Accountancy has changed and so have accountants. That much has become even clearer to me in my first months as ACCA president, in so many conversations with members.
When I joined the profession, accountancy was widely seen as a worthy and rewarding career, if limited in scope, typified by routine and repetitive tasks. Back then I might have sympathised with the words of Leo Bloom – Hollywood’s greatest and funniest screen accountant, played by Gene Wilder – in the 1967 movie The Producers: ‘I spend my life counting other people’s money.’
Well, the clichéd vision of accountancy has changed, if it was ever true at all. My own career has taken many unexpected turns, from manufacturing to Formula One, healthcare and hotels – all fascinating in their own ways. I am seeing how that sense of possibilities is expanding and accelerating even more today, as technology blows up old business models and working practices, and creates brand new opportunities.
Spirit of enterprise
Everywhere I go, I meet ACCA members who are entrepreneurial in spirit, even if they don’t yet run their own businesses. By that I mean they display the qualities of the entrepreneur. They are curious, they are fascinated by new ideas and new ways of working, and they imagine a future that they can create for themselves.
The trajectory is thrilling but the core skills don’t change
They may be destined one day to build the incredible businesses that provide employment, economic growth and wider prosperity. But before that happens and while their dreams are still taking shape, employers love these skills. They love people who are motivated and moved by the desire to think and act with imagination, and they want them in their teams.
I write these thoughts just as our new report Career paths reimagined is published. It says much more about these trends and about the changes we see in what accountants do and how they do it.
But while it’s true that the profession is moving forward in so many thrilling directions, the core skills and purpose of ACCA accountants don’t change. We bring trust, ethical motivation and integrity, essential technical skills and the crucial quality of accountability, which is increasingly valued and valuable in a world where so many decisions and operations can potentially be delegated to AI.
The opportunities are beyond our predecessors’ wildest dreams
Equipped with those foundational attributes, and the breadth of knowledge and capabilities that only our qualification confers, accountants are raising their sights to the horizon. They are imagining new roles, new career paths and new opportunities that were beyond the wildest dreams of their predecessors. Today’s ACCA members reach higher and further.
Or, as Bloom so memorably put it: ‘I want everything I’ve ever seen in the movies!’
