EO research department -- ready to supply the answers;

              AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF
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The EO Reseordi Department—Ready to Supply the Answers
"There's nothing magic or mysterious about
what we do. Our primary function is to
assist the practice offices in serving our
clients."
These are the wordsofMikeCook, partner
in charge of the EO Research Department.
What he modestly left out is the fact that
there is a certain alchemy involved—the
blending of hard work, continuous updating
of research tools and the conscientious,
thorough efforts of Research personnel.
In its present form the department can
probably trace its origin to the 1950s when
Oscar Gellein organized the Firm's research
efforts. Previous PICs include EO partners
Jule Phoenix, Hal Robinson, Jack Crawford
and ArminTufer. Research now has approxi­mately
twenty professionals who respond
to more than 1,700 questions each year from
our practice offices. Mike, who was named
to head the department two years ago, over­sees
the handling of questions, directs work
on special projects and supervises activities
requiring coordination with other Executive
Office groups.
To some people the title Research De­partment
conjures up an image of scholarly
pursuits and abstract theory. Mike is quick to
point out that this is not the case. "As tech­nical
advisers to the Firm's practice offices,
we are dealing with people; we are on the
'firing line.' In answering practice-office ques­tions—
knowingthat most of these questions
stem from client inquiries—we must always
be aware that we are dealing with the client.
"It is a misconception to believe that you
need an advanced degree, or that you have
to like to read books all day to work here,"
Mike notes. "I would say that the accountant
best suited for this department would have
demonstrated technical ability and an aware­ness
of.and interest in solving client
problems. We stress individual initiative,
creativity and acapacity and desire for growth
as a professional. We do not deliberately
seek people with diverse backgrounds. We
look for a bright person who will assume a
degree of specialization. We like to maintain
a flexible approach so that an individual can
select a particular area of interest for con­centration
of his research activities. At the
same ti me we hope to expose each individual
to a broad range of accounting subjects.
After three years we expect that our 'gradu-