The Top 100 People: Remaining relevant

December 30, 2020 9:01 AM

Ensuring the profession’s relevance is top of mind for accounting’s leaders, especially in an unprecedented year.

As part of this year’s Top 100 Most Influential People survey, Accounting Today asked, “What is the most important issue currently facing the accounting profession?”

Many of the same challenges and forces of disruption that have steered the profession over the last few years remain, with 2020 intensifying the need for action on several. This year’s Top 100 mentioned technology and remote working capabilities, diversity and inclusion efforts, and new client service models, among other areas needing improvement.

(To see the full responses of all the candidates for the Top 100, click here.)

The most important issue currently facing the profession is the technological revolution it is currently undergoing, especially related to artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. Far from being a “job destroyer,” AI can allow finance and accounting professionals to unlock their full potential as strategic business partners within their organizations. That said, the challenge is in ensuring that professionals are adequately equipped with the skills they need in the future – data and analytics, decision analysis, and the ability to develop and successfully communicate long-term strategy. This requires new thinking on education and post-graduate training, which the profession has so far been moving toward only gradually. We need a greater sense of urgency in upskilling our profession to remain relevant and influential, now and well into the future.

— Jeff Thomson, president and CEO, Institute of Management Accountants

I believe the most important issue facing the profession is ensuring the future relevance of the CPA. Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA) are already being used more and more in the profession and will continue to advance at an ever-increasing pace. Widely cited research by the University of Oxford warns of a future where accountants and auditors face a 94 percent probability of having their jobs computerized, and tax preparers face a 99 percent probability of being automated. Many will take issue with such a study but I strongly believe that by 2027 technology will dominate audit, tax and accounting services functions.

For CPAs to ensure their relevance, they will need to expand from current compliance services to a focus on providing strategic insight to their clients and companies. Trust has been and will continue to be a cornerstone of the profession; however, to ensure relevance in a world of automation, we need to move to becoming the Most Trusted AND STRATEGIC advisor to businesses.

— Todd Shapiro, president and CEO, Illinois CPA Society

NOW is time for us to move forward and strengthen our position in the area of diversity, inclusion and equality. Twenty-plus years ago,I sat on a stage as a panel moderator and looked out at an audience of managing partners who were all white and male except for one white woman.I asked,“when will this profession start looking like the rest of the world with women and people of color among the leaders?” The answer was, “just give it time;we are working on it. ”Well, I’m tired of waiting! We must put some serious time and effort into making true change. This is our future, and we need to be strong warriors in changing our world.

— Sandra Wiley, president, Boomer Consulting Inc.

The opportunities provided by technology. Financial information is already being consumed in a very different way and the rapid changes in technology will only continue to evolve that consumption. As accountants, we need to take advantage of the opportunities afforded to us by the advancements in technology.

— Joel Black, chair, GASB

Kimberly Ellison-Taylor

The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed the profession forward by at least three years in its ability to adapt and embrace technology. Yet, as a profession, we struggle to become more inclusive. As a data driven profession, we track trends and challenges related to regulations, demographics, customer expectations, technology, cyber security, and geopolitical uncertainty, yet, we have not fully understood the downside of microaggressions, the benefits of allyship and the positive impact of each person seeking a greater understanding of their colleagues.

Diversity of thought is non-negotiable and critical to our ability to look around corners and protect the public interest. Together, we absolutely can make a difference.

— Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, executive director – finance thought leadership, cloud business group, Oracle

The most important issue is remaining relevant. Our profession is ripe for disruption by outsiders. Every industry and every profession needs to evolve and change with the times, but our profession has always been slow to react to change, and this is becoming a huge problem. We spend so much time looking in the rearview mirror of audits of historic financial statements that we’re not adapting to the current needs of the world. Business leaders today need real-time financials and real-time assurance. If we are not willing to adapt to those needs, someone else will start providing real-time insight and real-time assurance, and we will become irrelevant.

If blockchain technology becomes widespread, audit as we know it will become irrelevant. Taxes will be automatically built into the blockchain and collected at

each step of the transaction. If that happens, why would anyone need to hire an accountant?

