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SOFTWARE, HARDWARE & SERVICESA SHOT OF EXPRESSO

CALIFORNIARose Business Solutions, San Diego, has been named to the Microsoft Dynamics President's Club.

SEPTEMBER24: Revenue Recognition in Today's Business Climate, Illinois CPA Society. ICPAS, Chicago. Contact: (800) 993-0393.

It wasn't all that long ago that family doctors were "general practitioners." You went to them for everything from removing a deep splinter to an outbreak of the mumps. Specialists were usually reserved for more dire conditions.Not anymore. The general practitioner has evolved into an "internist," while specialties in the medical field have sprung up like weeds in a vacant lot.

In evolutionary theory, species evolve through multiple generations, so if there is no new generation, there is no change and growth.The current staffing crunch and the imminent retirement of the Baby Boomers represent significant challenges to the accounting profession's ability to change and grow. We asked the Top 100 Most Influential People how to handle them, both now and for the future.

Any good accountant will tell you that a number remains itself, no matter how much you may want it to be a bigger one.Take the number 100, for instance.

This year, we asked the Top 100 People whether it was possible for the accounting profession to engage in so many specialty services that it would lose its identity as a single profession. The resounding answer was, "No!" - though a few had their doubts.It's been said that people on the average have nine careers over the course of their lifetime. You can be a CPA and still have those nine careers. That, I think, is the beauty of our profession.

If you read only one book this year, better make it two: Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat and Jim Collins' Good to Great.When we asked the Top 100 candidates which books they would recommend, no other titles came close to garnering as many votes. Candidates lauded Friedman's book as an excellent guide to surviving in the global economy, while many were on their second reading of Collins' management strategy classic.

Each year, we ask candidates for our Top 100 Most Influential list who they feel are the most influential figures in accounting, and this year's results reinforced some long-term trends.First off, the top vote-getters are the same, with American Institute of CPAs' chief executive Barry Melancon once again at the top. We also once again had a record number of responses (98) and a record number of nominations (102 individuals), reflecting the wider net we have to cast to take in all the people who impact the profession.

Growing up in an Italian-American household and having sampled my share of meatballs, I can honestly say that I’ve never tasted one so good it was worth $4.