This past spring, we had a rare opportunity to talk with a group of students at Salisbury University with Paul Stahlin, past chair of the AICPA, about the future of the CPA profession.
The students heard the context around the CPA Horizons 2025 project as Paul gave an update on global and national business and the CPA profession. I gave the Maryland and CPA association perspective (see my presentation on Slideshare).
Then we gave them two keystone documents, the CPA Horizons 2025 Top Trends to Watch and the one-page summary of the Vision for the CPA in 2025, and asked them to reflect and share their perspectives. A lively discussion ensued with an overall very positive response overall.
The video below was done with the key student leaders after our general session.
I especially liked their comments about the actual vision for our profession about five minutes in. They are grateful and impressed that the profession had the foresight to look into the future on behalf of all CPAs. They liked the core values of protecting the public, leadership and communictaion, and lifelong learning. One student elaborated on our now famous L>C (your learning must be greater than the rate of change and competition).
Here is a playlist of videos with perspectives of CPAs, young professionals, students and professors captured during the CPA Horizons future forums. We designed and ran the Future Forum sessions for the AICPA using our BLI i2a: Insights to Action Strategic Thinking System. We facilitated 30 sessions, reaching more than 1,000 grassroots CPAs, giving us the wisdom of the crowd.
How can you use this body of work to engage your young professionals?
Posts about the CPA Horizons 2025 Project:
- MACPA CPA Horizons resource center
- Future Forum process for scanning the environment and developing insights for action
- What CPAs think about Horizons 2025, April 2012
- CPA Horizons 2025: A Roadmap for the Profession's Future, AICPA blog, November 2011
- What's over the Horizon for CPAs, October 2011
- CPA Vision Redux: Perspectives on Business and the CPA Profession (Paul's session at the Maryland Business and Accounting Expo in August 2010)
Resources:
- AICPA CPA Horizons 2025 — research, videos, and reports from leading futurists
- 20 Business Trends in the Next Decade — Bill Sheridan interviews Intuit futurist Steve King
- CPA Horizons 2025: Top Trends to Watch
- One-page summary of the Vision for the CPA in 2025
- CPA Horizons 2025 Report issued in October 2011
- Original CPA Vision Project report
- CPA Vision 2011, one-page summary