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

A lot of folks talk about this notion of becoming future-ready as if it’s some sort of magic trick. They paint a picture of a future where we need to learn all kinds of new stuff — new skills, new technologies, new strategies, and new business models — in order to out-maneuver the machines and remain relevant. And to some extent, that’s true. We’ve got some serious work to do from here on in.   But on the other hand, there is a school of thought — a pretty well-supported and powerful school of thought — that says in order to become future-ready, we really need to be doing nothing more than what we all should have been doing right from the start: providing excellence. Excellence, certainly to our clients and customers, but just as importantly, to our employees.   But that raises a couple questions, like where does excellence come from? And how does it start?   To help us answer these questions, we sit down with Tom Peters, who is as deep a thinker in this space as exists in the world today. He co-wrote In Sea

Over the past year, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about how the accounting and finance profession is changing – but we haven’t spent nearly as much time talking about how those who regulate our profession are changing.   So, on today’s episode, we sit down with Terri Polley, (outgoing) president and CEO of the Financial Accounting Foundation. The FAF is an independent, not-for-profit, private-sector organization that is responsible for the oversight of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or FASB, and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, or GASB.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.   Resources: Learn more at MACPA.org/future-learning LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terripolley/ Read: “Teresa S. Polley to Step Down as President and CEO of Financial Accounting Foundation” Future-Proof is produced by Podcast Masters

We’re headed back to Annapolis for this week’s episode, where Maryland’s General Assembly recently put a bow on its 2019 legislative session. It was another busy one, including some CPA-related legislation that will impact accounting and finance professionals, not just here in Maryland but throughout the country.   Legislative advocacy, according to our members, is the most important thing that the MACPA does for them, and our president and CEO Tom Hood takes that role very seriously. So, today, we talk to Tom about what went down in Annapolis and how it is likely to impact our profession.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.   Resources: Learn more at MACPA.org/future-learning Read: “Legislative Report from the Maryland General Assembly, Sine Die” Future-Proof is produced by Podcast Masters

Where are we going to find tomorrow’s leaders?   We’ve been doing these podcasts for almost a year now, and as much talking as we’ve done about the future, the missing ingredient in all of those conversations has been leadership. We just haven’t spent much time talking about future leadership, and with 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day, that’s a critical part of becoming future-ready.   So this week, we are talking to Emmanuel Gobillot and Katherine Harris, co-authors of Unleash Your Leader: How to Win in Business. It's a blueprint of sorts for how you can turn yourself into a great leader, teaching us what we should be doing today to improve our odds of becoming the leaders of tomorrow.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.   Resources:   Unleash Your Leader: How to Win in Business by Emmanuel Gobillot and Katherine Thomas   CollaborationPartners.co.uk EmmanuelGobillot.com Learn more at MACPA.org/future-learning The Connected Leader by Emmanuel Gobillot Leade

If you ask most people — not all, but MOST people — outside of the profession what an accountant does, they’ll probably say “taxes,” or “auditing,” or some variation on the tasks of people who work in public accounting.   But they’re missing about half of the profession, of course. You’ve got educators, you’ve got accountants who work for nonprofits and governments, and you have those who work in business and industry, which is arguably the largest segment of the profession – and that’s why, today, we’re diving deep into the world of management accounting.   Joining us this week is Jeff Thomson, president and CEO of the Institute of Management Accountants, and they’re doing gangbusters over there at IMA. At a time when many associations are struggling to attract new members, the IMA has become one of the fastest-growing accounting associations in the world. Last year, it crossed the 100,000-member mark for the first time in its history.   The issues that impact management accountants and others on the busines

We’ve talked quite a bit in past shows about this notion of “anticipation,” and we’ve talked about this concept as if it’s a skill or competency that you can learn – and it is, but we haven’t spent a lot of time talking about how how you do that.   So, how can you become more anticipatory? How can you train yourself to look for future trends and spot the opportunities those trends provide, and then take advantage of those opportunities before your competition does?   Joining the show again to help us do all of that is Tom Hood, president and CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs. Tom has mastered the art of anticipation by working side-by-side with the person who wrote the book on the subject, quite literally: Daniel Burrus, a world renowned futurist, author of The Anticipatory Organization and Flash Foresight, and creator of a learning system called The Anticipatory Organization that teaches people how to master this crucial skill.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Today we’re discussing why accounting and finance professionals have a lot to gain from adopting an entrepreneurial mindset.   Entrepreneurship isn’t something that many accounting and finance pros have a lot of experience with, but we’re in an era when at least thinking like an entrepreneur can go a long way toward becoming more future-ready.   Entrepreneurs just look at the world differently, and adapting an entrepreneur’s mindset might help us evolve a little faster and become just a little more future-ready.   Our guest David Mammano is the founder of the Avanti Entrepreneur Group, headquartered just outside of Rochester, NY, but open to entrepreneurs everywhere. He’s basically trying to build a huge community of entrepreneurs who can learn from one another, share resources and best practices and war stories, and support each other on their entrepreneurial journeys.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.   Resources: Learn more at AvantiEntrepreneurGroup.com Avanti En

