The Offbeat Accountant

It has been quite a time since the idea of start writing a blog popped up in my mind.

As many writers, I always wanted to do my grand debut with a book or an article in a business magazine, but after some coaching sessions and a good advice from one of my MBA professors I decided that a blog will do the trick.

The idea of the blog was very clear since the beginning: how can we (accountants) put some spice on our profession??

How many jokes on having one of the most boring professions in the whole world have we heard? (well, maybe lawyers have to endure that honor - but the second at least)

Recently, I have found a book in Amazon entitled "60 Ways to Avoiding Becoming an Accountant". The author, Vivien Donald, offers 60 alternative careers that go from mushroom farmer to steeplejack (this may be interesting if you love heights), from stunt performer to yacht crewmember. By the look of it, ANYTHING seems more interesting than balancing a journal entry or issuing a Financial Statement.

I must admit that she is right! 

I am 28 years old, I got my CPA degree 9 years ago, I work as a manager for a small (but steadily growing) international consulting firm and I am almost finishing my MBA...and since almost 8 years ago I realized that accounting needs a TWIST.

The MBA was key to open my eyes and realized that THAT TWIST was possible.

That is the idea of this blog: how can we incorporate basic accounting notions to create genuine value to our corporation? 

We need to destigmatize the idea that “accounting = bookkeeping”. It is so much more than that. In order to boost our organizations we need to encourage learning "financial management". What is more, it is vital to teach our people how to sell our brand. It does not matter if someone is a janitor, the VP of marketing or the CEO. The whole organization must sell and everyone needs to understand basic financial notions.

Of course I am going to deal with some basic principles of accounting (just a quick review given that i do not want to bore you to death exploding the basic uses of the typical equation: Assets = Liabilities + Equity). However, I will emphasize on other concepts that go a little beyond any accounting book, and embrace different aspects of the organization:

• Entrepreneurial Skills
• Understanding financial ratios
• How to read Financial Statements
• Market and Industry Analysis
• Product Development
• Segmentation
• Intellectual Capital - how to valuate our people and ideas
• Human Resources – which is the ROI on each of our employees?
• Sales Strategy
• Manager Skills
• Globalization and standardization of accounting norms
• Coaching for teams and individuals
• How we incorporate diversity in organizations

More than 500 years have gone by since Fra Luca Pacioli created the double-entry bookkeeping, and more than 175 since the first regulations on our profession where established in UK to control de results of the railway companies. 43 years passed since the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) was established, and took less than 30 for companies like Enron (and Audit Firms, as well) to understand the game and go over these standards. Now we have Mr. Sarbanes and Mr. Oxley trying to avoid these frauds but is this enough in an environment where companies with less than 5 years in the market and with CEOs under their thirties are worth more than 20 billion?

It is high time to bring back to the future accounting standards and prepare ourselves to face the new tunes of this profession.