Get ready for the fast future: The anticipatory accounting and finance professional

The fast future

Get ready for …

The anticipatory accountingand finance professional

Bill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

bli.cnf.io

Poll: What generation do you belong to?

Our top challenge?

“When the job is in the way of the

work, consider changing your

job enough that you can go back

to creating value. Anything less is

hiding.”

Seth Godin

Top five issues impacting CPAs

1. Keeping up2. Information overload3. Doing more with less4. Being proactive vs.

reactive5. Complexity


Poll: What are your biggest challenges?

Poor reputation

No personal relationship

Inadequate staff to meet needs

Out-of-date technology

Fees were too high

CPA lacked expertise

Referral to a new firm

Poor responsiveness

CPA advice not proactive

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Why SMBs leave their CPA / accountant


Source: CPA.COM Insight intothe CPA of the Future Study 2014

Only 8% of CPAs are future-ready

Future-ready is the capacity to be aware, predictive, and

adaptive of emerging challenges, tech innovations,

and trends and changes in business, population, and

social environment.


“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn how to surf.”

– Jon Kabat-Zinn

Oceans of opportunity

The faster you go, the farther ahead you have to

look.

5 steps to becoming future-ready

1.Context 2.Certainty3.Capacity4.Competence 5.Core beliefs


Context

“We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before.” -- Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum


“In the next five years, game-changing technologies will transform every business process, including how we sell, market, communicate, collaborate, educate, train, and innovate.”

-- Daniel Burrus

Source: Frey & Osborne,“The Future of Employment,” Oxford University

Race against the machines?



Are your offices, workspaces, and technology future-focused?

Do you know what your clients are facing now and in the future?

Are you using the language of the future or the past?

Will students and potential employees feel like they are traveling back in time when they walk through your door?

Certainty

Hard trends = future facts

Three hard trends:1. Government

regulation2. Technology3. Demographics

Disruption and RONIThe gap is widening, faster!

Source: Clayton Christensen, “Innovation Killers”

We think this is thetrade-off


Capacity

6 ways to create capacity

• Maximize the software and tools you have• Use the latest, most efficient technologies• Workflow and process efficiency• Focus on your best ‘A’ clients / customers• Communicate your services (cross-sell)• Engage your people

Competency

Disruptions before they disruptProblems before you have themCustomer needs before they have them New opportunities before the competition

Anticipate

Source: Daniel Burrus

#Futur-eReady

Is the capacity to be anticipatory (aware, predictive and adaptive) of emerging technology and trends in business, demographics, and the social environment impacting your organization and industry.


Respond lightning fast Access an encyclopaedic

memory Stay awake 24 x 7 x 365 Remember conversations Analyze on the fly Continually learn and improve

Advantage, machines

Source: AccountingWEB

Intuition Political acumen Challenging Reading the back story Who’s who? Probability of change Culture What’s in it for me?

Advantage, humans

Source: AccountingWEB

“Professional judgment and expertise is not replaceable by machines.”

— Cathy EngelbertCEO, Deloitte

“Humans should only do work that only humans can do.”

Peter Sheahan

The researchThe latest research inside and outside the CPA profession re-affirms the top competencies and skills needed by accounting and finance professionals.


Top skills that accounting and finance professionals need today

BLI Research in 2015 with over 1,000 responses from all segments of the CPA profession identified these top skill needed to be successful in these rapidly changing times. This confirms and reinforces the research from the Conference Board, AICPA’s CPA Horizons 2025 report, Bersin, and Burrus Research.

75% covered by these

top 5 skills

VALUE

Adding Insight for Action

Information

Wisdom

Knowledge

Data

Compliance

Reliance

Source: CGMA and DIKW Pyramid

VALUE

Poll: What are the top skills accounting and finance pros need to succeed going forward?

TrustIntegrityObjectivityExcellence Lifelong learning

Core beliefs and values

Protect the core and stimulate progress

5 steps to becoming future-ready

1.Context 2.Certainty3.Capacity4.Competence 5.Core beliefs


Calendar: The No. 1 appSpend just one hour per week in the future

…

“We are called to be architectsof the future, not its victims.”

R. Buckminster Fuller

“The best way to predictyour futureis to create it.”

Abraham Lincoln

Poll: What is your biggest takeaway from this session?

Download these slides:

Slideshare.net/BillSheridan

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Get ready for the fast future
