YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Few business leaders across the Mahoning Valley have logged the lifetime of experience that Wally King has.
King, the cofounder of what is today HBK CPAs & Consultants, Canfield, began his career in accounting in 1947, not long after he returned from Europe at the end of World War II, trained as a combat pilot. That year, King joined a small accounting firm headed by CPA Rowland Hill, and in 1949, Hill was joined by Irl Hammonds, who would serve as a mentor to the young accounting student, forming the firm of Hill & Hammonds, the forerunner of what would become Hill, Barth & King.
“We were that new generation,” says King, who turns 101 on Oct. 31.
Today, younger men and women are entering a business world that is completely foreign to the one King stepped into. What hasn’t changed, though, are fundamental sensibilities that young professionals should take to heart as they enter this stage of their lives.
“There’s no such thing as a lone wolf entrepreneur anymore,” King says. “You have got to rely on other people. You need input, different perspectives, different imaginations.”
King relates that after Hill retired in 1959 (his son, Dick Hill, would succeed him) the business developed a management structure that fostered interaction among the partners. “It wasn’t a pyramid-type structure, but more of a horizontal structure of management and ownership,” he says.
According to King, there was no single partner smarter than the other: “We each had our strengths. We each had our weaknesses.”
He says young people entering the business world today should heed advice from more experienced colleagues, treating each day as a new learning experience that enriches them in their profession and in life.
“Learn everything you can from everybody you can,” King says. “Most of the creative ideas most of us got were through observing what other people experienced and learning from that.”
King says he never entered the office with any sense of anxiety – though he was uncomfortable on days when he had to fire an employee. “That didn’t happen too often, fortunately,” he says.
HBK’s evolution into a multidisciplined CPA and consulting firm reflects the changes that have occurred since he first entered the profession in 1947. “We were generalists,” King recalls. “You can see how diverse and how much expertise you need in different fields today. Business has become much more dynamic.”
Still, success in any endeavor boils down to a simple practice of open communication and engagement, King says, referencing a passage in the Bible from the Book of Ecclesiastes: “A cord of three strands is not easily broken.”
Pictured: Wally King was born Oct. 31, 1923.