The Importance of Quality

The Importance of Quality:

Our Commitment to Integrity & Excellence

REVISED MARCH 2019

Achieving Quality the BKD Way

This is our report to you--sharing our structure, strategy and continued efforts to ensure quality. Your trust in our opinion and work demonstrates the value of services provided. When evaluating BKD as your firm, rest assured we take our responsibility to serve the public interest seriously and appreciate the opportunity to serve you.

The BKD Quality Report connects the results of the design and monitoring of our systems and policies with a broader look at how our culture promotes excellence. The quality of our work is a reflection of those we work with and how we develop our team.

Our report would be incomplete without discussing technology. Technological advances directly affect our processes and the measures necessary to protect you and the public. We want to be clear about our efforts regarding security and confidentiality as well as how we test and deploy technologies to improve effectiveness and efficiency.

Principles matter. In January 2019, we released the fourth edition of our firm handbook, The BKD Experience: Unmatched Client Service, which provides a hierarchy of foundational guidance starting with Integrity First--the most important of our client service standards. Providing ethical counsel to clients as an independent auditor is critical. Even when not engaged as an auditor, we best serve our clients' interests by holding ourselves accountable to integrity above profit.

We hope this report illustrates how our efforts, culture and commitment are intertwined with you in mind. We thank you for the opportunity to share this information and welcome your comments, either directly to your trusted BKD advisor or the firm's chief risk officer.

Ted Dickman Chief Executive Officer

Mike Wolfe Chief Risk Officer

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Working with Great Clients

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Our client base reflects on us as much as the selection of BKD reflects on our clients.

People First

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We achieve results with a strong team built to deliver unmatched client service.

Technical Ability & Leading the Process

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Strong technical skills are a baseline expectation for our team. Our experience with challenging and emerging issues sets us apart.

Audit Requirements & Culture

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A report on quality wouldn't be complete without reviewing the core elements of our primary service to the public--our role as an auditor.

Using Technology to Advance Our Capability

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Whether it's in our core tax and audit services or more broadly in our advisory work, our investments in technology have dramatically increased.

Protecting Information ? Security & Infrastructure

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Our clients are increasingly interested in our efforts to protect confidentiality.

Delivering & Monitoring Quality Results

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We believe clients deserve a detailed look at how we influence quality results and the internal and external oversight applied to our practice.

Our Legacy & Governance

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Learn more about our history, structure, strategic management and firmwide programs and statistics.

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Working with Great Clients

The most important element of BKD's risk management process is careful selection of clients. We look for ethical behavior and strong operational capabilities in the clients we serve. Clients assess our ethics and quality when comparing firms-- our experience shows they respect our interest in evaluating them, as well.

For any significant service, we gather background information to identify challenges facing an organization. These matters are sometimes complex, and surfacing potential challenges early is important. This evaluation extends beyond historical financial statements, tax returns or similar reports.

Professional standards also often require us to interview prior accountants about management and their evaluation of the client's integrity, along with the existence of any fraud, illegal acts or related matters.

By strengthening our understanding, we're more alert to challenging issues and possible risks. These efforts translate to a strong client base that enhances the work we do and protect our clients and BKD.

Potential Client Considerations

? Nature and purpose of the services being performed ? Demographics (structure, team capabilities, etc.) ? Tax and regulatory history, including planning ? Economics, including industry and

general performance ? Operations (life cycle, nature of product/services) ? Consistency in reporting and decision making that

supports high integrity ? Quality of financial records, internal control ? Related parties, turnover, conflicts of interest ? Litigation history, both as a defendant and as

a plaintiff ? Unique considerations of industry, nature of the

entity or nature of the service BKD would provide

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People First

Making People a Priority

We believe all three legs of our mission statement are critical--clients, people and professionally sound operations. Without strong clients, our people can't have rewarding opportunities. And without a dedicated team, our clients can't receive unmatched service. Our culture is defined by our PRIDE values, which establish expectations for a team member's success.

People First extends from our newest hires to our most tenured partners. We strive to enhance relationships and recognize individual performance within a strong team, rather than promote an "everyone gets a ribbon" culture. We want our best to stand out, and we support their long-term achievement.

Rewarding talented team members is the easy part; helping team members struggling to improve their skills, find a new seat on the BKD bus or make their way off our bus is far more challenging. We agree with Jim Collins in his book, Good to Great, that part of success is getting the right person in the right seat.

In our experience, managing people is so much more than a competitive salary, strong benefits package and the latest trends in coaching and mentoring (we provide all of these and more).

We create an environment that supports taking appropriate career risks while avoiding risks that compromise integrity and client service. And as you'll see later in this report, we're working hard to address leadership diversity through programs like SKY.

One event in particular captures the spirit of BKD. At our annual leadership conference, we present the PRIDE Award--an acknowledgment of an employee and partner who best exemplify our PRIDE values: passion, respect, integrity, discipline and excellence. With hundreds of team members in attendance, we celebrate these winners and their families. We permanently honor each of these winners in our National Office PRIDE hallway as a reminder of their outstanding performance.

Building the BKD Team

Building a team requires quality hiring and enriching training programs, combined with developing and promoting staff members who possess critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

BKD's coaching program emphasizes and encourages career growth. As our professionals progress, they have opportunities to build their skills and expand their knowledge.

Passion Respect Integrity

for service to others; for making tomorrow better than today

for the differences that make our team strong; for our legacy and the benefits of change

to do the right thing; to be objective and independent

Discipline

in process and innovation; to balance professional and personal commitments

Excellence

in skills and competencies; in our quest to be the best

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