Future-proof | A Podcast For Tomorrow's Accounting & Finance Pros

Financial performance isn’t the only metric of value we should care about, so why is it all that we report on? We’re living in a different time. We’re working for different organizations that are impacted by different issues, and we need financial reports and tell different stories and communicate different values than those of the past. Integrative reports intend to fix this problem by including factors in addition to financial performance: reliance on the environment, social reputation, human capital skills, and more.Charles Tilley is CEO of the International Integrated Reporting Council, and previously chaired the IIRC’s technical task force, which is the group responsible for developing the Integrated Reporting framework. He joins us to get everyone up to speed with Integrated Reporting, what the benefits are for organizations and stakeholders alike, and what the future of this type of reporting might look like.To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.Resources:integra

There are some important changes coming to the internet in the form of top-level domains. These are the parts of a website that come after the dot in a domain name. There are seven original top-level domains, which were created in the early days of the Internet — .com, .org, .net, .int, .edu, .gov, and .mil. Today, the number of top-level domains available has exploded, and now, .cpa has finally arrived, and it is one you will want to pay attention to. Like everything else with the profession, there are elements of verification and trust embedded in .cpa that don’t exist in other domains.Erik Asgeirsson is president and CEO of CPA.com, and he shares why the world needs another top-level domain, and why you need to seriously consider securing yours now, because there’s never been a better time than now. If you’re a CPA or work for a CPA firm, the changes happening will affect your brand, your SEO, your marketing, and, most importantly, the trust and integrity you’ve built with your clients and customers.To lea

With the upcoming elections fast approaching, we are going to make a level-headed comparison of the two candidates through the lens of their tax policies. How does each candidate differ when it comes to their ideas about individual and corporate taxes?Joining us to discuss the topic is Tony Nitti. Tony is a tax partner with RubinBrown in Aspen, Colorado. He also teaches the graduate tax programs at both the University of Denver and Golden Gate University. He writes about tax issues frequently for The Tax Adviser, Taxes Magazine, the JofA, and Accounting Today. He’s also a featured tax writer for Forbes.Tony Nitti talks about the many ways in which President Trump and Joe Biden differ when it comes to tax policy, from individual and corporate tax rates, capital gains, deductions, tax credits, and more.To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.Resources:Follow Tony on Twitter | LinkedInRead Tony’s articles on Forbes.60. Navigating the Twists & Turns of Your Career | with Tony

Ron Baker has been a vocal evangelist in favor of the concept of value pricing—the idea of charging based on the value you provide, rather than on the amount of time you spend providing it. He has spent more than 20 years trying to convince people in the accounting profession to throw away the timesheet, but now he’s come to the conclusion that there’s something else that may work instead—something he calls the subscription model, “Value Pricing 2.0.” It’s a completely different business model, and one that we all need to be paying very close attention to.To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.Resources:Learn more at VeraSage.comConnect with Ron: LinkedInHousing SubscriptionOne Is the Most Affordable Number: Porsche Subscription Service Strips It DownJeep Launching Subscription Service in 2019Life, by subscriptionLocal entrepreneur launches face mask subscription service105. Subscriptions: 'The Forever Transaction' | with Robbie Kellman BaxterFuture-Proof is a production of C

The skills involved in mastering improv are the same critical skills for becoming a great leader. Peter Margaritis is a CPA, a thought leader with the Business Learning Institute, and a comedian doing stand up in his free time. He knows all about improv, and more importantly, how it connects to CPAs and finance professionals. Good leadership requires connecting with and listening to others, being in the moment, being flexible, and following our intuition, and Peter is going to tell us how all of that comes together through the magic of improv.To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.Resources:petermargaritis.comPodcast: petermargaritis.com/category/cym-podcastsRead: "Improv Is No Joke"Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

With so many people working from home, companies are being forced to re-examine how they measure productivity and input. Is time spent in front of the computer really the greatest factor for measuring employee contribution? Jody Thompson co-created the Results-Only Work Environment system, or ROWE, in 2003. Since then, it’s gained global traction and has influenced the cultures of countless organizations around the world, and we’re seeing a resurgence of it now as more and more companies adopt remote working.Remote teams that have adopted ROWE have been responding very positively for one key reason: Autonomy. It’s one of the three things that all employees want. We get to hear straight from the creator of ROWE what she thinks about what’s going on in the world today and how ROWE has paved the way for the massive changes we’re experiencing.To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.Resources:goROWE.comLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jody-thompson-48a5827Twitter: twitter.com/jodyroweRead

