Everyone talks about the importance of collaboration, but what does it really mean? Working together? Teamwork? Sharing ideas? It’s one of those things that’s hard to define, but we know it when we see it. And because of that, it’s something that everyone defines differently. But here’s the thing – every list of the most crucial future-ready skills for our profession includes collaboration. Every single one. So we have to figure out a definition that everyone can embrace. And here to help us fig...
Mar 11, 2019•37 min•Ep. 46
Just how busy are you? We’re all busy. Some would argue that we, collectively, are busier than ever before – but the reason that’s true isn’t necessarily because we have more work to do than ever. We all make time for the stuff that’s really important and valuable to us. So if we find ourselves really busy with things that aren’t important or valuable, that just means, to paraphrase Ferris Bueller, that our priorities are way out of whack, and we’ve got to do something to get them back in line. ...
Mar 04, 2019•35 min•Ep. 45
We're talking about strategic planning and critical thinking today, or planning strategically and thinking critically, or critical strategy and planning to think – or whatever you want to call it. It's all about looking ahead today; mapping a road to the future and then figuring out how to get there. And here to help us make sense of all this is Jennifer Elder, a thought leader with the Business Learning Institute who works with companies to find creative solutions to their most challenging prob...
Feb 25, 2019•31 min•Ep. 44
Are we evolving to meet our clients’ evolving expectations? More and more of our clients don’t want to deal with accounting, finance, or payroll. They want to focus on what they do well and leave all of that other stuff to someone else – and that someone else could be you, if you’re set up to provide it. That’s where this week’s guest comes in. Hitendra Patil is the Director of Customer Success at AccountantsWorld, the author of Accountaneur: The Entrepreneurial Accountant , and one of the 100 m...
Feb 18, 2019•35 min•Ep. 43
We sit down with Brian Feldman, a State Senator who represents District 15 in Maryland. Brian is also a CPA, so he brings a lot of those key business and finance insights directly into Maryland’s Senate Chamber. He’s a great partner of the profession and we’ve worked with him many times on a number of key bills. Even if you don’t live in Maryland, we think it’s important that you take a few minutes and listen in on this conversation, and here’s why: We all know what’s happening in Washington the...
Feb 11, 2019•35 min•Ep. 42
This show is called “Future-Proof,” but when it comes to the future, we’ve been focusing on trends, strategies, visions, resources, regulations, skills, competencies, and business models. Do you know what’s missing from that list? People. And people are probably the most important factor in all of these future-ready conversations – because they’re the ones who are going to make all of that stuff happen. So as we work to make ourselves and our organizations more future-ready, one of our first ste...
Feb 04, 2019•41 min•Ep. 41
Artificial intelligence is one of those technologies that we’ve been talking about for years as a possible disrupter for our profession, as a possible job destroyer, and as a possible opportunity generator. Well, you can officially take the word “possible” out of all of those phrases – A.I. is here, and it’s delivering as advertised. And our guest Samantha Bowling, CPA, CGMA, can attest to that. Samantha is a partner with Garbelman Winslow, where she has put an A.I.-based audit solution to work ...
Jan 21, 2019•25 min•Ep. 40
Culture is one of the most important factors contributing to the success of your organization. There are some people who will argue this point, who don’t see any connection between culture and productivity, execution, or profits. There are also people who think if they put a foosball table in the break room and let their employees wear jeans, they’ll create a kick-ass culture – and all of those people are wrong. Culture will determine how engaged your employees are, and judging by recent researc...
Jan 14, 2019•33 min•Ep. 39
January 2019 is a big month for CPAs, in Maryland and throughout the country. The Maryland General Assembly begins its annual session on Jan. 9. Not a single bill has been introduced yet, but it’s already shaping up to be an extraordinarily busy session for those of us who are trying to protect our profession. For CPAs nationwide, of course, tax season is ramping up, and there are a number of issues that are already complicating things for tax practitioners: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, The Suprem...
Jan 07, 2019•31 min•Ep. 38
If the past few years have been all about disruption – and it seems like they have been – then 2019 is already shaping up to be the year of opportunity. We already know what the disruptors are, we know about the potential impacts they’ll have on our profession, and we’ve talked about them to death lately – but not nearly as many people are talking about the opportunities that these disruptions offer us. That changes today. Our guest Mark Koziel is Executive Vice President of firm services for th...
