In this podcast episode, FM editor-in-chief Oliver Rowe summarises the content in the August digital edition of the magazine.
Rowe details an article that discusses the history of business jargon, when it should be used, and when it should be avoided. He also shares details about several articles related to artificial intelligence, including one on how AI is changing early career paths for finance professionals.
He also shares details on a technical article with the headline “Why Time Matters in Carbon Accounting”.
Rowe closes with a summary of leadership columns and an explanation of how members can access the current edition and the library of past editions.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
- Highlights of an article about business jargon, including a mention of where some terms originated.
- Details of the August edition’s leadership columns, including the debut column of the new CIMA president, Alfred Ramosedi, FCMA, CGMA.
- A mention of a practical article for finance professionals with the headline “What It Takes for a CFO to Lead Operations and Tech”.
- Rowe’s reminders on how members can access the digital edition.
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: Hello listeners, welcome back to the FM podcast. This is Neil Amato. This episode is focused on the August digital edition of FM, and back on the podcast is Oliver Rowe, the FM editor-in-chief, to discuss the edition. Oliver, we’re glad to have you back. Thanks for coming on.
Oliver Rowe: Great to be back, Neil. Thank you.
Amato: To start off, one article that caught my eye has the headline, “The Why, What, and How of Business Jargon”. Are there some emerging terms out there that listeners should know, or is this article more about when jargon is useful and when it should be avoided?
Rowe: It’s actually both, Neil, although with more of a focus on when jargon is useful or not.
There are some very common business terms that we don’t consider now how they entered the workplace. Words like “strategy”, “tactics”, and “on my radar”. Author Rhymer Rigby explains how those who had served in the Second World War then rejoined the civilian workforce and found a new home for military terms and concepts in management language.
In the article he also talks about the origins of words such as “revert” and “prepone”, the opposite of “postpone”. He talks about how jargon is useful, as you say. So there are words like ”stakeholder” and “synergy” and “incentivise”, and they don’t really have exact nonjargon equivalents. You’d need a lengthy description to get to the nuanced meaning if you didn’t use the single jargon word.
He also talks about how industry language, language that’s specific to one particular industry or profession, can be used to signal and reinforce belonging to that community. And jargon is also useful on social media, such as LinkedIn, as it sends out signals to those you would want to connect to.
Amato: Oh, that’s great. That’s a good rundown of jargon and how it can be useful and the social media aspect of it that maybe some people haven’t considered. What are some of the negatives of jargon that professionals maybe haven’t thought about?
Rowe: There are some negatives, which the article points out. It can exclude people. So, for example, if you’ve got a team that draws on people from multiple functions, they may not all be familiar with the terms you’re using. In that case, you’d want to restrict the use of jargon.
It can also be used to obfuscate meaning when taking an unpleasant action such as making redundancies. In that sort of case, it should be avoided as well.
Amato: Not surprisingly in 2026, several of the articles have AI in their headlines. Would you like to summarise those? I guess starting with “How AI Is Changing Entry-Level Finance Jobs”.
Rowe: You’re right, Neil. We’ve got a few articles with AI in the headlines. So, as you mentioned, there’s “How AI Is Changing Entry-Level Finance Jobs”, which talks to a range of CGMA professionals working in practice and also working in education. There’s also an article on Gen Z and Gen Y’s AI adoption and also looks at how their career paths are changing.
One article I’d particularly like to highlight is on AI agents. It’s got the title, “Targets, Hurdles, and Caps: How AI Agents Shift Their Behaviour”. It’s by Professor Matthias Mahlendorf, and he received the AICPA and CIMA Best Paper Award at the 2026 Annual Conference for Management Accounting Research. And that was for his paper, AI Agents and Management Control: Aligning the Digital Workforce With Organisational Objectives.
He puts it in practical terms and takeaways for management accountants, for finance professionals today. His research focuses on testing AI agents in finance and how that reveals how incentives and context can distort reporting, forecasts, and decision-making. And the research highlights the need for effective controls.
And just as a summary, he says finance teams may be tempted to give more context to AI systems to improve output quality. That instinct is reasonable, but it needs limits. Context can also import conflicting objectives.
Amato: Great, thank you. One standing feature of FM is its leadership columns. There’s a new one in this edition because a new CIMA president was elected in mid-June. What is a rundown of the leadership columns?
Rowe: Absolutely, Neil. We’ve got the regular leadership columns from Andrew Harding, chief executive–Management Accounting at the Association, and from Michelle Mullen, vice president–Global Advocacy. This issue, the August issue, we’ve got the first column from the new CIMA president, Alfred Ramosedi. He shares five key points that will enable finance and accounting professionals to continue to rise, as he puts it, amid uncertainty.
His five key points, just to go over these briefly, and they’re important. There’s trust. He describes this as the profession’s currency and value to society. There’s championing youth and talent. A look ahead, how organisations navigate what comes next, and interpreting complexity. He says we must create value. And finally, he says on AI, what changes with AI is not the value of human contribution, but where it’s applied.
Amato: Thank you for that. What else from the August edition would you like to tell the listeners about?
Rowe: Thanks, Neil. A few more articles to highlight in this edition.
So, “Why Time Matters in Carbon Accounting”. Quick summary of the article: A new carbon accounting approach uses a double-entry framework to allow clearer evaluation of the carbon intensity of profits and financial risks.
Quite a technical article by two authors, Jimmy Jia, who leads on initiatives from the Saïd Business School and the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, and co-authored with Jeremy Osborn, who is vice president–Management Accounting Innovation, Research and Development at the Association and who also leads on sustainability at the Association.
A second article I’d like to highlight is “What It Takes for a CFO to Lead Operations and Tech”. That’s by Janice Stucke, who describes how she added and managed new responsibilities to her role then as CFO at Crew Network.
Amato: That’s great. You mentioned Alfred Ramosedi earlier. He’s going to be an upcoming FM podcast guest. You mentioned Janice Stucke. We’ve had her on our podcast at the Journal of Accountancy.
Remind listeners, as a closing thought, how they can access the FM digital edition from August and the library of past issues.
Rowe: Absolutely, Neil. Thanks. Several ways, as always, to access the FM digital editions, which are for CGMA professionals. You can go direct to the AICPA and CIMA website at aicpa-cima.com. From the main menu, go to Resources and then Publications, and you’ll see Financial Management Magazine.
There’s also a link on the homepage of the FM website at fm-magazine.com. And for each new edition, there’s the FM email alerting members to the edition.
Amato: Fantastic. That’s a great rundown of the August digital edition. Oliver Rowe, thanks very much.
