At this point, the sentiment that the world is becoming smaller and smaller and more and more connected is a cliche, Eric Kunkel said. But according to the CCK Strategies founding partner, that’s because it’s true.
“For middle-market companies and smaller companies, the ability to export and engage internationally has become more possible,” Kunkel said. “And so trying to understand ‘What are all the laws in all kinds of foreign jurisdictions,’ it has become necessary in order to really serve these clients. If you don’t know that, I don’t know how you can serve them.”
If receiving two prestigious awards that recognize entities making a significant contribution to the expansion of exports is any indication, CCK Strategies is performing that service for its clients and performing it well.
Within the course of just over a month, the Tulsa-based CPA firm received the 2016 Governor’s Award for Excellence in Exporting during the Oklahoma World Trade conference and also was honored with the President’s “E” Award for Export Service during a ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Firm leadership noted that their success wouldn’t be possible without the hard work and support of entities like the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and the Oklahoma U.S. Export Assistance Center as well as, of course, clients that operate internationally and run the gamut in terms of industry and need.
The firm works with companies headquartered on four continents with operations in over 25 countries.
“We don’t have any work to do if we don’t have any clients with international needs,” Kunkel said. “Anything that is reflecting on us is really a reflection of the great work our clients are doing.”
CCK Strategies was started in 1997 by founding partners Kunkel, John Curzon and Terry Cumbey to be what the company called “a new type of CPA firm.”
During the nearly two decades that have passed, top-level management has grown by two partners, Kayce Nelson and Jeffrey Frable, and total staff has grown to more than 80 employees.
International sales have been a principal driver in the most recent surge of growth for CCK. During the past year, the workforce grew from 61 to 83 staff members.
Export revenue from international clients was just over 20 percent of CCK’s 2015 gross revenue, reflecting an increase of approximately 87 percent from 2014 export revenue as a percentage of total revenue.
“It’s not just compliance-focused CPA work,” Nelson said of the firm’s guiding philosophy. “It’s more about service and taking care of our clients.”
The way that CCK takes care of clients interested in launching or expanding an international export arm for their businesses is by removing the fear of the unknown, tax project manager Kaitlin Sharpe said.
“We help clients get rid of some of the unknowns, and that’s what they’re the most scared of,” Sharpe said. “We walk them through that. That’s part of what we do in (tax) research — we look at all of the possible avenues we can. We can’t guarantee we’ll see all of them, but we try. And that helps them go into a new country feeling more comfortable about what they’re facing.”
Beyond the tax questions that CCK helps both U.S.-based and international clients navigate, the firm is also a resource for the nonconcrete aspects of conducting business globally, Curzon said.
“So much of the international work we do has nothing to do with tax laws and everything to do with culture: another country’s culture, how they approach life, business and everything,” Curzon said. “The United States, we have a very structured ‘Boom boom, we’re done’ (approach). There’s very little interaction. It’s very black and white.
“In other countries, you might have to go spend a week with the family and have meals and do fun things before they even want to talk about business. That’s predominant in the Middle East; it’s predominant in Asia; it’s predominant in South America — so pretty much anywhere else in the world besides the United States,” he said.
“If we don’t understand that, then we are doing a disservice to our clients by not helping them through that piece of this process.”
No matter what cultural conventions the business deals are conducted under, the bottom line is that in most cases international trade is encouraged and is a great driver to the economy.
“At the end of the day most countries want to do trading with the states, and the states want companies within the U.S. to do trade with other countries,” tax division leader Aaron Spoon said. “Some companies are intimidated by the concept of trading internationally, but it’s encouraged. Our country and other countries want this to happen.”
