When General Electric was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average the other day, history was made. GE was the last original member of the Dow — and was once the world’s most valuable company. For local sports fans, this is perhaps akin to when the Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals in the fact that the game has indeed changed. Of course, when speaking of change, no one said it better than Bob Dylan with his insightful lyrics from one of his many iconic songs:
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’
Out with the old, in with the new. Back when GE joined the Dow over 100 years ago, of course, there was no Amazon or Alphabet (Google’s parent company). And now with our aging society, with drugstores on practically every corner and new assisted living facilities popping up faster than pimples on a teenager, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. has taken GE’s place on the majestic Dow. Incidentally, General Electric’s share price was up 7.76% yesterday.
If you could purchase stock in the accounting profession, would you? Most definitely, I say. Change is occurring daily, adapting to the marketplace and the opportunities at hand — creating those opportunities at hand.
Helping CPAs to prepare for these changes, the MACPA’s Executive Director/CEO, Tom Hood, points out that these top eight skills are essential skills that finance and accounting pros need in this age of machines:
According to American Institute of CPAs president and CEO Barry Melancon, the accounting profession will change beyond recognition over the next ten years. In fact, he really thinks it will come much more quickly than that. “I really mean five years, but people get scared when I say that,” commented Melancon. “We’ve changed significantly in just the past year. We’re never going to see a pace of change that’s slower than what we’re seeing now. And we know we won’t be obsolete, particularly if we embrace these changes.”
Tremendous opportunities are here, now and for the future!
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“The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.”
–from Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’