Ep: 5 Top experts answer: "Will the next generation of accountants be any different from their predecessors?"
The Accounting Influencers Podcast, hosted by Rob Brown, asks critical questions of the experts, leaders and influencers who shape the decision-making of accountants, CPAs and finance professionals. Today we ask:
Will the next generation of accountants be any different from their predecessors?
You'll hear insightful and passionate answers from these 5 experts and influencers:
Christine Nicholson | Award Winning Professional Business Mentor and Exit Planner for accountants
Clive Hand | Irish digital accountant using QuickBooks Online to empower business success
Dan McMahon | value creation and governance expert to the professional services industry
Daniel Rock | CRO SuiteFiles, helping accounting firms solve problems for a decade
Daniel van der Heyden | Guiding Accountants to Mastery in Accounting & Tax
Tune into more on this weekly show for short, sharp episodes that keep you informed of what's happening in the accounting world and the whole ecosystem of consultants, organizations, vendors and advisors who serve them.
This episode was first published in an earlier season of this podcast.
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Well, once to know what the world is thinking and to stay relevant and competitive, you need to know what's working and what isn't. You want to peer over the garden wall of your peers and see what they're doing. This is the Accounting Answers podcast answering and asking the questions that you have on your mind. I'm asking the people whose opinions and insights are super valuable. I'm Rob Brown, your host, and in recent months, I've reached out to 111 of the world's most influential experts, leaders and advisors in the accounting world, and I've asked them the same five questions, and that means over 500 brilliant, passionate, and articulate perceptions inside viewpoints of professionals with skin in the game. All of these guests play in the accounting finance and tech sphere. They work in through or with accounting firms. They all have the experience, the viewpoints, the interests. They all care together. They give you the whole picture of what the next generation of accounts will look like. The realm of proactive advice, what's changing accounting and how and what the tech and software vendors can do better in this space. I'll also ask them to give three predictions for accounting over the next few years, and you won't believe the variety of answers and perspectives that come out from that one question. And in this show, coming out every working day for the next few weeks, you're going to hear every single answer. Each episode will focus on one of the five questions and give you five answers from our experts. Let's get moving with today's episode. We've been focusing all this week on the question, will the next generation of accountants be any different from their predecessors? Getting future focuses, top of the agenda for accounting firms and the professional associations, societies, and governing bodies who shape the reputation of this world. It's fascinating what our different experts and influencers have to say about what's coming through to replace the baby boomers currently running the accounting world. Let's check out more of their answers. And here, Christine Nicholson, an award-winning professional business mentor and exit planner for accountants, specializing in guiding accounting professionals through successful business exits and transitions. Sure answer, totally, yes. And I think it's for two reasons. One is the current generation are not willing to lead themselves dry for the chance, the opportunity to become partner. And I think long-term, that means that the partner model is broken for successful accounting practices. The second one is I see that there's going to be a more definitive split of the technical specialisms. And I think that will result in a wholesale change of the way that accounting practices that are successful will develop going forward. I just see a change in the way that the accounting model is going to shift from the old partnership model to a different model. Let's tune in now to hear Clive Hand, an Irish digital accountant who utilizes QuickBooks Online to empower businesses with real-time financial insights and success strategies. I hope so. Yes, is my answer. I haven't depended on both and it depends. That depends on your training. If you're trading with a compliant or traditional played firm, you hasn't embraced technology, who hasn't embraced, then I'm afraid they're going to lose that in the opportunity. However, if they're working with digital accountancy firms, they're going to have a competitive advantage by having the exposure, by learning, by being curious. So yes, I do think that even though we have a low adoption to digital accounting at the minute, that shift has definitely changed the landscape that's moving on that. Let's explore the ideas of Dan McMullen, a value creation and governance expert to the professional services industry dedicated to enhancing value and governance within firms for sustainable growth. I think they're going to be vastly different. I think some of the people coming up the ranks right now are vastly different than the generations that preceded myself, myself on the Generation X. The baby boomers are truly, they've done a lot for the profession over the years, but they're truly at a point where they're being phased out, and it's so clear in the work that we do. There's a huge gap between baby boomers and millennials' generation Y. Younger generations are much more savvy with technology, and they're also looking for a way to work smarter rather than harder, and that's a very big difference, and I think that's only going to lead to generations that come after them to be even more evolved. A very different evolution from what they've been to what we will be in the future. Next on our list of expenses, Daniel Rock, CRO at Sweet Files, where he has spent over a decade helping account him to solve the document management challenges, making the practices more efficient and secure. Look, I think they're going to have to be because the world changes. I think if I look back, you know, when I started out working far too many years ago, accountants were technical experts, or very much seen as a technical expert. Here is, you know, I need help with the numbers, the business stuff, and I think those skill sets have changed. You know, they need to be a lot more digitally proficient. You know, I think the world has changed, and they need to be able to help their clients understand how to use those tools, not just themselves. They've got to be more adaptable. I think the world change is changing has been, for a while, a very great pace. So therefore, they have to be adaptable to everything that's going to get thrown at them. And I think probably the biggest one is there's just got to be a lot more client centric. You know, they've got to be a lot more able to have good conversations with customers, be more advisory, be able to ask questions and coach. And I think just being able to be a technical expert and produce compliance numbers, I think that's a shift that you're going to have to see people being a lot more, have a lot more social skills into personal skills and being able to. And I look, I think accountants have already started to do that. This isn't saying that, you know, all accountants are technical experts who are locked away in a back room, that's not what I'm saying at all. But I think that evolves and that evolution is going to become more and more important in being able to have good business advisory conversations. And look, my fear about if they don't make these changes and the new generation doesn't adapt and be different is that technology will take over a lot of those skills. I'm not necessarily one of these people that thinks AI is going to take over the world, but I do think a lot of those basic compliance routine tasks, if the new generation doesn't adapt to that, there won't be the work for them to do. Prepare to head now from Daniel Van der Heiden, guiding accountants to mastering accounting and tax offered deep insights into the complexities of tax law and accounting practices to elevate the profession. Yeah, definitely. I think every generation that's been different, right? I was having to think about this. If you go back to like generation X, for example, right, they kind of bought in computer accounting or grew up, at least into the industry of computer accounting, my generation, why millennials, what do you want to call it? Cloud accounting. And I think Z is more obviously, there's a lot around the work-life balance side of things, but I think the ESG thing kind of really, you know, coming to play in that kind of generation. So I think everyone's different, different ideas of, I guess, doing essentially accounting, right? I think there will definitely be differences. I guess the generation Z would come about the ESG and the work-life balance. But the way I believe this will impact the, I guess, the industry going forward, is it's going to be a lot more focused around, obviously, that work-life balance, but also things around sustainability. Giving back to the community and not just being purely focused on how many hours going to charge my client, but how can I actually give something back to them and give something back to the society as well? So there you have five-player answers to the question. Will the next generation of the counters be any different from their predecessors? Each work in day of the week, Monday through Friday, we give the insights of five top influencers in the accounting world on this critical area of next-gen accountants. That's 25 valuable perspectives, viewpoints and best thinking every week. And with a fresh week comes a fresh question and more thoughts from the best accounting leaders and influencers we can find. Thanks for listening to the Accounting Answers podcast and sharing the show with your friends. If you want to join the conversation, you can plug into our community of influencers at accountinginfluencers.com and check out our virtual speed networking events. This happened every few months for North America and UK Europe. Great opportunities to raise your profile, build valuable connections and share your thoughts with influential peers. Until next time, this is your host Rob Rail saying stay informed, stay relevant and stay connected. [MUSIC PLAYING] (gentle music)
