Flash Forward

Flash Forward

This past week I was invited to participate in a podcast, with the topic being “Firm of the Future.”

I realize that theme has been ridden more than Seattle Slew lately, with anyone and anyone who classifies themselves as an “accounting expert” rendering an opinion.

In full disclosure, I have been historically bad at predictions, once to the point of drafting a letter to the head of programming at CBS television chastising him for attempting to bring a classic movie like M*A*S*H to TV. It will never work I warned.

I don’t think I need to tell you how that turned out.

But, undaunted by past failures, I forged ahead and tried to make my case. Now the accounting profession by nature has been historically slow to change compared to other fields such as legal and medical. Not so long ago a CPA’s idea of change was to swap out a red tie for a green one.

Now the American industrial landscape as a whole has a life support unit reserved for once dominant companies who neglected to embrace change and prepare for the future. Kodak for instance, which once had a market share of 90 percent, incredibly, refused to capitalize on a patent they initially had for digital photography.

Reader’s Digest, the monthly pocket-sized magazine, once read in 16 million homes, foolishly ignored the emerging threat of digital publishing. After filing for bankruptcy twice the company now has less than 700 employees.

But on to the future CPA firm.

Okay let’s begin with emerging technologies - the proverbial 800-pound gorilla. It will change the way CPA firms fundamentally operate – from automating commoditized services like tax prep and audit to mining new business and eliminating traditional bricks and mortar offices - transforming many into virtual practices with remote staff.

Firms will become more consultative with their focus pointed toward selling higher ticket projects – which hopefully will lead to a long client relationship in other niches as well – the opposite of how new business development was driven in the past.

Sad to report that Baby Boomers will matter very little if at all regarding staff. Those remaining in the profession whose birth certificates range from 1946-1964, will be the last fossilized remnants of a past generation, before the inevitable transition to a younger and more ethnically diverse cadre of human capital assumes the reins.

I realize that’s a rather truncated overview, but I think I want to stop there.

Having one aged executive still chortling over a sure-fire prediction of mine some 40-plus years ago is enough for me.