How to ride the innovation curve

At a time of significant and constant change, how can we ensure that our organizations — and our own careers — are positioned to ride the curve of innovation? My research into the history of accounting has revealed patterns that indicate the best ways to respond to the current environment. If you want to prosper as you move ahead, these are the steps you need to take.

Follow the S curve

Most business people are familiar with the hockey stick curve: A flat, quiet period followed by explosive growth in a service or business. However, the S curve can actually be a better indicator of what will next crest the wave of change.

Don’t Be a One-Hit Wonder

Safety in shrimp

The first time I heard What’s Up? by 4 Non Blondes, I was elbow-deep in a bucket of raw shrimp. It was a month before I started high school, and I’d been slaving away all summer fileting fish and peeling shrimp in the sweltering kitchen of a local seaside crab shack. It was a thankless job that left my hands both stinging and stinking.

And I loved it.

There was safety in it, I was good at it, and people left me alone – likely because I spent most of my days covered in mullet guts. Regardless, it was just me, my work, and a tiny portable radio that sat atop a nearby refrigerator, softly coughing out Top 40 drivel. But then, it happened. From amid all the pop fluff arose the anti-pop voice of Linda Perry, the 4 Non Blondes frontwoman. She seamlessly went back and forth from a deep, brooding register to an eerily pleasing meadowlark warble.

What Unlikely Pairings May Teach Us About Innovation

The last few years have been inundated with major acquisitions, each creating buzz from within and beyond the business world. To name a few, in June of 2016, Microsoft acquired LinkedIn (which had already acquired online learning site Lynda.com the previous year). Fast forward to last month when Walmart announced it would buy Bonobos – a mostly-online men’s upscale clothing retailer – and Amazon announced it was set to buy Whole Foods Market.

Kevin O’Leary Says CPAs Can’t Be Replaced. Take That, Mark Cuban.

Kevin O’Leary, businessman and co-host of the TV show Shark Tank, says the CPA’s role as a trusted adviser in the marketplace cannot be replaced by technology. That stands in stark contrast to the comments his co-host Mark Cuban made earlier this year.

Score one for Mr. Wonderful.

O’Leary, a keynote speaker at the AICPA ENGAGE Conference on June 13, joined me for a Facebook Live session and spoke with me off camera about how technology is impacting the accounting profession. His comments were on point.

“Half of the work the CPA does is to deal with people, to have relationships with people, and to decide how to work with their desires, their direction, and their vision for their business. That is never going to be replaced by a machine,” O’Leary said.

Technology is evolving faster than ever before, but so too are the needs of businesses. For example, while big data means greater accessibility to information, it also creates a need for the analysis and interpretation of that information. While advances in robotics may change some business operations, companies still need advice on how to run those businesses.

“The truth is that we are going to need CPAs more than ever. Their role is to try to figure out and mitigate risk at every stage, and to say, ‘If we do it this way, here is the tax implication. If we do it this way, this is the cost implication.’ The profession is going to continue to flourish,” O’Leary said.

5 Emerging Services Set to Transform the Accounting Profession

What’s on the horizon? How are changes in the business marketplace creating new opportunities for the accounting profession? What are the implications of up-and-coming technologies like blockchain?  These, among a host of other emerging trends were discussed recently at the AICPA’s Assurance Services Executive Committee (ASEC) meeting. The committee, composed of the profession’s leaders in assurance and advisory services, engaged in an insightful discussion about issues that are gaining traction internationally and in the United States.

In addition to discussing ideas for potential future projects, the committee also spoke about the projects they have currently underway that facilitate new opportunities for practitioners to provide value-added services to clients. These include five emerging service opportunities:

Getting Started with Innovation

Innovation and Accounting may sound like an odd pairing. But they don’t have to be!

