The Institute of Management Accountants is hoping that next year will be the time when the public comes to view accountants as action heroes, helping them meet the many difficulties confronting society.
IMA president and CEO Jeff Thomson predicts that 2022 will be a time when accountants will take center stage in helping solve challenges like supply chain disruptions, diversity gaps, climate change and more. Accountants may need to function almost as crisis managers in the short term to help organizations build long-term sustainable value. CFOs may well become "chief future officers," leading a team of accountants to build value for the long term while managing short-term turbulence, aided by strategic planning, data analytics, enterprise risk management and other services.
“In many ways, the skills of the accountant today are so incredibly suited to all the exciting challenges and opportunities ahead for the profession, for society and for organizations,” said Thomson. “We’ve talked about the accountant playing two roles, which is rather unique, of value steward and value creator. Steward in terms of protecting stakeholder assets, making sure that we ethically and fairly report on the condition of the enterprise, and all the historical aspects of asset protection and preservation critically important during major events and disruptions like the pandemic. But on the other hand, the accountant is also on the offensive and is a value creator. When you think about how during the pandemic, organizations stepped up their digital investments in terms of their value chains, their own supply chains, they actually accelerated their investments in many ways.”
Another area is with environmental, social and governance reporting. Last month, during the United Nations’ COP26 climate change conference, the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation formally launched the International Sustainability Standards Board, which will bring together a number of previously independent — and, in some ways, competing — standard-setters (
“IFRS accounting standards are required in more than 140 countries and have quite a successful history,” said IFRS Foundation chair Erkki Liikanen during a Value Reporting Foundation symposium Tuesday. “We have known how to continue to work together, but the requirement to work together with the sustainability standards came because we are ready to serve, but it must be demand-driven. We organized a strategic consultation where we had two questions: Do we need global sustainability reporting standards, and should IFRS play a role in this work? To the first question, it was overwhelmingly a positive reply, and most also replied that we should play a role.”
Thomson sees a natural connection for accountants with ESG reporting: “Who better than the accountant to connect the dots on financial performance and sustainable business? Who better than the accountant to build all of the infrastructure that’s going to be required to support authoritative disclosures like internal controls, assurance, risk management, portfolio management, decision support? It’s the accountant with their unique set of skills,” he said.
He sees accountants as bringing together several other words that begin with the letter A. “I think of agility in dealing with crisis situations like COVID-19,” said Thomson. “I think of them being anticipatory in terms of investing for the future, as IMA did, anticipating the fact that the whole business environment is moving toward digitization, especially as we support remote work and new technologies. Adaptability is another A, the ability to have those leadership and soft skills to deal with a wider array of disruptions than we've ever seen before: nontraditional competition, weather events, pandemics. And then the fourth A I think about is analytical, having that ability to take raw data and translate it into information and insight.”
Accountants will need to help organizations adapt to the pandemic as it continues to threaten the public as dangerous new variants emerge. “As we get into 2022 and essentially two years of COVID-19, the Delta variant, and now Omicron, organizations need to have strong balance sheets,” said Thomson. “They need to have executive will to invest in the future, and they certainly need the talent that the accountant brings to bear. So ESG sustainability, technology, remote work, risk management, diversity, equity and inclusion are all reasons why we think, playfully, that 2022 will be the year of the accountant.”
The IMA has seen growth over the past year despite the pandemic, with more people enrolling to become Certified Management Accountants, although the pandemic may be tempering growth to some extent as people reassess their careers (
“Much like the rest of the world, we’re not yet back to pre-pandemic levels in terms of double-digit growth and new candidates, but we’re certainly heading there,” said Thomson. “The demand for the CMA, as we indicated in our
He thinks the accounting profession needs to do more to compete for talent against other career options.
“I think we need to do a better job of telling the story of the profession,” said Thomson. “The word accounting itself doesn’t exactly conjure up excitement. In fact, to some it conjures up Ben Affleck in the movie ["The Accountant"] and fraud and all that kind of stuff. Fortunately, that was just a movie. But the notion of green eyeshades and pocket protectors from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and maybe even 1980s, only focused on numbers and sitting in the corner and never let them out to interface with the rest of the world — those days have long gone, but we need to do a better job of describing the interdisciplinary nature of the profession in order to be successful today and to aspire to be the CFO ... Some have referred to it as the chief value officer. But in order to aspire to that level of leadership, you have to know accounting, finance, operations, technology, strategy, supply chain. You have to have a firm commitment to ethics. ... How many professions can you think of that have all of that interdisciplinary aspect to it that allows you to see the entire value chain of how an organization generates not only cash but also generates value, how it serves customers, how it serves society, how it inspires innovation?”
ESG reporting represents an area where accountants can provide more value to organizations while at the same time attracting young talent. “The real story behind ESG and sustainability is purpose-driven organizations who are not only looking out for their shareholders but are looking out for their stakeholders: society at large, the environment, people, partners, organizations that stand for something,” said Thomson. “And when you describe it that way, millennial students will flock to our profession because of all they can learn, all they can aspire to and all they can inspire. I’m beginning to think that we should be using the term ‘for purpose’ as opposed to ‘for profit.’ I think we’re all ‘for purpose,’ whether you’re a nonprofit or a for-profit. Storytelling has become an important part of what a CFO does or a CVO if you prefer chief value officer, accounting manager, finance manager. It’s the ability to communicate and describe a future that we all want to aspire to.”
Accountants can also help organizations with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at organizations. “Obviously it's the right thing to do in terms of a diverse, equitable and inclusive profession and organization, but there have been studies that actually show that outcomes are better with more emphasis on DE&I,” said Thomson.
In the first quarter, the IMA plans to release new studies about some of the challenges and opportunities in the accounting profession, especially in leadership positions. “There are several major studies we’re going to be releasing in the first quarter to advance the profession and to make our profession even stronger and more attractive, to students, millennials and the like,” said Thomson.
The IMA hopes to expand the accounting pipeline next year and beyond. “We think this is all about the race for talent,” said Thomson. “When you think about the Great Resignation, the gig economy, specialty licenses and all the challenges that we're facing as a society, let alone as a profession, organizations and individuals, IMA is going to be well prepared to do its part to make 2022 the year of the accountant. And who knows, maybe we will call the whole decade the year of the accountant. Maybe the century, while we’re at it!”
