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The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), a global body of professional accountants, is keen to mould its members into ‘strategic business leaders’ to help them cope with the challenges of new age business environment, a top official said.
“Today’s finance and accounting professionals have to learn to build trust, learn to communicate, advice and influence the top management. They can understand the complex issues only if they have strategic mind and intent and we are preparing them for that”, Lucia Real Martin, Market Director, Emerging Markets, ACCA, told BusinessLine here.
ACCA, which has 2 lakh members and offices in 102 countries, recently modified its curriculum to introduce the concept of strategic business leadership. Till recently finance and accountancy professionals were only number crunchers and they couldn’t move laterally or vertically in the organisation. However, now many CEOs and CIOs have finance background, she said.
“More people who have crossed the C-suite environment have finance background. We are therefore helping our members to be a business leader and within that business leadership journey you can be a CEO, board members, and entrepreneur”, she added.
Way forward
In the coming days, ACCA will look to expand partnerships in India so as to give more opportunities to its members and help understand the value of professional accounting.
“To have continuous relevance in India and globally, we do this through partnerships. In India we have number of partnerships with institutions such as universities. We are looking to expand partnerships and looking at chamber of commerce and industry associations”, she said.
Md. Sajid Khan, Head of International Development, ACCA said that this global professional accounting body is currently undertaking research in areas such as “future of audit” and ‘future of learning’. “We will have these reports very soon”, he said.
Martin added that professional accountants have to understand the new business models that are coming up and causing disruptions in the marketplace.
“There are new business models like frugality, mass customisation and pay when you want. A lot of these are technology driven. But an accountant will have to understand all this”, she said. ACCA will this year focus on improving the brand awareness of this global body of professional accountants in the corporate circles in India.
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