Future-Proof

You would be hard-pressed to think of an area that has a greater impact on the working world than where we work. The pandemic has taken the cat out of the bag – so to speak – and there’s no putting it back. Working from home is here to stay. Now it’s up to us to keep it productive.

Kassi Rushing is a communication and people strategist who works with organizations to bring their cultural visions to life. She's got experience and expertise in workplace culture, high-performing teams, diversity, equity and inclusion strategy, leadership and pipeline development, employee engagement, and communication strategy – all of which makes her the perfect person to talk about the future of work. Kassi gave a GREAT presentation at one of the MACPA’s recent town hall meetings.

She talks about some of the landmines that employers need to watch out for, the opportunities that are there for those of us who figure out how to do this right, what employees can do to help make this transition easier, and a look at the future of work itself.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• kassirushing.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kassirushing
• “Allowing More Work From Home? Avoid These Common Mistakes”

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

It seems as if everyone wants to offer client accounting services, but not many know where to start.

Hitendra Patil is the Head of Customer Success at AccountantsWorld. He is a fixture in Accounting Today’s list of The 100 Most Influential People in Accounting. And he’s one of the biggest fans – and, certainly, one of the most knowledgeable people on the subject – of client accounting services. He has a new book called “The Definitive Success Guide to Client Accounting Services.”

He talks about the opportunities that CAS provides, the barriers getting in the way of their adoption, the new skills we’ll have to learn to be successful, and what’s in the future for CAS. Like everything else these days, it’s evolving fast. If you’ve been thinking about diving into the CAS pool, this is a great place to start.

To learn more and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• Read: “The Definitive Success Guide to Client Accounting Services”
• CAS Begins With a Mindset
• Top Five CAS Killers and How to Overcome Them

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

David Nour is CEO of The Nour Group, where they're all about building strategic relationships to help leaders reimagine the future. He's an advisor to Fortune 500 execs, a professor at Emory University, and the author of 11 books. His latest is “Curve Benders: How Strategic Relationships Can Power Your Non-Linear Growth in the Future of Work.”

What are curve benders? How do you define "strategic relationships?" What is non-linear growth? What is the future of work? And how does all this fit together?

David joins us to talk about his notion of curve-benders and how they are more than just strategic relationships. They are a series of forces that change how we live, work, and even play.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• nourgroup.com
• Read: “Curve Benders”
• What Relationships are the Core of Your Personal Market Value?

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

Donny Shimamoto is the founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies, an advisory-focused CPA firm in Honolulu. He’s also an incredibly active volunteer and thought leader for the American Institute of CPAs, doing work in information management, IT, and assurance services.

His latest project is leading the launch of the new Center for Accounting Transformation. Its mission statement reads: “The Center enables transformation by guiding members through the adoption and change required in order to step into the future of the accounting profession. We are not here to convince people to change, but rather to empower those who seek an alternative to the status quo.” We talk about how they are doing that, and why.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• intraprise.us
• improvetheworld.net
• evolutionofcpa.org

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

Kelly Phillips Erb runs a very popular Twitter account under the handle, TaxGirl. She has written a regular Forbes column for years under the moniker, and now she’s doing the same for Bloomberg. She’s been interviewed by every big-name media company in the business about all things tax: CNN, Reuters, Time, NPR, ABC, CBS, MarketWatch, and more. She is also a managing attorney with ErbLaw, based in Glenmoore, Pennsylvania.

We talk about the state of tax professionals more than a year into the pandemic, how the industry has changed due to it, and of course the ways it will continue to evolve moving forward.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• taxgirl.com
• Twitter: @taxgirl
• Instagram: @therealtaxgirl

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

Andrew Codd is the host of Strength in the Numbers Show, a top-rated podcast aiming to help solve significant problems in the finance industry. He’s also an author, speaker, coach, trainer, and a senior member of After-Sales Finance Operations for Dell. Based in Ireland, Andrew brings an international perspective to the profession's issues and offers a fresh opinion on potential solutions.

