Its Time For Accountants To Engage More In Business .
In basic definition an accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy, which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resource(s).
Basically when we look at the structure how accountants are build around the world there are three fundamental bases. They are knowledge , experience and ethics. Specially when we look at the subject areas they learn those include basic HR Knowledge , Marketing Knowledge , Information system knowledge , commercial law and company law, strategic management , financial management , performance management , risk management , governance , audit , taxation , decision science ,financial accounting ,economics & basic financial maths . So its almost cover 90% of the basic fundamentals of business knowledge. But in many cases majority of Accountants in the world use financial accounting or financial management only.
When we look at the experience side majority of accountants start their career as external auditors others start their career in corporate sector. When we look at the external auditors or financial consultants who trained in consulting firms its much clear they got a huge opportunity to study various businesses in and out with the justified financial results which reflects the outcomes of business strategies. Basically audit trainee work in the field and he gets the opportunity to learn at the site complete business processes and all the strategic inputs. Further they get the opportunity to interview senior management within client places. On the other hand they are working with high skilled accountants who has diversified industry experience. So from experience and knowledge these young Qualified accountants get the opportunity to overview majority of the departments and its operation in the business.
But after completion of training period they all became either full time external auditors or work as an accountant of a reputed company. There your scope became limited to function of accountant and in many cases you will be overlooking day to day cash management and maintaining the management information system suggested by the definition explained at the beginning of the article.
When we look at UK FTSE 100 Companies 55% of the Chief Executive Officers are from finance background according to Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland .So there is a clear point that as accountants are not utilizing the diversified experience and knowledge we captured in early stages of the career. With the rise of Co - founder model of business and as a CEO of a strategic business consulting agency i have seen many instances where more business failures happen due to lack of financial management knowledge and business knowledge. Basically well trained accountant has the capacity to adopt to any industry which is a sublime skill which accountants need to use. With all these facts you all can see accountants are built not only to be an accountants but to run a business as an entrepreneur or as Chief executive Officer.
There are thousands of startups in the world which fails daily due to lack of financial and proper strategic business management knowledge and experience. Further many many micro business and startup struggle to pace up with the growth due to lack of proper management skills. But when look at even newly qualified accountant they carry the skill set to run a small company. Due to overall knowledge and experience they have the business sense to run a business.
I know many of the accountants are more risk averse and they are paid well in every company around the world not to use much of their potential. So it seams more opportunity cost is there to move into a business straight from the job for an accountant. But look at the statistics above 55% of FTSE 100 Companies have CEO's from Finance background. That means due to your experience and knowledge in business strategy its hard to fail than win for a company with you. So think a bit if you team up with these technology experts all over the world there will be more startups success stories than ever before, Further there will be more growth in micro , small and medium businesses. All together the value of the profession will be enhanced to the world.
Right now best professionally qualified accountants are in the audit firms. Its just like your own country accountants migrating to another country as the direct contribution which can be made by accountants has been missed all over more than 100 years. Its right time to save the sinking ships of startups around the world and contribute towards development of the country more positively.I hope one out of 10 accountants who read this article will start a business in near future.
Pasan Malinda Katipearachchi Bsc ACCA,ACMA, CGMA
Chief Editor
Editors Line
Business Tomorrow Global
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