Hello, I'm Jeff Thomson, president and CEO of IMA, the Institute of Management Accountants.
And welcome to this edition of Series for the Future where
we talk about automation, the impact of automation on our great profession of finance and accounting.
Should we be concerned? Are we going to lose jobs? Is our profession going away?
Are we going to be replaced by roboaccountants and roboadvisors,
or is there a light at the end of the tunnel and an opportunity
to upskill and add even more value and relevance?
So I'd like to start out by indicating that IMA is very excited
to have launched its third ad campaign promoting the CMA program
(Certified Management Accountant) program, and it shows a CMA...
It's a TV ad, it's radio ads, digital marketing, print, etc.
And it shows a CMA (Certified Management Accountant), working with his robot buddy.
And it's a little bit whimsical. It's a little bit fun, but it really is relevant.
And it talks about we as CMAs, we as finance and accounting professionals,
we have a great opportunity to lead the digital revolution and use robotics,
robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, blockchain, etc., etc.,
as assets to leverage to create sustainable value for the organization.
So there's a lot of hype out there.
We need to cut through the hype and find the gold nuggets of
opportunity for our organizations as it relates to these technologies.
But as individuals and as a profession, we absolutely must upskill and embrace new competencies.
So it's technology for the business, competency for professionals and the profession.
Let's just talk a little bit about blockchain, which
has gotten a lot of attention lately in the number of use cases.
And blockchain has increased actually exponentially just over the last year.
Now, when you think about blockchain, distributed ledger, smart contracts,
safe protocols, efficiency,
you might say, "Well, what's the role of the finance and accounting professional?
Is there a role? Do we need them anymore?"
Blockchain is often referred to as the truth serum for distributed ledgers and transactions that are
spread over many intermediaries.
So if blockchain is the ultimate truth serum because of its encryption and data security, why do we need accountants?
Why do we need finance team professionals?
Well, we absolutely do need them. And here's why.
When you think about blockchain as the truth serum, you've heard the saying
***Garbage in, garbage out.***
Somebody has to assure the data going in is of high quality, of high integrity, and is useful for the distributed blockchain.
After we've gone through the transactions and done the analysis,
who does the analysis from the blockchain, from the shortened book close or more efficient transaction processing?
It's the finance team and professional
accountant that has data analytics skills, data science skills, storytelling,
and more, which we'll talk about in just a moment.
And the final thing I'd like to mention is that all is not lost here.
We talk about being on the defense a little bit.
Accountants bracing for technology as opposed to accountants
embracing technology and using it for a competitive advantage if we upskill.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics
from the government, from the U.S. government, indicates that the percentage
of job increase will be about 10% in the accounting profession through 2026,
which is faster than most occupations.
So if you think accountancy is dead, if you think accountancy is a relic, a dinosaur...
Well, I think accountancy is changing and that's very, very important.
Let's talk a little bit about accountancy changing and the role of the
CFO in leading digital transformations across the supply chain and the value chain.
Why is the CFO in, arguably, a very, very good position to lead digital transformation initiatives?
And when I think about digital transformation,
I think about a book by Tom Davenport, who is a Babson
College professor and a consultant to Deloitte Analytics.
And Tom wrote a book called <i>Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning.</i>
So it talks about, "Wow, we're not just competing on products and services,
market-facing activities, we're actually competing on data and knowing our
customers inside out, and creating personas and cohorts."
So it's very, very important to realize that this is the new science of winning,
and embracing data analytics from the top is absolutely critical.
By the way, Dr. Davenport wrote that book in 2007, so much has happened.
So why is the CFO
in a good, good position to lead digital transformation efforts?
I'll finally give you the answer here, in my opinion.
And that's because the CFO really does sit at the intersection of finance, accounting, strategy, technology, and operations.
So tone at the top, the finance team, executive team
as collaborator and convener and catalyst and strategist,
is absolutely the right place, or one of the right places,
in the C-suite to drive transformational change. But it all requires competency.
Dr. Davenport has also talked about to what extent do finance and accounting
team members need to become Ph.D. statisticians or data scientists?
And by the way, throw in a dose of storytelling to complement and offset the science.
And he indicates that there are several types of jobs and skills that are very critical,
from a staging perspective, to build over time within the finance team,
and certainly to build in the organization.
So he does talk about data scientists, those who understand business statistics
and correlations and how to create insights from information.
He talks about those that have technology applications knowledge like Excel, like R,
like Tableau, like Power BI, and other business intelligence tools.
He talks about those with domain knowledge, people that know how to ask the right questions
because they understand the business.
And finally, he talks about finance and accounting professionals building their skillsets in data analytics,
not just at the rudimentary level, the descriptive level which tells you what happened,
or the diagnostic level, why it happened, but also migrating
up the value chain, to predictive and prescriptive analytics:
what will happen, and how can we make it happen?
So in summary, we have an incredible opportunity here in this profession,
and as finance and accounting team professionals.
Again, let's not be on the defensive and brace for technology.
Let's embrace technology, create a call to action to upgrade our competencies.
It's going to require a team effort involving corporations with tone at the top in terms of technology,
data analytics, and academia in terms of supplying talent and building curricula
that reflect what accountants actually do in business.
So this is an opportunity that we absolutely can seize and win in a competitive environment to once
again increase our relevance and influence in a digital age.
Thank you very much.
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