CPA Success

Lessons from a good guy, gone too soon

I've been lost in what Billy Joel would call "let's remember" lately. An old boss / mentor / friend from my sports journalism days died in his sleep on Monday.

His name was Craig Stanke. I know the name means nothing to you, but among sports journalists, he was a giant -- and as good a journalist as he was, believe me, he was an even better person. And he was a healthy 56. Life is so freakin' unfair sometimes.

I won't bore you with the details. You can get to know Stanke yourself by reading the touching tributes that colleagues Scott Miller, Gregg Doyel and T.J. Simers wrote after his death.

I do want to share a few lessons that he taught me -- and that I think all of us can take to heart.

Roll with the changes.
Stanke was a newspaperman to the core. His resume included stops at the Beloit Daily News, the Bradenton Herald, the Clearwater Sun, the Jupiter Daily Journal, the Fort Lauderdale News, the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Florida Times Union, the Los Angeles Times and the Palm Beach Post. But he was smart enough to recognize the web's promise early on. He joined CBSSports.com (it was Sportsline.com at the time) in 1997, early enough to be one of the true pioneers of online journalism, and he stayed there for the last 14 years of his life.

He also was among the first wave of journalists to recognize the importance of social media. He was particularly inspiring in his use of Twitter, where he deftly molded personal, professional and conversational posts into a fascinating stream of sports consciousness.

The lesson? Change isn't all good, and it isn't all bad. It's just inevitable. Embrace it. Use it. Find your niche. Then be ready to change again.

Listen to your clients.
Stanke loved good journalism. As a result, he was a harsh critic of bad journalism. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel was a frequent target of his. Here's a typical Stanke comment via Twitter: "My local newspaper put Game 1 of the World Series on ... (page) 8C today. Local focus or not, that's not working for me, Sun-Sentinel." And that was one of his kinder rants. You might conclude that he disliked the paper. You'd be wrong. He just wanted the paper to get better.

The lesson? Don't shy away from criticism. Your best clients can sometimes be your worst critics, but only because they care. They're your clients for a reason. They find value in what you offer. They want to keep finding that value, so they'll raise their voices when they don't. The clients you should fear are the ones who don't say anything, even as they walk out the door.

You influence more people than you realize.
I worked with the man for only two years, but in that short time, he made me think, work and laugh in ways that impact me to this day. My life is a little less full now that he's gone. Imagine what the people who really knew him are feeling. Stanke was one of the good guys who knew that anything worth doing -- working, playing, living -- was worth doing well. Examples like that stick with the people you touch.

The lesson? Every connection we make is an opportunity to improve a life. That kind of opportunity is too important to waste.

Thanks for those lessons, Craig. They're just a few of the many ways in which you'll be missed ... and remembered.

What makes a great CFO / controller?

If 80 percent of the value created in the economy is not reflected on balance sheets, how much of the CFO job is directly related to technical accounting knowledge?

This was the opening conversation of Panel 17: Rebooting Business, at the AICPA's 125th Anniversary meeting in Washington D.C.

Darren Gersh of PBS' Nightly Business Report moderated a lively discussion with three public company CFO / controllers -- Brad Dickerson of UnderArmour, Ken Kelly of McCormick, and Priyan Fernando of American Express (pictured left to right).

82.46 percent.

They need 82.46 percent of their skills from non-technical, non-accounting areas (at least that is my guess). Darren Gersh's opening statement led to a conversation about value creation, the role of the CFO and what it takes to succeed in the new normal.

So what makes a great CFO/ controller?

Ken Kelly of McCormick (the flavor company) put it in terms of beans: "We have to go from counting beans to helping to grow the beans." In fact, McCormick has been working in a global finance competency model that integrates into their worldwide set of competencies and values.

How, you might ask?

People -- or as the CGMA report said, the human dimension. 

Speaking of the human dimension, I am writing this blog post from the "notes" captured from the Twitter stream, the "Tweet book" which captured the insight from participants via Twitter.

Brad Dickerson of UnderArmour said, "Hire one great person and they hire five" and ... (well, do the math).

Priyan Fernando of American Express said we should all consider people as our most valuable asset and added that he thinks about them as an investment portfolio and manages them accordingly.

Ken Kelly added this: "Are you a problem solver or an accountant?"

According to UnderArmour's Dickerson, "Fifteen percent of work is black and white, 85 percent is grey; success is how you navigate the grey."

