This episode features Oliver Rowe, FM’s editor-in-chief, detailing the contents of the magazine’s June digital edition.
The discussion begins with a focus on the CGMA Professional Qualification’s May update. Rowe also details the key points of an article about accountability and discusses the magazine’s regular columns and features.
The episode closes with an explanation of how members can access the June digital edition as well as the issue library.
Previous 2025 episodes about the digital editions:
What you’ll learn from this episode:
- Highlights of an article about the CGMA Professional Qualification update.
- Advice in an article about dealing with the growing threat of deepfake fraud.
- A summary of the president’s column by Simon Bittlestone, FCMA, CGMA.
- Details of one article’s focus on the social-return-on-investment framework.
- An explanation of vertical and horizontal accountability and their relationship to the finance function.
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 to the FM podcast. This is news editor Neil Amato. I’m joined for this episode by FM’s editor-in-chief, Oliver Rowe. We’re discussing the June digital edition of FM. Oliver, welcome back to the podcast. Glad to have you.
Oliver Rowe: Thanks, Neil. Great to be back on the podcast.
Amato: Again, we said we’re discussing the June digital edition. In May, we wrote about the news on the FM site of the CGMA Professional Qualification Syllabus being updated. What is the focus of Ash Noah’s article on that topic?
Rowe: That’s right, Neil. The CGMA Professional Qualification 2025 update launched in May. In this June edition of FM, we have an article by Ash Noah, vice-president and managing director–Learning, Education & Development at the Association. The update he discusses is based on the Future of Finance 2.0 research. Ash explains how it strengthens the problem-solving learning approach with a greater focus on critical-thinking skills. These include professional scepticism, making recommendations, problem-solving, and communication.
It focuses on business-partnering skills. He discusses all this in the article and how the updates apply across all three levels of the professional qualification. It’s all about candidates standing out with the CGMA designation.
Amato: Great. Thank you for that summary. This is a totally different topic with the headline “Corporate Disinformation — Have a Plan and Move Quickly”. What are the key points of that article on corporate disinformation?
Rowe: Absolutely, Neil. This is one of two related articles. The first, as you say, is on corporate disinformation or fake news, and the article covers how to prepare for that eventuality of being affected by that. That means having a plan, monitoring the internet and social media, and having a response policy in place for your staff. Then, if your company is targeted through fake news, then how do you respond? You can gain some control back and gain some time by having a holding statement or denying the veracity of the fake news. The article also points out that there can also be positive fake news, perhaps from a loyal customer, and author Rhymer Rigby suggests that humour can be a good way to deal with that.
I mentioned there are two related articles. The other one is “How Accountants Can Combat the Rising Threat of Deepfake Fraud”. Deepfake fraud, this is fake live video or audio of executives that can fool employees into essentially transferring money to fraudsters. It’s a growing problem, as the article points out, with the number of detected AI-generated deepfakes increasing fourfold from 2023 to ’24 and accounting for 7% of all fraud attempts globally in 2024, and that’s according to a UK report. The article provides examples of where and how this occurs and ways to prevent it.
Amato: It used to just be if you got a suspicious text from someone asking you to wire money or whatever, you pretty much knew. But videos, they’re tougher probably to detect, so a growing problem. Good one that we’re addressing in the digital edition. What other articles would you like to highlight?
Rowe: Thanks, Neil. We’ve got the FM regular articles. We’ve got a leadership column from Andrew Harding, chief executive–Management Accounting at the Association, and that’s on skills development. The president’s column, the final FM column from Simon Bittlestone as CIMA president and Association chair, and he reflects on the past year’s performance and achievements. Then Institute News, another regular in the digital edition, and that’s at the back of the magazine, but importantly, that’s updates affecting members and the profession. A few other articles I’d like to highlight in this June edition. We have an article by Tariro Mutizwa who’s the regional vice-president–Africa at the Association. Tariro’s article is “Steps for Finance to Evaluate Social ROI”.
The topic here is social enterprises. These are the commercially focused enterprises aimed at solving social problems. Tariro gives a couple of examples of social enterprises. There’s an estimated 10 million of these enterprises globally, and they generate an estimated 2 trillion in annual revenue. Social enterprises, as Tariro says, they have to balance the social mission with financial viability and balance financial returns with social impact. The article focuses on the social-return-on-investment framework, which was initially developed in the mid-1990s, and that’s still a valuable way for social enterprises to complement traditional financial tools.
Amato: That’s Tariro’s article on social ROI. Tell me about some other topics.
Rowe: We’ve got an article on accountability, and this looks at both the vertical accountability of members of the finance team. That’s upward to your boss, and if you like, downward, holding a team accountable. But there’s also horizontal accountability. It covers this as well. This is where finance professionals [play] a part of the accountability process for other teams. Let me give an example, and the article has a couple of examples. It’s reporting on another department’s performance, perhaps production levels, expense management, that kind of thing, or it’s a debrief analysis of the financial performance of a strategic initiative, an analysis relative to the expectations of the board or executive management.It’s finance being inserted horizontally in those conversations.
This is an interesting article, and it also talks about developing an accountability mindset. That’s about acknowledging that accountability is vital, even though it can be at times uncomfortable. It involves what the author describes as hyper-clear communication of expectations and how feedback on performance should be both 100% honest and 100% respectful. He quotes Joseph Grenny and his co-authors as they advise in their book, Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High. They’re the articles I’d like to highlight. There’s more in the edition, and I’d encourage members to take a look.
Amato: Thank you for that summary. As always, a lot of good information in the digital editions. Remind members, how can they access this edition and the library of past editions?
Rowe: Three ways to access the FM digital edition. That’s the June edition, and as you say, past editions. You can go to the FM website at fm-magazine.com, and in the menu, go to Digital Edition. Click on the June edition, and this will take you to the AICPA and CIMA website. You’ll need to log in with your login details there.
Or 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. Thirdly, lastly, there’s the FM email alerting members to each new edition.
Amato: That’s great. Oliver Rowe, thank you again for being on the FM podcast.
Rowe: Great. Thanks, Neil.
