CPA Trendlines RSS Feed
Sunday, December 17. 2006
2006's Big Lesson: Get Creative
Seven steps to unlocking the innovation engine in your office.
Join the Brainstorming Session.
by Rick Telberg
At Large
Does creativity belong in finance and accounting? Or is that a Pandora's box we'd best leave shut?
If there's any single lesson to be learned from the year 2006, it's that creativity is an essential ingredient to success in the finance, accounting and tax profession — if not the essential ingredient. Creativity is the foundation for all innovation, all new ideas. It turns challenges into opportunities. It turns failure into success. But it doesn't always come naturally. It takes learning and practice. And it's rarely taught or nurtured well — or consistently.
Join the Brainstorming Session.
by Rick Telberg
At Large
Does creativity belong in finance and accounting? Or is that a Pandora's box we'd best leave shut?
If there's any single lesson to be learned from the year 2006, it's that creativity is an essential ingredient to success in the finance, accounting and tax profession — if not the essential ingredient. Creativity is the foundation for all innovation, all new ideas. It turns challenges into opportunities. It turns failure into success. But it doesn't always come naturally. It takes learning and practice. And it's rarely taught or nurtured well — or consistently.
"Creative Accounting and Tax Returns" probably aren't services you want to list on the sign in front of your office. And if you've already tried communicating with the IRS in iambic pentameter or with crayons on the back of soup can labels, you probably have doubts about the power of creativity.
But that doesn't mean there's no place for innovation in finance and accounting. Running a CPA firm or accounting department means doing more than audits and accounting.
It's marketing. Training. Human resources programs. Internal communication systems. Office layout and design. Community relations. General growth and development.
All of these areas, and yes, even audits, can be enhanced with a little creative thinking.
Consider some of the surprises of '06: Online marketing takes a leadership position in practice development strategies. Sarbanes-Oxley gets a major rollback for mid-sized companies. Mid-sized CPA firms boom. The paperless office takes a few giant leaps forward. ATX and Kleinrock get integrated into CCH. Microsoft gives away accounting software for free. PayCycle arrives on the scene in a category all by itself — online payroll — single-handedly reviving payroll as a profit niche. CPAs adopt smartphone PDAs en masse and BlackBerry jumps in with both feet with an AICPA affinity agreement. Work/life balance is no longer a phrase from a foreign-language dictionary — it's now part of the fabric of the profession. In 2005, who would'a thunk?
Everybody's heard (ad nauseum) about thinking outside the box, but that's only half the challenge. The other half is realizing when you can do so. And yet another half is knowing how.
I know that's three halves, but in my box, that isn't necessarily a problem. It's a big box. A little cluttered, perhaps, and a little leaky, but it has plenty of room for playing around with ideas.
And here are a few of them that relate to creativity.
1. Watch for opportunities. Just about anything can be done differently, and the different way may be better. Make a list of areas where you've never applied creativity.
2. Don't kill ideas. Give every idea — every suggestion — some thought. Don't look for reasons why they won't work. Look for ways they will. Don't tell anyone they have a bad idea; look for ways to make the idea better.
3. Encourage creativity. Shut down your office for brainstorming sessions. Even if you haven't identified a problem, have people discuss a given aspect of business in search of possible improvements.
4. Watch for ideas from unexpected sources. If new ideas were easy to find, they'd already be old ideas. Your janitor may have something to suggest about office layout or communication. Somebody's kids may think of things beyond your imagination.
5. Let yourself do it. With every problem, stop, step back, tell yourself to think of something completely different. Give each idea a chance.
6. Play with ideas. Even if an idea looks like it won't work, have fun with it. What have you got to lose? Take it to an absurd extreme. Turn it inside out. Think of it as a metaphor. Crack it open and look inside. What else does it make you think of?
7. Think of new problems. An important part of creativity is the identification of things that can be improved. After that, finding a creative solution is relatively easy.
NOW IT'S YOUR TURN: When it comes to creativity, a hundred heads are better than one, so we'd like to hear from professionals who use creativity, promote it in their offices or have thoughts on its use. There are no bad ideas! We'd like to hear yours. Soup can labels accepted, iambic pentameter optional.
Here's the idea box. Join in.
But that doesn't mean there's no place for innovation in finance and accounting. Running a CPA firm or accounting department means doing more than audits and accounting.
It's marketing. Training. Human resources programs. Internal communication systems. Office layout and design. Community relations. General growth and development.
All of these areas, and yes, even audits, can be enhanced with a little creative thinking.
Consider some of the surprises of '06: Online marketing takes a leadership position in practice development strategies. Sarbanes-Oxley gets a major rollback for mid-sized companies. Mid-sized CPA firms boom. The paperless office takes a few giant leaps forward. ATX and Kleinrock get integrated into CCH. Microsoft gives away accounting software for free. PayCycle arrives on the scene in a category all by itself — online payroll — single-handedly reviving payroll as a profit niche. CPAs adopt smartphone PDAs en masse and BlackBerry jumps in with both feet with an AICPA affinity agreement. Work/life balance is no longer a phrase from a foreign-language dictionary — it's now part of the fabric of the profession. In 2005, who would'a thunk?
Everybody's heard (ad nauseum) about thinking outside the box, but that's only half the challenge. The other half is realizing when you can do so. And yet another half is knowing how.
I know that's three halves, but in my box, that isn't necessarily a problem. It's a big box. A little cluttered, perhaps, and a little leaky, but it has plenty of room for playing around with ideas.
