‘Management accountants have a unique skill set and a 360-degree view of business’

One of the great pleasures of being the CEO of a professional organisation is that I have the opportunity to travel around the US and meet members from different regions and from different areas of accounting.

The AICPA’s 377,000 members represent US CPAs who are at the cutting edge of the unprecedented challenges that face the businesses they work for. Many members, whether they are partners in public accounting firms, company executives, or consultants working on behalf of business clients, are business owners in their own right, experiencing those challenges first hand.

One of the key questions I ask the members I meet is: “What keeps you up at night?” More often than not, it’s complexity. Day to day, organisations strive for growth amid complex variables. Over the past two decades businesses around the world have seen major changes.

Exponential increases in innovations such as e-commerce and mobile technology, multinational regulation, and increasingly mobile workforces tied to generational shifts, among other things, have produced an environment replete with strategic opportunities and minefields.

In order to keep up and respond to these global forces, the role and responsibilities of the traditional finance function also are evolving. They have to. The value of businesses comes from financial and non-financial assets, including ideas, reputation, customers, supply chains and people. Currently, the reporting system doesn’t fully reflect these non-financial assets. CEOs need professionals who can correlate and communicate non-financial value to stakeholders, and internally to decision-makers.

They want help in connecting the dots to give a clear picture of how the organisation is running and where opportunities lie. That’s where professional management accountants come in. Management accountants have a unique and broad skill set to help their organisations drive sustainable business success.

They have a 360-degree view of business, combining financial accounting – reporting, financial performance, understanding the framework of financial laws, standards and regulations and providing a compliance perspective – with strategic and management skills to manage change, risk and uncertainty, promote operational efficiency and effectiveness, and protect corporate assets.

The American Institute of CPAs and CIMA are elevating management accounting through the launch of the Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA). The CGMA recognises the talent and expertise of those who are helping their organisations maintain growth and perform more efficiently, and who are committed to do even more for their companies.

In the US, we’ve seen a significant shift over the past 50 years, with an increase in the number of CPAs working in business, industry and government. Today, about half of young CPAs go directly into business, industry and government, while the other half go into public accounting. Our own membership reflects this change, with roughly 45 per cent in public accounting and 41 per cent in business, industry and government. The focus of their work has increased as well and now reaches well into C-suite decision-making.

Together with CIMA, we now have a community of approximately 250,000 professional management accountants worldwide who are focused on driving successful organisations and share the same commitment to ethical standards and the pursuit of professional competency. That’s exciting, and an innovative development for the accounting profession.

Going forward, in businesses throughout the world, talented CGMAs will be hard at work in public and private organisations of all sizes. The new designation will propel these professionals forward in their careers, providing them with a new way to demonstrate to employers the depth of their knowledge and commitment to management accounting, and giving them the resources and tools to help them bring increased value to their organisations.

When I look down the road, I see dedicated business professionals around the world who are providing trusted information and thinking to inform and guide the right decisions.