Andrew Codd listens to people in various roles throughout the industry, giving him valuable insight into making it future-proof. We talk about some of the ties that bind accounting and finance pros, the importance of that human element to the future of our work, and some of his favorite lessons he’s learned after more than 300 episodes.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• sitnshow.com
• Twitter: @andrewSITN
• "The ABCs of Leadership in Crisis"
• "Stay calm … and stay extraordinary"
• 138. The path to excellence is 'extreme humanism' | with Tom Peters
• Read: “Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism”

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

Jacquelyn Tracy is chair of the AICPA's Women's Initiatives Executive Committee. Jessica McClain is a member of the board of directors of the MACPA Foundation, which works to build a diverse talent pipeline to ensure the strength of the CPA profession for years to come.

We talk about the excellent work being done by both of these organizations, the role of women in the profession, and why it's crucial that we expand it for future generations.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• linkedin.com/in/jessica-e-mcclain
• linkedin.com/in/jacquelyntracy
• AICPA Women's Initiatives Executive Committee
• The MACPA Foundation
• "Adding Women to the C-Suite Changes How Companies Think"

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

Dr. Amy Zalman is the former CEO and president of the World Future Society. While she was there, she repositioned the World Future Society for renewed future global impact — helping a transformational organization transform itself. She’s also the founder of Oryx Communications and chair of information integration at the National War College, where she’s introduced new ways of understanding information to future senior leaders so they can better inform their perspectives on the ways the world is changing —  not just technologically, but also culturally and geopolitically. She’s currently the founder of Prescient, a foresight consultancy that helps leaders and companies anticipate new opportunities, markets and threats before the competition does. In Prescient’s words, “Our clients manage the future by creating it.”

Amy Zalman talks about anticipation: Is it a skill, a mindset, or a bit of both? How does it differ from critical and strategic thinking? How can we tell if we’re moving fast enough? And how should we start reimagining this profession going forward? It’s a fascinating and essential conversation with one of the world’s true deep thinkers in this space. 

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• amyzalman.com
• worldfuture.org
• nwc.ndu.edu
• prescient2050.com
• Jeff Bezos-backed accounting start-up hits $1.2 billion valuation after new funding round
• Pilot's $100m Funding Round: What it Means for the Accounting Profession

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

Tom Peters is the co-author of “In Search Of Excellence” and author of seventeen other best-selling books. He’s a legend in the business and consulting world, devoted to studying what makes leaders great and how to achieve business excellence.

Tom’s latest book, “Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism,” may also be his last. In the afterword to the book, he says, “This book, in effect, IS my memoir. It is solely devoted to the things that I care deeply — VERY deeply! — about. The ideas are not complex; they require no mastery of calculus or chemistry or physics. But the practice thereof is honored in the breach more often than not. Collecting and sharing these ideas are my life’s work and, indeed, my life.”

In this conversation, Tom talks about joy, compassion, caring, kindness, patience, and positivity — the kinds of skills that everyone else calls “soft skills.” Tom is adamant that they are truly hard skills, that they’re the ones we need to master because they pay off in the most significant way in the long run.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• tompeters.com
• Twitter: twitter.com/tom_peters
• Read: “Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism”

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

As we near the end of Women’s History Month, and with Black History Month still firmly in our memory, it’s essential to take a look at diversity and inclusion in the CPA profession — both how far we’ve come and how much further we have to go.

Kimberly Ellison-Taylor is a former Maryland Association of CPAs chair, a former AICPA Chair, and the executive director of finance thought leadership for Oracle. She is also the incoming chair of the AICPA’s National Commission on Diversity and Inclusion, and the incoming president of Beta Alpha Psi, the international honor society for accounting and finance students and professionals. She has her pulse on the profession’s D&I initiatives. She talks about what the AICPA’s National Commission is focusing on these days, how generational issues factor into the diversity-and-inclusion conversation, and how we can start moving this conversation away from groups of individuals and toward more inclusiveness across the board.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• AICPA National Commission on Diversity & Inclusion
• McKinsey Women in the Workplace 2020
• Watch: International Women's Day: Women strengthen the accounting profession, during and beyond COVID-19

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media