INTHEBLACK December - January 2022 - Magazine - Page 63
INNOVATION IN THE REGIONS
Small accountancy firms have it tougher.
Without the big budgets, resources and
diversity of staff skills, they need to be more
efficient in cultivating creativity and quicker
to put good ideas into practice.
Kirsty Meredith is an associate lecturer
in accounting at the University of the
Sunshine Coast and has researched
creativity in small accountancy firms
in regional and rural Australia.
“Most accountants now recognise that
creativity is important. But stepping
back from the job at hand to ask ‘How
could I do this job better?’ takes time.”
Add this to the strict regulatory environment
in which the profession operates – it all
serves to dampen creativity, says Meredith.
In her experience, an excessive focus on
adhering to current year budgets can also
cause accountants to avoid innovations
that may “waste time”.
“By changing the focus from short-term
budget pressure to long-term efficiency,
we reduce that deterrent to creativity
and innovation,” says Meredith.
Recent years have seen an increase in
competitiveness and a reduction in collegiality
between finance and accounting firms.
Meredith suggests that creative solutions to
common problems go begging as a result.
“In my research, I hear common complaints
in small firms, particularly around new
technology applications, as if they were the
only ones struggling with these problems.
But when talking to older professionals,
they recount how people from other firms
would get together at the end of the week
for drinks and share knowledge. Today,
it is very competitive, and firms are really
working against each other,” says Meredith.
Her advice, not surprisingly, is
“collaborate, collaborate, collaborate”.
“We can’t be experts in everything
ourselves – we need to work out how to
leverage expertise from others. Can we
find IT experts who are willing to take the
time to understand accounting? Can we
share ideas with other small firms? Can we
identify opportunities to network digitally?”
Meredith says it pays to maximise
idea sharing by giving all staff a forum
to contribute ideas – including junior
accountants and receptionists – and to offer
opportunities to upskill through short courses
in IT and data science, for example.
THE NEW CREATIVES
Training to encourage
creative thinking among
accountancy students has
become a key component
of university courses, says
Kirsty Meredith, lecturer
at the University of the
Sunshine Coast. The new
emphasis responds to
professional demands
for graduates with
competencies alongside
technical knowledge, such
as design thinking and
problem-solving skills.
“The view of creativity
being at odds with
accounting is largely gone.
With the increased focus on
technology innovation and
customer focus, creativity
has become even more
recognised as something we
need to embrace,” she says.
Within professional
services firms themselves,
keeping employees up-todate with the speed of
technological change is an
UPSKILL NOW
Discover
CPA Australia’s
suite of microcredentials
ongoing task, but an
essential one, to give them
the tools they need to
innovate. In 2020, for
example, all of EY’s
300,000 global employees
were offered the chance to
enrol in the world’s first
completely digital corporate
technology MBA, free of
charge.
Amid the global
pandemic, it became
important to recognise
that ideas and innovation
depend on human
imagination and ingenuity.
The shift to remote working
poses new challenges to
how creative collaboration
will work in the future, says
EY’s Darren Chua.
“You can’t do innovation
really well unless people
are together. Nothing
ever beats that feeling and
level of intensity and
collaboration when you
are physically together.”
CLICK HERE
TO BORROW
Unlocking
Creativity from
the CPA Library
CLICK HERE
TO LISTEN
to CPA Australia’s
Future Thinkers
podcast series
63
DEC 2022
JAN 2023
intheblack.cpaaustralia.com.au
