Over the past few decades, the profession has evolved beyond a pure compliance remit we, finance and accounting professionals, have established ourselves as effective business partners. While we still ensure that our organisations meet their legal obligations, we also help to drive business growth, enhance operational efficiency, fund innovation, manage risk and inform leadership decision-making. Undoubtedly, finance and accounting professionals have played a pivotal role in our organisations’ success to date.
Alfred Ramosedi, CIMA president and Association co-chair
Although we have achieved much, we should not be complacent, however. The fast-moving nature of today’s business environment demands that we keep evolving and reinventing ourselves. In fact, I believe we are on the cusp of an exciting inflection point. We are about to make the leap from business partner to strategic adviser, enabled by new technological tools and our enhanced human capabilities.
As strategic advisers, we will create new value by providing the indispensable insights and knowledge that will enable our organisations to seize new market opportunities, pre-solve major problems and flourish in a world that will be defined by the transition to a more sustainable economy and advances in artificial intelligence (AI).
So how can we evolve from where we are now to being the trusted strategic advisers of the future?
1. See ourselves as advisers, not technicians. In an era when compliance will increasingly be automated, real-time and embedded into business processes, we should not see our primary function as ticking boxes. Instead, we will be expected to think outside the box, with our advisory identity being central to our professional relevance. Amid a deluge of information – and misinformation – organisational leaders and our peers in other functions will seek us out for our insights, knowledge and ethical judgement. What’s more, as AI transforms what our organisations do and how they do it, we will provide the vital assurance that data and systems are being used competently and responsibly.
2. Be able to tell the human stories behind the data. Finance and accounting have long been pigeon-holed as a ‘number-crunching’ profession. Sure, we are highly skilled at gathering, managing and presenting data. But it is how we interpret data that will matter in the age of AI. We must be able to understand not only what the data means for our own business, but what it means for our industry, our community and society at large. What are the risks it reveals? And the opportunities? How can we use it to create value? We must use data to look forwards as well as backwards and make insightful predictions about how markets will evolve.
3. Have agency and continuously upskill. Becoming a trusted strategic adviser isn’t something that will happen by magic. We must make it happen by investing in our own development. That means learning and enhancing the skills that will enable us to create value in future – skills such as strategic and critical thinking, collaboration and relationship building, and the interpretation of AI output. It should also go without saying that we will need to be accomplished users of AI tools, with the ability to undertake in-depth scenario planning.
The shift towards becoming a trusted strategic adviser is one of the key themes identified by Rise2040, a profession-wide research initiative launched by AICPA and CIMA. The initiative brings together 6,000 insights from across the globe to collectively explore, challenge and shape the future of public accounting and finance.
Participants to the research highlighted that finance and accounting professionals will bring discernment, perspective, and stability in an era of widespread uncertainty. We will also ‘connect the dots’ that underpin value creation by integrating finance with strategy, operations and technology.
It is by embracing the further evolution of our profession that we will transform from the business partners of today into the strategic business partners of tomorrow – and help lead our organisations successfully into the future.
