ECA Young team came in Seattle to meet american CPAs during the #DCPA19 (https://www.cpa.com/digital-cpa) from Sunday 8th to Wednesdat 11th of December !
On Sunday 8, the ECA Young team delegation did speed mentoring, 7 minutes per person. They met the highest speakers of the congress, with great interactions and networking. What they learnt during these speed mentoring :
I. To imagine the future :
1. Think about your services offering now
2. In 5 years, they will be free
3. So what will you do in the next 5 years ?
II. 3 things to learn in the next years :
1. Technology in an open environnement
2. Soft skills for better analysis and performance
3. Accounting valuation, from yearly to monthly
III. Goal for the future : teach our clients how to find and use data, and do analysis with the speciality of the sector : we can’t analyse in the same way the data of a restaurant and the data of a service company
IV. Goal for the future : do the statements the clients want to see. If the client need us, it is always a valuable advise.
V. CPAs and legal auditors have a big force : they are experts in the language of business. They help clients about vision, purpose and value.
On Monday 9, the ECA delegation went to the plenary conference and round tables. They got 3 key ideas for “innovating through simplification” :
I. It is important to change and simplify our methods. So in this way our team can implement more efficient and productive exchanges of information with clients;
II. Use the “BLUF” method, “Bottom Left Up Front” to optimize our time: reach time saving doing e-mails with conclusion and recommendation immediately at the beginning of our messages. It’s not necessary to read all the sentences to understand the meaning of the email!
III. Develop a method to manage better the projects: allow a decision-making process more clear and become a “Chief Simplifiers”!
On Tuesday 10, #DAY2 of the congress, the ECA delegation went to many conferences and workshops of the #DCPA19. Here are some information and tips from this second day :
I. It is important to promote diversity in our office. We have to learn how to make this difference to “stand out” and create a competitive advantage.
II. Failure is not at all the worst thing that my happen: this is an effective way to encourage innovation. It’s possible to gain good learning also from failure.
III. We are living, for the first time, in a period where innovation is no longer made only from large entities, but it can also be done by collective and individual intelligence, using agile methods and other new technologies.
IV. To fight against AI biases, imagine each time the results expected by the algorithm before implementing it. And be as objective as possible.
V. It is often good to ask new types of questions, in order to deal with the problems in depth. Four types of questions:
– Why?
– In which context?
– Which challenge?
– For what priority?
VI. The advent of Blockchain comes from a crisis of trust. Crisis of trust in information management, in financial intermediation, and so on. Every field where is necessary there is a third part that guarantees for something.
VII. Fire bad customers: a necessary way to gain quality and productivity.
VIII. Demystify the challenges of the future to replace the fear of the unknown with curiosity.
On Wednesday 11 was the mast day of #DCPA19! Our European delegation went in the lasts conferences and workshops of the congress.
I. Areas of development to strengthen the impact of the profession in 2020:
– Increase our continuous innovation and technological research;
– Help and enhance the development of the technological ecosystem and startups.
II. In 2020, imagine accounting firms focused on financial advice and trusted services! To reach this goal let’s use more cloud computing and automation of tasks (RPA).
III. The legal audit will be very strongly impacted by AI.
– Step One: Automate Basic Audit Controls => Easy
– The other steps are here: https://twitter.com/CyrilDegrilart/status/1204801963667230720?s=19
IV. American CPA will be able to benefit in 2020 from a .cpa domain name! A good practice to imagine for our enropean profession? It could strengthen the image of our profession, our brand, and our coesion.
V. The co-creation of a cryptocurrency accounting and a tax reporting tool is scheduled for January 2020 in the United States! It could help CPA to get a tax and accounting report of the crypto asset owned by their customers.
VI. Imagine a decision support method/tool that can use in real time a maximum of possible data?
Objective: help the client when he makes his decision, not after. Advise before prevent risk. And gain opportunities.
VII. Acquire the capacities for growth:
– Make sure that you control your environment;
– Maximize the skills of your staff => the right person in the right place;
– Invest in technology: we talk a lot about ROI but not enough about RONI (risk of no invest);
– Be proactive instead of reactive.
VIII. Hire clients to engage with the technology is one of the most common issue for CPA. Especially for CPA that has micro and small firms as clients. The goal is to find technologies that fit their need and let them to drive the adoption side by side with the consultant.
The ECA young team delegation is now back in Europe. The appointment is fixed for the #DCPA20 in Orlando from December 6th to 9th, 2020 !!
Your reporters, Giovanni Passarini and Cyril Degrilart.
With many thanks to La Profession Comptable and all the CPAs who came with us !