— Al Anderson, founder and president, Accountability Plus

It continues to be relevancy. Excessive regulation remains a close second, since over-regulated industries are not hotbeds of innovation, dynamism, and risk taking. In that spirit, I believe the profession should relinquish (or lose) the audit monopoly, which would allow competition to bring innovations to market. The possible splitting of audit from consulting among the Big Four in the UK doesn’t deal with the elephant in the elevator: that auditors cannot be independent if they are paid by the companies they are auditing. You simply cannot be paid to be independent. Allow insurance companies to offer financial statement insurance, and have the stock exchanges pay and select the auditors for their listed companies. No reform would be perfect, but these changes would be an improvement over the intolerable status quo.

— Ron Baker, founder, VeraSage Institute

The shift from low-value, redundant work to high-value, strategic services – driven by disruptive technology and automation (machine learning and Artificial Intelligence). And COVID-19 has further accelerated this shift! Firms have been pressed to reimagine their future. Successful practitioners are transforming their legacy firms from heavy compliance (tax, audit and write-up) work to high impact consulting – providing deep insights beyond the debits and credits, positioning themselves as highly valued, strategic business partners with their clients.

— David Cieslak, EVP, chief cloud officer, RKL eSolutions LLC

The most important issue today facing our world (not just the accounting profession) is to embrace the momentum in society for positive change in the area of diversity, equity and inclusion. We are faced with an opportunity to talk about previously off-limits issues, learn from people who are different from us, and, together, make the world a better place for everyone who lives in it.

— Jim Boomer, CEO, Boomer Consulting Inc.

The impact from technological advancements is affecting every aspect of the profession and challenging the historical norms in which we operate. To keep up with these changes, accountants need to develop new skills and areas of expertise. As a profession we need to address the likely reality that smaller companies and auditors may not have the resources or infrastructure to keep pace with these changes. Ensuring our profession remains relevant will be critical to its future success.

— Susan Cosper, Board member, Financial Accounting Standards Board

Sustaining public confidence in the face of large corporate financial failings, particularly as we’ve seen in Europe and South Africa, is the most pressing task before us. This is likely to be an even greater challenge in the days ahead as the pandemic’s calamitous impact brings the distinct possibility of a global recession, and with it a very real threat to the financial viability of many organizations. Anticipating emerging risks, even deep into 2021, has never been more critical than it is today. It is incumbent upon us all to pull out our telescopes and begin surveying the horizon.

— Richard Chambers, president and CEO, Institute of Internal Auditors

It is the same issue we’ve been facing for many decades – creating a more diverse and inclusive profession. More diversity of thought allows us to better serve a diverse client base, foster innovation, broaden our pool of applicants and increase competitiveness.

Recent events in our country and around the world have moved racial inequality to the forefront of our conversations and has spotlighted the importance of equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities. We must open the doors wider and allow everyone access and opportunity.

— Herschel Frierson, chairman of the board of directors, National Association of Black Accountants

The immediate task is fulfilling our role as trusted advisors to business leaders to help them see a path forward post-Covid. Longer-term, the challenge is adapting to exponential change, which manifests itself in several ways:

Technological change, such as the rise of the cloud, artificial intelligence and blockchain, which has been our message prior to Covid and now will accelerate.
Demographic change, which highlights the need for the profession to become more diverse and inclusive
Change in client demands and expectations, which in turn means we must become more innovative, adopt a more global outlook and deliver higher value services.

— Barry Melancon, president and CEO, AICPA; CEO, Association of International Certified Professional Accountants

Do I have to pick just one? Obviously, COVID-19 has created challenges in 2020 that no one expected coming into the year. I have been incredibly impressed at the resiliency of public company auditors, how they stepped up to overcome new challenges and quickly adapted to the new normal.