They quickly confirmed an earlier study by Grant Thornton that identified "soft skills" as the number one issue (and need) identified by CFOs. The study said, "Fifty-five percent of respondents thought that the lack of employees with the necessary 'soft skills' –- communication, critical thinking and problem solving abilities -– was the most significant challenge ..."

The number one skill according to all of them is the ability to connect and collaborate. The ability to work with other departments and divisions as a translator of financial information. CFOs must be customer-centric and understand the real business. Or as Brad Dickerson said, "The days of sitting behing a desk are over."

The key to success as a finance professional is teamwork and problem solving. The ability to integrate your financial knowledge with the other divisions (and even vendors and suppliers) to solve problems and add value. 

Your role as a CFO is storyteller; make the numbers tell the company's story.

The value of the business is created by employees, customers, and investors in that order and alignment of vision, mission and strategy across all three.

Another insight came from Priyan, who said there are great opportunities for CPAs who can use data as a strategic asset.

The future belongs to companies that can create "platforms" that pull customers to them and they will need business models that can constantly evolve in an era of disruptive innovation. The differentiators, according to Priyan, are two things, speed and innovation.

Speaking of innovation, we have an Innovation Summit on June 27 (registration details here) featuring a lot of the skills and themes mentioned by this panel.

Get your 82.46-percent skills from the Business Learning Institute.

So what do you think? What was your major insight or signature moment from the session or this recap?

Other coverage of the panel:

• Are you an accountant or a problem solver? CGMA
• Journal of Accountancy
• Accounting Today: Rebooting a Business

Also worth a look:

• New CGMA designation puts CPAs on a global pedestal
• Soft skills are hard and required
• How to get a bigger bounce in performance
• Darren Gersh's Open Budget website

Private Company Council: Progress 'at glacial speed'

Well, that only took -- let me check my watch here -- about six years or so.

In its latest effort to improve the private company standard-setting process, the Financial Accounting Foundation has announced the creation of its new Private Company Council.

According to FAF, the new group will be tasked with two jobs:

1. It will "determine whether exceptions or modifications to existing non-governmental U.S. generally accepted accounting principles are necessary to address the needs of users of private company financial statements."
2. It will be "the primary advisory body to the FASB on the appropriate treatment for private companies" for items under current FASB consideration.

It's the latest move in a let's-keep-trying-until-we-get-it-right process that began in 2006 with the formation of the FASB's Private Company Financial Reporting Committee (PCFRC). Along the way, the FAF (the FASB's parent organization) has tried a few times to address the need for separate private company reporting standards -- and has fallen short of the CPA profession's expectations each time.

Those expectations aren't mind-blowing. The MACPA, the AICPA, and dozens of other state CPA societies simply want to see a new board, independent of FASB oversight, that will help establish private company standards.

In October, the FAF proposed the creation of a private company panel that (a) could have been overruled by the FASB, and (b) would have been chaired by a FASB member -- not quite the independence CPAs were seeking.

So CPAs spoke up by the thousands, and this time around the FAF responded by promising the new PCC will feature three "significant" changes:

1. The council chair will not be a FASB member.
2. The council will hold meetings more frequently than originally proposed.
3. The council's size will be smaller than initially suggested.

Is that enough to appease the profession?

"The proof will be in the pudding," said Tom Hood, the MACPA's executive director. "At the end of the day, it is progress, although it feels as if we're moving ahead at glacial speed."

Here's the point: It took the FAF an awfully long time to get back to the point where we were years ago with the creation of the PCFRC. Now that we're roughly back on the same track, it's time to get moving. The faster, the better. The gap between public and private companies has only widened in the past few years. That makes action on private-company standards all the more urgent.

There's an interesting side note to all of this:

Back in October, the AICPA indicated that if FAF would not create a truly independent private company standards board, it would take steps of its own in that direction.

Today, the AICPA is responding to the creation of the Private Company Council with praise. In a written statement, Barry Melancon calls the PCC a "solid step in the right direction" and says the AICPA "look(s) forward to continuing to work (with FAF) to effect meaningful changes in U.S. GAAP for private companies and the users of their financial statements."

At the same time, the AICPA also has announced "plans to develop an 'other comprehensive basis of accounting' (OCBOA) financial reporting framework to meet the needs of some privately held small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as the users of the financial statements of these entities. The SME OCBOA framework," the AICPA wrote, "will be a less complicated and a less costly alternative system of accounting to U.S. GAAP for SMEs that do not need U.S. GAAP financial statements."

