Short version of MACPA's popular PIU (Professional Issues Updates) which is part of our 24 hour free CPE offerings to members.
This slide deck covers the mega-trends and issues beyond the technical updates identified in the CPA Horizons 2025 Project. It covers leadership in the future and updates the original CPA Vision 2011 Project
1. Today You Can See Tomorrow
The Future of our Profession is just
over the Horizon
Professional Issues Update
Leadership in the New Normal
Tom Hood, CPA.CITP
Maryland Association of CPAs
Business Learning Institute
1
2. “# 1 reason organizations fail is
that they miss the weak signals
of disruptive change.”
– Andrew Zolli
8. What CPAs have said abut the future:
1. Changing demographics - Aging workforce, diversity, 4 generations in the
workplace
2. Increased globalization, economic shifts and increasing competition
3. The technological revolution - cloud, social, big data & XBRL
4. Issues around Information Security, Privacy & data integrity
5. Shift to consumer and employee power (from push to pull)
6. Changes in the way we communicate - mobile, txt, skype
7. Work-life challenges or conflict - "do more with less", 24/7 work
8. Information Overload - filter failure
9. Increasing complexity of rules and standards (IFRS, GAAP, PCAOB,
SEC)
10. Economic uncertainty - deficit, debt and pressure on government
10. The single most important trend in the world today
"It starts with the fact that globalization and the
information technology revolution have gone to a whole
new level. Thanks to cloud computing, robotics, 3G
wireless connectivity, Skype, Facebook, Google,
LinkedIn, Twitter, the iPad, and cheap Internet-enabled
smartphones, the world has gone from connected to
hyper-connected.”
- Thomas Friedman NY Times
author
The World is Flat
13. My take on generations
• Major issue that needs to be dealt with
• Mutual understanding and communication – bi-
directional not one way
• Accept differences and find the opportunities
• X & Y are about time Boomers are about
relationships
• Reverse mentor on technology and
communication
• Engagement & participation are key
15. How is leadership changing?
“What got you here won’t get you there.”
– Emmanuel Gobillot - Leadershift
American Institute of CPAs
16. Leadership is Connect & Collaborate!
From: Command & Control
To: Connect & Collaborate
17. What hasn’t changed about
leadership?
• Engagement
• Alignment
• Commitment
• Accountability
“First I get all of my men facing the same direction.”
- Napoleon
18. As knowledge moves from stocks
to flows, how do we stop our inventory
from becoming obsolete?
Answer: The Collaboration Curve
19. Finding Your Edge…
• Strategic thinking – all of
the time
• Keep your L >= C
• Make your thinking
visible to others
• The power of We –
Collaboration
• Innovate by finding your
edge (Strengths,,
Opportunities, Positivity)
20. A leader’s job is to…
Provide hope &
inspiration!
Tom Hood & Gretchen Pisano
21. Tom Hood, CPA.CITP
CEO
Maryland Association of CPAs
Business Learning Institute
(443) 632-2301
E-mail tom@macpa.org
Web http://www.macpa.org
Blog http://www.cpasuccess.com
http://www,bizlearningblog.com
Editor's Notes
Then consider this:This comes from Andrew Zolli. He’s a futurist, the CEO of the annual and influential Pop!Tech Conference and a National Geographic Society fellow. He says – and think about this -- the number one reason that leaders and organizationsfail is that they fail to detect the weak signals of disruptive change coming on the horizon.They’re so busy on the day-to-day busy work that they fail to see the next big things that are coming at them.I think that’s so true. We need to stop every now and then, raise our heads and take a look at what’s happening around us.
How fast are things changing? This will give you some idea.This is an estimate from an Educational Panel at the Aspen Institute.As it relates to science and technology, the rate of change in the next decade is likely to be 4 to 7 times faster than in the previous decade. If it is 4 times faster, it would be like planning for today in 1890. If it is 7 times faster, it would be like planning for today in 1670.So now is the time to start figuring this stuff out.
