That
Time I Told Mark Cuban He Was Wrong About the CPA Profession
Posted by AICPA Communications on Mar 22,
2017
Last Wednesday afternoon, I read that Mark
Cuban said he would not want to be a CPA right now because advances in
technology mean it isn’t a profession for the future.
Wednesday night, I sacrificed sleep so I
could write a lengthy blog post explaining how Mr. Cuban clearly didn’t
consider the many ways the accounting profession
is getting ahead of change and anticipating the future needs of the
marketplace.
And by Thursday afternoon, I was explaining
my argument to him in person.
How?
I was editing the first draft of my blog
post on Thursday when a colleague walked into my office to announce that, according
to rumor, Mr. Cuban was in the lobby of our office building at that very
moment. Could life be so serendipitous that I could get a photo with the
subject of my blog post? Naturally, I had to investigate.
The lobby of our office building was quite
empty that day, so I immediately saw that the rumors were true. Sitting right
there in front of me was the individual that had caused my writing fury. He was
engaged in a conversation, but made eye contact with me and smiled kindly. I
took that as my opportunity to introduce myself.
Initially I simply asked for a photo, to
which he obliged. I couldn’t resist the urge to share with him why I wanted the
photo, though.
“I have not slept in two days because I
have been trying to very quickly write a blog post explaining all the reasons
you are wrong.”
It
probably wasn’t the smoothest opening line ever, but thankfully he laughed and asked to which
comments I was referring. When I reminded him, he – shockingly! – asked me to
sit down and explain to him why I disagreed.
Over the next ten minutes, I shared some of
the many ways the profession is embracing technology to innovate new services and methods of providing them. Automation
actually frees CPAs up to perform higher value services for clients and organizations. It also
enables entry level and junior staff to focus on deeper responsibilities than
they have in the past.
As Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist for
Glassdoor, explained last year, “Even as technology has helped to automate some aspects of the tax
and insurance markets, the remaining jobs in these fields require lots of human judgment and creativity
that is very difficult to
automate.” A study by McKinsey & Company goes further and says that
the technology threat is not about whole professions disappearing as some have
indicated, but about certain tasks of jobs and professions being automated. For
example, McKinsey found that applying expertise as a job function
is much less likely to become automated than data collection and processing.
Fortunately for the profession, the marketplace is already demanding that CPAs provide advice and analyze data at more
sophisticated levels than ever before. Technology is a valued partner in enabling
CPAs to deliver higher value
services and business insights that the public can rely on.
Case in point: CPAs are becoming a key ally
in the fight against cybersecurity
threats. In upcoming weeks, the AICPA will release a new reporting framework
that companies can use to tell their customers and investors how they are
managing cybersecurity risks. In addition, CPAs will be able to provide assurance on management’s description and the effectiveness of a company’s
cyber risk management program. The AICPA’s reporting framework provides the
first common language in the marketplace, and it aligns with the many different
methods organizations are already using to design cybersecurity risk management
programs.
Cybersecurity isn’t the only area in which
the profession is innovating.
In the future, CPAs will also provide assurance on other non-financial
subject areas like vendor/supply chain and sustainability. Auditors will be
able to provide meaningful assurance on whether a business has met energy goals
or emissions requirements, manufactured products in an environmentally safe
way, and achieved water recycling benchmarks.
These
types of services will require specialized knowledge and abilities, which is one reason the
accounting profession will continue to be successful well into the future. And
the demand for these new
abilities is reflected in the Uniform CPA Examination, which was
recently changed to reflect the evolved competencies newly-licensed CPAs need.
The Exam has increased testing of higher-order cognitive skills, such as critical thinking,
analytical ability, problem solving, professional skepticism and effective
communication – all the same skills that Mr. Cuban says are essential if a
profession is to thrive in the age of advanced technologies.
At the same time, the AICPA, CPA firms and
other stakeholders are also looking at new ways of incorporating technology
into accounting and auditing services.
This year [2017], the AICPA will release a whitepaper on Blockchain’s potential impact
on assurance services
and its updated Audit Data Analytics Guide. It’s also working with the Auditing
Standards Board, the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, and
the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to evolve auditing standards to
facilitate the use of analytics
in the financial statement audit. In fact, the AICPA is thinking about how the
“core of the profession’s core”, the audit, might itself transform 5 and 10
years from now due to technology and other marketplace forces.
CPA firms are embracing the change, too. Many are already
incorporating new technologies like artificial intelligence, virtual reality,
and drones into their practices to increase
efficiency and effectiveness. Advancements in these areas can help
reduce time spent pulling information manually, increase collaboration by
allowing a team leader in a firm’s home office to see what an auditor in the
field sees in real time, and allow CPAs to inspect land and facilities in a
safer and more cost-effective way.
With the profession evolving at such a
rapid pace, the AICPA launched the Firm inMotion e-Toolkit last October to help
firms of all sizes integrate
changes into their practices so they can best meet their clients’ changing
needs, and even more resources and tools are in the pipeline.
Mr. Cuban is right that technology is
changing workforce demands at an unprecedented rate, but the CPA profession is changing,
too. With so many future-oriented developments, right now is definitely a great
time to be a CPA. And I am thankful that Mr. Cuban was patient enough to listen
to a sleep-deprived defender of the profession explain why.
Lindsay N. Patterson, CAE, Senior
Manager--Communications and Public Relations, Association of International
Certified Professional Accountants
Posted by AICPA Communications on Mar 22,
2017 in CPA Profession in the News, Lindsay Patterson, Technology