11 years ago, when Sebastian Terry was 24 years old, he lost a friend. The sudden death shook Sebastian to his core, to the point where he re-evaluated his own life and asked himself, “Am I happy?” His answer was, “No.”Sebastian started looking for more happiness in his life. He wrote down a list of 100 things that he thought might make him happy — 100 things that he wanted to accomplish and that he thought might bring him a sense of joy — and as he started crossing things off his list, other people were inspired by his example. They started their own lists, which turned into Sebastian writing a book, speaking at events, and starting a movement.We’re all so wrapped up in everything going on in the world that not many of us have stopped to ask ourselves these questions lately: Am I happy? Am I living a purposeful life? What’s on my list? How can I help others? The closer we can get to answering those questions, the brighter the future is going to be for all of us.To learn more, and for the complete show n

With everything that’s going on in the world today, it could do us all some good to spend more time on positivity. Gretchen Pisano is co-founder and CEO of pLink Leadership, a group that combines strategy, leadership development, and coaching with a focus on the “link” between the practice of positive psychology and better business results. She’s a professional certified coach, she has a master’s in applied positive psychology, and she’s a student of the teachings of Barbara Fredrickson and Brené Brown.We’ve all dealt with struggles recently. This conversation offers insights that anyone could benefit from — to help us all not only feel a little better but to actually thrive.To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.Resources:pLinkleadership.compositivityratio.comlinkedin.com/in/gretchenpisanodaretolead.brenebrown.comBarbara Fredrickson: The Positivity RatioFuture-Proof is a production of Crate Media

Tracey Golden is the new chair of the American Institute of CPAs and the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. She’s also a CGMA and an audit partner with Deloitte. In her acceptance speech, after her election, she used the COVID-19 crisis as a backdrop for her thoughts on the role CPAs play as trusted advisors who will help lead us on a financial path forward and through this crisis. Here’s what she said:“We are truly living disruption – not incremental change but a radical break from the familiar. Our profession has a crucial role to play in helping navigate this disruption. We are here to help businesses and individuals get through these tough times, learn from them, and grow.”She outlines three ways that accounting and finance professionals can position themselves as leaders who will help clients and employers through the crisis. First, finding strength in our connection with one another. Second, seize the opportunity to make much-needed changes. And third, evolve in order to th

Robbie Kellman Baxter has written the book—quite literally—on the Membership Economy and subscription-based business models. This is the way the world is going. In fact, it’s already gone. And it’s only a matter of time before it makes its way into the CPA profession and starts impacting accounting and finance. In some ways, it already is.Robbie recently released a book called “The Forever Transaction: How to Build a Subscription Model So Compelling, Your Customers Will Never Want to Leave.” And doesn’t that sound appealing? She talks about what a successful subscription model might look like for our profession, how generational differences might come into play here, and how leaders can decide whether they’re ready to make this type of move — and if they are, what the logical first steps might be.To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.Resources:Learn more: robbiekellmanbaxter.comRead: “The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Rec

The work of associations is right in the name: It’s about connections, it’s about relationships, and it’s about networks. These are the things that associations are designed to provide, and this is the time — a time of true crisis — in which those things are more important than ever. To explore all that an association can do, we sit down with Tom Hood, President and CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute. He discusses how the work of associations shifted significantly in the face of the pandemic, how members have benefited, and how that work will help members map out a post-pandemic strategy that ensures their relevance going forward.To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.Resources:Learn more at macpa.orgLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tomhoodFuture-Proof is a production of Crate Media

Mark Koziel has been one of the most prominent voices at the American Institute of CPAs for nearly 15 years. He is executive vice president of firm services for the AICPA and a fixture on Accounting Today’s annual list of the most influential people in the profession. He’s been at the forefront of the profession’s response to the COVID-19 crisis—advocating on behalf of CPAs everywhere when it comes to Paycheck Protection Program loans, the designation as essential workers, and what our clients need from us going forward. We ask him for his perspective on the state of the profession and what the firm of tomorrow may look like.To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.Resources:https://www.allinialglobal.comhttps://www.aicpa.org/about/leadership/mark-koziel-bio.htmlhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/mjkoziel/CPA Firms Down, But Not Out, From Covid-19, Survey FindsFuture-Proof is a production of Crate Media

Inclusion remains a huge problem in our profession. As of 2016, just one percent of CPAs employed by public accounting firms were Black. And 0.3 percent of partners at those firms were black. Meanwhile, roughly 13 percent of our country’s population is Black. And the numbers for other people of color weren’t much better. We want our profession to look like the public it serves, but it isn’t close — and it isn’t making much progress, either.Our guests this week, Avonette Blanding and Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, offer some poignant insights that might help us take the first step. Avonette is chief financial officer at Maritime Applied Physics in Baltimore, which designs and builds advanced technology systems and vessels for the Defense Department. She is also the incoming chair of the Maryland Association of CPAs. And Kimberly is executive director of finance thought leadership at Oracle. She is a past chair of both the MACPA and the American Institute of CPAs, and just the second chairperson of the Association of

