In the short-term, looks like a shortage is emerging for experience accountants. In the longer term, the massive change surrounding us means we need to keep learning and adapting.
As CPAs, we need to keep learning new skills and focus on things computers can’t do.
1/30/17 – Bill Sheridan at Business Learning Institute of MACPA – Want to beat the machines? Learn to do what they can’t do – Here is a way to think about automation that you might be able to wrap your brain around – How will you adapt then 30% of the work you do is automated, done faster, quicker, cheaper, and more accurately than you can do? Not 99% of what you do, not 10%, but 30%?
I can’t get my arms around audit or tax or consulting completely going away. I just can’t picture that. However, I can imagine 30% or 40% of my work as an auditor becoming completely automated. Actually, I sort of like that idea.
Computers don’t do well at applying professional judgment, courage, empathy, flexibility, and reacting to body language.
Point of article is learn to do those things better.
1/31/17 – Bill Sheridan at Business Learning Institute of MACPA – Change is a choice. So are relevance … and your future – Each of us has a choice. We can keep doing what we are doing. Or we can decide to change and grow and learn new things.
Seriously, we have a choice.
The downside is the world, our profession, and just about everything else is changing at a staggering rate. If we don’t change, we will get left behind. There is danger from not changing, essentially becoming irrelevant with shrinking revenue, and disappearing profits.
The upside is we can choose to change and keep up.
Article describes the different orientation of ‘historical firms’ compared to ‘future ready firms.’
We can choose to shift towards future ready.
8/18/16 – Bill Sheridan at Business Learning Institute of MACPA – The CPA profession of tomorrow will be ‘almost unrecognizable’ – and that’s a good thing – Article highlights the catastrophic predictions of the entire profession going away, or all audit & tax disappearing, or just most of the jobs our firms disappearing. I can’t grasp that level of disruption.
Value in this article is the conclusion:
Neither CPAs nor our profession is going away if we can do two things.
First, constantly learn new skills.
Second, learn to do new things that computers can’t, which would be things like…
…collaboration, empathy, strategic thinking — telling the stories behind the numbers, in other words, instead of merely crunching the numbers.
3/6/17 – Wall Street Journal – As Regulations Change, Companies Grapple with Accountant Shortage – New rules for revenue recognition and leases are putting pressure on large companies to find enough staff to deal with the changes.
The scramble is on for technicians.
Who woulda’ thunk it?
Article says the unemployment rate for experienced auditors and accountants is a mere 2.5%.
Wow.