“One-size U.S. GAAP does not fit all companies, especially smaller privately held businesses,” said AICPA Chair Gregory Anton, CPA, CGMA. “We recognize that the FAF has moved in the right direction and the AICPA will continue to be fully engaged with the FAF and the Private Company Council. While doing so, we will also use our resources and expertise to develop an enhanced OCBOA financial reporting framework that is objective, relevant and responsive to the concerns of preparers and users of small and medium private company financial statements where GAAP financial statements are not required.”

So now we have the FAF's Private Company Council and a new AICPA framework in play. It'll be interesting to watch how they work together going forward.

Read more here:

• New private company standards council established (from Accounting Today)
• FAF CEO Terri Polley explains how new Private Company Council will function (from Accounting Today)
• FAF creates new council to improve standard setting for private companies (from AccountingWeb)
• New board will adapt GAAP to private companies (from CFO.com)
• MACPA panel: Private company standards are essential?
• MACPA white paper: Private Company Standards: Responding to the Reporting Needs of Private Companies and the Users of Their Financial Statements

People + data = power

If you've got the right people and the right data, you can pretty much rule the world.

Just ask Karl Ahlrichs.

The Business Learning Institute thought leader figured that out in one brief, brilliant article that combines the best of the people-first movement with the notion that a lot of our problems can be solved with access to better information.

In "Why CFOs mistrust HR, and how human capital financial statements will help," Ahlrichs examines a new type of financial statement put forward by CFO magazine, one that focuses less on "soft" HR metrics and more on "the alignment of what is measured to the core mission of the organization."

Here's an example: Tradition tells us that low employee turnover is a good thing, but is it really?

Ahlrichs's answer: It depends on which employees are leaving. If your worst employees are the ones headed out the door, that's good turnover. It all depends on context.

"I have often been puzzled by the willingness of HR departments to stick with meaningless metrics for decades," Ahlrichs writes. "Measuring the speed of hiring rather than the quality of the new hires. Measuring the turnover rate, not the quality of what is leaving. Measuring the head count, not the productivity. Measuring participation, not behavior change."

This really blows my mind. Books like "Humanize" and "Linchpin" tell us that people must be our organizations' focal points going forward. XBRL tells us that if we can find ways to standardize our data, we can spend less time on data management and more time on solving really important problems.

Now, this notion of a "human capital financial statement" seems to combine people and data in a really powerful way.

"Human capital and talent management are differentiators of success and sources of competitive advantage," Ahlrichs writes. "In a future world, human capital will finally be reported as a part of public financial statements. This will be big."

The best information is more than mere numbers. It tells a story that helps us solve problems.

It was only a matter of time before the stories that information told circled back to our most important asset -- our people.

Want to learn more?
Check out these other BLI programs from Karl Ahlrichs:

• 'Next Steps' in the New Normal World
• Applying 'Lean' Thinking to Making Employees Your Competitive Advantage
• Beyond the Buzzwords with Hiring: Apply 'Lean' Processes and Fix the Way Your Organization Hires
• CFO versus HR: Thinking Inside the Box
• Finally Fixing Performance Management Using New Tools
• Hire the Lucky Ones: How to Improve Retention and Productivity by Selecting Fortunate Employees
• Managing Multiple Generations: Next Steps and New Surprises
• The New Workforce: New Data, New Ideas, Aging Baby Boomers

Sure, it hurts ... but it won't hurt forever

At the risk of oversharing, I'm recovering from a case of shingles.

Yes, shingles -- that ugly, painful viral illness that all of us hope we'll never get and that about half of us will end up getting anyway.

Here's the kicker: My case of shingles was on my face.

Hey, if you're going to have a painful viral disease, you might as well have a disfiguring version while you're at it, right?

I promise I'm not going to get all gross on you. I could, but I won't. You can thank me later.

What I am going to do is give you a short list of things I've learned while lying flat on my back, moaning in excruciating pain.

1. Expect the unexpected. There's always something out there just waiting to ruin your day. Sure, it's a pain in the ass. Sure, you're going to have to make some changes. But if you condition yourself to expect those challenges, you'll be better able to act when they arrive. And if you can reframe those challenges as opportunities, all the better. Know this: Things aren't always going to go your way. Accept it. Deal with it. Move on.


2. This too shall pass. No matter how much pain you're in, you will get better. There'll be times -- about halfway through a 36-hour, shingles-provoked migraine, for instance -- when you'll swear you won't. But you will, and it will feel glorious.


3. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. If you can handle today's pain, tomorrow's will seem like a walk in the park.

Resilience, positivity and action trump change -- even the really painful kind of change -- every time.

Heavy doses of modern medicine don't hurt, either.

XBRL: Yeah, it's THAT important

In case you haven't noticed -- and judging by all the tumbleweeds and crickets, it seems like a lot of folks haven't -- this XBRL thing is getting pretty big.

You remember XBRL -- the data tagging language that's been tasked with saving the world by delivering accurate, timely, transparent and standardized financial information.

• The SEC recognized XBRL's potential early on when it required all public U.S. companies to file their financial reports via XBRL.


• The MACPA was early on the bandwagon, too. Tom Hood, Skip Falatko and the rest of the association are so completely convinced of XBRL's potential that we've adopted it ourselves ... and have helped write the blueprint for how non-profits can benefit from using XBRL.


• Following the lead of progressive states like Nevada, Congress eventually jumped into the fray with an attempt to legislate data transparency and efficiency through efforts like the DATA Act.


• Grassroots efforts like the one driven by the Data Transparency Coalition have surfaced, urging the public to encourage our government to make its data as transparent, efficient, and easy to understand as possible. The government works for us, after all. We have a right to know what, exactly, it's doing for us. The government's data is the story, and XBRL is one of the easiest ways to tell that story.

Long story short: There has been some major movement on the data front lately, and you're this close to seeing how huge XBRL really is.

And still way too many people think XBRL is all about public company financials -- if they think of it at all.

Maybe it's time to turn up the noise a bit.

I mean, think about it: ‌In the wake of the financial crisis, everyone has been screaming for more transparency, more accountability, better data, better information, the ability to make more informed decisions so crap like this doesn't happen again. And now we have XBRL, a technology that might just deliver all of that -- and maybe more.

It might be that revolutionary.

It all sounds a little like social media to me. Early on, too many people dismissed the social movement as an interesting fad at best, and an unimportant annoyance at worst. Today, they're all struggling to keep their heads above water while next big wave (mobile, anyone?) bears down on them.

We're quickly approaching that kind of "are you going to ride the wave or be swamped by it" turning point with XBRL.

Thankfully, opportunities abound.

• Let's start with accounting students. This is a niche that might all but ensure your ability to find a job in the near future. Do you still want to ignore it? Read more about how students are embracing XBRL in this Journal of Accountancy article (co-authored by yours truly and the JofA's Jeff Drew).


• You also won't want to miss the MACPA's 2012 Innovation Summit, set for June 27 in Baltimore. Transparency, accountability, open government and XBRL will be featured throughout the agenda.

It's way past time to start paying attention, folks. XBRL isn't just another four-letter word. It's a game-changer.

Want to learn more?
Don't miss these XBRL-related programs:

• May 24 webcast: What Small Public Companies Need to Know About the New XBRL Filing Requirement
• June 27 webcast: What Auditors Need to Know About the New XBRL Filing Requirement

Job No. 1: Prepare for tomorrow's changes today

There's no bigger scam going than the predict-the-future racket. Given the rate of change today, tomorrow is nothing more than a crapshoot. Predict the future? I can't predict 30 minutes from now, let alone next week, next month, or next year.

Still, there are glaring trends that point to logical steps we might have to take to survive. Smarter people than me are seeing clear opportunities down certain paths -- and clear roadblocks down others.

A couple dozen of those people were on hand for the MACPA's 2012 Leadership Academy. Their job was to pinpoint some high-leverage opportunities on which the profession must focus its efforts going forward, then determine which of those opportunities are most important.

As I heard their ideas take shape, I was slapped by a serious case of deja vu.

In any series of future-focused exercises, the really important ideas tend to surface over and over. Consider the high-leverage opportunities identified by the 2011 Leadership Academy class and this year's group:

2012 Multigenerational synergy Social marketing Leveraging technology Work-life integration Increasing complexity of regulatory environment Globalization Increasing the mobility of the workforce Creating new client services

2011 Professional unity Work / life integration The evolving nature of leadership and new leadership models Proactive, goal-focused planning Networked collaboration Embracing and adopting new technologies

Now look at the top trends that CPAs nationwide identified as part of the CPA Horizons 2025 project:

1. Technology as a driver of change vs. an enabler
2. Pre-certification and lifelong learning
3. A worldwide profession
4. Pride in the profession
5. The notion of CPAs as trusted attesters
6. The notion of CPAs as trusted advisors
7. Market permission
8. Marketplace changes
9. A focus on the profession’s value proposition
10. Demographic shifts

Certain issues keep repeating themselves, don't they? Demographics. A multigenerational workforce. Work-life integration. Technology. Globalization. Adding value to our clients' lives.

