get unstuck and grow
TRANSCRIPT
DIGITAL CPA WEBCAST SERIES:
GET UNSTUCK AND GROW
May 31, 2017
CPA.com, an AICPA company
• Empowering CPAs and Businesses for the Digital Age
Erik Asgeirsson, President and CEO, CPA.com
• Industry leader with over 20 years of experience leading
technology organizations
• Consistently recognized as one of Accounting Today’s
“Top 100 Most Influential People”• BS Electrical Engineering, George Washington
University, and MBA in Finance, NYU Stern School of
Business
Host
Daniel BurrusCEO, Burrus Research
• Burrus Research, a research and consulting firm that
monitors global advancements in technology driven
trends to help clients profit from technological, social and
business forces that are converging to create enormous,
untapped opportunities
• One of the World’s Leading Futurists on Global Trends
and Innovation
• Strategic advisor to executives from Fortune 500
companies
• Featured writer on innovation, change and the future for
CNBC, Huffington Post, Wired Magazine and more
• Has been the featured subject of several PBS television
specials
• Appeared on Fox Business, CNN, Bloomberg
• Founded six businesses
Guest Panelists
Bill SheridanChief Communications Officer, MACPA
• One of Accounting Today’s “Top 100 Most Influential in
Accounting”
• Author of CPA Success blog
• Produces MACPA’s “CPA Spotlight” podcast
• Speaks nationally on future of accounting and finance
profession, strategic use of social media, evolution of
communication, collaboration, education
• Graduate of State University of New York at Buffalo
• Earned Certified Association Executive designation from
American Society of Association Executives
Guest Panelists
Agenda
How to Anticipate the Future
Starts with an Idea
Building the Competency
Open Discussion
Innovation Trigger
Peak ofInflated
ExpectationsTrough of
DisillusionmentSlope of
EnlightenmentPlateau of
ProductivityTime
Expectations
Software as a Service
Blockchain
Cognitive Expert Advisors & Machine Learning
more than 10 years
obsolete before plateau
Years to mainstream adoption:
less than 2 years
5 to 10 years
2 to 5 years
Big Data & Analytics*
* Big data removed as a category by Gartner in 2015Source: Gartner (2016)
Key Technologies To Watch, 2016
Human adaptability
Technology
We are hereRate of change
Time
Graph by Astro Teller, CEO of Google X, featured in Thomas Friedman’s “Thank you for Being Late”
HOW WILL WELEAD?
HOW TO ANTICIPATE THE FUTURE
www.burrus.com
www.burrus.com
Hard Trends Identified by DCPA Community
“Automated Data capture is becoming more
accurate”
“Virtual Reality will increasingly be applied to
accounting”
“Data grows at an exponential rate”
Learn ways to adopt the technology and analyze
the data
Create a virtual reality app that walks clients
through financial data, highlighting trends
“Increase our ability to take disparate sources and
make decision before it happens”
Trend Opportunity
STARTS WITH AN IDEA
Begin to Experiment
Need
o Provide quicker
responses frequently
asked questions
Idea
o Use machine learning to
provide answers
Action
o “Train” Alexa on answers
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Sci-fi to Reality
H&R Block & IBM Watson
“…uses cloud-based Watson
services to understand context,
interpret intent and draw
connections between clients’
statements and relevant areas
of their return.”
“Block applies IBM’s Watson
to tax prep” by Jeff Stimpson
KPMG & IBM Watson
“…consultants will use Watson
to analyze massive volumes of
financial data in order to detect
anomalies.”
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Deloitte deploys Kira
“The machine-learning-based
system studies what's important to
reviewers in contracts and then
identifies important information
across large pools of
agreements.”
“Big Four accounting firms
delve into artificial
intelligence” by Ben Kepes,
ComputerWorld
“Big Four accounting firms
delve into artificial
intelligence” by Ben Kepes,
ComputerWorld
From May 2017 Accounting Today ArticleInterview of Firm Audit Leaders
After revolutionizing tax and accounting over the course of decades, technology finally looks poised to reshape the third major service of the traditional accounting practice: the audit.
Machine learning, data analytics, ever-more-powerful and mobile computers, and new tools like blockchain will do more than just change the way auditors do their job — increasingly, they’ll change what that job is.
What is Blockchain
A distributed secure database that
leverages cryptography and peer-to-peer
technology to group data into blocks and
store them in an immutable chain of
transactions.
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Wall Street Blockchain Alliance – Copyright © 2017
Courtesy © 2016 Deloitte & Touche GmbH
Blockchain in Accountancy
Future Auditor Roles
Monitoring and tuning advanced audit analytics and
automation systems.
Review high-level outcomes of automated and semi-
automated audit processes.
Help to develop new automated audit systems.
Continue to evaluate key assumptions and estimates.
Horne Found New Service Opportunities
Identified hard trends and opportunities for the Health Care industry and
then use that as thought leadership for their clients in focus/innovation
groups. The opportunities are matched against firm services and any gaps
become possible innovations and new services.
