Visionary: The CPA's New Role
1998; American Institute of Certified Public Accountants; Volume: 185; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0021-8448
Autores Tópico(s)Service-Oriented Architecture and Web Services
ResumoNeither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him. - Dwight D. Eisenhower The discourse about how rapidly the world is changing and the need to retool ourselves for the Age of Information has become so ubiquitous, there's a tendency to regard it as white noise. Too many of us tune it out, choosing from a ready store of rationalizations that betray hints of denial, inertia, overconfidence, helplessness or fear: It won't really affect me. I'll be retiring in 10 years. I'm too busy keeping up to stop and think about the future right now. I'm adaptable. I'll just roll with it. What can do? No one can control the future! I'm too old to learn all that difficult new computer stuff. Do any of these sound familiar? There's danger in defense mechanisms and studied deafness. Eisenhower's observation is as true for everyday people as it is for five-star generals and presidents. And it applies to entities -- professions, businesses, industries, governments and other organizations -- as well as individuals. Right now, the CPA profession is at a well-documented junction in the tracks of its history. For more than a hundred years, CPAs have delivered unique value to the public and the constituencies they serve, earning trust and respect. But the tracks have become less smooth of late. * The profession is aging as fewer and fewer bright young people opt to become CPAs. * The audit and other traditional services have become mature products and businesses are seeking faster, better and cheaper sources of a broader scope of information. Value is migrating upstream to higher level services. * Competition from non-CPAs is increasing. * Information technology has changed the environment in which CPAs work, the way they work and how people use their services. Although in some ways it has become a source of competition, it has also vastly expanded business opportunities for CPAs. The choices the profession faces are clear: (1) Lay down on the tracks and wait to be run over. (2) Choose the tracks that continue on in the same direction, hoping the future will head that way and there will be a choice of seats on board. (3) Figure out which tracks the future is most likely to take at the junction, clear and repair them, oil the switch and reserve first-class seats. In developing the CPA Vision Project, the profession's leadership has opted for the third choice. And it has invited all members to write their own first-class tickets on train of the future. PLAYING AHEAD OF THE GAME I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been. - Wayne Gretzky The CPA Vision Project is a professionwide initiative led by a coalition of CPAs from all segments of the profession, the American Institute of CPAs, state CPA society leadership and other financial professionals and organizations. This undertaking is remarkable in the breadth of its scope and the ambition of its goals: * To enable the profession -- all 330,000 + individuals in public practice, business and industry, government and education-to create its own future. * To provide the engine for propelling it into that future as a unified profession capable of thriving well into the second decade of the new millennium. That engine is a process called visioning. Visioning involves working out different scenarios of the future, choosing the one you like best, scripting your role in it and then working to make it all happen. The essence of visioning, so aptly captured in Gretzky's statement, is playing ahead of the game. Not only does visioning make great hockey players, it's also what put Wilt Chamberlain on the NBA All-Time Rebound Leader list. It's what makes a world-class tennis player, such as Martina Navritilova, a world-class chess master, such as Boris Kasparov, or -- practiced on a larger scale -- a world-class company. …
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