Are you thinking about these things? Are you trying to figure out what you're going to do about them going forward? Or are you heads-down on today's project, blissfully ignoring the future as it comes barreling down on you?

Sure, we're all busy. But if we don't stop to look up and notice the changes speeding toward us, we'll get trampled when tomorrow becomes today.

The MACPA's Leadership Academy knows that. They've vowed to continue the conversation, perhaps to even draft a white paper that expands on the publication produced by the Leadership Academy's Class of 2011.  Stay tuned.

They're not trying to predict the future. They're just trying to make sure we're ready to act once the future arrives -- that we're nimble enough to act on what we see coming, not just react to it once it gets here.

Three steps to better employee benefit plan audits

We've talked about the quality of employee benefit plan audits (or, more accurately, the lack thereof) for years now. The situation isn't good, and the powers that be are paying attention.

No less an authority than Department of Labor Chief Accountant Ian Dingwall has chimed in time and again, pointing to a lack of documentation as the culprit in most deficient audits.

Marcus Aron has some thoughts of his own.

A senior auditor in the DOL's Office of the Chief Accountant, Aron keynoted the MACPA's 2012 Employee Benefit Plan Conference with a message: Effective audits are more than checklists.

The secret to a good employee benefit plan audit, Aron said, is to get beyond that checklist mentality and tell an actual story, to use the audit as an opportunity to paint a picture of what's happening inside the plan.

To paraphrase Aron's artistic analogy, too many EBP audits are stick figures. It's time to put some meat on their bones.

That's especially true at smaller firms. DOL inspections have found a high correlation between audit quality and the number of audits a firm conducts. In general, Aron says, firms that do the most audits have the fewest deficiencies.

The problem, he said, is that most plans are audited by small practices that do relatively few audits. The fewer audits a firm does, the greater the chance that deficiencies will arise.

So what should firms do to improve the quality of their plan audits? Aron offered these ideas:

1. Make a commitment to quality at both the executive and firm-wide levels.
2. Make your EBP audit practice a focal point in your firm. Offer realistic audit fees and comprehensive, EBP-specific resources.
3. Be introspective. Implement internal inspection programs and make use of internal experts to increase the quality of your audits.

Most importantly, avoid those checklists and stick figures. Paint a picture. Tell a story.

Download Aron's slides here, then tell us your thoughts for how to improve the quality of EBP audits.

Want to learn more?
Don't miss these related MACPA programs:

• May 15: Audits of 403(b) Plans: A Challenging New Audit Area
• May 17: Employee Benefit Plans: Audit and Accounting Essentials
• May 18: Employee Benefit Plans: Audit and Accounting Essentials
• May 21: Audits of 401(k) Plans
• May 22: Audits of 401(k) Plans

Your problems are nothing but opportunities

We're back in Timonium, Md., with members of the MACPA Leadership Academy's Class of 2012.

They've got some mighty big shoes to fill.

Remember the Class of 2011? All they did was write a white paper that outlines their vision for the future of the CPA profession. That's what the new class has to live up to.

So far, it looks like they're up to the challenge.

The new group of future leaders says leadership is being changed drastically by things like technology, globalization, the generation gap, the Information Age, the rate of change, the "power of we," the idea of "work" as a verb (as opposed to a noun), and the fact that titles don't equal respect. Respect these days must be earned.

Whoa.

But wait ... there's more. They also say today's great leaders are proactive, inspiring, collaborative, flexible, open-minded, ethical, adaptable, forward-thinking, and create teams that complement each others' strengths.

And that was just Day 1. There's another day and a half to go. I'll let them finish their work before I dish out any more accolades. Watch for a wrap-up post in the days to come.

In the meantime, I want to talk about the process.

Leadership Academy facilitators Gretchen Pisano and Tom Hood use a system called Insights to Action that points to "Strengths-Based Leadership" and the emerging field of positive psychology for many of their remarkable insights. Among them:

• Most weaknesses are merely strengths in overdrive.
• Negativity bias -- our tendency to give more weight to negative experiences -- holds us back. When we focus on a problem, we ensure its continued survival. We can overcome negativity bias by noticing the good things around us, holding them in, and letting them become positive emotions.
• Without an awareness of their own strengths, it's virtually impossible for leaders to lead a team well.
• When leaders focus on their employees' strengths, the odds of each person being engaged goes up eightfold.

