Andrew Harding, FCMA, CGMA, chief executive—Management Accounting at AICPA & CIMA, made the trip to Orlando, Florida, last week to continue in the knowledge sharing that occurs at the Future of Finance Summit, a US event in its third year and one with companion events in other parts of the world.
In this FM episode recorded at the summit, Harding shared key takeaways, insights into the optimism from businesses in China, and why one session topic took him back to his days as a coach on the football pitch.
He also offered a succinct, three-pronged message for the profession in 2024.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
- The importance of “learn, unlearn and relearn” for finance professionals.
- An explanation of the T-shaped model for skill and knowledge development.
- Why a session on how women can gain appointments to corporate boards resonated with Harding.
- His observation about China’s use of digital payments being different than in other parts of the world.
- An explanation of the T-shaped model for skill and knowledge development.
- The key trends affecting the profession in the new year.
Play the episode below or read the edited transcript:
To comment on this episode or to suggest an idea for another episode, contact Neil Amato at Neil.Amato@aicpa-cima.com.
Transcript
Neil Amato: Welcome back to the FM podcast. This is your host, Neil Amato. I’m joined for what can now be called an annual year-end tradition. It’s the second year in a row that Andrew Harding has joined the show. Andrew is chief Executive—Management Accounting for AICPA & CIMA. Andrew, we’re recording again at the Future of Finance Summit, this year in Orlando, Florida. It’s mid-December and we’re looking ahead to 2024. Welcome back.
Andrew Harding: Thank you, Neil. It’s great to be with you.
Amato: Barry Melancon, our CEO, has said over the years that accountants have to be willing to “learn, unlearn, and relearn” skills to keep up with the frenetic pace of change in business and in the profession. What do you think are those key skills?
Harding: Well, let’s start by saying “learn, unlearn, relearn” is something we’ve been talking about for five years. That imperative has become even more accentuated as time has gone on. For me, there are three things: It’s about leadership, it’s about influence, and it’s about thinking strategically. That sounds very simple as a list of three. But there’s huge complexity behind all of that. For a finance professional, if they haven’t developed the emotional intelligence that they need, they’re going to struggle to demonstrate those three skills. But those three skills are the things which really differentiate these days.
Technical skills are a given. If you’d like you can look at it as a T shape; the technical skills are the vertical on T. Everybody has those; those are the table stakes. What differentiates you is the piece that goes across the top. That’s where your leadership comes in, your ability to influence, your ability to create impact in your business. That’s where you earn your money, that’s where you win your jobs, that’s where your career success lies.
Amato: We’ll get back a little bit to that leadership topic on another question. But you’ve been at this event not all that long, but have any messages resonated with you so far being here?
Harding: I think the very first session, which was a session particularly for women who are looking for their first board role. It was looking at how you present yourself, how you present your capabilities, what matters to a board, what matters at the most senior levels.
An awful lot there about “you’re not there as an operational leader”. Yes, that’s a box which is nice to have ticked, but your value to the board is what you do when you keep your hands out of the business, the questions you ask, the breadth of your experience that enables you to ask the right questions, to provoke the right thought from the executive team, to provoke the right actions from the executive team. I
I thought it was absolutely fascinating. It was great, great learning for everybody in the audience. It was a women-only session, although I was privileged to be invited into it. But I think those learning points – they’re there for everybody.
Amato: I think it could be [for] a first-time board member; it could be valuable to any of them really. You also attended a future of finance event in China recently. What stood out to you about that event?
Harding: Well, China’s absolutely fascinating, and the China event is probably the longest standing of these events that we do. For me, it was an annual event, in November every year, and of course, this year was the first time since 2019.
Probably on reflection, it’s the first time since China’s period of super growth ended. My big learning from that was China had that super growth because it was catching up. Firstly, it was catching up through wage and labour arbitrage, then it was catching up through technology. We’ve seen it affecting our business because of government initiatives to raise the skill levels in business, particularly around finance leadership and that sort of thing.
But what was fascinating now was Chinese businesses have the same problems. They wrestle with exactly the same problems as we do. But the approach is different. Because of that rapid growth, that rapid change, there is far more acceptance of change. There’s a lot of optimism about finding solutions, and there is a huge technology drive. China’s very close to being cashless in the big cities. It’s very odd coming back from China, getting in a cab, and finding a cab driver who says, “I’d rather have cash, please”. That’s not going to happen in China. It’s all digital, it’s all virtual.
Amato: That’s very different. One message at this event in Florida [that] has stuck with me was speaker Kevin Wilde’s mention of coachability and how it’s so important, but how people tend to get less coachable as they advance, whether that’s advancing in age or in title in an organisation. What do you think about that skill coachability?
Harding: Neil, I thought that was a fascinating thing. It took me back to when I was coaching children’s football or children’s soccer. I very quickly realised that actually coachability was far more important than natural talent. Those who thought they had natural talent, they would fall away. Those who are coachable would progress and they would become the good players. It’s the same in business. We all know the smartest guy in the room doesn’t win. They don’t carry people with them, they don’t learn, they make assumptions which often are proved to be false or without good grounding.
People who have their eyes open, who are prepared to learn, prepared to never stop learning. I think this idea that the further you go in your career, the less coachable you become, that seems crazy. I’m sure there are things which you don’t want it to be coached in. Fine, leave those behind, start doing new things, start to learn them. I think the best advice I’ve ever been given in my career was just after I’d finished qualifying as an accountant.
The firm I worked for gave me a training and development role. I went on a programme to learn how to be a trainer. The guy running the programme said first thing you do, start learning something new yourself. It doesn’t have to be anything to do with your job, but if you’re going to successfully coach and train people, you’ve got to know what it feels like to start something and to be doing something without that knowledge. Best thing you can do is be learning yourself.
Amato: Lifelong learning is a skill that I think does set people apart. It’s been mentioned on the FM podcast in the past, and I think it’s a good message.
Harding: When you meet people who are absolutely at the top of their game, there’s a real humility about them, and that comes from not only confidence, but it comes from them being the kind of people who are always interested, always curious, always keen to learn.
Amato: What do you think are some of the key trends to watch related to accounting and finance in the new year?
Harding: This is probably the easiest question I’ve been given. The key trend is AI, and what’s that going to do for us? When you look at the evolution of technologies and that sort of thing, suddenly blockchain has disappeared. I said: “What’s going on, where’s blockchain gone?” “Oh, well, it’s been subsumed by AI.” AI is going to change everything, perhaps not in the way people imagine it will. It will take some jobs, it will create others.
For finance, I think it’s really exciting, it means we can put much more effort into that leadership, into that influence, into creating impact. Much less time preparing, analysing, all of that sort of thing. It’s the higher skill levels, it’s the more exciting stuff.
The other thing, of course, which is on the horizon for all of us is ESG. Whether we like it or not, it’s with us. We’re going to have to work with it. We’re going to have to do that because of legislation in California, legislation in the European Union. That drives us. If we want to do business across borders, be they national borders, be they state borders, we’re going to have to be on top of this stuff.
We have some great programmes at the association for that, our partnership with Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford is quite honestly the best programme in the world for ESG.
Amato: Andrew, this has been great. Again, we’re recording in mid-December. What would be your final message looking ahead to the new year for the profession?
Harding: My 2024 message for the profession is innovate, be optimistic, be energetic. These are exciting times for us.
Amato: That’s very well said. Thank you.
Harding: Thank you, Neil. It’s a pleasure to be with you again.
