New Realities & Perspectives of Public Accounting: What Are You Doing for Your Future?

• Author: Fowler, Mark H.

IS public accounting as we know it a thing of the past? Financial statements, tax returns and special projects are about what happened, not so much about what's happening--and definitely not what can happen. Are we helping with projections based on client assumptions, while not helping design/create their future? In a CPA Insider article in Journal of Accountancy, Amy Vetter says, "Technology' advances exponentially, which means that our professions (and our lives) have the potential to change more in a few years than they did for the entire working lives of our forerunners."

Are current realities presenting crisis or opportunity? Here are some things CPAs are hearing:

* Will artificial intelligence take our jobs and businesses?

* Have accounting and tax work become commodities?

* How can we avoid price-shopping prospects and retain good clients?

* What do team members need and want?

* How will we retire successfully?

* How can we make it all work?

These do present challenges and, to some, might seem to be crises. Do CPAs and financial professionals need to change our perspective?

We are in the people business. Before technology was a mainstay, accountants had a closer relationship with clients. Taxes, audits, production efficiency, advisory services and online bookkeeping are a part of our day-to-day, but what is our real business? In his book "The Leader Who Had No Title," Robin Sharma says, "The business of business is relationships; the business of life is human connection."

We're in the people business. Hard skills for the core business are only as good as the deliven system--the interactive process: exchange of information, collaboratively focused and respected on all sides. Those "essential skills" truly make the difference--usually more than 50 percent of value added to the process. Those talents gather people together to come alongside each other and get them on the same page to accomplish the right things for everyone to help create a better future.

How Do We Move Toward the Future?

* Make conversations/interactions the foundation of ever)' aspect of business.

* Change the focus to relationships that support using technology in a more human way; collaboratively, people can more effectively overcome challenges successfully and help create a future everyone wants.

* Embrace cornerstones (foundational components) to build a business model where conversations and relationships are the integral focus to support delivery of high-quality sen-ices on target, clearly appropriate to the need and with an emphasis for consideration of others.

These cornerstones help shift the future by our being connective, interactive, engaging and, most important, proactive;

1) Differentiation: Helping clients to know their personalized needs have a better chance of being met because of our attention to what they truly need. Our unique abilities, talents and experiences allow us to stand out as desired professionals.

2) Human Potential: Creating an environment where all team members have the ability and right to thrive and grow. Leaders must be the first to be engaged, instead of wanting others to be.

3) Client Relationships: Embracing an interactive imperative where their challenges and expectations are central to conversations/interactions. Our job as trusted advisers is to help everyone become more engaged with their businesses and their needs by being the first to reach across vulnerability through being a...