Nothing is Forever – Nothing

The fact that I’m now solidly ensconced into my golden years is reinforced each Sunday during football season when I hear a player with a familiar name and realize that I recognize it only because I watched his father or uncle play. Or in the case of Los Angeles Rams’ dynamic 32-year old head coach Sean McVay – I remember when his grandfather – yes with a “G” - John McVay – coached the New York Giants.

I prefer to think of myself as experienced, as opposed to old. But with age comes the inevitable current of change – or in some cases a tidal wave.

I read with some sadness this week about the umpteenth bankruptcy filing of Sears and its decision to shutter 142 stores. Growing up, it was unthinkable that the company with the annual catalog the thickness of the New York City White Pages would ever disappear from the country’s retail landscape.

Our family purchased several refrigerators, washers and dryers from our local Sears, as well as back to school clothes not to mention its trademark Die Hard batteries for our cars.

The company which began in 1886 when a railroad agent named Richard Sears began selling watches as a side job will inevitably settle in the graveyard of past commerce giants joining brands such as A&P, Polaroid, Pan Am Airlines, and more recently, Blockbuster Video. And those are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever. Some companies and their offerings eventually run their course. Any marketing book you can find on Amazon will outline the dangers of not being prepared for changes – whether social or technological.

The accounting profession has never been one of the quicker professions to adapt or be proactive to change. Accountants by nature are skeptical – or at least they should be when it comes to doing what they were trained to do.

But that was then, and this is now.

Rapidly emerging technologies like blockchain, AI and machine learning that promise to effect quantum change to the profession by automating processes such as 1040 preparation and auditing have already been written about ad nauseum and the subsequent need for accountants to prepare for that inevitable impact.

Firms that are slow or resistant to those changes and evolve their firms will no doubt pay the price for that procrastination later – maybe not tomorrow but perhaps a few years down the road. The thought of well-known CPA firm brands going the way of automation should motivate those in the profession to gird for that transition.

As many in the retail field have painfully learned there are very few second acts in business.