According to Mike Swartz, office managing partner for the Ann Arbor office of Plante & Moran, being good at math isn't the only requirement for being a certified public accountant — the job involves more people skills than most would imagine.

“To have a really good, long career, you need a service attitude,” Swartz said. The job, he said, involves “dealing with clients and helping them figure out what their needs are, how you can best help them, and then bringing the solution to them.”

Swartz said that some people think all accountants do is work on a laptop, maybe doing a tax return or preparing a financial statement.

“That may happen the first couple years of your career, but before you know it, you're deep in relationships,” he said. “Your ability to interact, communicate and serve is critical to public accounting.”

Swartz has been with Plante & Moran for nearly his entire working life, doing an internship there and getting hired in 1978 to work in the firm's Southfield office — P&M’s only location at that time — as part of the audit staff.

“We were just starting a second office in Mt. Clemens in 1979, and there were less than 200 people in the firm,” Swartz said. “You knew everybody and their families.” The nice thing, Swartz said, is that even though the staff has grown to more than 1,600, “we still care about people the same way, and there's still that family atmosphere.”

Later, Swartz transferred to the Ann Arbor office and became a partner in the firm. Since then, he has progressed to his current position, taking on additional duties along the way, but not giving up much in the way of direct interaction with clients.

Swartz helps partners with staff development and client management issues but said he “still holds a large client base” and works with those clients one-on-one.

Having been with P&M so long, Swartz has had a chance to see how public accounting has changed over time.

“Everybody talks about simplifying the tax structure, but it continues to get more and more complex,” he said. “A lot of large, multinational companies have their own tax experts, but our clients are mostly closely-held businesses, and they rely on us to (be specialists) for them.”

Swartz also said that the speed of communication today is also changing how public accounting is done.

“It's having a negative impact on our ability to develop relationships — and there's no emotion on e-mail. It's harder and harder to sit down and talk one on one with somebody, and I see that, long term, impacting business relationships.”

In addition to his work for Plante & Moran, Swartz was also recently appointed to the Michigan State Board of Accountancy, the regulatory board for CPA firms in Michigan.

“The board works hand in hand with the state itself to review licensing issues and review complaints against practitioners, sometimes having to rescind people's licenses if they don't have proper moral character,” Swartz said.

Swartz has only been on the board a few months and is still settling in but said that one of the hot topics currently under discussion is whether someone can get certified as a CPA without actually practicing public accounting. One of the advantages of making this change, he said, accountants could obtain their CPA license and have that licensure recognized if they move to another state. The measure is still under discussion.

Swartz said he realizes the individual components of public accounting don’t seem exciting, but for him, the best part is helping people.

“You really get to help people solve their problems, especially financial issues and planning,” he said. “And the same for companies —you’re looking to help them not just today but for the future. When people retire and are comfortable, it makes you feel really good because you helped them get there. If someone sells a business and it’s doing well, that makes you feel good. You do a lot of helping, and that’s fun to me. If that’s the way you’re wired, you’ll get a lot of satisfaction out of this job.”

Background

Age: 53.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in accounting, Michigan State, 1979.

Family: Wife, Shelly; daughter, Danielle (24); son, Marcus (22).

Residence: Brighton (Hamburg Township).

Business Insights

Best business decision: Moving to the Ann Arbor office of Plante & Moran .

Worst business decision: I try not to focus on them.

Best way to keep a competitive edge: Keep your head up. Look ahead. Be flexible.

Personal hero: My father. He was the son of a sharecropper who helped four kids get college education and who taught us all to care about others.

How do you motivate people? I don’t. I provide the opportunity and encouragement. Truly successful people are self-motivated.

What advice would you give to yourself in college? Play hard but work harder (I got that mixed up when I was in college) .

Word that best describes you: Calm.

First Web site you check in the morning: Detroit Tiger score.

Confessions

What keeps you up at night? My wife’s elbow.

Pet peeve: Micro management.

Guilty pleasure: Acting like a kid.

First job: Laborer on a vegetable farm - 8 years old, 10 cents per hour - had to walk uphill to and from work - in the snow.

First choice for a new career: FBI.

Treasures

Favorite cause: Church, children’s issues, abused women, the homeless, the hungry, animals.

Favorite book: “Dealing with Difficult People.”

Favorite movie: Any comedy.

Favorite hobby: Outdoor activities - typical male bonding experiences.

Favorite restaurant: Huron River Hunting and Fishing Club.

LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter? Yep, yep, nope.

Typical Saturday: Catching up on office administrative matters.

What team do you root for? Spartans, Tigers, Wings, Pistons, Lions.

Wheels: Cadillac CTS (made in Lansing).

Who would play you in a movie? Rodney Dangerfield.

Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and a frequent contributor to AnnArbor.com. You can reach her at sarahrigg@yahoo.com.