“Strategic inflection points can be caused by technological change but they are more than technological change. They can be caused by competitors but they are more than just competition. They are full-scale changes in the way business is conducted, so that simply adopting a new technology or fighting competition as you used to is no longer sufficient.“They build up force so insidiously that you may have a hard time even putting your finger on what has changed, yet you know something has.[It’s that time] when something is changing in a big way, when something is different, yet when you are so busy trying to survive that the signals of change only become clear in retrospect.” – Andy Grove – Former CEO of Intel author of Only the Paranoid Survive
“Strategic inflection points can be caused by technological change but they are more than technological change. They can be caused by competitors but they are more than just competition. They are full-scale changes in the way business is conducted, so that simply adopting a new technology or fighting competition as you used to is no longer sufficient.“They build up force so insidiously that you may have a hard time even putting your finger on what has changed, yet you know something has.[It’s that time] when something is changing in a big way, when something is different, yet when you are so busy trying to survive that the signals of change only become clear in retrospect.” – Andy Grove – Former CEO of Intel author of Only the Paranoid Survive
The most important trend in the world
Back in the day, leadership was pretty simple, right? When you said something, everyone would do it. Everyone was sailing on a nice, smooth lake. One guy called out the orders and everyone moved in unison.Today, though, the water isn’t so smooth. When you’re rafting on the whitewater, you have to yell over the rapids, and there might be different actions taking place at that same time, and they’re all designed to get you to your goal. It’s a bit chaotic, but it’s kind of orchestrated chaos.We might argue that's a better model. Right? You’re empowering your people to do their jobs, and those jobs might be fantastically different and seemingly incoherent. In the end, though, taken together, they move you smoothly toward your goal.
How many of you feel like this is a typical day in the office for you? Permanent whitewater, right? Rocks everywhere, waves everywhere, you can’t see what’s coming next?Being in business or government today is like being in permanent whitewater. We’re dealing with:-- the aftermath of the worst economic recession of our lifetimes;-- stock market volatility;-- worldwide economic instability;-- political unrest;-- a massive wave of new rules, regulations and laws that are impacting our businesses. And health care reform and financial reform might just be the start.-- and on top of all of that, we’ve got some groundbreaking technological advances that are fundamentally changing the ways in which we do business.How do you lead and manage people in that environment?Emmanuel Gobillot, a deep thinker on leadership and author of a terrific book on the subject called “Leadershift: Reinventing Leadership for the Age of Mass Collaboration, says we’re dealing with two kinds of turbulence today: 1. The obvious turbulence that you see all around us – economic issues, the battle over new regulations, all that stuff; and 2. What he calls clear-air turbulence that you can't see coming. Right? It seems like smooth flying, and them BAM – something knocks you out of your seat. That type of stuff is much more suprising and dangerous. And we’re dealing with more of that today than at anytime that I can remember.
The knowledge we need to do our jobs is out there. The problem is, there’s almost too much information. You hear a lot of folks talk about information overload these days. But Chris Anderson would say the problem isn’t information overload, it’s filter failure. We need better filters that will give us the information we need and allow us to learn what we need to know to stay ahead of the curve.My boss, Tom Hood, would put it this way: Knowledge today is inventory, but it’s a FLOW of knowledge, not an stock pile. It’s ever changing. So the question is: As knowledge moves form stocks to flows, how do we stop our inventory from becoming obsolete?
“Strategic inflection points can be caused by technological change but they are more than technological change. They can be caused by competitors but they are more than just competition. They are full-scale changes in the way business is conducted, so that simply adopting a new technology or fighting competition as you used to is no longer sufficient.“They build up force so insidiously that you may have a hard time even putting your finger on what has changed, yet you know something has.[It’s that time] when something is changing in a big way, when something is different, yet when you are so busy trying to survive that the signals of change only become clear in retrospect.” – Andy Grove – Former CEO of Intel author of Only the Paranoid Survive