The profession is entering a very busy year-end audit season in a remote auditing environment. Will there be challenges? Certainly, but there will also be a laser-focus on audit quality accompanying those challenges. Outside of COVID-19, I would say it is raising awareness that the auditor’s core skillset and competencies extend beyond the traditional audits of financial statements and internal controls to nontraditional financial information like ESG, non-GAAP, and cyber risk management. We are seeing this trend already, but the profession needs to continue to be seen as a resource and trust provider in these areas.

— Julie Bell Lindsay, executive director, CAQ

Balancing the financial statement user’s desire for more granular information with the costs of providing it.

— Richard Jones, chair, FASB

I worry that it is fatigue. The last three years included federal tax reform, state tax reform, the Wayfair decision, and then the pandemic with a recession. Any one of these would stress an industry, and the accounting industry experienced all four. Recessions stress clients, but not like the pandemic has stressed the hospitality industry. The primary issue today must be helping clients, especially those in the hospitality industry, attempt to survive.

— Scott Peterson, VP, U.S. tax policy and government relations, Avalara

Sue Coffey

I am particularly concerned about how the pandemic is affecting students and young professionals – the future of our profession. Students faced interrupted semesters, and internships and job offers were postponed and/or converted to “online,” resulting in social isolation and, at times, working under less than ideal circumstances. Most CPA exam test centers were temporarily closed, delaying well-prepared CPA exam candidates. As a profession we need to continue to step up to the plate, day after day, to provide stability in uncertain times. I believe we are up for this challenge, and our efforts will create a stronger and more resilient profession that remains, at its core, committed to the public’s interest.

— Sue Coffey, EVP, public practice, Association of International Certified Professional Accountants

Hyper-commodification. There is a race to the bottom on price for traditional compliance and record keeping services, driven in part by automation technologies and in part by large, well-funded organizations that are leveraging these technologies to provide tax preparation and bookkeeping services at scale. The rank and file practices cannot compete on price and must differentiate their practices, offering services to larger businesses who are not served well by the scaled models and by offering highly specialized services and advisory services that differentiate them from the scaled models.

— Joe Woodard, CEO, Woodard

If there is one resounding sentiment that I hear over and over again when speaking to investors it is that they are frustrated with the current corporate reporting model. They believe corporate reporting is too narrow, incomplete, inconsistent, delayed, and backward looking to meet their needs. This sentiment seems to be shared by standard setters and regulators around the world. As a result, you have the SEC issuing new guidance on human capital reporting, the European Union considering new legislation around their Non-Financial Reporting Directive, and the IFRS Foundation considering whether to establish a second board to sit alongside the IASB to address sustainability reporting. All of this new information needs the support of the accounting profession’s expertise regarding measurement, management, assurance, and reporting. Otherwise, we stand to cede that influence to legislators, lawyers, consultants, NGOs, and special-interest groups.

— Jeffrey Hales, chair, Sustainability Accounting Standards Board

This is a defining moment for our profession to make the shift from being essential as we helped businesses navigate through the #COVID19 Relief programs. Now is the time to move to be even more indispensable in helping businesses transform and thrive as we navigate to the next normal. The phrase, America counts on CPAs (accountants) could never be more true — successfully navigating this pandemic will take everything the profession has to offer.

— Tom Hood, CEO, Maryland Association of CPAs & Business Learning Institute

Continuing to instill trust with stakeholders by demonstrating extraordinary integrity, professionalism and quality. We must have these at the core of everything we do in order to succeed in our business. Advancing diversity and inclusion also is critical. We know the benefits of a diverse workforce when inclusively led, especially in the professional services business, are immense: producing better ideas, increasing creativity, and enhancing productivity. When we have diverse and inclusive teams, we’re better able to solve our clients’ toughest problems, and that’s at the heart of what we do.

— Paul Knopp, U.S. Chair and CEO, KPMG LLP

2020 has been a defining year and moment for firms. As I have said during the first 100 days of the pandemic, firms did 10 plus years of relationship building. Firms need to continue to advance their overall capabilities and aggressively leverage technology platforms, so they can focus on playing the Trusted Advisor role for their clients.

— Erik Asgeirsson, president and CEO, CPA.com