And here are a few of them that relate to creativity.
1. Watch for opportunities. Just about anything can be done differently, and the different way may be better. Make a list of areas where you've never applied creativity.
2. Don't kill ideas. Give every idea — every suggestion — some thought. Don't look for reasons why they won't work. Look for ways they will. Don't tell anyone they have a bad idea; look for ways to make the idea better.
3. Encourage creativity. Shut down your office for brainstorming sessions. Even if you haven't identified a problem, have people discuss a given aspect of business in search of possible improvements.
4. Watch for ideas from unexpected sources. If new ideas were easy to find, they'd already be old ideas. Your janitor may have something to suggest about office layout or communication. Somebody's kids may think of things beyond your imagination.
5. Let yourself do it. With every problem, stop, step back, tell yourself to think of something completely different. Give each idea a chance.
6. Play with ideas. Even if an idea looks like it won't work, have fun with it. What have you got to lose? Take it to an absurd extreme. Turn it inside out. Think of it as a metaphor. Crack it open and look inside. What else does it make you think of?
7. Think of new problems. An important part of creativity is the identification of things that can be improved. After that, finding a creative solution is relatively easy.
NOW IT'S YOUR TURN: When it comes to creativity, a hundred heads are better than one, so we'd like to hear from professionals who use creativity, promote it in their offices or have thoughts on its use. There are no bad ideas! We'd like to hear yours. Soup can labels accepted, iambic pentameter optional.
Here's the idea box. Join in.
Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)
I don't mean to down play the importance of financial accounting or external audit. However, in our current environment of SOX and innovation, I find it confusing that, as a profession, we think we can build the solution on an old financial-statement-based foundation.
Unfortunately, SOX was built on this old foundation, although it makes extremely inefficient efforts to break the mold. The reality is that internal audit is well beyond that limited foundation and even external audit now exceeds the traditional foundation with requirements to evaluate internal control.
In addition, new models like ERM cannot be truly serviced from remaining on the old foundation where the financial scorekeeper is the center of the universe. That's because the game is actually played by governance, management and staff.
The center of our assurance universe should be operational internal control from the top down. If we standardize expectations of governance, management and general internal control, we could create industry reporting on the quality of organizational control structures. That assessment would mirror what management should be doing with ERM as well as mirror the flow of internal control from the top of the organization down. Governance Metrics Inc., with whom I have no connection, has already shown that companies with higher quality governance have traditionally performed better than the market. Imagine if we could report how the entity's control structure compared to the rest of the industry at the management and transactional level. I wonder what management control checks and balances would have been weak at Enron or WorldCom.
If we become assurance experts by defining expected organizational controls from top down then the quality of the organizational controls will help direct the areas and depth that financial and compliance audits should focus on.
Dan Clayton, CPA
CHAN Audit Senior Manager
Serving Carondelet Health Network
Tucson, AZ
.
Unfortunately, SOX was built on this old foundation, although it makes extremely inefficient efforts to break the mold. The reality is that internal audit is well beyond that limited foundation and even external audit now exceeds the traditional foundation with requirements to evaluate internal control.
In addition, new models like ERM cannot be truly serviced from remaining on the old foundation where the financial scorekeeper is the center of the universe. That's because the game is actually played by governance, management and staff.
The center of our assurance universe should be operational internal control from the top down. If we standardize expectations of governance, management and general internal control, we could create industry reporting on the quality of organizational control structures. That assessment would mirror what management should be doing with ERM as well as mirror the flow of internal control from the top of the organization down. Governance Metrics Inc., with whom I have no connection, has already shown that companies with higher quality governance have traditionally performed better than the market. Imagine if we could report how the entity's control structure compared to the rest of the industry at the management and transactional level. I wonder what management control checks and balances would have been weak at Enron or WorldCom.
If we become assurance experts by defining expected organizational controls from top down then the quality of the organizational controls will help direct the areas and depth that financial and compliance audits should focus on.
Dan Clayton, CPA
CHAN Audit Senior Manager
Serving Carondelet Health Network
Tucson, AZ
.
During Hurricane Rita most of the city of Houston came to a halt and many firms had employees leave town without calling in. I think firms should schedule an emergency scenario where the whole firm must work from home.
Some of the benefits would be:
-- It would let you see which employees work well by themselves and which need constant supervision
-- It would allow for others to learn some of the duties that employees cover in the office
-- It would test the communication skills and the online capabilities of the employees working from a remote location (very valuable in emergencies)
-- It would help design a better disaster relief plan
Even if there wasn?t a day like this, firms should explore the possibility of brainstorming a scenario like this. After doing it for a day, we could use our experience and help our clients design a better disaster plan.
Christine Eubanks
TR Moore & Company, P.C.
.
Some of the benefits would be:
-- It would let you see which employees work well by themselves and which need constant supervision
-- It would allow for others to learn some of the duties that employees cover in the office
-- It would test the communication skills and the online capabilities of the employees working from a remote location (very valuable in emergencies)
-- It would help design a better disaster relief plan
Even if there wasn?t a day like this, firms should explore the possibility of brainstorming a scenario like this. After doing it for a day, we could use our experience and help our clients design a better disaster plan.
Christine Eubanks
TR Moore & Company, P.C.
.
Add Comment
Excerpt: Innovation emerges as strong driver in professional success. What are the toughest problems? Join the poll. See the results. by Rick Telberg At Large Accounting has been an exceptionally busy profession in recent years, but contrary to that old
Tracked: Jan 29, 07:24