Reaching Critical Mass.

• Author: Rosso, Clar
• Position: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

Grassroots Campaign Stirs Up Debate on AICPA's Proposed Global Credential

BY THE TIME CHARLES OSGOOD got a hold of the term "Cognitor," an lampooned it in his "Osgood File" segment on CBS in early April, the profession already had sent the working name for the AICPA's proposed global credential to the compost heap of brand awareness. Postmortems on the heavily tested term revealed that while Europeans liked it, Americans almost universally reviled, an were even suspicious of, the term.

Cognitor's demise is a minor, though illuminating, event in the profession's ongoing struggle to increase its relevance and survive in a global, technology-drive economy. At the AICPA Council's spring meeting, a bid to eliminate the credential was defeated and replaced by a California and Texas-led resolution to intensify the AICPA's member education program and to obtain grassroots feedback about key elements of the initiative.

AICPA Chair Kathy Eddy says that the information and feedback effort is designed to ensure that the AICPA has a "consistently informed constituency" before asking its members to vote on the proposal.

The issues at stake--the future of the accounting profession and CPA credential--have divided the profession. AICPA leaders have called a global credential "inevitable." State CPA societies like New York and Illinois have publicly condemned it. Some industry pundits have questioned the motives o AICPA leaders and others have proclaimed the global credential pure genius.

Whatever it is, the global credential has stirred the souls of CPAs like no other proposal in the accounting profession's history. The level of indecision expressed about the initiative by even the profession's most thoughtful leaders is remarkable.

"It's not that I'm married to the global credential vision," says Bill Holder, a University of Southern California accounting professor and AICPA

Council member. "But the process of thinking rigorously and developing information and knowledge about what the world does value will give the profession a competitive advantage. I would be amazed if everyone agreed to the global credential exactly as it was proposed. There is no way because people will learn so much in the intervening period. What I'm for, if anything, is a process of exploration."

DEVIL IN THE DETAILS

According to the AICPA, a future holder of the global credential (also known for now as XYZ) is "one who helps people or organizations achieve their objectives through the strategic use of knowledge or knowledge management systems." It is further defined by the following characteristics:

* Interdisciplinary;

* Internationally consistent and globally recognized;

* Signals a common set of exacting ethical standards;

* Underscores a unique set of competencies shared by credential holders around the world;

* Requires continuing learning and periodic evaluation;

* Complements existing professional credentials;

* Carries new market permissions and is free of government regulation and brand preconceptions;

* Focuses on the ability to provide strategic business insight; and

* Validates competencies and skills emphasizing knowledge integration that is built on the foundational education of a wide variety of disciplines.

(A description of the global competency model and business plan is available at http://www.calcpa.org/californiacpa/XYZ/XYZ.ppt.)

"The number of defining terms has increased over the past few months, but these definitions really are still very vague," says Gary McBride, professor in the graduate tax program at Cal State University, Hayward. "It's impossible to have intelligent debate on this without concrete facts that we can wrap our hands around."

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