Saddle up.

• Position: Finalentry - Interview

Abet Moreno has been part of the East Bakersfield community ever since he moved there at the age of 7 front Ventura. Today he is an incoming partner at Mendez Petty MORENO, LLP and a recent graduate of CalCAP's Leadership Institute. California CPA spoke with Moreno to find out about his business in Bakersfield ... and his love of horses.

How did you get into accounting?

My parents owned a janitorial service and one or our clients was a sole proprietor CPA. Every time I would go with them to help clean the offices he would always encourage me to get into public accounting, so I decided to give it a snot. And here I am today.

How has the profession changed since you entered it five years ago?

At the small firm level you're seeing us embrace technology and innovation as a way of competing with medium-sized firms and creating greater capacity. "Hie attitude is changing in regards to how we treat our staff and employees: I always embraced the oldtimers "up or out" mentality, but that mold doesn''t work for today's crop or students coming out of college. I talk to older CPAs and it's hard for them to accept that not every CPA wants to work 110 hours a week.

What do you think are the most important issues facing the profession today?

I'll admit that I'm biased on this one because I'm the Bakersfield Chapter chair for the Grass Roots Committee, hut I believe that CPAs have to be more involved in the legislative process. We can't sit idly by while special interest groups are spending millions of dollars on things that directly affect our clients mid profession--that's a great disservice to the younger CPAs and our clients. I don't think that, as small firms, we can afford to assume that our interests will be served by the others.

How does your firm recruit and retain top talent?

The best advice that lever got professionally was from my mentor, Ken Shakoori, who asked me to describe what kind of firm I was to build. I was kind of proud of' myself because I had thought this Out before and I described to him this amazing accounting firm I envisioned. He looked at me and said, "What you just described to me is just about every large firm here in Bakersfield." So he gave me this advice: "You're never going to beat the big firms at what they do best. Instead, find a niche, something you do...