foosball, eating lunch or heading to spin class (led by another of the firm’s partners) — all play a part in Crowe’s success.
The approachable, down-to-earth culture has been cultivated organically and passed down over generations, says Wohl.
Much like Iammatteo, Wohl started with Crowe as a junior auditor fresh out of university 14 years ago. By blending hard work and opportunity, Wohl’s career continued to grow upward, achieving firm partner six years ago.
“My trajectory is a lived experience of the opportunities we give to people,” says Wohl.
Promoting from within is common practice at Crowe, and something that ensures firm knowledge, culture and spirit are inherited throughout the organization.
Being a mid-sized firm rooted in its identity is also a competitive advantage, explains Wohl, who has watched the firm expand from 80 employees to 280.
As other medium-sized firms are swallowed by large organizations, Wohl says, Crowe is in a unique position where it can marry the opportunity and benefits of a larger firm with the customized approach of a smaller one.
“As we grow, we want to be the biggest small firm."
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