Here's the shorthand: Focus on the positive. Reframe your challenges as opportunities. Then teach your team to do the same.

The result is pure gold.

In a world where it's all too easy to focus on problems, how are you helping your team see opportunities?

The answer is your key to success.

Curation -- not content -- is king in the information age

I nuked my Outlook inbox the other day.

I didn't mean to. It was 7:45 a.m. and I was barely awake. I permanently delete e-mails all the time, so I didn't think twice when the "Are you sure that you want to permanently delete the selected item(s)?" message popped up on my screen. As my right index finger clicked "Yes," I noticed that all of the items in my inbox were selected.

"Oh, shoot," I said. Only I didn't say "shoot," if you know what I mean.

In retrospect, it was a pretty radical way of dealing with information overload. There's too much stuff flying at us these days, isn't there? E-mail, articles, headlines, white papers, links, blog posts, podcasts, videos, photos -- who can keep up with it all?

Deleting it all isn't an option (although I have to admit, looking at that empty inbox was perversely satisfying). We need some of that information, after all -- just not all of it.

Our problem, in the words of Clay Shirky, isn't information overload; it's filter failure. We need better filters that will give us the information we need and let us ignore the rest.

Welcome to the age of content curators.

Steven Rosenbaum calls content curators "the new superheros of the web," and with good reason: They keep us from drowning in the tsunami of information that hits us day after day.

In his April 28 DigitalNow keynote, Rosenbaum -- founder of Magnify.net and renowned contributor to Forbes and the Huffington Post -- cited this stat from Google CEO Eric Schmidt: From the dawn of time to 2003, the human race created five exobytes of data. Today, we create that much data every two days.

There's opportunity in that flood of information, though, and it goes way beyond mere content creation: If we can identify and deliver the really important stuff to our clients, we'll be irreplaceable.

"Authority is no longer bestowed to content creators," Rosenbaum said. "Curators are today's trusted authorities."

But how do you become that trusted authority?

Simple, says Rosenbaum: Have a voice. Don't just regurgitate information. Provide context. Offer a point a view. Tell your clients why this is important. Do that over and over, and you'll become indispensable.

By extension, if we don't give our clients that clarity and context, they'll find someone else who does.

"If our (clients) were transported to a desert island and they had to choose one source of information, would they choose us?" Rosenbaum asked.

If you're afraid of the answer, your path is clear. Curate. Clarify. Provide context.

The alternative might be extinction.

Want to learn more?
Watch Rosenbaum's DigitalNow keynote in its entirety here. (Scroll down to "Saturday General Session" and click on "Play Session.") Free registration is required.

Then, check out my interview with Rosenbaum before his DigitalNow keynote. He offered a few insights that conference attendees didn't hear. Listen to the interview in its entirety.

Want to 'live the dream?' Here's how.

Remember Curtis Zimmerman?

He's the mime, juggler and deep thinker extraordinaire who gave a presentation a couple of years ago that still ranks as one of the most inspiring talks I've ever seen. I've been livin' the dream ever since.

Curtis is back, this time with a new book titled "Life At Performance Level."

If you're looking for a book that offers something different than his live presentation, you'll be disappointed. The book is packed with a lot of the same stories, the same metaphors, the same life lessons that Zimmerman delivers in his keynotes.

And thank God for that. We can all use a double shot of what Zimmerman is selling.

Here are some of my favorite Curtis-isms:

• Don't sell yourself short. Your success depends on your ability to change your preconceived notions about what you are cabable of doing.


• Play more "Simon Says." It teaches us to be response-able -- to act with intention and purpose. "It (requires us to) slow down, even slightly, to consider the consequences of the things we do before we do them," Zimmerman writes.


• Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses. Master what you're passionate about. "Too often, we are tied to careers and situations we don't enjoy simply because of the benefits they offer," Zimmerman writes. "The most successful people ... are the ones who are driven to work by passion, not reward."


• Failing at something doesn't mean you are a failure as a person. It means you have room to improve. If you are not failing, you are not growing.


• You are the star of your show, but your show's success depends on your supporting cast. Populate your life with people who care about you, not about what you can give them.


