Acca Insights

In this podcast, Brendan Sheehan, ACCA council member and CEO of digital transformation company White Squires, explores the nature of digital transformation and how it impacts the accountancy and finance professional. He considers the role that they need to play and why it is relevant. He specifically considers the implications for the finance leaders (as discussed in the companion report, "Digital Leadership: Leading finance digital transformation"). Digital transformation is one of the key conversations around businesses at present. The evolution of the business model has an impact on us as accountancy and finance professionals from the way that we collect, verify and utilise increasing volumes of data. In a survey with over 4,200 ACCA members, affiliates and students we reviewed the digital skills that a professional needs to be relevant, as expressed by ACCA’s digital quotient; one seven quotients that define the skills needed. In the report, "The Digital Accountant – digital skills in a transformed world

In October 2019 Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and ACCA published an article Creating effective learning ‘eco-systems’ for the future world of professional services. This podcast is a discussion between the two report authors: senior insights manager for ACCA, Clive Webb, and leadership development specialist and adviser on talent development based at the business school, Nigel Spencer.

Finance functions are facing a number of potentially disruptive challenges led by technological innovations, changing business models and evolving consumer expectations. Based on a series of interactive workshops and interviews with leading finance professionals around the world, as well as through an online survey of over a 1,000 ACCA members and PwC contacts, we have set out in a new report what we consider to be a possible vision for the future finance organisation, and what we think the journey to get there is. Part 2: The journey to the future In this podcast, PwC specialists Colin Bezant, Fedelma Good and Helen Tuddenham share their insights for finance teams to successfully embark on a journey of change. Amongst those, encouraging people-led solutions, understanding the entire data lifecycle built around a strong digital core, and offering training to finance teams outside of traditional channels, all appear key concepts to focus on in order to deliver effective transformation.

On 18th July we launched the Global Economic Conditions Survey: Q2, 2019 (GECS) for the second quarter of 2019. GECS, carried out jointly by ACCA and IMA (the Institute of Management Accountants), is the largest regular economic survey of accountants around the world. This podcast features Michael Taylor, chief economist at ACCA, discussing the global economy and looking at the current picture and the potential risks.

Finance functions are facing a number of potentially disruptive challenges led by technological innovations, changing business models and evolving consumer expectations. Based on a series of interactive workshops and interviews with leading finance professionals around the world, as well as through an online survey of over a 1,000 ACCA members and PwC contacts, we have set out in a new report what we consider to be a possible vision for the future finance organisation, and what we think the journey to get there is. Part one: The opportunity for the finance community The first podcast features ACCA’s director of Professional Insights Jamie Lyon and PwC Partner and Global Head of Finance Consulting in London, Brian Furness, the two sponsors of this joint research initiative. Together they discuss key insights from the report and top tips for finance leaders embarking on a journey of change.

Cyber security is one of the most significant risks that an organisation faces. ACCA and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand’s recent survey of over 1,500 members suggests that it is an issue that most accountants see as belonging to somebody else. Is this valid? What is the nature of threat? In our series of podcasts that accompany the report, Cyber and the CFO, Clive Webb, a Senior Insights Manager at ACCA and one of the report authors considers, with his guests, how the finance community needs to respond to the threat. To read the full report go to accaglobal.com/cyber-cfo. In the third podcast Paul Diamond, a senior Technology & Risk Director, with significant experience and a sustained record of success in the public and private sector considers the executive level view and why cyber risk matters. He also explores the role of standards and accreditations in managing the cyber risk, especially as these relate to the supply chain.

Cyber security is one of the most significant risks that an organisation faces. ACCA and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand’s recent survey of over 1,500 members suggests that it is an issue that most accountants see as belonging to somebody else. Is this valid? What is the nature of threat? In our series of podcasts that accompany the report, Cyber and the CFO, Clive Webb, a Senior Insights Manager at ACCA and one of the report authors considers, with his guests, how the finance community needs to respond to the threat. To read the full report go to accaglobal.com/cyber-cfo. In the second podcast Michael Hughes, a Partner at Haines Watts, United Kingdom, a Director – ISACA Central UK and Non-Executive Director of the CyberQ Group considers the business perspective of the cyber risk. Mike explores why cyber risk is not just about data privacy and why the two are often confused. He considers how the connected world of the Internet of Things is changing the cyber risk profile for organisations.