We hope you have your thinking caps on, because today we’re going to be talking about education in this episode – and this is probably the right thing to be talking about for the accounting and finance profession!   We talk about skills quite frequently on this show – the skills we’re going to need to remain relevant in a changing and complex world – so it seems appropriate that we spend some time talking about where we’re going to be getting these skills, and who’s gonna be teaching them to us.   So... should accounting education change to reflect our changing reality? And if so, how should it change? And how quickly should it change?   These are the questions that we explore with Kelly Richmond Pope, a Ph.D., a CPA, and an associate professor at the School of Accountancy and Management Information Systems at DePaul University, where her research focuses on organizational misconduct, ethics, fraud, and how organizations can design cultures and compliance systems to confront these challenges. She has some rea

Everyone talks about the importance of collaboration, but what does it really mean? Working together? Teamwork? Sharing ideas? It’s one of those things that’s hard to define, but we know it when we see it. And because of that, it’s something that everyone defines differently.   But here’s the thing – every list of the most crucial future-ready skills for our profession includes collaboration. Every single one. So we have to figure out a definition that everyone can embrace.   And here to help us figure that out is Rebekah Brown, the director of development with the Maryland Association of CPAs and a thought leader with the Business Learning Institute. She is as passionate and optimistic about the future of accounting and finance as anyone I know, and she has seen first-hand how powerful collaboration can be within our ever-evolving profession, particularly among our younger professionals.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.   Resources: Start mastering Future-Ready ski

Just how busy are you?   We’re all busy. Some would argue that we, collectively, are busier than ever before – but the reason that’s true isn’t necessarily because we have more work to do than ever.   We all make time for the stuff that’s really important and valuable to us. So if we find ourselves really busy with things that aren’t important or valuable, that just means, to paraphrase Ferris Bueller, that our priorities are way out of whack, and we’ve got to do something to get them back in line.   You need to be spending as much time as possible on the things that you love to do and that you’re great at. That’s your sweet spot, and that’s where your organization needs you to be spending most of your time because they’ll get the most bang for their buck with you there. The other stuff? You need to eventually be able to delegate that away so you can spend your valuable time doing things that truly add value.   Our guest this week is someone who has built a growing global business that’s designed to help acco

We're talking about strategic planning and critical thinking today, or planning strategically and thinking critically, or critical strategy and planning to think – or whatever you want to call it.   It's all about looking ahead today; mapping a road to the future and then figuring out how to get there.   And here to help us make sense of all this is Jennifer Elder, a thought leader with the Business Learning Institute who works with companies to find creative solutions to their most challenging problems. She also helps financial leaders become more strategic, staying ahead of the competition and becoming more successful.   And she has some fantastic insights into the notion of building a vision and executing on it: where to start, the key components of a strategic plan, possible land mines that you'll want to look out for, and what to do once the plan is complete. (Spoiler: Don't just throw it on a bookshelf or no one's going to look at it ever again!)   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit b

Are we evolving to meet our clients’ evolving expectations?   More and more of our clients don’t want to deal with accounting, finance, or payroll. They want to focus on what they do well and leave all of that other stuff to someone else – and that someone else could be you, if you’re set up to provide it.   That’s where this week’s guest comes in. Hitendra Patil is the Director of Customer Success at AccountantsWorld, the author of Accountaneur: The Entrepreneurial Accountant, and one of the 100 most influential people in accounting, according to Accounting Today. So, he’s kind of a rock star in the accounting and finance world, and he’s got his finger on the pulse of what’s driving public accounting into the future.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.   Resources: Learn more at AccountantsWorld.com Read: Accountaneur: The Entrepreneurial Accountant LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hitendrapatil/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/HitendraRPatil Future-Proof is produ

We sit down with Brian Feldman, a State Senator who represents District 15 in Maryland. Brian is also a CPA, so he brings a lot of those key business and finance insights directly into Maryland’s Senate Chamber. He’s a great partner of the profession and we’ve worked with him many times on a number of key bills.   Even if you don’t live in Maryland, we think it’s important that you take a few minutes and listen in on this conversation, and here’s why: We all know what’s happening in Washington these day, and what’s happening in Washington is... nothing good. The political climate there is so toxic that nothing – or next to nothing – of huge significance is getting done there.   Most legislative things that impact us directly are happening in our state capitals and in our city or county governments because most of the laws that directly impact our lives are passed at the state and local level. That makes the work that lawmakers do on those levels hugely important – but unfortunately, they’re also criminally ov

