Becoming "anticipatory" -- learning how to spot future trends before they disrupt is -- is more important than ever. It's also a skill we can learn.

1. The fast future
Get ready for …
The anticipatory accounting
and finance professional
Bill Sheridan, CAE
The Business Learning Institute

2. bli.cnf.io

3. Poll: What generation do you belong
to?

8. Our top challenge?

9. “When the job is in
the way of the work,
consider changing
your job enough that
you can go back to
creating value.
Anything less is
hiding.”
Seth Godin

10. Top five issues
impacting CPAs
1. Keeping up
2. Information overload
3. Doing more with less
4. Being proactive vs. reactive
5. Complexity
Bill Sheridan, CAE
The Business Learning
Institute

11. Poll: What
are your
biggest
challenges
?

12. 0 2 4 6 8
Poor reputation
No personal relationship
Inadequate staff to meet…
Out-of-date technology
Fees were too high
CPA lacked expertise
Referral to a new firm
Poor responsiveness
CPA advice not proactive
Why SMBs leave their CPA /
accountant
Bill Sheridan, CAE
The Business Learning
Institute

13. Source: CPA.COM Insight into
the CPA of the Future Study 2014
Only 8% of CPAs are future-ready
Future-ready is the capacity to be
aware, predictive, and adaptive of
emerging challenges, tech
innovations, and trends and
changes in business, population,
and social environment.
Bill Sheridan, CAE
The Business Learning Institute

14. “You can’t stop the waves, but
you can learn how to surf.”
– Jon Kabat-Zinn
Oceans of opportunity

15. The faster you go, the farther
ahead you have to look.

16. 5 steps to becoming future-ready
1. Context
2. Certainty
3. Capacity
4. Competence
5. Core beliefs
Bill Sheridan, CAE
The Business Learning Institute

17. Context

18. “We stand on the brink of a technological
revolution that will fundamentally alter the
way we live, work, and relate to one
another. In its scale, scope, and
complexity, the transformation will be
unlike anything humankind has
experienced before.”
-- Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum
Bill Sheridan, CAE
The Business Learning Institute

19. “In the next five years,
game-changing
technologies
will transform every
business process,
including how we sell,
market, communicate,
collaborate, educate,
train, and innovate.”
-- Daniel Burrus

22. Source: Frey & Osborne,
“The Future of Employment,” Oxford University
Race against the machines?
Bill Sheridan, CAE
The Business Learning
Institute

24. Bill Sheridan, CAE
The Business Learning Institute
 Are your offices, workspaces,
and technology future-focused?
 Do you know what your clients
are facing now and in the future?
 Are you using the language of
the future or the past?
 Will students and potential
employees feel like they are
traveling back in time when they
walk through your door?

25. Certainty

27. Hard trends = future facts
Three hard trends:
1. Government regulation
2. Technology
3. Demographics

28. Disruption and RONI
The gap is widening, faster!
Source: Clayton Christensen, “Innovation Killers”
We think this
is the
trade-off
Bill Sheridan, CAE
The Business Learning
Institute

29. Capacity

30. 6 ways to create
capacity
• Maximize the software and tools you have
• Use the latest, most efficient technologies
• Workflow and process efficiency
• Focus on your best ‘A’ clients / customers
• Communicate your services (cross-sell)
• Engage your people

31. Competency
Disruptions before they disrupt
Problems before you have them
Customer needs before they have them
New opportunities before the competition
Anticipate
Source: Daniel Burrus

32. #FutureReady
Is the capacity to be anticipatory
(aware, predictive and adaptive) of
emerging technology and trends in
business, demographics, and the
social environment impacting your
organization and industry.
Bill Sheridan, CAE
The Business Learning Institute

33.  Respond lightning fast
 Access an encyclopaedic memory
 Stay awake 24 x 7 x 365
 Remember conversations
 Analyze on the fly
 Continually learn and improve
Advantage,
machines
Source: AccountingWEB

34.  Intuition
 Political acumen
 Challenging
 Reading the back story
 Who’s who?
 Probability of change
 Culture
 What’s in it for me?
Advantage,
humans
Source: AccountingWEB

35. “Professional
judgment and
expertise is not
replaceable by
machines.”
— Cathy Engelbert
CEO, Deloitte

36. “Humans should only do
work that only humans
can do.”
Peter Sheahan

37. The research
The latest research inside and
outside the CPA profession re-
affirms the top competencies
and skills needed by accounting
and finance professionals.
Bill Sheridan, CAE
The Business Learning Institute

38. Top skills that accounting and finance
professionals need today
BLI Research in 2015 with over 1,000 responses from all segments of the CPA
profession identified these top skill needed to be successful in these rapidly
changing times. This confirms and reinforces the research from the Conference
Board, AICPA’s CPA Horizons 2025 report, Bersin, and Burrus Research.
75%
covered by
these top 5
skills

39. V
A
L
U
E
Adding Insight for Action
Information
Wisdom
Knowledge
Data
Compliance
Reliance
Source: CGMA and DIKW Pyramid
V
A
L
U
E

40. Poll: What are
the top skills
accounting
and finance
pros need to
succeed going
forward?

41. Trust
Integrity
Objectivity
Excellence
Lifelong learning
Core beliefs and values
Protect the core and stimulate progress

42. 5 steps to becoming future-ready
1. Context
2. Certainty
3. Capacity
4. Competence
5. Core beliefs
Bill Sheridan, CAE
The Business Learning Institute

44. Calendar: The No. 1 app
Spend just one hour per week in the future …

45. “We are
called to be
architects
of the future,
not its
victims.”
R. Buckminster Fuller

46. “The best way
to predict
your future
is to create it.”
Abraham Lincoln

47. Poll: What is your
biggest takeaway from
this session?

48. Download these slides:
Slideshare.net/BillSheridan
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Get ready for
the fast future
Bill Sheridan, CAE
The Business Learning Institute