WCOA 2014: Management the future for accountants
11 November 2014Comments (0)
The key trend for accountants in the next 30 years will be a move
towards management, according to BT's CFO
"The term accountant will move on. It will be more akin to business
management and finance management. The key word being management,"
said Tony Chanmugam, speaking today at the World Congress of
Accountants in Rome along with finance leaders from several of the
world's biggest businesses.
Ken Goldman, CFO of Yahoo US, said the world of accounting is clearly
changing in terms of the cloud and software advancements "so
accountants have to change with it". He added, however, that
accountants' skills will always be vital as "ultimately in business it
comes down to numbers. You can talk about strategy…but the numbers are
the numbers".
Simon Henry, CFO of Royal Dutch Shell, agreed that it is crucial
accountants continue to master the basics so that they are "mistake
free".
The panel discussion touched on a number of topics that will affect
finance teams and the profession in the coming years and discussed the
steps to be taken to prepare for them. This included how to
future-proof your firm or business against an increasingly globalised
and disparate market place.
Carol Calandra, CFO global markets EY US, said that the Big Four firm
encourages its younger partners to volunteer for different projects so
that as its client portfolio expands across different countries and
sectors it increases skills sets to meet future challenges. She added
that three to five years is the timeframe EY considers when investing
capital.
Henry said that brand is "extraordinarily important" when entering
emerging markets so protecting it will in turn future-proof the
business. He also said that Shell has to "understand the megatrends"
rather than worry about the short volatility of the energy market, the
challenge of which is fighting through the "fog" of internal data.
He added that regulatory compliance is the "only thing that keeps me
up at night", as there is little global convergence or equivalence.
On the evolving role of the CFO, Goldman said, "We don't have an
agenda". He believes the CFO has to act as the "sounding board for the
CEO". They cannot be "biased or political" but argued the challenge is
performing that role for both "the CEO and the board."
Chanmugam used the analogy of a car to describe the function of a
business, splitting it into three parts: the passenger, the navigator
and the driver. He said that at the beginning of his career a CFO
would be part navigator, part passenger, but now the finance team also
has to be part driver. He added that this is easier in times of
struggle and options are limited but the real challenge was making key
decision when the business is doing well.
Raymond Doherty
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