This show is called “Future-Proof,” but when it comes to the future, we’ve been focusing on trends, strategies, visions, resources, regulations, skills, competencies, and business models. Do you know what’s missing from that list?   People.   And people are probably the most important factor in all of these future-ready conversations – because they’re the ones who are going to make all of that stuff happen. So as we work to make ourselves and our organizations more future-ready, one of our first steps has to be figuring out how to surround ourselves with great people.   Today’s guest, Karl Ahlrichs, has years of experience in human resources, operations, diversity and inclusion – pretty much any people issues in business management today. He has some very specific ideas about how we can work to build productive, resilient workforces that are made up of great people; people who are high performers and great fits culturally.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.   Resources

Artificial intelligence is one of those technologies that we’ve been talking about for years as a possible disrupter for our profession, as a possible job destroyer, and as a possible opportunity generator.   Well, you can officially take the word “possible” out of all of those phrases – A.I. is here, and it’s delivering as advertised.   And our guest Samantha Bowling, CPA, CGMA, can attest to that. Samantha is a partner with Garbelman Winslow, where she has put an A.I.-based audit solution to work that’s given the firm a huge competitive advantage, and her story is a perfect illustration of just how fast technology is advancing these days.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.   Resources: Learn more at gwcpas.com/about-us Check out MindBridge.ai Twitter: https://twitter.com/sbowlingcpa LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-bowling-cpa-cgma-25531420 Future-Proof is produced by Podcast Masters

Culture is one of the most important factors contributing to the success of your organization. There are some people who will argue this point, who don’t see any connection between culture and productivity, execution, or profits. There are also people who think if they put a foosball table in the break room and let their employees wear jeans, they’ll create a kick-ass culture – and all of those people are wrong.   Culture will determine how engaged your employees are, and judging by recent research, they’re probably not very engaged at all. The folks at Gallup regularly find that as many as 70 percent of American employees are not engaged in their work. Gallup also found that companies with highly engaged workforces outperform their peers by 147 percent in earnings per share. That’s a pretty significant incentive to figure this employee engagement stuff out, isn’t it?   So where do we start?   That’s where our guest this week comes in. Jamie Notter is a consultant who helps leaders drive growth and engagement

January 2019 is a big month for CPAs, in Maryland and throughout the country.   The Maryland General Assembly begins its annual session on Jan. 9. Not a single bill has been introduced yet, but it’s already shaping up to be an extraordinarily busy session for those of us who are trying to protect our profession.   For CPAs nationwide, of course, tax season is ramping up, and there are a number of issues that are already complicating things for tax practitioners: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, The Supreme Court’s Wayfair decision, and the federal government shutdown.   So things on the legislative and regulatory front are a little chaotic for the accounting and finance profession.   But that’s why we’re here, right? State CPA societies like the MACPA – this is our bread and butter. Protecting our profession, protecting your livelihood, and protecting your clients. This is a huge part of why we’re here.   So today, we’re talking about how all of this impacts you and your clients, what the MACPA is doing about it, a

If the past few years have been all about disruption – and it seems like they have been – then 2019 is already shaping up to be the year of opportunity.   We already know what the disruptors are, we know about the potential impacts they’ll have on our profession, and we’ve talked about them to death lately – but not nearly as many people are talking about the opportunities that these disruptions offer us.   That changes today.   Our guest Mark Koziel is Executive Vice President of firm services for the American Institute of CPAs, and as such he leads the AICPA’s Private Companies Practice Section, Firm Relationship Management, Small Firms, Diversity & Inclusion, Young Member Initiatives, Technical Hotline, and the Center for Plain English Accounting.   Koziel says these disruptions present huge opportunities to CPAs everywhere, especially in three key areas: tax, client accounting services, and audit. Let’s find out how.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.   Resourc

We spend most of our time on this podcast talking about the accounting and finance profession – what the future looks like for those of us who work within this rarified profession and how to help others make sense of their finances, their numbers, or their future.   But we’re not the only ones struggling in this area. Well-off and working class, unemployed and entrepreneurial, engaged and disengaged, C-suite and on the dole: everybody is struggling with how to make sense of this changing and complex world.   Things have never been more uncertain than they are today, and although change is already happening at a mind-bending pace, it’s only going to speed up going forward. So if you’re not keeping up today, your odds of keeping up tomorrow are slim to none.   Luckily, few people have a better perspective on all of this than our guest, Alec Ross, author of the New York Times best-selling book The Industries of the Future and one of the nation’s leading experts on innovation. He served for four years as the sen

Today, let’s talk about how fascinating you are.   But first, let’s break down what exactly “fascinating” means. It goes back Roman times, when that word meant things like captivation and spellbinding. It was almost perceived as an evil curse back then.   Now, fascination is more about how the world sees you. In other words, it’s about knowing yourself – and more importantly, it’s about knowing what others know about you and how you can stand out in a crowded market place, which couldn’t be more important today. We’ve got to focus on what makes us different. As our guest Sally Hogshead would say, different is better than better.   Sally is a world-class branding expert who has discovered a new way to measure how people perceive you, and in this episode, she’s going to share how you can start leveraging your Fascination Advantage and standing out from the competition.   To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.   Resources: Learn more at https://www.howtofascinate.com/ Take Sal