What should we be doing with our money, with our investments, when things are as unpredictable as they’ve been lately? There’s a lot of advice out there — some of it good, some of it bad — and we wanted to speak to someone who knows what he’s talking about to sort it out.Lyle Benson is president of L.K. Benson & Company in Baltimore and a MACPA member who has been at the forefront of advancing planning services for individuals within the profession. He’s served with the AICPA’s Personal Financial Planning Division Executive Committee, the National Accreditation Committee, the Baltimore Association for Financial Planning, and he is also chair of the Media Task Force of the AICPA's PFP Section. He joins us to talk about everything we need to be considering right now: Cash on hand, investments, estate planning, and financial planning — especially as it relates to uncertain and chaotic times like this.To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.Resources:www.lkbenson.comLinke

Daniel Burrus is all about one word: Anticipation. How can we anticipate future trends, how can we spot them early, and learn to take advantage of the opportunities those trends provide us? He has written about this skill in his bestselling book “The Anticipatory Organization.” He has built a learning system that’s designed to help us learn how to become more anticipatory. In spite of all of the anticipatory planning and guidance, we are currently struggling through a period of time that few of us could have anticipated — a global pandemic. So what do we do about it? Dan says there are anticipatory lessons we all can learn from this crisis. He says too many people are merely reacting to what’s going on, and not enough people are anticipating what’s to come and how they can take advantage of that on the other side.What should we be doing now to make sure we come out of this crisis stronger and more capable than we were at the start? Dan has several suggestions, and now is the time to be listening to them.

Before the coronavirus, we talked about disruption as something we had time to prepare for — advances in technology, future laws and regulations, and what will happen when all of the Boomers are gone and the Millennials take over for good. These are things we knew were going to happen, but it seemed we had time to prepare for them.David Bray was one of those people talking about disruption. In January, the AICPA brought David in front of its Executive Roundtable in New York City to talk about disruption and digital transformation and technological advances. He joins us to talk about how we work and do business, and how all of that is changing because of this crisis — and the roles accounting and finance professionals will play in all of that. He also discusses how this crisis has significantly accelerated the disruptions we’ll feel as a result of new technologies like AI, the Internet of Things, and 5G.To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.Resources:"We can more rapidly resp

We are all facing trying times right now — whether you’re working from home, out of a job, or still working in public in the midst of a pandemic. This is a time when humans need to connect more than ever. We’re going to talk about all of that — how to make sure your teams are holding up, that they’re well, that they’re productive, and that they have all the resources they need in this very difficult environment. Facilitating that conversation is Richard Silberstein, the managing partner of SIG (Silberstein Insurance Group). They are experts in human resources and HR technology solutions, corporate wellness, compliance, employee communications — everything you need to keep the wheels greased at your business.To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.Resources:Silberstein Insurance Group: https://www.silbs.com/https://blionline.org/blog“How the coronavirus crisis has elevated the role of HR chiefs in the C-suite."Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

Emmanuel Gobillot is one of the world’s leading experts on leadership. He’s the best-selling author of a number of great books, including “Leadershift,” “The Connected Leader,” “Follow the Leader,” and “Unleash Your Leader.” He has also recently co-authored a book specfically for this moment in time: “Crisis Leadership: Principles and tactics for success when your world turns upside down.” There aren’t many leaders out there who can help their teams grow and thrive and feel more capable in the middle of a crisis — and we have a lot to learn from those who can.To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.Resources:emmanuelgobillot.com51. Building Tomorrow's Leaders Today | with Emmanuel Gobillot & Katherine Thomasjohnolearyinspires.comFuture-Proof is a production of Crate Media

Lack of self-confidence is a key reason why many of us don’t get what we want —  that promotion, that raise, that speaking gig. Our guests this week are trying to change all of that. They are Kate Boorer and Fiona Pearman, two leading Australian business experts who have joined forces to write a book aimed at helping people “own their talents, face their fears, and create their futures.” That’s the sub-head of their extraordinary book Core Confidence. We discuss why that happens, and what we can do with these building blocks to re-tap into that core confidence and walk away with a positive mindset.To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.Resources:Core Confidence: Own Your Talent, Face Your Fear, Create Your Futurehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/kateboorerhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/fionapearman"Yes, Impostor Syndrome Is Real. Here's How to Deal With It""Imposter syndrome: women’s silent career killer"Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

This week we’re talking about the Paycheck Protection Program. A provision of the CARES Act — the massive coronavirus relief bill that was signed into law on March 27 — the PPP is a loan that’s designed to be an incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll.We know some of our listeners may be applying for it, and if you are, you probably have a few questions. So we sat down for a conversation with two people who can help put this all into proper context. Erik Asgeirsson is the president and CEO of CPA.com, the technology arm of the American Institute of CPAs, and he is going to give us some perspective on the massive and almost unprecedented legislative undertaking to get this bill passed, as well as recommendations for the types of documents that lenders are looking for under various circumstances during the loan application process. And Tom Hood, the president and CEO of the Maryland Institute of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute, is going to talk a bit about the role that CPAs