The Gap between Theory and Practice An employers perspective

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The Gap betweenTheory and PracticeAn
employers perspective

• Samantha Louis
• Regional Director
• CIMA Southern Africa

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About CIMA

• The only international accountancy body with a
  sole focus on business.
• The voice of over 160,000 members and students in
  161 countries around the world.
• To be the first choice for employers in the
  qualification and development of professional
  accountants in business

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A bit extreme?
Jack Welch was asked while guest lecturing at
MITs Sloane Business school What should we be
learning in business school? His reply Just
concentrate on networking. Everything else you
need to know you can learn on the job. Fortune
May 7, 2007
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People are a valuable asset

• Your competition can copy every advantage youve
  got, except one.
• Thats why the worlds best companies are
  realising that no matter what business theyre
  in, their real business is building leaders.
• Fortune October 1, 2007

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The War for Talent
The Financial Leadership Development Program
.develops future generations of global business
leaders .participants receive both foundational
and forward-looking career development challenges
through a powerful combination of targeted
training, coaching and substantive rotational
assignments..

• Gen X
• Gen Y
• Gen Z
• Kippers?

Our mission is to cultivate professionals within
Finance who are action-oriented, will lead
effective change, and will promote innovation.
If 50 is the new 40 then 25 is the new 19
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(No Transcript)
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Where is the talent?
18,000 Accounting Job Vacancies in Australia
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The Importance of Talent
Respondents in the CIMA study saw improving
the capability and competency of FA staff as
major challenges in achieving effective business
partnering and improving FA service delivery

conversely, over half of the respondents were
unsure if their employees had the behavioural
skills necessary to drive forward transformation
programmes
CIMA Asia Pacific CFO Finance Transformation
Survey Q4 2006
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Developing talent
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Talent is key

• The successful company of the future
• will leverage talent via
• succession planning and training
• Row Hensen, Oracle,
• HR Future, March 2007

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Leveraging your talent

• You should treat your junior staff as talent
• Treat as fixed not disposable assets
• You want to develop and nurture your junior staff
  into highly skilled senior staff and retain them

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Competence is a function of Time

• Great employees do not emerge fully formed from
  the classroom any more than a great wine emerges
  fully formed from a grape
• Developing a person takes times, energy, effort
  and commitment from both the employer and
  employee

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What do I expect?

• Personality wise
• Enthusiasm
• Willingness to learn
• Willingness to work (hard!)
• Understanding place in the pecking order (still
  very junior)
• Common sense (not so common)

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What do I expect?

• Qualification wise
• Relevant qualification that covers the basic
  theory
• Knowledge about and theory of
• Low level practice
• Through to higher level skills e.g.
• analytical ability

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Reality check

• No junior practitioner/technician is going to
• Write a strategy
• Distribute a document without it being checked
• Brief senior management (solo)

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Chartered Management Accountant
Strategic Level
Managerial Level
CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting
CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting
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Role of the Management Accountant
Management Skills
Governance and Ethics
Business Strategy
Value Creation
Risk Management
Narrative Reporting
Management Accounting and Decision Making
Financial Accounting And Compliance
Sarbanes Oxley
Variance Analysis
Costing
IFRS
Analytics
Data Systems
Technical Skills
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The gap as I see it

• Institution
• Teaches high level skills
• Focuses on strategy
• Creating managers
• Finishing school

• Employer
• Needs technical skills
• Focuses on grunt work, admin and detail
• Believe employing technicians
• Primary school

• The new graduate
• Expects to manage and strategise
• Above the dirty work (Im a graduate get me out
  of here!)

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Life long learning

• Have a realistic assessment of knowledge and
  skills when a new graduate joins you
• Develop a training plan to up skill (on the job)
  e.g. shadowing, a mentor
• Continuous Professional Development

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From a strictly mathematical viewpoint
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If
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
Z
is equal to
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
then . . .
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Hard Work HARDWORK 8118423151811
98
Knowledge KNOWLEDGE 1114152312547
5 96
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Luck LUCK 1221311 47
( don't most of us think this is the most
important ??? )
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Then what makes 100 ?
ATTITUDE ATTITUDE 120209202145
100
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ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING
The right attitude on both sides will close the
gap every time!