Faculty Announcement – Ronald J. Baker
Ronald J. Baker is an author and speaker with the mission, "To, once and for all, bury the billable hour and timesheets in the professions." He will teach a course called "The Solo Practice of the Future" at Solo Practice University™.
Ronald J. Baker started his accounting career in 1984 with KPMG Peat Marwick’s Private Business Advisory Services in San Francisco. Today, he is the founder of VeraSage Institute, a think tank dedicated to teaching Value Pricing and much more to professionals around the world.
He is the author of five best-selling books, including: The Firm of the Future: A Guide for Accountants, Lawyers, and Other Professional Services; Pricing on Purpose: Creating and Capturing Value; Measure What Matters to Customers: Using Key Predictive Indicators; and Mind Over Matter: Why Intellectual Capital is the Chief Source of Wealth.
Ron has toured the world, spreading his Value Pricing message to over 90,000 professionals. He has been appointed to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant’s Group of One Hundred, a think tank of leaders to address the future of the profession, named on Accounting Today’s 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 Top 100 Most Influential People in the profession, and received the 2003 Award for Instructor Excellence from the California CPA Education Foundation.
He graduated in 1984 from San Francisco State University with a Bachelor of Science in accounting and a minor in economics. He is a graduate of Disney University, Cato University, and the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business course: Pricing: Strategy and Tactics. He is a member of the Professional Pricing Society and presently resides in Petaluma, California.
Course Syllabus: The Solo Practice of the Future (PDF)
About the Author
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Looking forward to having Ron here. Can’t wait to learn the ins and outs of value from him.
Ron,
I am looking forward to your class. As you may know from our previous exchanges at your site, I’m a fan of any kind of alternative billing (indeed, I only handle a small number of cases hourly) but at the same time, believe that we lawyers have fiduciary duties to our clients that need to be accounted for in any value based arrangements.
Carolyn Elefant
Hi Wesley, I look forward to contributing.
Carolyn, I here what you are saying about fiduciary duties, and ethics, which need to be taken into account under any pricing paradigm. But let me say this: I believe hourly billing is immoral and unethical. And I can back up the case with philosophy. Despite what David Giacalone has written about me, I take ethics very seriously (I teach ethics for CPAs around the world). I find it amazing people can defend hourly billing given all the ethical challenges it has created for the professions. I look forward to your attendance!