The Importance of Process Excellence in Fortune 500 Tax Operations | Don Maher (Head of Tax, Mohawk Industries)

In this episode of Tax Leaders Unplugged, host Stevi Frooninckx sits down with Don Maher, Global Head of Tax at Mohawk Industries. After discovering litigation was not for him, Don returned to school to obtain his LLM in Tax. Don began his tax career working for KPMG and Deloitte, but moved on to in-house roles at Koch Industries and The Dow Chemical Corporation before accepting his position at Mohawk Industries. In today’s conversation, we discuss:

• The importance of developing efficient processes 

• The five steps in an integrated approach of Lean Six Sigma 

• How global companies maintain compliance and stay on pace with rapidly changing regulations 

• How good processes impact employee retention

• The current top challenges in the tax field

• And so much more!

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Where to find Don Maher: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donald-maher-9526353/

Where To Find Stevi Frooninckx:

• LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevifrooninckx⁠⁠⁠

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In this episode, we cover: 

(02:06) Don’s interests outside of tax

(03:10) How Don got involved in tax

(04:32) Why Don was attracted to working in global companies

(05:50) Don’s tips on best practices for building processes

(06:52) The Five steps in the process of Lean Six Sigma

(09:24) Who owns the operationalization of process improvements

(11:22) An explanation of the processes at Mohawk

(16:22) The benefits of processes and how efficiency drives talent retention

(21:35) Don’s philosophy on compliance

(25:50) The importance of good communication and strategic partnerships

(31:32) Why Don empowers local teams to choose their own advisors

(36:01) Top challenges in tax today

(40:00) The importance of good public relations

(40:44) The recruitment process at Mohawk and what types of talent they seek

(43:00) Don’s parting advice

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Referenced:

• Six Sigma vs Lean Six Sigma: What’s the Difference?: https://www.purdue.edu/leansixsigmaonline/blog/six-sigma-vs-lean-six-sigma/

• Integrating Lean and Six Sigma: https://www.bpminstitute.org/resources/articles/integrating-lean-and-six-sigma

• Workflows: https://www.loctax.com/workflows

• Pillar Two rules: https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/topics/policy-sub-issues/global-minimum-tax/pillar-two-model-rules-in-a-nutshell.pdf