• Be supportive in return. "The more people who can count on you, the more you will have to count on when you need them," Zimmerman writes.


• Share your wisdom. Teach others, and learn from them as well.


• Never, ever stop learning. "Surviving and thriving in this world requires that we keep adding new skills to our bag of tricks," he says.

Like his live presentation, Zimmerman's "Life At Performance Level" is motivating, inspiring, and thought-provoking.

Give it a read ... and start livin' the dream.

Three things you must do to conquer complexity

"You keep telling me the world is changing," you say. "You've told me over and over and over. Now tell me what I should do about it."

OK. Ask, as they say, and you shall receive.

For that bit of information, let's bring in Rita McGrath. The Columbia Business School professor says too many organizations are trying to solve today's complex problems with outdated methods. In short, they're trying to predict their way out of an unpredictable situation.

"One of the dilemmas we all face," McGrath said at the 2012 DigitalNow Conference in Orlando, "is that we are trying to grapple with truly complex systems by using tools and frameworks that were designed for more simple, more linear systems."

So what do we need to do? Three things, says McGrath:

1. Forecast differently
Spend less time on lagging indicators like yesterday's numbers and outcomes. Spend more time on leading indicators like data that offer clues about what the future holds.

"Leading indicators are the hardest to find," McGrath said. "The problem is that they are subjective; they're not facts yet. But they also give us some distant early warnings about things that might happen."

Here's an exercise we can try: Imagine a future event -- something that's either good or bad for your organization. Now imagine what would have to happen first in order for that event to take place. Ask yourself: "Can I see the signs that will tell me if that is happening now?"

2. Take on intelligent risk
McGrath channeled political scientist Aaron Wildavsky for this one. Most organizations today invest in prevention -- that is, trying to keep bad things from happening to them. McGrath said we need to invest more resources in what Wildavsky called "resilience," a trait that will help us "mount the appropriate response" when something goes wrong.

That point of view requires an eye toward innovation. Don't be afraid to try new things. If they work, great. If they don't, respond accordingly and try again.

"Start making small bets on things that are not part of your core business," McGrath said. "Then ask yourself: Who are your truth-tellers -- the people who are able to look at the future and articulate cases where things are going to be much different than it is today?"

And if the people in power aren't truth-tellers, watch out: This could be a difficult exercise.

3. Allocate your resources differently
Sure, we need to focus on our core businesses. But in this crazy environment, McGrath said it's critical that we also devote some time and energy to innovation -- identifying opportunities, thinking of things we'll want to invest in, figuring out how to ramp them up and make them scalable.

That means we'll also have to spend some time on what she calls "disengagement" -- figuring out what we should stop doing so that we'll have the time and resources to devote to innovation.

And here's the most important thing: Your superstars need to be innovators.

"Average organizations put their best people on problems," McGrath said. "Exceptional organizations put their best people on opportunities."

McGrath's keynote was so good, I can't possibly do it justice here. Do yourself a favor and watch her presentation its entirety on the DigitalNow Live site. (Scroll down to "Friday General Session" and click on "Play Session.") You''ll have to register, but it's free to do so.

You can thank me later.

Don't miss the MACPA's Innovation Summit on June 27
We agree with Rita -- innovation is critical going forward. You'll want to join us for the MACPA's Innovation Summit on June 27 at Martin's West in Baltimore. It'll feature details on the trends and issues that impact the CPA profession, as well as ideas from inspiring leaders across three tracks -- Tax / Accounting, Government / Health Care, and Industry / Innovation. Find out more here:

Want to change? Keep dancing.

Stop me if this sounds familiar.

You know you have to change. Complexity is hitting you from every angle, impacting every corner of your business. Every fiber of your being screams out, "Do something!"

And you just ... can't.

Recognizing that things are changing is one thing. Doing something about it is another.

Why is it so hard?

Geoffrey Moore says it's all about inertia.

"Our resources are trapped in the pull of the past. They want to stay where they are," Moore, best-selling author of Escape Velocity: Free Your Company's Future from the Pull of the Past, told the crowd at the 2012 DigitalNow Conference in Orlando. "The challenge is moving them in times of great change."

Think about it: We know we need to be doing something about social media, and mobile, and the cloud, and communities, and on-demand learning, and a ton of other things. And yet we can't break free of old, reliable, outdated habits like e-mail, and attached files, and PCs, and landlines, and classrooms. We've always done those things; we can't stop now, can we?