The hard trend of Cyber-security led to the acquisition of a cyber practice
which is one of the fastest growing services in the firm.
Used hard trends to identify mobile app opportunities
o Built an app that subsequently won a major contract due to the time to
deploy and serve the citizens, beating much larger firms
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-Kathy Watts, CPA Chair of the BoardPartner in Charge of HealthcareHORNE LLPTop 50 CPA Firm
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Rich Stang, CPA, Managing Partner of DeLeon & Stang
DeLeon & Stang Developed Future-focused, Proactive Culture.One client meeting, a young staff accountant asked the client what where
their goals for the future. The client said, nobody had ever asked that
question before. The client gave them the work on the spot.
o The staff accountant felt comfortable talking about the future
One partner wrote, it is a lot more fun talking to clients about the future than
delivering tax returns.
DeLeon & Stang team have confidence, tools and techniques in being able
to talk about the future and trends with clients.
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Jeff Wald, Managing Partner of K-Coe Isom
K-Coe Isom Creating an anticipatory culture of proactive advisors comfortable with the fast-arriving future
There is definitely a recognition that the future will be very different from
today, and I think a general feeling of, we're going through transformative
change in our firm but in our industry as well. And those people driving that,
their acceptance of it makes me feel confident that we'll be able to deal with
it in the future.
Our people have a new language that allows them to work on innovation
projects faster and bolder than before the learning.
Hard Trend Report – Hard Trends & Opportunities24
HT: Business success will increasingly be dependent on data analysis and benchmarking.
O: Leverage large amounts of data across client engagements to provide our clients with information on risks that Impact them and for which we can provide them with help through increased and enhanced consulting engagements.
HT: Baby boomers are reengaging in new businesses after they retire from their current jobs.
O: Develop advisory services to support new boomer entrepreneurs. They can pay!
HT: The accounting functions are being outsourced by businesses more and more.
O: The accounting functions are being outsourced by businesses more and more.
Use the CPA.com Report to stimulate thinking and apply your skills
“If it can be done, it will be done and if you
don't do it, someone else will.”
- Daniel Burrus
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DEVELOPING THE COMPETENCY
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A set of competencies you can learn – in less time!
“Everyone keeps telling accountants that they need to change their focus from the historic and the backward-looking, and to start being proactive and offering future-focused advice – but no one tells them how.
The beauty of the Anticipatory Organization program is that it actually gives you a set of tools to harness the hard trends that are shaping the future, and use them to create new value for your firm and your clients.”
- Daniel Hood, Editor-in-Chief, Accounting Today
Rapid Application ActivitiesDesigned to Apply To Your Work
Designed To Teach & Engage
Customized For The Profession
Robust Instructional Design
3-5 Min Single Concept Video
Co-Creation Team
5 CPE Credits
ACCELERATED LEARNING SYSTEM
www.burrus.com
28 lessons – 4 modules – 1 -2 hours/week• Very short single-concept videos (mini TED Talks)
• Rapid application exercises• Visual job aids to reinforce learning
Anticipatory Organization - First Nano Learning for Accounting
Summer Learning
Complete a module every 2-3 weeks
Schedule lunch and learn discussion
oCollect everyone’s assignments in advance
Set action items to follow the meetings
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User of the Learning System Reported Benefits Like These:
Increased successful innovation projects.
A common language of anticipation and future-thinking.
A shift in mindset to future thinking and opportunities.
Increased acceptance and readiness for change.
New abilities to have proactive, future-focused conversations with
clients.
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• Understanding hard trends provides future facts.
• Using future facts, its possible to anticipate disruption.
• I learned how to think differently. Like everything worthwhile it takes practice.
• By thinking differently, I quickly see new opportunities.
• For me, it’s important so we can seize new opportunities and growth, avoid problems, provide greater value to clients and grow our team members’ skills.
Joey Havens, CPA – Managing Partner of Horne
Erik Asgeirsson
President & CEO, CPA.com
Bill SheridanChief Communications Officer, MACPA
DISCUSSION AND PARTICIPANT QUESTIONS
Daniel Burrus
CEO, Burrus Research
Resources
DCPA16 Hard Trends Report
Anticipatory Organization: Finance and Accounting Editiono www.digitalcpa.com/anticipatory-
organization
Follow us on Twitter
o @CPAcom
o #DigitalCPA
o @DanielBurrus
o @BillSheridan
Blogs
CPA.com Blog
o CPA.com/blog
Daniel Burrus’ blog
o www.burrus.com/blog/
CPA Success blog
o www.macpa.org/blog/
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Digital CPA Webcast Series –Building a community of digital CPAs who embrace change and the transformational effects of technology on today’s practice
•Impact of AccountabilityJuly 11,
2017
•TBASeptember
2017
Tomorrow’s Firms Today
December 4-6, 2017
San Francisco
Epicenter of technology disruption
Building a Community for YOU and with YOU
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