Future-Proof

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 thrive.

Tracey takes a deeper dive into what she means by that, as well as her insight into what’s coming around the corner for us all. These are tough and challenging times, but at least CPAs have a leader who is up to the task.

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

Resources:

• Learn more: aicpa.org
• Learn more: aicpa-cima.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/traceygolden1

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

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.com
• Read: “The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction, and Build Recurring Revenue”
• Read: “The Forever Transaction: How to Build a Subscription Model So Compelling, Your Customers Will Never Want to Leave”
• Read: “Subscribed”
• "CPA-as-a-Service: Re-imagining Your Clients as Subscribers"

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

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.org
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tomhood

Future-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.com
• https://www.aicpa.org/about/leadership/mark-koziel-bio.html
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjkoziel/
• CPA Firms Down, But Not Out, From Covid-19, Survey Finds

Future-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 International Certified Professional Accountants. She’s also a fixture on Accounting Today’s list of the most influential people in accounting. They are both Black women and true leaders in our profession, and they have insights, life experiences, and mindsets that the vast majority of people in our profession do not — but that we desperately need.

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

Resources:

• Avonette’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/avonetteblandingcpa
• Avonette’s Twitter: twitter.com/avonetteb_cpa
• Oracle: oracle.com/corporate/executives/kimberly-ellison-taylor
• Kimberly’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kimberly-n-ellison-taylor-b1a13a2
• “Together, We Can Make A Difference: A 12-Step Plan To Address Racism And Unconscious Bias.”

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

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.com
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lyle-benson-b019b25
• Read: "These Aren’t Normal Times. You Still Need a Financial Plan for the Pandemic"
• Read: "Money Lessons From the Pandemic—and the Power of Financial Planning"

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

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.

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

Resources:

• Learn more: www.burrus.com
• Read “The Anticipatory Organization”
• Read “Flash Foresight”
• Future Learning Framework: www.macpa.org/future-learning-framework
• Listen: "54. The excellence dividend | with Tom Peters"
• Listen: "57. Scaling our lives by seeing things differently | with Brian Solis"
• Listen: "58. The key to thriving in an exponential world? Think exponentially."
• Listen: "36. Your future depends on what you do today"

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

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 respond to future waves of COVID-19 and pandemics: Here is how"
• "Video recap: The role of tech, data, and leadership in pandemic geopolitics and recovery post-COVID"
• "AI Trends Executive Interview: Dr. David Bray, Director, Atlantic Council"
• "We can strengthen the global food system. Here is how."

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

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.com
• 51. Building Tomorrow's Leaders Today | with Emmanuel Gobillot & Katherine Thomas
• johnolearyinspires.com

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media