We'd better.

Doing so means "crossing the chasm" -- that gaping space that separates the early adopters on our teams from the status-quo crowd. That takes persistence. Keep applying resources to your change effort, said Moore, and eventually you'll hit a tipping point that will bring the rest of your team on board.

Think of it this way: Keep dancing, and eventually others will dance with you.

It all comes down to engagement: Is your team on board with the change effort? Getting them to that point, says Moore, isn't about shiny new gadgets or cool new strategies. Sometimes, it's about convincing them that your organization's mission might be in peril if you don't change.

Isn't that the case for all of us?

Download the slides from Moore's presentation here, then tell us: How are you promoting change in your organization?

What CPAs think about the CPA Horizons 2025?

"If you don't have a vision for yourself (or your organization), you will just get sucked into someone elses' vision." - Watts Wacker - futurist

Three sessions in the past week. Almost 200 CPAs and students discussing the future of the CPA Profession and the results of the CPA Horizons 2025 Project.

PIU 2012 - CPA Horions 2025

View more presentations from Tom Hood

Here is the strategy on-a-page we created for the results of the CPA Horizons 2025 - (Vision, Purpose, Values, Competencies)

Overall reaction 47% loved it (Great research & results) and 53% liked it (Good job!), none said either "Live with it" or "Not relevant."

On the Core Purpose, CPAs...Making sense of a changing and complex world, the results were:

• Love it          13.33%
• Like it           68.89%
• Live with it   15.56%
• Don't like it    2.22%

The students were even more enthusiastic about the rersults. They were very impressed that the Profession took the time to develop a grassroots approach to develop a vision for the future. The loved the competencies, and that the profession was trying to position itself in a rapidly changing world.

Want resources to deal with the future?

Download and read the full CPA Horizons 2025 Report here

Top Trends to Watch - a ranking of the Top Trends from the Future Forum process

MACPA's CPA Horizons 2025 resource center - click on the Top Trends to find articles, blog posts and even CPE to help you deal with the rapidly changing world and the issues identified by the grassroots participants.

I think we are still the only Profession to ever develop its own vision for the future, not once (CPA Vision 2011) but twice!

Want to prepare for the future?

Attend the 2012 MACPA Innovation Summit on June 27th in Baltimore - register & details here 

Hold a future forum for your firm or organization - information here

 

House OKs DATA Act; Senate up next

Score one for transparency.

The U.S. House of Representatives has unanimously passed the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, or DATA Act, an important piece of legislation that would bring greater transparency and efficiency to federal spending data.

Specifically, the act would standardize the ways in which federal spending information is reported and create an accurate and searchable online database that would let all Americans see how their government is spending their money.

"We think this is critical legislation at a critical time that will allow stronger transparency and accountability, and can play a vital role in restoring the public trust in government," said MACPA Executive Director Tom Hood.

The MACPA is one of the founding members of the Data Transparency Coalition, the only group that is unifying the technology and non-profit industries in support of federal data reform. That's no surprise, really. The MACPA has long been a supporter of XBRL and other efforts to standarize data. Additional support from federal lawmakers reinforces our believe that this is the right thing to do.

“The DATA Act will help government agencies and private clients make better decisions while creating high-tech jobs for technology companies that invent new ways to visualize and analyze spending data," said Hudson Hollister, executive director of the of the Data Transparency Coalition. "Citizens will be able to scrutinize federal expenditures, both internal and external, and inspectors general will be able to use analytics to quickly and efficiently identify fraudulent or wasteful behavior.”

But hey, don't take our word for it. In a statement from the floor of the House, Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland and a ranking member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, offers his views on why the DATA Act is important.

"Taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent," Cummings said. "Congress has a responsibility to assure that those hard-earned tax dollars are spent effectively and efficiently."

Listen to Cummings' statement in its entirety:

Here are more details about the legislation from Rep. Darrell Issa, chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee:

If that's not enough, check out this terrific summary of the DATA Act from the Data Transparency Coalition. If you want to know why the MACPA supports this legislation, look no further:

The DATA Act now moves on to the Senate, where it's expected to encounter a bit more resistance. Stay tuned, then check out these related resources:

• Transparent government? Data coalition says yes (from CPA Success)
• What scares you the most? (from CPA Success)
• Webcast: What Auditors Need to Know About the New XBRL Filing Requirement
• Webcast: What Small Public Companies Need to Know About the New XBRL Filing Requirement