Cyber security is one of the most significant risks that an organisation faces. ACCA and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand’s recent survey of over 1,500 members suggests that it is an issue that most accountants see as belonging to somebody else. Is this valid? What is the nature of threat? In our series of podcasts that accompany the report, Cyber and the CFO, Clive Webb, a Senior Insights Manager at ACCA and one of the report authors considers, with his guests, how the finance community needs to respond to the threat. To read the full report go to accaglobal.com/cyber-cfo. This first of three podcasts features Clive’s fellow report authors, Geraldine Magarey of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and Philomena Leung and Christophe Doche both of the Optus Macquarie University’s Cyber Security Hub. We explore the nature of the risk, how it is changing and why it is important for the finance community. What is the nature and extent of the cyber threat and how it may evolve in the futu

As with any technology, with power comes responsibility. And in the case of machine learning, ethical considerations are never far away. Professional accountants need to consider and appropriately manage, potential ethical compromise from decision making by an algorithm. In this podcast, Narayanan Vaidyanathan, who is leading on ACCA's futures research is speaking to some of the leading voices in finance and digital. They talk about AI and machine learning and some of the ethical considerations that come with these emerging technologies.

In this podcast @jimmygreer talks to entrepreneurs, policy makers and academics about what has become known as the future of work. We discuss the challenges and opportunities of online platform working; why it is so important and to make this new way of working fair; how some freelancers are making the most of digital; the impact of automation (or should that be ‘automatability’?) on emerging and developing country jobs; and what to do about the so-called ‘rise of the robots’. This podcast is the first in a series exploring the themes from our research into business models of the future. Click here to read a short summary of our latest report on Business Models of the Future https://tinyurl.com/y3an5trg Thanks to our guests: Willem Pieter de Groen (Centre for European Policy Studies), Romain Trébuil (Yoss), Ellen Thijs (B-Hive), Natalya Sverensky (NOBL), Brando Benifei (MEP), Luke Schlögl (University of Vienna). Music and production by @snowlionmedia.

The so called ‘intangibles gap’ refers to the difference between the stock market value of companies and the net asset value that accountants are reporting. There are concerns that financial statements no longer reflect the underpinning drivers of value in modern business. Such concerns are particularly relevant to accounting for ‘intangibles’, including R&D costs. In this podcast, Richard Martin, head of corporate reporting in the professional insights team at ACCA is joined by Alan Teixeira, global director of IFRS Research at Deloitte. Together they walk us through the challenges that come with the option to either capitalise or expense the R&D costs of a company.

The opportunities for organisations to drive advantage from the digital world have never been stronger. Clive Webb, Senior Insights Manager at ACCA Professional Insights leads the conversation with, Jens Madrian, CFO & CCO Reactive Technologies, Bryan Furness, Global Consulting Lead, PwC London and Jamie Lyon, Portfolio Lead, ACCA Professional Insights.Their discussion focuses on:How CFOs and their team can ensure their goals including technology implications are fully aligned with those of the organisation overall Four steps a CFO can take towards digitalisationSkills implications for finance organisations/teamsThe culture change required

What’s all the hype about initial coin offerings? Narayanan Vaidyanathan, Head of Business Insights in our Professional Insights team, briefly explains the background, process and risks of ICOs - and how it links to professional accountants.

What is the role of business in society? Head of Sustainability, Research and Policy in the Professional Insights team at ACCA, Jimmy Greer, talks with Sacha Romanovitch, CEO of Grant Thornton UK, about social mobility, why it matters, and what they are doing to improve access to opportunities.

This episode is part of our Race for Relevance campaign on technology and the finance function. Harry Small, a partner in the IT/Commercial department of Baker McKenzie's London office, shares the legal risks involved in procuring technology that finance teams should be aware of.