Innovation is often used to describe the act of doing something new, creative and risky. This definition - especially the part about risk - may not align with traditional accounting ideals. But consider this, if you are not the disruptor, you will likely get disrupted. Innovation may seem risky, but ignoring it could prove fatal.  Given the magnitude and speed of change throughout the world, innovation is a necessity for your career, your clients and the profession. Done well, embracing innovation can help reduce risk as you cast a keen eye on what lies ahead rather than hold on to the past. Let’s explore three simple steps (plus a bonus step) to get started with innovation.

Drones on the Horizon for CPA Firms in 2017

New federal regulations mean CPA firms will have easier access to an unexpected tool for audits and inspections: flying robots.

Unmanned aircraft systems, commonly referred to as drones, have a wide range of commercial applications, including law enforcement and rescue operations. CPA firms are finding ways to use drones to audit and inspect land, agriculture and facilities as a safer and more cost effective alternative to manual inspections.

For the past several years, commercial drone use has been mostly limited to larger firms because of a burdensome and costly Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval process. But on August 29, a new FAA rule took effect that broadly authorizes commercial drone operations in the United States, giving CPA firms of all sizes an easier path to incorporating drones into their operations. For example, the new rule allows the commercial operation of drones under 35 pounds, whereas previous regulations mandated that commercial drone operators had to apply for a special license from the FAA.

The Internet of Things is Already Here. Are You Ready For It?

By 2020, my house will have a smart refrigerator that will alert me when I am out of eggs or cheese. It will 'talk’ to my phone and ping me a list of items that I still need to buy as I'm leaving work and headed to the grocery store. On a macro level, cities will collect data on pedestrian flows and use big data to optimize energy use and traffic patterns. These are just a few of the 50 billion smart devices that we'll have by 2020.

AICPA staff recently gathered over coffee and discussed ideas and insights on the Internet of Things (IoT), a term you may start to hear being used more frequently. It refers to everyday wireless objects that communicate with each other over the internet and send useful information to consumers and businesses.

Truth is, many of these smart devices are already everywhere– and they are not just for the tech-savvy. You may already benefit from this technology without realizing it, like when you receive your online shopping purchases ahead of schedule. Retailers and distributors are employing smarter freight management systems that improve the efficiency of the shipping process.

5 Tips to Make the Best of an Open Office

A vast, open office space without doors or interior walls. Sleek, floor-to-ceiling glass windows. An office dog, unlimited free snacks, and maybe some music. Sounds fun, right? For years, spurred by the second tech revolution (Facebook, Google and their ilk of Silicon Valley giants), open-office floor plans — and some of the above-mentioned perks — grew in popularity. But if you actually talk to the employees who have to work in these offices, you might find they aren’t the halcyon spaces that were intended.

A Simple Formula to Be More Innovative

While companies that most effectively use disruptive technology continue to make headlines -- and profit -- many organizations have a heightened interest in innovation. Their staff are being asked to focus on future growth opportunities rather than defending the status quo; embrace failure through small and quick learning experiments; and reinvent business models to create value for their customers and themselves.

My colleagues and I on the AICPA’s Innovation team seek to drive member value by encouraging staff to work collaboratively to convert ideas into new services. We’re here to help foster a culture of innovation across the profession. 

Chicken & Waffles + Potato Chips = Innovation

Ever heard of Chicken & Waffles potato chips? What about Dulce Almond ice cream? Frito-Lay and Ben & Jerry’s came up with these unique flavor ideas by soliciting opinions and contributions from large groups of individuals, a process known as idea crowdsourcing. Idea crowdsourcing is an excellent method to gather collective knowledge and gauge market interest.

Future-focused companies are increasingly turning to idea crowdsourcing to gain insights, gauge market interest and ignite innovation. They see organizational enhancements as well as external benefits like improved customer satisfaction. Here are a few more:

1.  Foster knowledge and solutions

Two heads are better than one, right? What about 20 heads? Or 200? Idea crowdsourcing taps into collective knowledge -- the wisdom of many individuals, teams, and communities -- to create a deeper understanding of issues while gathering tremendous insights. It diversifies cognitive and creative talent, providing better ways to solve problems.