Dec 31, 2018•30 min•Ep. 37
We spend most of our time on this podcast talking about the accounting and finance profession – what the future looks like for those of us who work within this rarified profession and how to help others make sense of their finances, their numbers, or their future. But we’re not the only ones struggling in this area. Well-off and working class, unemployed and entrepreneurial, engaged and disengaged, C-suite and on the dole: everybody is struggling with how to make sense of this changing and compl...
Dec 24, 2018•30 min•Ep. 36
Today, let’s talk about how fascinating you are. But first, let’s break down what exactly “fascinating” means. It goes back Roman times, when that word meant things like captivation and spellbinding. It was almost perceived as an evil curse back then. Now, fascination is more about how the world sees you. In other words, it’s about knowing yourself – and more importantly, it’s about knowing what others know about you and how you can stand out in a crowded market place, which couldn’t be more imp...
Dec 17, 2018•32 min•Ep. 35
When you think about helping your clients become more future-proof, you’re probably thinking about things like helping them innovate, revamping their business models, taking advantage of new technologies, or finding their next competitive advantage. However, you’re probably not thinking about helping them get their finances in order. I mean, that’s not future-proofing anybody’s business — that’s just doing what we’ve always done, right? And yet our guest this week, Lyle Benson, says doing what w...
Dec 10, 2018•28 min•Ep. 34
How about those midterm elections? Now, some of you might already be thinking, “Don’t even go there. I came here for taxes, not politics!” Well, not to worry, dear listeners. This is indeed a show about taxes. But here’s the thing: taxes and politics are joined at the hip right now, and there’s no getting around it. For the past two years, Republicans have controlled both houses of Congress and the White House. That means it’s been relatively painless getting things like the Tax Cuts and Jobs Ac...
Dec 03, 2018•40 min•Ep. 33
This week, we’re going to spend a little bit of time talking about our host Bill Sheridan’s profession – the association world. Bill works for the Maryland Association of CPAs, which means he doesn’t technically work in the accounting and finance profession. But when it comes right down to it, it’s like splitting hairs. These two professions are remarkably similar in how they operate, in their state of future-readiness, and in their willingness to embrace change. Accountants and association folk...
Nov 19, 2018•43 min•Ep. 32
Let’s talk a little bit about client expectations, shall we? They're changing, if you haven’t noticed. You have noticed, right? The expectations of our clients and customers are different than they were even just five years ago – and the reason, in large part, is technology. Let's take search, for example. There’s an interesting book called Life After Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy by George Gilder, and early on in the book, Gilder makes the point that folks ...
Nov 12, 2018•20 min•Ep. 31
This week we’re rolling up our sleeves and digging into a little research. There’s no shortage of studies and reports and white papers about what the future of the accounting and finance profession looks like, and now the folks at Wolters Kluwer and CCH are offering their two cents. Wolters Kluwer released a white paper titled “Technology Hype or Reality? What Firms Really Need to Know to Thrive in a World of Change.” The paper is based on an annual survey of tax and accounting firms conducted b...
Nov 05, 2018•22 min•Ep. 30
Did you know that the folks at the MACPA and the Business Learning Institute spend a significant chunk of their time outside of the state of Maryland? And the reason for it is actually pretty simple: there’s a lot of really important stuff happening in this profession, and very little of it happens exclusively in Maryland! Since our goal is to help our members become future-ready, we go to wherever the important stuff is happening, learn about it, and bring that knowledge back to Maryland. And t...
Oct 29, 2018•28 min•Ep. 29
Over the past few weeks, we’ve spent a lot of time talking about the technology, trends, and skills we need to know about to be future-ready – but today we want to talk a little more about culture. This stuff can sound like a fluffy, touchy-feely thing, but truth be told, nothing is more important. If you get your culture right, you get your business right. It’s as simple as that. Our guest Richard Silberstein is the president of SIG, a company that’s committed to delivering a customized approac...
Oct 22, 2018•32 min•Ep. 28
Technology is eating away at our profession. A.I. is increasingly able to do the stuff that we’ve spent a lifetime learning how to do. So how do we stay relevant in a world like this? The answer is simple (although not necessarily easy): learning to do the things machines CAN’T do, which means learning new skills. So what skills are we talking about? Report after report after report point to communication, collaboration, and more and more frequently, learning how to think differently. And that’s...
Oct 15, 2018•44 min•Ep. 27
